Post 3

The obvious sexism and patriarchy located in today’s advertisements are probably the best kept secrets in the world. The reason being that nobody knows it’s a secret, everyone has separated demonized words like patriarchy and sexism from what’s normal to where it would seem one would have to go above and beyond to be sexist. Another thing that makes it such a well-kept secret is that it’s not at all intentional to be as reinforcing as it is.

Advertisements just want to sell products, and a lot of the time, they use tactics that get to us on a

This model lacks any bad features

subconscious level to make us go crazy for it. In the same way a kids cereal would put a cartoon animal in their commercials to sell is the same kind of exploitation used in all advertisements. A beer commercial would put in a bunch of scantily clad women to appeal to sexual desires for men, linking the satisfaction of it to the beer. A perfume advertisement would have an attractive model in expensive clothing on it, linking the desires to be her for women, and associating achieving that with the product. It’s a cheap tactic when you think of it, to sell values instead of quality, but it sells. The values are usually unrelated to the product in any way. How are women in bikinis or women in expensive clothing related to beer or perfume? How exactly is sex associated with food? In the advertising world, they can be basically the same thing. In Bordo’s “Hunger as Ideology” there are a few examples of food commercials being related to sex followed by an analysis of the ads. It explains that “In these commercials, food is constructed as a sexual object of desire, and eating is legitimated as much more than a purely nutritive activity. Rather, food is supposed to supply sensual delight and succor – not as metaphorically standing for something else, but as an erotic experience in itself.” (Bordo, 112)Commercials like these don’t really sell food, they sell food sex, if that makes sense.

Unfortunately, it unintentionally sells a byproduct, a standard for perfection for humans. Such as the ideal woman being seductive and thin or the ideal man being muscular and aggressive, such ideals have been learned and reinforced and learned and reinforced. Wykes Gunther’s “Body Messages and Body Meanings” shows an experiment that reveals the effects of these ideals. It said

This model acts as a seductress

We judge our own bodies more than others. 29 percent rated their own bodies from 7 to 10 but 57 percent rated their partners between 7 and 10 / Men prefer short (62%), slim-waisted (73%), long haired (75%), tanned (77%) women. / 74 per cent of both men and women felt they had better sex when they felt about their bodies / 61 per cent felt obese people were responsible for their own predicament / 41 per cent felt the media was responsible for dictating public perceptions of ideal body shape. Fifty one per cent felt the media was one of many factors. (Gunther 704-5)

From this, we can get an idea of the effects that selling ideals are what contribute to ideas like preferences in lovers, feeling bad about one’s body, and feeling like impossible standards are reached through hard work. But there’s really no way to achieve any standards given by ads. In “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising” by Jean Kilbourne explains the perfection of beauty in ads. It says “she has no lines or wrinkles … no scars or blemishes-indeed she has no pores” (Kilbourne, 122). This is clearly impossible, but it’s presence as an ideal woman gives the impression that it is.

Popular culture is reflected in advertisement. It’s sort of like a cycle of continuous reinforcement where we learn what is perfect through media, and then we develop a taste to it because, after so much time seeing it, we’re comfortable with it. Then advertisement takes what is considered perfect and values it to a product, strengthening the idea that their interpretation of perfection is correct.

Although this ad has a pretty model,
it does advertise the product quality

If I was president of advertisements for a day, I would have it so advertisements were boasting their product based on qualities directly related to it. If there needed to be a person on the advertisement, I would have it determined by a random race and gender generator and choose literally anyone. It’s the only way to be fair, because in advertisements today it’s mostly white guys who are spokesman. The effect would be that value would come from the product itself and that it would stop reinforcing the idea that value comes from looking or acting a certain way. The individual products will eventually go away, so their wouldn’t be too much harm to competing brands, while at the same time, people will feel freer to act how they feel is natural and not feel less valuable as a person when they don’t. Such things advertisers today could put in their commercials are statistics, reviews, special ingredients that are uncommon or rare, or anything that adds value to the product that isn’t at the expense of people’s self-worth. Another idea would be to get positive reviews from experts in the field. In that way, value is placed on knowledge.

Works Cited :

Gunther, Wykes. Conclusion: Body Messages and Body Meanings, 705-5

Bordo. Hunger as Ideology, 112

Kilbourne, Jean. Beauty and the Beast of Advertising, 122

Related articles: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/22/this-oppresses-women-stickers-shut-down-sexist-nyc-ads_n_7637564.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/madeline-wahl/why-its-unfortunate-that-sex-sells_b_5433251.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/sex-sells-ads-should-have-thought-twice_n_4653226.html