The Role of Advertising

In the past few weeks we have all read that the role of advertising has been so well calculated that critics and media historians will say that it's been ultimately developed to satisfy the social needs of its targeted audience. It's also pretty safe to say that from our ongoing class discussions a popular motif in advertising is that "sex sells". Mass media has always had the power to shape our opinions and beliefs on one hand and influence our decisions on the other. Nothing is more relevant and speaks volume to this claim than Jean Kilbourne's comments in her essay, Cutting Down Girls where she cites that "Advertising is one of the most potent messengers in a culture that can be toxic for girls' self-esteem" (Kilbourne 131). A prime example is the world of fashion. In researching outside sources for this assignment I stumbled upon the online documentary, The Story of Stuff withAnnie Leonard. 

In the short documentary, Leonard claims how the fashion world and advertising all stem from the model of impression management, which is based on the efforts that people make to improve how others see them, and therefore, improving their social status within society. Leonard later describes how the intent of advertising is designed to make us feel unhappy about ourselves and the things that we own, but it will all be fine if we contribute to society and importantly the economy by going shopping. Many other social issues like body image, pertaining mainly towards the female demographic, play a role with impression management. Companies advertise that they need to eat this or to wear that to fit into the group, not only to be popular, but to be happier in their lives, only to lead to possible serious health risks like body dysmorphia or eating disorders. One can also debate the psychological effects that advertising has which targets women that they have to essentially play out certain roles in the ads subliminal messages to please a man. We can see examples of this in both of Kilbourne’s essays and also in her TED talk that was screened in class.  

Another informative documentary I reviewed for this post was Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood, which pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children's marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids. The filmmakers discuss in certain key points that marketers, when targeting children, use a strategy much like they use on adults that their overall value is determined on what they buy. This resonates again in Kilbourne's Beauty and the Beast of Advertising where she writes that ads don't just focus on selling the product but, "they sell values, images and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy." (Kilbourne 121). Another interesting point of this film that some may argue is borderline or even crosses the line of unethical practices is in reference to clothing lines that are tailored specifically to four to five-year old girls and modeled after the popular Bratz characters (note this documentary is from 2008 and maybe dated but, I find the source material relevant). One researcher had even noted some calling the clothing line too sexual for kids of that age and referring to them as "booty skirts". Some marketers have crossed way too far in focus group sessions testing how children would react to say a new shampoo with their favorite cartoon character on the packaging, evaluating their results next to the child taking a bath. What is even more alarming being the fact that the parents of these children give full consent during the research. And, when confronted face to face children’s marketing CEOs have responded by saying that it could be considered to be unethical, but they continue on with their research anyways.

Wild Turkey Advertisement 

One of the first advertisements I found online to discuss in this post was for Wild Turkey bourbon. The ad has a bit of a trendy vibe and depicts the two models as Barbie dolls. At first I saw this advertisement as comical but, when I analyzed it a little further I saw underlying tones that the average viewer might not observe. In the ad the models are both white which leaves me to believe that Wild Turkey is a brand only associated with an all-white audience. Another key observation is the woman’s back is towards the audience and we can see the male character's head has been knocked clean off his shoulders and it faces the audience with a slight obnoxious grin on it. Now, this is clearly my opinion but, it suggests that the male character has made an inappropriate gesture and the woman retaliated. In the lower right hand corner, we can see the product name and the slogan for the brand "Don't Mess with a Bird". In American pop culture females are referred to the slang term chicks, but overseas in England they are called birds. It may be nothing but, I take it as a slight jab of sexualizing the female character and consumer. My initial assessment was this ad is spreading the message of respect. Have respect and show responsibility for your alcohol consumption, or have respect towards others. The latter doesn’t make much sense because why is the male doll still grinning if he has truly made an inappropriate gesture. This plays into two of Kilbourne's classifications one being Clowning and the other Dominance/Violence, if that’s the truth then this ad is not for women but, playfully targeted to male consumers.

I also found this Brazilian ad for Push-Up bras online where the agency who created it claimed how "you can feel the fun and humor flow" for this campaign but, when dissecting the image, we see yet again another depiction of sexualizing the female model and the misrepresentation of women in advertising.

Brazilian Push-Up bra Advertisement

It has been suggested how do we analyze the ownership structure of advertising and how can this change and my suggestion is we need public figures like Cindy Gallop who has been an advocate for diversity and empowerment of women in advertising and the business world. Figures like Gallop are a great start but, I think as we have discussed in class media literacy also plays another important factor to how we can all be well informed of the overall intentions from advertising and the major media outlets who sponsor them.