Stereotypes In Advertising Essay

In Advertisements R Us by Melissa Rubin, she analyzes how advertisements appeal to its audience and how it reflects our society. Rubin describes a specific Coca-Cola ad from the 1950’s that contains a “Sprite Boy”, a large -Cola Coca vending machine, a variety of men, ranging from the working class to members of the army, and the occasional female. She states that this advertisement was very stereotypical of society during that decade and targeted the same demographic: white, working-class males- the same demographic that the Coca-Cola factories employed.

As reflected in the readings of Reading Popular Culture: An Anthology for Writers 3rd Edition, present-day advertisements expand far beyond the endorsement of a product. While the initial intent for various corporations surround the operation of selling and marketing products, many companies also find success in promoting masked messages. According to Jean Kilbourne in her article pertaining to the study of advertisement, she reveals the underlying tactics of commercialized business. As stated in the article “’In Your Face…All Over the Place’: Advertising Is Our Environment”, Kilbourne states “advertising often sells a great deal more than products. It sells values, images, and concepts of love and sexuality, romance, success, and perhaps most important, normalcy (101).” The most recent trend of cultural normalcy: the distaste for natural aging.

With the alarming number of smokers, agencies spend billions of dollars every year on anti-smoking advertisements. Anti-smoking agencies enlighten audiences of the negative consequences of smoking and try to persuade them to stop. The visual I chose to analyze is a commercial engendered by an anti-smoking agency called Quit. The advertisement, “quit smoking commercial” shows a mother and a son walking in a busy airport terminal. Suddenly, the mother abandons the child, and after he realizes he is alone, he commences to cry. At the end, a sticker appears that says quit and gives the logo and the website of the antismoking company that engineered the ad. The commercial utilizes rhetorical appeals to draw the audience in, then persuade them to stop smoking.

While creating my rhetorical analysis paper I used all of my typical writing processes. I began this assignment by selecting a commercial that I thought would be the most appealing in the superbowl. After selecting my commercial I did some research at the library using EBSCOhost. I then created an outline on what my paper would be about and pieced all of its parts together. In the future I will try to recieve help earlier on because at first I struggled to understand what the purpose of the paper was. Eventually I was able to figure it out on my own with research and through asking peers, but it would've been a lot easier to just ask for an advisors or instructors help.

Do you ever see an ad or commercial on TV that just sticks with you? Maybe it is a catchy jingle, or one of your favorite actors or actresses. For me personally, the Swiffer commercials stick in my head. I love how each ad has the same idea, but is portrayed from a different point of view. I feel as if Swiffer makes it their main focus to target everyone, not just one specific group. It’s target audience includes a wide range of people, no matter what age, race or geographical location. Which I find, makes it easier to relate.

Debatably one of the most entertaining and memorable commercials during last year’s Super Bowl was the 30 second Mr. Clean ad: Cleaner of Your Dreams, which aired during the third quarter of the game. The ad features a wife tired of cleaning who gets increasingly more turned on as her fantasy husband, “Mr. Clean”, uses Mr. Clean products to finish the household chores and concludes with a surprise ending of Mr. Clean transforming into her real husband, an average looking man. This ad destroys gender roles, showing that it is good for everyone when men help clean the house. Through the use of visual communication, verbal communication, and the timing of the Cleaner of Your Dreams ad, Mr. Clean effectively asserts that men need to help women clean while representing its intended audience, men watching the Super Bowl, and entertaining its target audience, people who buy cleaning supplies.

The Audi R8 Big Game Commercial, "Commander" talks about an old man who is thinking about his time as an astronaut. He misses it and he just stares at a wall and doesn’t talk to anybody. His son comes with his Audi R8 and he gives the car keys to his dad to drive it. He becomes happy and excited and it makes him relive his time as an astronaut. The commercials purpose was to promote the Audi R8 car. Watching the commercial, the intended audience for an adult man with a son. I say that because the main character’s are an old man and his son. This commercial instills values like the past meaning reliving what you loved and also family. It’s not effective because it doesn’t use the Rhetorical Appeals like Ethos and Logos but, it does include Pathos which makes it somewhat good.

product that was being advertised, to than actually being interested in purchasing that product? Well that was their goal, advertisers have mastered the market industry by being aware of the fact that us humans are very concerned with our image. Advertisers know that we have a greater chance of buying a product if we can picture ourselves how we would like to be portrayed of course with the help of their product. In ads, companies want to provide an image that can be relatable to the viewers and what would want to appeal to them. 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

There are many controversial topics that we see on a daily basis through the media. Some of the topics that we are exposed to are race, stereotypes, sexism and sex. These things seem to be a key factor in how media makes its presence felt. Whether it is through T.V. shows, how stereotypes and race are still a common trend in present day movies. I believe that stereotyping is everywhere you look movies and T.V. in particular but also music. This leads to society seeing things in a black and white form, by this I mean people see things one way and that is not how it should be seen.

This commercial during the 2012 Superbowl by Jeep with a voice over of Oprah Winfrey, definitely did a good job tugging the heartstrings of the viewers. This is a very good example of pathos being used in a commercial. Jeep uses pathos to persuade the viewers to get excited about the war being over and their loved ones coming home. One can clearly tell that this commercial is focusing solely on the United States Army and those that are deployed overseas.

“Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady.” Is the message of this advertisement for Old Spice aftershave located here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE

You see an old woman sitting in her rocking chair as the commercial begins to play, although she hears a strange noise from outside. She goes to the window with a suspicious look on her face, and finds a grown man reciting a cheerleader cheer. Cheerleader Daddy effectively uses ethos and pathos to convince fathers to spend time with their kids.

Advertisement plays upon emotions, creating a scenario that heightens the consumer’s emotional state. They build a fantasy in which the consumer’s life is better because of the product. Advertisements sell values, images, love and sexuality. Over the years advertisements have attempted a wide variety of advertising approaches like humor, sex, emotions. Advertisers use one of these appeals to ensure that the targeted audiences receive their message. The media’s framing of women in highly restricted and negative ways is a global phenomenon that cuts across all cultures and has endured a long passage of

This research paper presents a content analysis on the portrayal of women in advertisements. This paper is written to better understand the stereotypes of women in advertising. The paper will also include the harsh realities female receivers have to face due to the portrayal of unrealistically thin and technologically perfected super models. Many women are portrayed as sexual objects and are constantly being degraded. Few examples of using sex appeal will also be discussed in this paper.