The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in Advertising

Throughout history, images have been a pervasive form of media. One media industry that relies heavily on images is the advertising industry. Advertising is a marketing tool that is used to promote ideas, products, or services. Much of the focus of the advertising industry has been on women: how to market women, typically as objects, how to market to women as consumers, and how to market competing ideas about women thereby devaluing them. Undoubtedly this way of advertising is problematic for several reasons. The first being that it presents heterosexuality as the dominant sexuality, thereby failing to acknowledge other sexualities including but not limited to homosexuality, or bisexuality. In addition, presenting images of this nature to young adults can have harmful effects as Kilbourne noted in Beauty and the Beast of Advertising. “They are in the process of learning their values and roles and developing their self-concepts. Most teenagers are sensitive to peer pressure and find it difficult to resist or even question the dominant cultural messaged perpetuated and reinforced by the media. Mass communication has made possible a kind of nationally distributed peer pressure that erodes private and individual values and standards” (Kilbourne 122). The national peer pressure, Kilbourne discusses, is such a powerful force that it can drive adolescents to lose sight of who they really are and become something they are not. For several decades, the advertising industry has been supported and led by a dominant group in society: the all powerful, white male. There are several advertising companies in which the positions of power are held by white men and this power dynamic causes several imbalances. Firstly, it places anyone who is not a white man at a lower position, this is particularly true for people of color, especially women. Also the power allows them to be the gatekeepers of media, they are the ones who make the decisions about which ad goes out to the public and which goes to the trash. This is problematic because more often than not, they are marketing a product without acknowledging their audience and assume that they know best. Both these issues combined have left the advertising industry with lackluster images that aren’t relevant to today’s society or to their targeted consumers.

As John Berger said in Ways of Seeing “Women are depicted in a quite different way from men - not because the feminine is different from the masculine- but because the ‘ideal’ spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him” (Berger 64).  Through this quotation it is easy to see that women are depicted, and I would argue viewed, differently than their male counterparts simply because the images of women are designed to flatter the male and elevate their status as a man. After reading this quotation I was reminded of a scene in Mad Men, a drama television show set in the 1960's that describes inner workings of an advertising agency. In this scene, several male (and one female) copywriters pitch their ideas on how to sell a bra. The male copywriters have decided that the bra is great but doesn’t take you anywhere, and since  women already have a fantasy of embodying Jackie Kennedy or Marilyn Monroe it would be easy to market the bra in this fashion. When the female copywriter argues about the effectiveness of the strategy, the male copywriter responds that “Bras are for men. Women want to see themselves the way men see them”. Throughout this scene it becomes painfully obvious that the male copywriters don’t value their female counterpart ideas or her company, since they left her out of the late-night meeting where they came up with the idea. This scene also highlights a power dynamic in which the female copywriter is left powerless to challenge the males idea and instead is forced to just go along with their idea. Lastly, it brings up the idea of viewership and power; in which men are the ‘viewers’ and therefore have power. The creative team on Mad Men consists of seven men and three women for the first season. However this number changed drastically by the third season, in which 7 out of 9 writers were women. ( This statistic contrasts the 2006 report from the Writer’s Guild of America that shows women are underrepresented on TV staffs 2 to 1. The women on Mad Men acknowledge that this situation is extremely rare but also enjoy that they are able to lend their lived experiences of what it is like to be a woman in the workplace.

Another advertising example I really enjoy comes from Shiseido, a Japanese makeup brand. I found the ad very unique and artistically compelling. It plays with the idea of viewership and gender fluidity, while capturing the audience’s attention. While watching the ad, I found it strange yet playful that the ‘characters’ were breaking the 4th wall and staring directly into the camera. As Berger states, “the woman [in the paintings] looks out of the picture towards the one who considers himself her true lover- the spectator-owner” (Berger 56). This shows that breaking the 4th wall is a power move in which the person in the image gives power to their spectator by identifying them but also by allowing them to define the meaning of the image. In the ad, this technique is particularly useful because it reinforces the idea that we, the audience, are in control because we are the ones who define meaning for the advertisements. Of course in many ads, the company is trying to control the message through subliminal advertising, but at the end of the day the audience is the one with the power.

Not all advertising examples are created the same and unfortunately, several examples play into stereotypes that are harmful and degrading. Kilbourne argues that, “Women are shown almost exclusively as housewives or sex objects. … The sex object is a mannequin, a shell. Conventional beauty is her only attribute” (Kilbourne 122). This objectification of women is clearly seen in several advertisements.

Silva Thins ad- http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2109627/six-examples-mad-men-style-sexism-and-gender-stereotyping-modern-ads

One in particular is a cigarette ad in which the tag line reads “Cigarettes are like women. The best ones are thin and rich”. This tag line is problematic because it reinforces the idea that women have to look a certain way to attract a man, and in this society thinness is the ideal. Also it brings in the idea of classism in which the woman would be unworthy to the man if she is not rich because after all he is a man and has a social standing to protect. This advertisement is from the 1960's and of course it was a different time period so surely things have changed, or have they?

Billabong ad- http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2109627/six-examples-mad-men-style-sexism-and-gender-stereotyping-modern-ads

The next example comes from Billabong, a surfer’s shop for apparel and accessories for beach life. This ad came out August 2017 and features a man on one side actively enjoying his time surfing and a woman who is just lounging on the beach (it’s important to add that you can barely see her face, her legs take up a large amount of the image). It has been harshly criticized for its depiction of women, in which they are still only valued by their appearance, it’s objectification in it’s purest form. In addition, the male in the ad, is a subject and takes control by defying expectations on his surf board; while the woman is an object simply there to be looked at. From these examples, it is clear that times have not changed as much as people think they have and there is still so much progress to make.

My last example comes from the NY Times. It is a video discussing Hollywood’s ability to make jokes about Harvey Weinstein without actually accusing him of anything. Throughout the video, there are several pop culture references in which jokes are made about Harvey Weinstein’s demeanor and attitude towards women. When the story first broke about Weinstein’s sexual harassment and assault of several women, it became increasingly clear that many people knew or had heard rumors that this was happening, but chose not to do anything (Quentin Tarantino among others). The pop culture references in the video sealed the deal and showed that many people were at least somewhat aware of his behavior towards women. The references are punch lines and jokes about a serious issue that has finally come to light. Several women have come forward with their stories, and they are incredibly similar. This Hollywood titan abused his power and privilege as a white wealthy successful man to intimidate and coerce women into doing whatever he wanted. As seen by the pop culture references, this is not a secret but by finally exposing his actions and taking steps to reprimand and devalue his worth, the industry is taking responsibility and holding Harvey Weinstein accountable for his actions.

Overall, there are several examples of advertising that are very well made but greatly miss the mark. The examples I have mentioned are only a few and it is important as media consumers that we are critical of the images presented to us and we stir up a storm when they are grossly inaccurate. There are several steps that the industry is taking to change, such as the Unstereotype Alliance, which aims to banish stereotypical portrayals of gender in all major advertising. Although there are several signs of progress, the battle is not over and we must continue to fight for equal and fair representation of both women and men of all races and genders in the media.

Works Cited:Berger, John. Chapters 2,3. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1972.

Kilbourne, Jean. “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising.” Beauty...and the Beast of Advertising, Center for Media Literacy , www.medialit.org/reading-room/beautyand-beast-advertising.