Social Stereotypes In Advertising

Advertisements and publicity are present everywhere nowadays and in our everyday lives. It is something we are not able to escape, advertisements are flashed in front of our eyes through means of internet, posters, flyers, television advertisements, newspapers and to mention just a few. The astonishing and peculiar side is that one would rarely notice the power advertisements have in making us subconsciously make quick decisions in buying products. This is why I found the topic worthy of investigation.

Reading and observing many different advertisements, I came to notice that they would play on social stereotypes, the general opinion of the people during a certain period and world events. There seem to be some common features in most advertisements

In the case of Coca Cola, among other aspects they reflected the American Dream during the Great Depression, the white American culture of separating African Americans from white Americans and when Coca Cola started selling to an international market. Also, I found that advertisements portrayed and perhaps even created perfect social stereotypes – such as “the perfect white American sexy woman” or “the perfect American family”- enabling them to sell more of their product.

The research step was made by selecting a few of the many posters available during that period reflecting the specific characteristics I was analyzing, whether it was the stereotypes on women, the family or ethnicity. I analysed them by looking in particular at their choice of words, images and

Historically speaking, this essay focuses on coca cola advertising posters from three very important decades for the expansion of the brand: 1930s, 1940s, 1950s. In fact, between the years of 1930s and 1950s many historical events changed America forever. In account that in 1929 the Wall Street Crash occurred causing the spread of the Great Depression throughout the United States, which caused a severely high rate of unemployment. The American Dream was still the dream, which most Americans idealized as they would tend to look up at the high life. In 1939, the Second World War broke out in Europe. Although the United States, had decided to remain neutral, in 1941, Roosevelt entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After winning the Second World War, the American economy boosted. African Americans had been fighting against racial discrimination for a long time. During the 1950s, however, the struggle against racism and segregation entered the mainstream of American life. After the war a space race happened between the leading countries Russia and America. (Ian