Advertising:
perhaps the most obvious, tangible, accessible, and influential form
of media. Advertising appeals to a wide array of people that range in
gender, age, race, and cultures. It is delivered in many distinct
forms; television commercials, magazine and newspaper spreads,
posters adorning the walls of nearly every subway cart and bus stop,
and even while we watch films via product placement. Advertising is
essentially everywhere, waiting to infiltrate our minds when we least
expect it. Advertising is extremely prevalent in how we judge
society, our peers, and ourselves. As consumers and spectators taking
in the messages being conveyed, we often lose sight of what the
primary goal of these ads were; to sell a product. Most
advertisements follow similar strategies in that they all attempt to
target specific groups of people. Whether it be adolescents, men,
women, senior citizens, Latinos, Asians, etc., no one is spared;
advertising is all-inclusive. It is a pity that advertising, many
times, perpetuates society's old and outdated gender and race roles
because, as Kilbourne points out, with each of us being “exposed to
over 1500 ads a day”, advertising is “perhaps the most powerful
educational force in society” (Kilbourne, 121). Although the
primary goal of every advertisement is to promote their product
effectively enough to make the consumer go out and purchase that
item, they “attempt to sell the product by associating it with
certain socially desirable qualities, but they sell as well a world
view, a lifestyle, and value system congruent with the imperatives of
consumer capitalism” (Kellner, 127). In a nutshell, advertising
drastically shapes the way each and everyone of us, living in a media
driven world, identifies with ourselves, each other, and our
surroundings.
Although ads
typically all follow suit of targeting a particular audience, the
stereotypes used often range and vary. For instance, women tend to be
depicted as one of two things; “sex objects or mindless domestics
pathologically obsessed with cleanliness” (Cortese, 54). Similar to
film and television, advertisements perpetuate notions of the 'ideal
woman' or the “perfect provocateur” (Cortese, 54). Defined by
Cortese in “Constructing Bodies, Deconstructing Ads”, the
'perfect provocateur' is essentially impossible to achieve; with not
one blemish in sight, no wrinkles, split ends, scars, or pores, the
'perfect provocateur' is every woman's worst nightmare and wildest
dream all wrapped up in one. We all hate her; the Victoria's secret
model staring back at us through her perfectly symmetrical bedroom
eyes, yet we all secretly long to be her; to encompass her effortless
beauty. So, as a means to get as humanly close to being the 'perfect
provocateur' as possible, we buy the liquid concealing foundation;
the pressed mineral powder; the teeth whitening strips; the
'perfectly plum' lipstick; the push up bra; dieting pills, and so on
and so forth. “Women are constantly held to this unrealistic
standard of beauty”, and if they fail to attain it, “they are led
to feel guilty and ashamed” (Cortese, 54). Thus, we the 'imperfect
provocateurs', consume and purchase more and more products while we
obsess and stress over what we see (and what we don't) being
reflected when we look into a mirror. Cultural ideology that is
perpetuated through ads, suggests that we are flawed and broken; in
need of mending and repair. If, in fact, we cannot be fixed by the
endless amounts of makeup and pushup bras, we are led to believe that
we are not desirable and are essentially unworthy of love. Even ads
geared towards men depict images of the perfect woman, always seen,
yet rarely heard.
According to Jean
Kilbourne's, “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising”, by constantly
being surrounded by these 'artificial' images of what women should
look like and behave, “a woman is conditioned to view her face as a
mask and her body as an object, as things
separate from and more important than her real self, constantly in
need of alteration, improvement, and disguise” (Kilbourne, 122).
This phenomenon of women, young and old, constantly feeling
inadequate in their own skin and feeling the unrelenting urge to
check their images because they are not the 'perfect provocateur',
can be related to the writings of John Berger in “Ways of Seeing”.
Berger states that “a woman must continually watch herself”,
“from earliest childhood she has been taught and persuaded to
survey herself” (Berger, 46). Berger argues that women must always
be watching and observing how she appears to others and “ultimately
how she appears to men” because, it is “of crucial importance for
what is normally thought of as the success of her life” (Berger,
46). If we look back through history, and the iconic women that
dominated in media, we see a drastic change in what was considered to
be the ideal woman, then and now. Marilyn Monroe for instance,
weighed approximately 140 pounds during the filming of The
Prince and the Showgirl; a huge
difference from say, Gisele Bundchon's whopping 100 pounds soaking
wet.
