A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words July 9, 2011

We have witnessed several critical shifts in the world of advertising when it comes to how the ads or the people in the ads are presented. For example, the representation of women went from a very conservative motherly figure to an attractive happy-go-lucky kind of girl. Similarly, in printed ads, we see a shift from text to audience. It used to be that people would read the large paragraph of text typed under a small picture or photo of the product and believe it to be telling the truth. As years went by, the amount of text became less and less while the size and demeanour of the photos became more eccentric and provocative. Throughout this shift, the communication between corporations and the consumer has become distorted. When you see pictures of a Big Mac, you fall into this commercial illusion that associates McDonald’s with a healthy lifestyle. The more you become drawn into that, the more disappointed you are after you finish two of them and feel like your insides are trying to punch each other.

In the 1920s, people had the ability to produce but there was no market to sell to; the middle class simply did not exist. So what would any good businessman do? Create that market. Wages were raised so that people could afford to buy things they didn’t really need. As the middle class separated itself from the other, so called, classes, further divisions were created within it based on what they could and could not afford to buy. The function of the product didn’t even matter by this point! Today we see a similar trend in car advertisements. More so than not, we hear about the OnStar safety guide that is featured in every GM vehicle or the Acura with the already built-in XM satellite radio. But what about how the car drives? Is it safe? Is it built to last more than a year? My car may not have the latest World-Class In-Car Speech Recognition System, or automatic windows for that matter, but it’s been getting me from A to B for the last 8 years without a hitch. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it’ll outdrive cars that are younger and better-looking than it based on the quality of its motor and its fuel efficiency alone. But today, that doesn’t matter. I get made fun of each and every time I have to reach over and roll down my window at the McDonald’s drive thru.

In modern day society, the corporate voice is the loudest. We are always promised to be using the only product that is suitable for our unique skin tone or ‘because we’re worth it’, as L’Oréal likes to put it. Ads always reassure us that we can be individuals and that we’re special and amazing. What about the other 6 billion people out there? That’s a whole lot of promises that will be broken. But we still buy it, despite being fully aware of that! And that is how strong the corporate voice is. Likewise, corporations even encourage us to spend. Look at the bank ads that tell us to ‘borrow with confidence’ or the department stores that make sure we know that ‘shopping is good’. Corporations know that people are willing to get into debt and to endanger their financial freedom by giving into consumption, but they don’t hold back. And neither do we. Advertising has been so successful because it has a way of getting into our faces whether it is through words, pictures, printed ads, or TV commercials. We may hate it when it sneaks its way in right before Derek is about to get shot in the middle of Seattle Grace Hospital (I’m a big Grey’s Anatomy fan, can you tell?), but we also live by advertising. We reiterate its message by wearing clothing with the little eagle symbol embroidered on the side of every American Eagle sweater, by buying the same eye shadow that Drew Barrymore wears in the Covergirl commercials, and by classifying people as preppy, nerdy, rich, or poor based on all of those symbols. We may not like it, but advertising sets up the cultural rules we live by each and every day.

I’ve Got the Power! July 5, 2011

In the last century, the uprising of television and the media has turned leisure time from reading the newspaper into watching the season premiere of yet another new hospital show. Not that reading the newspaper has become obsolete, but its prevalence has  significantly diminished since the time of TV. Even more so than television, the Internet has opened up millions of opportunities for entertainment. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, you name it, all of these forms of social networking allow us to be fully aware of where our friends on the other side of the world are going to grab lunch. As a result, with the turn of the 20^th century, we turned from being passive viewers of pop culture into active participants in its creation.

