Just What IS Advertising?

Advertising
the act or practice of calling public attention to one's product, service, need, etc. especially by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on billboards, etc. 


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SO, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? 

Basically, when a company wants to sell you it's product, they need to find a way to get there product known and out there! They need to communicate with the masses, and they do this through advertising. 

Companies advertise in attempt to persuade you and the rest of their targeted audience to buy their product. 

Advertisements can occurs across various types of media, including: newspapers, magazines, television, radio, mail, the internet, etc. 

Here are some print examples of advertisements and products companies are trying to sell you....

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And here is an example of a commercial advertisement

Time Line: Women in the Advertising Industry

1687:  The first American printing press and newspapers were created in Philadelphia and New York. With the increase circulation of the newspapers, businesses began promoting their goods through advertisements (Presbery 117).


Late 17th Century: First indication of sexism in advertising. Wealthy male journalists, or "postmasters" largely held control over advertising content, and began dictating gender roles for females through the  selling household goods, and using sexuality as a tool increase sales (Presbery 210).


1847-  The Advertising industry explodes to 11 million in over 2,000 American newspapers. The huge increase of advertisements allowed for advertisements to affect culture in a way that they never had in the past.  (Presbery 210)
 
19th Century- The 19th century was noted as a largely patriarchal time in which females were exclusively portrayed as obedient housewives and keepers of the household (Presbery 225).


Early 20th Century: Advertising agency begin to employ a large number of women, allowing for their entrance into a white collar job (Kurtz 39).

1920s- Women started to become economically independent as a result of taking over male jobs during the war (Parks 39). The economic growth of women caused a shift in how they were portrayed in the media. 


1980s-1990s-  Gender equality had reached a high point in society that advertisements could no longer solely rely on the "domestic housewife" image of women that they had adopted for centuries. This shift forced businesses and advertising firms to reevaluate how they would represent women in the media (Parks 39).
 

Parks, Joy. "Mad Women." Herizons. (2009): Print.

Presbrey, Frank. The History and Developement of Advertising . New York: Greenwood Press, Publishers, 1968. Print. 

  Kurtz, Jan. "Dream Girls: Women in Advertising ." USA Today . 125.2620 (1997): Print.

 

 

Mad Men- Skewed Image of Women in the Advertising Industry

Mad Men, a dramatic TV show depicting life at an advertising agency in the 1960s, took the America media by storm since its premier in 2007. The television show illustrates the patriarchal nature of an advertising agency during the period, emphasizing that the 1960's was a time period when "men were men and women were their secretaries" (Parks 22).

What Mad Men fails to portray is that even in the early 20th century, the advertising industry employed large quantities of women. Because women were often in charge of spending on goods such as clothes and household goods, advertising agencies valued female employees who could create effective advertisements (Parks 22).

While many women did work as secretaries as is depicted in Mad Men, women also worked as writers, media buyers, art directors (Parks 22).


Parks, Joy. "Mad Women." Herizons. (2009): Print.

A Hilarious Parody that Speaks the Truth!

This clip from the British sketch show, That Mitchell and Webb Look, humorously shows the differences between advertisements aimed at men and advertisements aimed at women.

For women, advertisements prey on the fear that:

• They are not performing their job of maintaining the household.
• "Your kids are filthy!"
• They are losing their beauty.
• "Inevitable wrinkles... the beginnings of lady mustache."

On the other hand, for men, advertisements portray men:

• Drinking beer
• Shaving
• Attracting women

This sketch clearly shows how differently the advertising industry portrays men and women. The advertising industry is certainly influenced by our culture, but simultaneously reinforces this sexist way of thinking by continuing to run these advertisements.

Furthermore, the sketch also exemplifies how advertisers primarily target women for cleaning products, and men for more "masculine" products, such as beer.

A Woman's Role In the House

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This Kenwood mixer ad from 1961 shows the widespread belief at the time that it was the wives' duty to cook for her husband. Furthermore, the advertisement ends with the slogan, "I'm giving my wife a Kenwood Chef," implying that a woman would never be able to buy one for herself.

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Similarly, this Dormeyer appliance advertisement from the 1950s targets both men and women, but with very different approaches. It tells the wives to beg their husbands to buy these products, while it tells the husbands to buy these products for their wives before they begin crying. Thus, the advertisement implies that:

1. Only women would be interested in using these household appliances, since only women take care of the house (as it is their job).
2. Women cannot purchase items for themselves, so they must beg their husbands to buy them presents.
3. A man's duty is to provide for his wife by buying household appliances so that she can continue serving him.
4. If a woman doesn't get her presents, she will burst into tears.

Folgers Coffee: Serving America Freshly Brewed Sexism Since 1950

Television commercials for Folgers coffee specifically targeted women, telling them that their husbands were displeased with their coffee. As with the cultural norm of this time, it was the women's duty to make sure that their coffee was to their husband's satisfaction. The following commercials for Folgers exemplify these gender roles.