Men
have also been typecast-ed and influenced in advertisements
throughout history; pressuring them to be a 'real man' and 'man up',
while also having a perfect body that oozes sex appeal and a rugged,
blue-collar man charm. As Cortese notes in his writings however, this
macho male image has not always been the projected male identity
prevalent within advertising; “In fact, 90 percent of male models
are working class- rough around the edges and beefy, not as frail,
thin, or chiseled as their predecessors” (Cortese, 58). It appears
as though muscularity is becoming the prerequisite for masculinity.
Although the idea of an uber muscular man as the poster boy of
masculinity may be a new one, the notion that real men do what the
men in advertisements do, dates way back. “Such symbolic images in
advertising attempt to create an association between the products
offered, and socially desirable and meaningful traits in order to
produce the impression that if one wants to be a certain type of
person”, then one should purchase certain promoted products
(Kellner, 127). The iconic Marlboro Cowboy, made infamous through
Marlboro cigarette ads, was considered the ultimate “man's man”
fully equipped with his crush proof cigarette box (because everyone
knows men like crush things), and was considered as the ultimate
symbol of masculinity. Today, its more about how much you can bench
press and how good you look with your shirt off, in a pair of Calvin
Klein boxers, than being the 'lone ranger', drifter cowboy that
always wears his boots and hat. Similar to the anxieties women face
when they feel as though their looks/ body image is not up to par
with those depicted in the advertisements, men too struggle with body
image. Personally, in my life, I have noticed that more and more of
my guy friends have become borderline obsessed with their weight and
how others view them publicly, more so than a majority of my female
friends. Not only do men have the constant pressure of having to be
strong, reliable, tough, thick skinned, and athletic, they have to be
able to get the hot blonde's phone number at the end of the night,
and if they can't, then there must be something wrong with them. The
same goes for females as well, not only are we expected to be
beautiful every minute of everyday, but we also have to be sweet,
gentle (so as to not intimidate the big strong muscle man),
sophisticated, and well spoken (only when addressed, of course), and
again, if we do not achieve all of these, there is something
inherently wrong with us.
Perhaps,
however, it is not us as individuals who are wrong, so much as it is
the advertising strategies employed by the big advertisers. Whether
they are aware or not, the ads they are creating and releasing are
plaguing our minds with images and desires of an artificial being.
Rather than using the same washed up strategies that have been
circulating around for decades now, why not challenge the
stereotypes, norms, and values embedded within advertising, that
objectifies and detaches the individual from themselves by reversing
the roles. Imagine, a commercial on daytime television, that depicts
a father and son outside playing [insert sport here], when, uh-oh,
little Johnny got grass stains all over his nice new khakis! Mom
can't be found anywhere, but its okay because dad's a real man who
knows how to score a touch down and get rid of those pesky stains. Or
how about a commercial for Triple A's roadside assistance with a
female tow truck driver, that can take apart and rebuild your entire
engine in a hour's time. Or perhaps even one, just one, magazine
cover that is not all composed of photo-shopped images of Beyonce in
a ball gown, but instead a thirteen year old girl with glasses,
braces, and acne, smiling as hard as she can for that picture because
at that moment, she was genuinely happy and carefree, totally
comfortable in her skin and surroundings. It is as simple as
substituting one person, object, item, theme, and message in exchange
for another as a means to transform these stereotypical ads we find
ourselves gazing at numerous times daily into something more
meaningful, positive, and potentially beneficial monetarily. Rather
than advertising cosmetics as corrective treatment, which insinuates
something was wrong in the first place, why not market them as tools
of enhancement. There is no need for this constant devaluation of the
consumer done by not only the advertising companies and media, but by
themselves as well. Never should the sale of a product outshine the
consumers interests and well being, we should be encouraging
happiness and being content with ones self rather than feeding off of
their insecurities, bullying them into purchasing a product because
with out it they are inadequate, not good enough.
- Kilbourne, Jean. "Beauty and the Beast of Advertising." Media & Values. N.p.: Winter, 1989. 121-25. Print.
- Berger, John. "3."Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1973. 45-64.
- Kellner, Douglas. "Reading Images Critically." Journal of Education. 3rd ed. Vol. 170. N.p.: Trustees of Boston University, 1988. 126-32. Print.
- Cortese, Anthony Joseph Paul. "Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads." Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. 54-76. Print
^what do you think? Should Elle magazine have portrayed Melissa McCarthy similar to how they portrayed Shailene Woodley/ Resse Witherspoon?lol Joe Namath
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