The Ideology Of Advertisement Argument
For years advertisers have used sex to sell products, especially to women. I remember one particular ad I was told about perhaps ten years ago. It was a simple advertisement. There were no cars, no bottles of perfume, no smiling men. The full page ad in The New York Times Sunday Magazine showed only a very voluptuous woman in a skimpy bikini resting in a provocative way with a two-word sentence written near her naval: “Enter Paradise.” It was an ad for a Caribbean resort. I remember my dad telling me about this ad, saying that it was a terrible portrayal of women. But it turns out that this advertisement was just one in a long line of ads using sex to sell products. Salesmen – and yes, for years it was mainly men creating these ads – have included cleavage and bare bottoms because it is clear that sex sells. These ads use sex to reflect a perfect image of the female body. But in using sex in this way, these ads also promote the objectification of women.
Objectification is the act of degrading someone by viewing them as not human, but as an object. Women most commonly aren’t shown as strong and empowering particularly when pictured in Advertisements. What’s seen is literally “inhuman” objects. There is nothing left to the person who probably had much to them. The models are shown as having no personality or opinions when I’m sure that they once did. When women are pictured in ads it’s commonly to sell clothes, makeup, hair products, or other things along these lines – just superficial things. Nothing that actually has any real value or meaning.
Images used today are much more sexual in nature than those of many decades ago, which furthers this process of objectification. Advertisements from the 50s and 60s show life as being much simpler. (Firth, p.56). A knee may have stuck out from under a dress, or a woman’s chest may have shown a little cleavage, but the ads I’ve seen from that time do not show bare bodies or even hint at what is shown today. In the August 2018 issue of Essence, the woman pictured in the Loreal Makeup ad has much more skin revealed than would have been acceptable 60 years ago. All that the woman seems to be wearing is a skimpy black tank top. And it’s not just about how the women look. It’s also about the provocative nature of the ads – suggestive gestures, and even the phrasing of the advertisement. In an ad for an NYX makeup product found in the October 2018 issue of Cosmopolitan shows a young woman lying on a poker table. This ad appears to be designed to show that it’s not only women’s bodies that sell, it’s also everything else related to an overall image.
The status of women as objects is clear in many of today’s ads. An Olay Body Wash ad from the October 2018 issue of Cosmopolitan provides an example of the drastic way in which marketers use sex. In this ad a young woman is pictured completely naked (from a side angle) in an ad for body wash. The lighting is quite soft to accentuate the woman’s curves. Even more importantly the woman portrayed in the Olay ad doesn’t have a single blemish or even acne mark, because those indications of a real person are removed. And this is important. Airbrushing blemishes, beauty marks and other imperfections is a normal practice in advertising. In the past several years, various actresses have complained that their photos were altered by photographers to make them appear skinnier, and more buxom. And they complained that imperfections were removed to make them seem more perfect and less real.
In fact, in England the Advertising Standards Authority routinely bans ads because they have been airbrushed to remove imperfections, or to alter a woman’s body shape by removing leg fat or enhancing breasts. (O’neil) In other words, the altered ads are trying to make even movie stars look more like objects than humans. And this can lead to serious consequences. By her own admission, actress Amanda Gist said the constant push toward perfection in Hollywood led her to develop an eating disorder before she left the movie industry. (Mcdermott)
How women are portrayed in advertising relates to how women, and men, view women.
Scientists tell us that by the time we graduate from high school we will have spent more time watching television and its advertisements than we have spent in school classrooms. (Sigman) With that much media exposure, we are bombarded on television and in print with advertisements that tell us that women are objects.
When we are born, we have no such pre-conceptions. They are developed through repetition – the repeating of these images over and over. Such portrayals begin to normalize the view that women are perfect – that they are objects. I know that I have never met anyone who looks perfect – such a look is unattainable. The looks that we are constantly bombarded with are not how someone who is happy and healthy looks. Because of these media images, young women like myself grow up in a society where one is led to think that this type of look is expected – perfect hair, slim body, and just the idea of how women look in ads is how we should look in real life. Young girls especially, shouldn’t be trying to reflect these impossible to achieve expectations. I am lucky enough to have grown up in a household where I was constantly reminded that that advertisements are telling us women should look like isn’t what we should actually be striving for. Even with this, it’s impossible to completely ignore what is seen on a daily basis.