Helen Irving, author of the article “Little Elves and Mind Control: Advertising and its Critics”, gives a conservative point of view to the concept of advertising and its purposes. She strongly believes that advertising has created unnecessary needs and wants in order to sell products to its viewers. She says that unless we need the product, we must not wish to have it. For example, Coca Cola ads over the years have been shown in almost every context. There are ads showing housewives taking a break from a days’ hard work by sipping on a refreshing bottle of Coke, ads showing Santa with a Coke bottle in his hand with a witty remark underneath saying ‘my gift for thirst’, and ads that just plain and simply state ‘good for every occasion’. What do we know about Coke? It’s mostly sugar and water, with a little bit of food colouring and carbon dioxide in it. There is absolutely no biological need for it to enter our systems, yet Coca Cola is the second most popular international word in the world after ‘ok’. It doesn’t even get underlined in red in Word! My name does, but Coca Cola is apparently perfectly acceptable.

If you line up the Coca Cola advertisements in chronological order, they probably tell the story of time better than any historian in a museum could. Advertising had such an impact on the evolution of this necessity for Coke that the big Coca Cola sign in King’s Cross in Sydney, Australia, brings in over $150 000 a year to its owner just by hanging there. So, I’m afraid it’s advertising 1, Ms. Irving 0.

 

Another point brought up in the article is that we create the meaning of the message by interpreting it and giving it truth. We are in control! Once again, using the exact same example of Coca Cola, we know that we don’t need it, but we continue to buy it. The fact that our generation has grown up surrounded by TV and magazine ads of people drinking Coke and loving life limits our ability to decide otherwise. If we are constantly bombarded by the same message, we eventually start to agree with it, whether it’s true or not. Advertising 2, Ms. Irving 0. In an ideal world, if everybody had the same opinion about everything, then yes, I believe that we  could be in control of what the message of an ad truly states. But at a time when there are hundreds of products on the market trying to make our smiles whiter and our hair smoother, there is very little left to interpretation. We live in a capitalist society and culture, in effect, makes the decision between no name and brand name for us.

Reality Sucks July 2, 2011

Everyone’s heard the line ‘every girl wants to be her and every man wants to be with her’. It seems to be a central theme to pretty much any modern billboard ad or magazine cover. Gender advertising is hugely popular because we identify with it so well and it’s so easy for us to perceive the differences between male and female roles. These ‘roles’ have been created by culture, conventionalized by advertisers, and now provide us with a hyper-ritualistic sense of what we should try to be.

The views on gender imaging in advertising have not always been agreed upon by all critics; the feminist view frequently reverts to objectification while Goffman called gender ads ‘commercial realism’. He said that advertisers use models of gender relations from everyday life to connect to the consumer, which defines the basic essentials of what it means for him or her to be an individual. In doing so, they are able to produce ads that live up to these prototypes that culture and society have created and thus give us something to relate to in their world.

It may, at times, be objectifying and portraying something that isn’t necessarily real, but what if advertising didn’t exist at all? Well, we would not be subjected to this huge market of decisions that constantly tries to woo us into buying one of hundreds of products that we probably won’t ever use. There definitely would be no competition between brands, which means that there would be much more truth in ads, doesn’t it? People could show their individuality to a greater extent by not having the influence of the market forcing them to dress a certain way, right? And we certainly wouldn’t have to put up with commercials in the most suspenseful scenes of Grey’s Anatomy. Now wouldn’t that be just phenomenal?

Then why do we have all this advertising? Better yet, how has it been able to be so successful? Answer: sponsorship of the TV shows we watch, funding of all of our favourite hockey and basketball teams, the whole entertainment industry…need I say more? Every show is ‘brought to you in part by’ or ‘is sponsored by’ advertising. By forcing their way into the shows that we watch on a weekly basis, ads have a huge power in controlling the media. No advertising means no entertainment, no newscasts, no sporting events, and no fun.

In a world of 6 billion people (and growing), chances of being the only person with the same thoughts or views on the whole planet are pretty slim. So even though we know that there is nothing real about how comfortable and easy to walk in the new Steve Madden stilettoes are, about how good and healthy that McDonald’s hamburger looks in the picture, or about how you have to have a Blackberry to be part of the in crowd, we still go for it and buy all of those things. Why? Because reality sucks. Ads create this magical world of illusion that makes reality seem fun and carefree and exciting, when we all know that it’s mostly just work, worries, and taxes. As Ellen Willis, journalist and political theorist, once said, fantasy is more flexible than reality. As a result, it lets us imagine, it lets us dream, and it lets us live in a world where reality is the flawless size 0 Covergirl and the incredibly buff Abercrombie & Fitch model. So go ahead, step into that world every once in a while and enjoy it for what it appears to be.