"If I could just make a decent cup of coffee, I could relax!" the wife unhappily shares with her friend. The advertisement implies that a woman's main concerns should be ensuring that her husband is happy.

Even worse, the wife later moans, "And he didn't even kiss me goodbye!" She completely disregards the fact that her husband was rudely speaking to her that morning, and is only concerned that he didn't kiss her before he left.







In this advertisement, the husband yells at his wife for making bad coffee, and even throws it into the garden. Instead of being upset by her husband's behavior, the wife is more concerned with finding a way to make her husband happier. Of course, once she delivers a better tasting cup of coffee, the husband is suddenly sweet and affectionate.






"How can such a pretty wife make such bad coffee?" the husband wonder aloud. Folgers is showing the idea that a wife should not only be beautiful, but should also adequately serve her husband by delivering him a fresh cup of coffee every morning as he shaves.

Because Women Are Not As Smart As Men

Up until the the later part of the twentieth century, it was a widely accepted belief that females were naturally dumber than males. As a result of this cultural belief, advertisements often used women's "stupidity" as a source of humor in selling their products.

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This ketchup bottle must be extremely easy to open if a woman is capable!

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A wide-eyed blonde, adorned with excessive amounts of jewelry. If she can drive the Mini Automatic, it must be simple driving!

Volvo follows the same theme, showcasing a television commercial that sells husbands a car that even their foolish wife will be able to handle!

This last advertisement is a personal favorite, because it shows how advertising influenced societal beliefs that females should concentrate on their beauty, not on their brains. 

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I find it really disturbing that the same industry that puts out advertisements insulting female intelligence simultaneously attempts to justify itself by sending the idea that a woman's intelligence is worthless, anyway, so women should not even care.

Sexism in Advertising-Has Anything Really changed?

If one looks back to how life was for females in the 1950s, it is clear to see that women have made great strides in gender equality. 

Women today are more independent than ever, finding socially acceptable roles not only in the household, but in the professional world too.

Despite the progress women have made in society, I still wonder.

Has anything really changed?

An Unattainable Beauty

 What does the American society consider feminine and attractive? Well the basic attributes would be tall, long-legged, very slender, and large breasted.
What is the epitome of these physical qualities?

VICTORIA'S SECERET MODELS!

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These women are prime examples of the stereotype of modern feminine beauty and sex appeal.  Like so many other advertisments and photos featuring them, both of these photos have been retouched.  These advertisments featuring these women have significantly altered  our cultural view on what is considered feminine and desireable. This physical stereotype is unattainable to a majority of the women in America. However, they will endlessly strive to look like this in hopes of attracting men. 

In some cases.....this cultural standard and emphasis on an unattainable feminine beauty can cause eating disorders....

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Anorexia is the third most chronic illness among adolescents.

It is estimated that 7 million American women have an eating disorder.

80% of 13 year olds have attempted to lose weight.
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Just how far is the current generation of American women willing to go to reach an unattainable and unrealistic standard to feminine thinness and beauty?



Just for fun....

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Just some fun cartoons which poke fun

at diets and extreme perceptions of weight!

Degrading Sexual Content in Advertising is NOT Appealing to Women

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Just one example where women are sexualized in advertisments. This advertisment not only has an intense sexual content, it is also degrading to women.  Who is this ad really trying to reach? Women? I sure hope not!! How is it possible for the creator of this ad to believe women would be drawn in a positive manner to this sandwhich that Burger King is attemping to promote? Answer: IT'S NOT POSSIBLE! The only attention this ad would recieve from women is negative.  It would be shot down immedietly and Burger King would be unable to run it.

Is all of this even still relevant?

A lot of people might be wondering, "How is women's portrayal in advertisements still relevant? Didn't we already have a feminist movement? Isn't there a better censor on offensive ads?"

While this is true, women's portrayal in advertisements is still relevant, and continues to grow in relevance.


First, it grows in relevance as the advertising industry grows. As time goes on, the advertising industry continues to grow, as more outlets for advertising arise with technological development. Currently, advertising has dramatically increased its presence on the internet - blogs, videos, websites. With more technological advances, advertising increases.

Americans are exposed to an unbelievable amount of advertisements on a daily basis. One study in Arthur Asa Berger's book, Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture, reports:

• American teenagers watch between 360,000 to 500,000 by the time they graduate high school.
• An average American spends one entire year of his or her life watching TV commercials (Berger 42).

Thus, advertising consumes such a large percentage of our lives, that we cannot help but be exposed, and consequently affected, by it.

As advertising continues to grow, so does women's presence on the advertisements. It is especially interesting because we can read a lot about society's attitude about women by looking at the advertisements of a specific time period. Until the 1960s, advertisements emphasizing a woman's role in the house were very prevalent, reflecting the culture's patriarchal society. Later, advertisements primarily used women as sex symbols, reflecting our culture's tendency to objectify women and foster unhealthy perspectives on beauty.

Women's portrayal in advertisement is extremely relevant.