Society degrades women on a constant basis. Yet that is what advertisers have convinced many people to believe women should look like. By turning women in ads into unattainable sex objects, it allows men to judge the women around them by this standard, turning them into nothing more that objects. The concept of objectifying women is also seen when talking about men portrayed in advertisements. Men are portrayed as having to have a perfect body, like women, but just a different “perfect” look. Men are most commonly shown as being extremely muscular and are often shown having a six pack which, also similar to women, isn’t always attainable. This image is shown in the October 2018 issue of Esquire. The ad shown is selling Giorgio Armani cologne. Pictured is a young, very attractive man who is shirtless and clearly very physically fit. Even with all of this portrayal of men having to be perfect, it is nothing in comparison to women. Men, although portrayed as having to be strong, are portrayed strong and powerful nonetheless. Women, on the other hand, are often portrayed as both being weak and dumb. The overriding message for men in many ads is to be strong, which is potentially attainable. To reach perfection is not. Men are shown as strong characters overall, while women are dehumanized and viewed as objects.
Advertisers are smart in the ways they aim their ads. Take for example, in the September 2018 issue of People Magazine, where there is an advertisement for Loreal Hairspray. Not surprisingly, the woman pictured has hair that looks flawless. My guess would be that a lot of prep work went into this. One wouldn’t just spray some hairspray and then their hair suddenly looks perfect. Yet, that is the point this advertisement is trying to make – if you purchase this product, then you can look like this! This is seen time and time again all throughout many advertisements. Women are roped into these advertisement traps believing that if they buy a product they will have perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect bodies and much more. This leads women to thinking that they will end up looking like these unattainable objects. While advertising may not be the only thing that pushes women toward this unattainable perfection – the role of women in movies also helps – it is clear that ending this representation of women in this way will help to stop this objectification. It is not healthy for women to constantly work towards achieving something that is impossible to reach. By stopping this type of advertising, we can reduce this kind of pressure on women.
Works Cited:
For years advertisers have used sex to sell products, especially to women. I remember one particular ad I was told about perhaps ten years ago. It was a simple advertisement. There were no cars, no bottles of perfume, no smiling men. The full page ad in The New York Times Sunday Magazine showed only a very voluptuous woman in a skimpy bikini resting in a provocative way with a two-word sentence written near her naval: “Enter Paradise.” It was an ad for a Caribbean resort. I remember my dad telling me about this ad, saying that it was a terrible portrayal of women. But it turns out that this advertisement was just one in a long line of ads using sex to sell products. Salesmen – and yes, for years it was mainly men creating these ads – have included cleavage and bare bottoms because it is clear that sex sells. These ads use sex to reflect a perfect image of the female body. But in using sex in this way, these ads also promote the objectification of women.
Objectification is the act of degrading someone by viewing them as not human, but as an object. Women most commonly aren’t shown as strong and empowering particularly when pictured in Advertisements. What’s seen is literally “inhuman” objects. There is nothing left to the person who probably had much to them. The models are shown as having no personality or opinions when I’m sure that they once did. When women are pictured in ads it’s commonly to sell clothes, makeup, hair products, or other things along these lines – just superficial things. Nothing that actually has any real value or meaning.
Images used today are much more sexual in nature than those of many decades ago, which furthers this process of objectification. Advertisements from the 50s and 60s show life as being much simpler. (Firth, p.56). A knee may have stuck out from under a dress, or a woman’s chest may have shown a little cleavage, but the ads I’ve seen from that time do not show bare bodies or even hint at what is shown today. In the August 2018 issue of Essence, the woman pictured in the Loreal Makeup ad has much more skin revealed than would have been acceptable 60 years ago. All that the woman seems to be wearing is a skimpy black tank top. And it’s not just about how the women look. It’s also about the provocative nature of the ads – suggestive gestures, and even the phrasing of the advertisement. In an ad for an NYX makeup product found in the October 2018 issue of Cosmopolitan shows a young woman lying on a poker table. This ad appears to be designed to show that it’s not only women’s bodies that sell, it’s also everything else related to an overall image.
