Written
by Jessica, Victoria, and Kristine
Do
you notice what all three of these food advertisements have in common? Each
company uses vulgar, sexual and inappropriate marketing techniques to sell
their products. The use of women and their bodies (sex appeal), sexual gestures
and vulgar language are only some of the few examples of these techniques.
Many
people may find this type of marketing very unpleasant for several reasons. For
starters, this type of marketing is biased. Using a woman’s body and sex appeal
to advertise food products generally attracts the male target audience in
comparison to the females. Why advertise a product that is meant for everybody
if you’re advertisement is one sided?
Not
only is this a bad and “limited” marketing technique, but it is also an
offensive one too. Verbally, the slang and humor that they use to sell and
advertise their products is generally very sexual, hostile and vulgar.
Visually, these companies risk coming across as sexist and degrading towards
women and their value in society. Today women are viewed differently from how they were viewed back in the 1900s. Women used to be viewed for their beauty
and brains, but today women are objectified by their looks. They are viewed because of their
body parts especially in these advertisements!
We
live in an age where media bombards us constantly, and there are so many affects that can happen to girls especially younger
girls when they see an ad like this. What are they suppose to think? Are they too
fat, too skinny, what? Girls then starve
themselves or have really big health issues because they don't feel they look
like the women in the ads, this then causes the girls to have an eating
disorder. The
excessive thinness made the rates of eating disorder increase in the past few
years. Women believe that the skinnier she becomes, the more attractive she
will be.
Sexual exploitation is another big problem. As sexuality becomes more common and more explicit in ads, the more women feel bad about themselves. Women are pictured as passive, child-like and more as an object. Along with the excessive thinness, ageism is also a trend. Women look really young in ads, which makes people feel pressured about looking younger, when in fact women in ads are photo shopped down to the perfect size.
Sexual exploitation is another big problem. As sexuality becomes more common and more explicit in ads, the more women feel bad about themselves. Women are pictured as passive, child-like and more as an object. Along with the excessive thinness, ageism is also a trend. Women look really young in ads, which makes people feel pressured about looking younger, when in fact women in ads are photo shopped down to the perfect size.
In conclusion, as a group we feel that exploiting women in ads is wrong, because it causes to many problems in society.
Discussion
Questions:
1) Do you think it's a good idea to sell objects using women? Why?
2) How do you think sexualization in ads affect people?
3) Do you think that there should be rules and regulations enforced
against the use of vulgar/sexual advertising?
Reference
1. There are a large amount of pitfalls when women are used to sell products, a certain part of the market is alienated and even disturbed by sexualized women in ads. Children don't understand sex, so they're confused or disgusted. Women do understand sex and it makes them uncomfortable at the very least, and Men who realize what's going on are upset by people trying to mess with their heads in such a way.
ReplyDeleteI don't think products should be sold using women, a product or service should be able to sell itself without the use of sex.
We definitely agree with what you have to say Nolan, there are many ways that products can be sold, than to have a women selling them. Thank you for your feedback on what we had to say about this topic.
ReplyDelete1. I think it is a good business idea to use women to sell products, but not an ethically correct one. It clearly works to use women and their sexuality to sell things, but there are so many other ways that product can be sold. I know I would rather buy a shirt from a puppy than a naked girl... but that might just be me
ReplyDeleteHow do you think sexualization in ads affect people?
ReplyDeleteThe sexualization of women in advertising affects both men and women of all ages. Men see women advertised with or as objects; this deteriorates respect for women and teaches young men that that is acceptable. Women feel compelled to change or alter their appearance to be more like the women in advertising; however, the images we see are merely a derivative of the women who were photographed. Young women are taught at a young age that beauty is something to be attained.
Thank you for sharing this article for us. It is a common way for advertisements to promote products using women's image.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don't like this idea personally. This is because these advertisements consider women's body as an objective to attract public's attention. As a woman, I feel uncomfortable. To be more exact, media converts an conservative ideology to people, which is women should be beautiful and the role of men is superior than women's. Compared women's image in the advertisements, men's image are prone to confident and positive position, which is unfair.
But it is not easy for government to interfere with the advertisement for sexual advertising, which is caused by social dominant group controlled the main ideology.
All media have a lot of effects on people. As I know, we are only about to consciously perceive about 8% of roughly 3000 media messages daily. Which mean, more than 90% are being processed below our level of awareness. Many of advertisement objectify woman and it makes women think that they should exist just like that with their look and behaviour. It makes the excessive obsession of weight loss caused anorexia. Moreover, this kind of advertisement which has sexual connotation set gender role in society.
ReplyDelete2. The way they sexualize women in ads have a major impact on the way men view women, as well as how women view women, and themselves. On the topic of men, they view them as objects, as sex symbols, which isn’t a portrayal women should be getting for it creates an idea that it’s okay to treat them as one too. Women also are affected with how they sexualize women in ads, from how they view themselves, thinking there’s this unrealistic body type they have to have to be appealing to anyone, and thinking they have to act a certain way to get attention, it’s not a good thing to have on anyone’s self-esteem. Another way it affects women, is how they view other women, and thinks they are allowed to call other women words, or talk down to them, for following certain trends. Everyone is affected by the way they sexualize women in ads, and I can’t see a way that it is positive, yes “sex sells” but at this cost, it doesn’t seem worth it.
ReplyDeleteIn response to question #2:
ReplyDeleteSexualization in ads probably have a greater effect than many; including myself, are aware of. It affects more than just women in my opinion. Women who see things like this may believe that this is a role of a women and that this is how they should be. For men, it could lead them to seeing women as objects which could lead to mistreatment because they look down on them. Children who grow up with ads that sexualize women could be desensitized to these types of images and they will see it as "normal." Sexualization is a marketing strategies than many utilize and the thing is, it works. It has negative effects for others, but it's positive for the company that uses this type of marketing. It has an effect on people for sure, and not just women. How do ads affect us? because ads are messages and messages spread and they influence. But like these types of messages they are not always positive. Sexualization in ads affect people.