C-1 Advertisement Analysis

A picture is worth a thousand words. This saying is very relevant when looking at the images C-1 and C-4 in Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum. Not only are you able to tell what the two ads are trying to sell, but if you look closer, you can see the big idea behind them both. Not only are they tell the viewer what is considered attractive in today’s society, but it also shows how contradicting society can be. Figure C-1 simple shows a man and woman walking next to each other. They are both dressed in business attire. The man is wearing an all black suit and carrying a briefcase. While the woman is dressed a little more vibrant. She is wearing a black skirt paired with a white top and blue polka dot scarf. She too is carrying a briefcase.

The first ad tells women to be bold, different and confident. The second ad tells women what they should look like. Society has so many different beauty standards, that they are hard to keep up with. What society’s beauty standards do not explain, is how to deal with the constant contradiction. While one ad is telling you to be confident, the other is telling you how to look. How is it possible to obey the rule of confidence if we are trying to look like the models that do not even really exist? Why can we not just be confident with they way we look even if it is not what that model looks like? And why do we have to be confident if we look like the model? It is nearly impossible to be confident in they way you look if you are constantly being told what you should look like. The beauty standards that societies try to commend are nearly impossible to completely obey. Women and men should not have to do certain thing or look a certain why to be beautiful. Figures C-1 and C-4 both want two different things that are related. That may sound confusing, but both ads are telling you to be society’s form of beauty while looking and acting two different