The status of women as objects is clear in many of today’s ads. An Olay Body Wash ad from the October 2018 issue of Cosmopolitan provides an example of the drastic way in which marketers use sex. In this ad a young woman is pictured completely naked (from a side angle) in an ad for body wash. The lighting is quite soft to accentuate the woman’s curves. Even more importantly the woman portrayed in the Olay ad doesn’t have a single blemish or even acne mark, because those indications of a real person are removed. And this is important. Airbrushing blemishes, beauty marks and other imperfections is a normal practice in advertising. In the past several years, various actresses have complained that their photos were altered by photographers to make them appear skinnier, and more buxom. And they complained that imperfections were removed to make them seem more perfect and less real.
In fact, in England the Advertising Standards Authority routinely bans ads because they have been airbrushed to remove imperfections, or to alter a woman’s body shape by removing leg fat or enhancing breasts. (O’neil) In other words, the altered ads are trying to make even movie stars look more like objects than humans. And this can lead to serious consequences. By her own admission, actress Amanda Gist said the constant push toward perfection in Hollywood led her to develop an eating disorder before she left the movie industry. (Mcdermott)
How women are portrayed in advertising relates to how women, and men, view women.
Scientists tell us that by the time we graduate from high school we will have spent more time watching television and its advertisements than we have spent in school classrooms. (Sigman) With that much media exposure, we are bombarded on television and in print with advertisements that tell us that women are objects.
When we are born, we have no such pre-conceptions. They are developed through repetition – the repeating of these images over and over. Such portrayals begin to normalize the view that women are perfect – that they are objects. I know that I have never met anyone who looks perfect – such a look is unattainable. The looks that we are constantly bombarded with are not how someone who is happy and healthy looks. Because of these media images, young women like myself grow up in a society where one is led to think that this type of look is expected – perfect hair, slim body, and just the idea of how women look in ads is how we should look in real life. Young girls especially, shouldn’t be trying to reflect these impossible to achieve expectations. I am lucky enough to have grown up in a household where I was constantly reminded that that advertisements are telling us women should look like isn’t what we should actually be striving for. Even with this, it’s impossible to completely ignore what is seen on a daily basis.
Society degrades women on a constant basis. Yet that is what advertisers have convinced many people to believe women should look like. By turning women in ads into unattainable sex objects, it allows men to judge the women around them by this standard, turning them into nothing more that objects. The concept of objectifying women is also seen when talking about men portrayed in advertisements. Men are portrayed as having to have a perfect body, like women, but just a different “perfect” look. Men are most commonly shown as being extremely muscular and are often shown having a six pack which, also similar to women, isn’t always attainable. This image is shown in the October 2018 issue of Esquire. The ad shown is selling Giorgio Armani cologne. Pictured is a young, very attractive man who is shirtless and clearly very physically fit. Even with all of this portrayal of men having to be perfect, it is nothing in comparison to women. Men, although portrayed as having to be strong, are portrayed strong and powerful nonetheless. Women, on the other hand, are often portrayed as both being weak and dumb. The overriding message for men in many ads is to be strong, which is potentially attainable. To reach perfection is not. Men are shown as strong characters overall, while women are dehumanized and viewed as objects.
Advertisers are smart in the ways they aim their ads. Take for example, in the September 2018 issue of People Magazine, where there is an advertisement for Loreal Hairspray. Not surprisingly, the woman pictured has hair that looks flawless. My guess would be that a lot of prep work went into this. One wouldn’t just spray some hairspray and then their hair suddenly looks perfect. Yet, that is the point this advertisement is trying to make – if you purchase this product, then you can look like this! This is seen time and time again all throughout many advertisements. Women are roped into these advertisement traps believing that if they buy a product they will have perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect bodies and much more. This leads women to thinking that they will end up looking like these unattainable objects. While advertising may not be the only thing that pushes women toward this unattainable perfection – the role of women in movies also helps – it is clear that ending this representation of women in this way will help to stop this objectification. It is not healthy for women to constantly work towards achieving something that is impossible to reach. By stopping this type of advertising, we can reduce this kind of pressure on women.
Works Cited:
- Cheng, Hong. Frith, Katherine. Shaw, Ping. “The Construction of Beauty: A cross – Cultural Analysis of Women’s Magazine Advertising” Journal of Communication, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2005.
- Advertisement for Giorgio Armani. Esquire, October 2018, p. 33. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4135420/Actress-Amanda-Gist-hits-Hollywood-body-shaming.html.
- Advertisement for NYX Eyeliner. Cosmopolitan, October 2018, p.143. Advertisement for Olay Ultra Moisture Body Wash. Cosmopolitan, October 2018, p.10.
