INTRODUCTION
Blue is for boys.
Pink is for girls.
Boys don’t cry.
Don’t be such a girl.
Today, gender roles are shifting. The influence of media is growing. New identities are being carved. Vital statistics are being rewritten.
Gender is a culturally constructed factor that refers to the behaviours and attitudes a particular society expects from males and females, depending on their biological sex. Media through its messages, have played and continues to play an important part in the forming and reinforcing of gender stereotypes and the expectations about gender roles.
Much has been written about the portrayal of women and stereotyping in the media and in advertising. However, there are a number of advertisements that target men, trying
…show more content…
One such is a close-up of a bottle of Bud Lite which explodes and a male voice-over says, ‘For the great taste that won’t fill you up, and never lets you down . . . make it a Bud Lite.’ These ads portray men as desperate individuals and that the two most important aspects of their lives is alcohol and women. These ads work on the principle that if a man uses that product all women will be enticed by his charm (actually, the charm of the product); and if these enticing women do not respond, the man can resort to drinking large amounts of alcohol as an expression of anger towards women and emerge as a manly being.
In this way, the product is sold and the man’s identity is standardised.
This kind of symbolic male revenge toward women is expressed in a different way in a Captain Morgan rum ad that appeared in the 2003 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. A cartoon character Captain Morgan is spraying water onto six bikini-clad women who are in the middle of a swimsuit photo shoot. These women are then seen huddled under an umbrella with the Captain who is grinning suspiciously. The water spray causes the women’s bathing suits to melt right off their bodies – that theory is inexplainable, though. Two men stand to the right of the photo with arms raised to the heavens as though they are religious
In this way the company promotes its beer by making it the preferable drink of the most interesting man in the world. The ad manipulates the viewer by appealing to humor, the ego, and sex.
In today’s society, the traditional differences between genders are constantly reinforced. The male figure is usually characterized as the strong, successful, dominant gender. When advertisements create a target message for men, they exploit the male ego. This means that men are thought provoked to look or be
Not only is alcohol overlooked in our society however, there is also an optimistic view towards drinking. We glorify drinking with music, Wine Down Wednesday, and ads. Budweiser and Johnnie Walker utilize ads to exploit their brands to the public. With the differential use of ethos, pathos, and logos Budweiser and Johnny Walker sell alcohol to their target audience.
Men generally advertise cars, cigarettes, business products or investments. They are usually middle-aged or older, playing autonomous roles, and mostly shown outdoors, at work or in a leisure environment. The most popular type that is widely used in commercials is “a real man”. In this category are included men that combine a good appearance with a successful career in their professional field. So, the man that is depicted in this type of commercials certainly is successful, professional, seducer and athletic, with a branded and very expensive car, and he also has a beautiful woman by his side.
In 2014 Allison Lantagne published a blog titled “Gender Roles in Media”. This blog explained how various types of media that is presented in our current culture perpetuates gender roles in society. These gender roles are the norms or standards that society has created and enforces. Young children are being exposed to these advertisements that push the gender roles. Lantagne did research and found that even for a gender neutral product such as sidewalk chalk the advertisement sent very different messages towards boys versus girls (The Huffington Post).
Not many years ago, before the feminist movements and the women empowerment female gender was portrayed as the weaker one, with females mainly presented in the roles of mother, daughter or wife and sometimes even sexualising them. However female stereotyping is not only a phenomenon of the past century but rather a contemporary issue that needs to be resolved. In the 1960s the feminist movement addressed the ads as negative in portraying women and promoting sexism and stereotypes. The findings from the research of Belkaoui and the study of Sexton and Heberman as well as studies conducted two decades later indicated the presence of traditional and decorative roles of women in advertising. Females were associated with domestic tasks and their main priority was physical attractiveness and maintaining the household.
The 2013 Budweiser Clydesdale commercial was the first time that people saw this new character as “the man”. When watching this ad, it is clear to see that the major focus was to grab the viewer’s attention by appealing to their sentimental emotions. The use of this advertisement during the super bowl gave Budweiser the recognition they would have otherwise never obtained. By using many rhetorical effects in their ad, the company was successful in grasping the audience’s attention and giving themselves a credible
The use of sexual and sexist references to attract audiences in media and advertisement is widely used all over the U.S. and the world. The add created for Skyy Vodka depicting a faceless man in a black suit holding a bottle of Skyy Vodka in a tight grip over a young white blonde woman in a small blue bikini with her breast being the center of attention. The Skyy Vodka ad depict sexuality with the female body to sell their products to men. Sex sells and that is exactly what Skyy Vodka advertisement is doing to attract customers. Skyy Vodka is known for the oversexualized advertisement of their vodka, always depicting female body parts and men depicted in a pose that implicitly shows dominance.
Most of the ads relate to men abusing women or trying to sexually harass them. The author includes an ad that says “If your date won’t listen to reason, try a velvet hammer”, advertising an alcoholic drink and suggesting date rape. There are also ads discussed that bring up the idea that when women say no, they don’t really mean it. Multiple illustrations show a man ignoring a woman who is saying no. The author talks about how these ads are teaching young men that no doesn’t mean no.
After finding out that 60% of women were buying Old Spice products for their significant other, as well as the fact that men do not buy products that make them feel less manly, Wieden + Kennedy utilized this knowledge for creating a highly successful and all around well-received campaign. With former NFL player Isaiah Mustafa speaking directly to the female audience, while simultaneously portraying qualities associated with hegemonic masculinity, Old Spice successfully recreated their brand and improved their sales. After analyzing Old Spice’s 2010 advertising campaign featuring Mustafa, it was determined that Mustafa’s character appeared to possess powerful, competitive, and assertive qualities. Likewise, the protagonist physically embodied what it meant to be a man, specifically by showing off his strong, muscular body. Further, Mustafa utilizes his voice, tone, volume, and word usage to manipulate and exercise his control over other men and women.
GENDER & ITS ROLE IN ADVERTISING Nowadays, in society, the role of male and female have changed dramatically, as opposed to the prominent roles in history. Today women are changing to break out of the mold that which our society has placed her in. This is cannot be when it comes to role representation in the different advertisements. Nowadays different organization from medium to large are spending millions of dollars on developing their marketing strategies. They spent countless hours to study their target audience to study them so that they can attract them a better way to their competitors.
Has it ever been brought to one’s attention that there are three important elements that distinguish one advertisement from another? These elements are time, place, and audience. There is a specific advertisement that will be explored to actually explain and showcase these three elements. That advertisement would be “What Do Women Really Want” done in 2013 by Gillette, a brand for shaving products. This advertisement uses a man who goes around at a party and talks to three women individually, who all prefer their man to be shaven a different way.
For example In Old Spice’s commercial “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” they create an image that men who use their body wash are manly, rich, and attractive, which I think most men would like to be represented as. Another example is in the Lux body wash commercial they create an image making it seem like every women using their body wash are happy, sexy, and stylish. To achieve these thoughts created by the audience advertisers use many different techniques
The representation of gender in mass communications has been a hugely debated topic for years and will continue to be one for many more years to come. The media plays a big role in how they want to portray a gender to the public. They create certain stereotypes through the role of a gender in order to attract a large audience and interest to sell a product, brand or image. Media is so important in today’s society, people spend hours and hours each day watching TV, browsing the Internet and reading magazines. There are so many images of men and women in the media today that it certainly has an impact on the viewer’s thoughts and sense of identity.
It is through media’s reinforcement of gender stereotypes, codes and gender displays that shape the way in which society perceives and constructs genders. Gender is not formed at birth, this self identification of being male or female is shaped through cultural, and social conditions. Media forms often