Dream Big June 28, 2011

In the world of advertising, we see animals talking, furniture coming to life, and people flying through city streets. These all seem to be out of a fantasy land that does not exist in reality but one that we’ve only dreamed of. In Sut Jhally’s article, Advertising, Gender and Sex: What’s Wrong with a Little Objectification?, the focus lies on gender relation in this alternate reality of ads and why we don’t seem to find it strange. Jhally uses examples brought up by Erving Goffman, author of the book Gender Advertisements, of the depiction of women as children and the notion that gender relations are created by social norms.

In North America, it seems as though people’s sexuality is the most valued element of their identity, it is defined by culture, and it is the central theme of the majority of advertisements seen today. As Goffman points out, there is nothing natural about gender relations and every society has to continually work in order maintain the prototype of what it means to be man or woman. Women are frequently shown in a child-like state, looking weak, and in constant need of comfort and protection, to be provided by the man, of course.

In the Dolce&Gabbana ad, the woman is presented at the lowest point in the shot, lying on the floor, her eyes vulnerable as she looks away from the crowd around her. At the same time, her hips are thrust forward, making this ad slightly ambiguous: is she scared that she is being overpowered by a group of men or is she enjoying the proximity of these four extremely fit and good-looking models? Is she being objectified? Are we presenting her as nothing but a sexual prop in this male-dominated society? Personally, I think this ad is beautiful. It shows a group of very attractive people wearing elegant clothing with a perfect blue sky in the backdrop. What more can you ask for? Now, I’m not saying that this should run in a campaign for something like Costco or Old Navy but for what it is, a high fashion company, I think that it’s tasteful and sophisticated. It may not be an accepted code of advertising if it hangs in the middle of a Wal-Mart in southern Georgia, but in a fashion magazine such as Vogue, I don’t see why not?

Similar to the Dolce&Gabbana ad, many advertisers try to create a realistic image of a world that could be real. Cosmetics companies are now releasing campaigns with actresses from movies and TV shows that we’ve become familiar with instead of models, whose slender legs and full heads of gorgeous flowing hair seem completely unattainable to us. By showing a more familiar face using a certain product, such as that of Ms. Cruz, who we have grown to love in films like Vanilla Sky and the new Pirates of the Caribbean, we feel more connected to them than the realm of supermodels. Trust me, I bought this mascara, and no, my eyelashes did not look like that. Come on now, nobody’s eyelashes are that long! At the same time, there was a part of me that believed that maybe, just maybe, if I used the same brand of makeup as Penelope Cruz, I could have eyes like that. The minor details that I didn’t take into consideration when buying the product (or maybe even purposely chose to ignore) were that I would need a whole new wardrobe, tons of hair extensions, and some good air brushing that Penelope probably got before shooting this ad.

In this land dominated by beautiful creatures such as models and actresses, their reality doesn’t always seem very real to us, does it? By taking our hopes and aspirations, packing them into a photo-shoot or a 30 second commercial, companies are able to sell us
what we dream of. By leaving the specifics out of ads, we are allowed to live vicariously through these nameless, soulless personalities that we strive to be. So then tell me, is portraying a woman to be this striking, flawless, and elegant ‘object’ such a bad thing? This view may no longer agree with the traditional 1950s housewife image, but there is a time and a place for everything.

