How often do you notice an ad? Was it an annoying pop-up featuring a sexualized woman wanting you to download an app? Or was it a Native American woman telling you how natural a hair product is? These examples use preconceived notions of Native American’s enjoying natural products or the alluring ability of a scantly clothed woman. Advertising uses presumptions of gender, race, and class to appeal to target audiences. The prejudices used influence further socialization with whatever group was exploited. Whether it is seeing women as mere sex symbol and desire or idealizing a certain class position.
Analyzing how the clothing, food, watch, and cologne industry approach their products will reveal unearth underlining prejudices. The ads I will be analyzing are quite diverse in their subject matter and how they utilize race, gender, and class. The first ad I will discuss is an Express cologne ad. The ad is a man and a woman standing on a beach with the woman leaning on the man. Hardee’s ad for a new beef sandwich is my second ad, it consists of a woman staring longingly, mouth agape, at the new sandwich.
My third ad is a Rolex ad featuring a woman dressed in a stewardess and pilot uniform, in the background there is an old-style airplane in a very serene desert. Finally, I chose an ad from Dolce & Gabbana. This ad features four men and a woman. One man is laying over her while the rest stare on longingly. I chose each of these ads because they strongly portray the expectations of class, gender, and race. Advertising has always been around. Only recently has it begun to have an enormous effect on society. In modern times, we are constantly bombarded by advertisements and information.
Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between what is an ad and what is honest information. I believe this is where ads are the most powerful. The roles and statuses of different races and sexes are constantly communicated to us. Whether it is a romantic comedy about a man chasing after a woman or an advertisement showing the elegance and sophistication of a middle aged white man, it is always constant. As Messner and Cooky discuss in “Gender in Televised Sports,” the way women are portrayed in sports is remarkably different than how men’s sports are discussed.
Messner and Cooky observe that when women are talked about on sports it boiled down to mere seconds, typically about drama, and were usually negative. Sport anchors are typically male, making them much more likely to discuss male sports and to disregard women’s athletics. For audiences, the fact that women’s athletics is not being discussed may not be on their mind. This leads to a feedback cycle of the sports network narrowing their concentration on that of male sports and the audience becoming more ignorant of female sports.
This is a response of the network to target their perceived audience and showing what they want. The example Messner and Cooky use is relevant to other areas of discussion as well. Whether it is a Native American being used to show that a product is natural, an Asian man to show a new phone is sophisticated and advanced, or a woman to acknowledge the elegance and decadence of a clothing line, advertisers use preconceived notions of race, gender, and class to target their audience and their own prejudices which further these assumptions.
The first advertisement solidifies itself with a dominate male, the sexualization of a woman, and the exoticness of being a sun-tanned male. The image of the female leaning into the male lustfully presents the male to be in the dominate position. The face of the man is that of indifference, furthering the position and perception of power of the male. The woman is chasing this man and he could not care less. Essentially, the ad is telling men that using this cologne will make women lust for you without you even trying.
This presents the idea that women are something to be won and that they’re easily bought with scent. The idea of freedom is depicted by the exotic location along with what appears to be a native woman. This is directed towards males to give the sense of achievement and higher class status. This ad reinforces what Betsy Lucal observes as the reinforcement of the binary gender system. It shows a predominately masculine man with a very feminine woman. The body of both the male and female is what is typically idealized in our culture, a very lean and muscular man and a thin and lustful woman.
There is no in-between for this ad. This ad cooperates with the system of patriarchy and gender, supporting the binary system. Rolex is known for being loud and brash about their higher standards for excellence and their advertisement is a perfect example of this. Class and luxury are presented with a woman hybrid uniform of a pilot and stewardess. Additionally, the idea of flight and the ability to travel anywhere is reinforced by the old-style airplane. The idea is that this watch will lead to adventure and achievement.
The fact that the woman is dressed in both a stewardess uniform and a pilot uniform is interesting. It gives the idea that this woman will serve you in whatever way possible while also having the ability to take you anywhere you can desire. She is merely there for your comfort, whatever that may be. The ad, much like the cologne and food ad, associates the gender norms of these women to serve men. Women are presented as a comfort and an accomplishment to men. Hardee’s ad blatantly depicts women strictly as a sex symbol and that their food is related to their sexual desires.
This ad is riddled with sexual connotations. From the woman gazing at the sandwich, the provocative pose of the sandwich, the tag line “It’ll blow your mind away,” and the fact that they pair that motto with the name of the sandwich “BK Super Seven Incher” strongly hints at the sexual domination of this woman. I’m reminded of the ad in lecture discussing gender in televised sport. The hypersexualization of the athlete in the ad is incredibly unnecessary, much like the Hardee’s sandwich ad. Athletics and working out are typically not that attractive, it involves sweating o death and lots of bodily fluid so it is almost funny how romanticized athletics are. Much like athletics, eating food is not sexy.
The fact that Hardee’s took the idea of eating a sandwich and relating it to preforming oral sex is astonishing. Much like the presentation of women athletes, women in food advertisements are extremely sexualized. I’m reminded of the 2013 Coca Cola poster that sparked massive controversy. It depicted a woman posing nude, casted in a shadow, taking the outlines of a coke bottle. The fact that both advertisements portray the “model” body for a woman is absurd.
Hardee’s and Coca Cola are notoriously awful for you, the fantasy that these women eat or drink this food sexualizes and promotes unrealistic beauty standards. The last ad is perhaps the most forward, is a scene of complete domination of a woman. The scene is centered around a man and woman both in an alluring pose with each other while three other men look on. The woman in this ad is the center of attention for all the males. The body types of the men and the woman are used to showcase the fashion apparel they are wearing.
The woman in the ad does not look comfortable at all, further displaying the domination and gender norms that are expected from women in mainstream media. The gendered institutions (i. e. fashion industry and distributions of power) are strongly depicted in this ad. Predominately, females are in a weaker position while the male dominates. Females are portrayed as being subordinate to the men’s desires. Analyzing these ads through a sociological perspective reveals a pattern; that of the hypersexualized gendered institutions of the fashion and food industry.
Additionally, the sense of power and entitlement are depicted, whether it is entitlement to adventure, wealth, or women. These advertisements influence the socialization of our culture and the perception of other minorities and genders. The advertisements discussed in this paper covered a diverse array of industries; the food industry, cologne manufactures, watch brands, and the fashion industry. We need to consider how we interact with these ads. It is our right and duty to voice our displeasure with the way advertisements discriminate and exploit those not privileged to power.