Moulding Women Into Contemporary Advertising June 26, 2011

In today’s advertising, women are shown to be constantly empowered by everything that they do. It is not the typical depiction of power; women are not necessarily shown as the front-runners in a political campaign, cooped up in a lab, searching for a cure for every incurable disease under the sun, or even saving endangered species in the Amazon. A lot of the time, we see the Sex and the City type women; the ones that go to lunch at classy cafés on 5^th Avenue, the ones that spend $800 on a pair of sparkly Jimmy Choos, or the ones that go get their nails done on their lunch breaks from their fabulous jobs. There has been a shift in power for women today, suggests Rosalind Gill, author of Empowerment/Sexism: Figuring Female Sexual Agency in Contemporary Advertising.

In the 1960s, women began to gain freedom from men, whether it was by showing that a woman does not have to be married to make something of herself, like Mary Tyler Moore did in the early 1970s, or by smoking Virginia Slims, which was formerly unacceptable by society. The image of ‘being a woman’ no longer depended solely on being the good mother or the cook that has dinner on the table for her hard-working businessman of a husband when he comes home every night. Women were strutting confidently in those high heeled shoes that are more painful to wear than any man would ever know, but made her look like a supermodel straight from the runway of Chanel’s spring collection. From this sudden shift in empowerment and what it meant to be a strong, self-assured woman, came three ‘moulds’ that women in advertising were being cast into.

The first, referred to as the “Midriff”, was presented as the young, pretty, and flirty woman who intentionally uses her sexuality to get what she wants, because she knows that she can. When an ad such as the one produced by Wonderbra first appeared in magazines, it created tension. And why wouldn’t it? In an age when a woman was considered to be the caretaker of the household, the one that had the kids’ lunches packed in little brown bags before school every morning, and the one that wore traditional dresses no shorter than her knee, seeing a pouty 20-something in nothing but a black bra on a big billboard would be pretty shocking. And not only that, but she doesn’t care that she can’t cook! Oh, what a tragedy. But I’m sure Wonderbra made record sales that season.

Next was “The Vengeful Woman” persona. This woman was strong, bitter, and out to get payback on that douchebag of a boyfriend that took her car for a spin without permission. The battle of the sexes is very evident in this type of advertising and it looks as though women are getting the upper hand. In the same way as the Virginia Slims ad that says “you’ve come a long way baby”, freedom and empowerment are generated through it, but isn’t it also expressing liberation by giving into consumption? It was said that we are one of the most disciplined societies in centuries, that we get up to work every morning, we obey authority, and do as we are told. Well, most of the time. But then there is the hedonistic, selfish part of us that just wants to spend, indulge, and be as reckless as possible. According to the capitalist theory, for the market to be successful, we need to be ruthless but disciplined. Contradictory? Maybe, but it sells cigarettes!

Last but not least was the “Hot Lesbian”. What used to be under-represented in advertising was now making its way into the mainstream with  no one to stop her. This edgy, slender, and manipulative being strips away the traditional representation of lesbians, which were shown to be butch and robust. Generally, we find the gorgeous lesbian with her identical (yet opposite) double. This image is set out to live up to the male fantasy. According to the common Western perception, it’s a man’s world out there, and women are trying to get their foot in the door. Like any system that’s already working, why would you try and fix it? That would probably be the view of this ‘man-world’ if women decided to step in. As a result, the image of women became one of a sexual or pornographic nature and their identities became reconstructed into a very narrow path. From this came the matter of objectification of women in advertising.

The feminist acts stepped in and said that women are being used as objects to sell things to men. Although it may sometimes push the limits of what is acceptable in, let’s say, middle-America, what’s wrong with a little objectification? Coming back to the topic of the Sex and the City girls, who think of their empowerment in terms of the number of D&G heels sitting in their closets, and the brand names on their jackets, aren’t we taking away from this strong, independent, feminist point of view by claiming power through shopping? These representations may be significantly more sexual than those shown in the 1960s, but they give women
character. They are no longer the perfect, almost robotic, housewives; they are smart, attractive, and powerful objects. This shift may be good or bad, depending on everyone’s personal opinion, but it works. Let it will be, as Madonna said in one of her songs, advertising is only trying to keep up with what is truly happening in our present-day society.

Hello world! June 23, 2011

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