Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Gender in Magazine Ads

Ads in magazines can have many different meanings, but when the meaning of the ad is to sell a bottle of perfume and the company uses a topless woman hold the bottle between the breasts it’s sending a different message to the targeted audience. This was an ad that was actually banned from Italy. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6G_7Yy13MFy4E1C-2hk7TGjDXBUGyQtzwNCvuiRmf5B1GfvpV3rmqTtGN-uVZJmvhJdfLF163qYDqrri58aeyo7ntkpMWXyqD17JgZnaf07hCK7-hZT-kg15Oep6oacCgpNEgreZZJNaQ/s1600/tomfordus_italian.jpg. From these two images they show a sexual side that does not help nor make sense to be an ad for. The picture to the right is selling sunglasses and from that it doesn’t make any sense to be biting the man’s finger in a sexual way.
Ads in men’s magazines have been known to have women be in little clothing and being only covered in the product. An article from Jezebel.com shows a woman being treated like furniture. This may be a more appealing way to sell things to men but from a woman’s perspective I think that being portrayed as an object and not a human. http://cache.jezebel.com/assets/images/39/2011/11/xlarge_9dcda29ba60dc64807151d5eb67f73e4.jpg Even looking at the picture further it shows that she has a shoe on her head which in a way it is hiding her face and pushing her more towards the ground. She looks as though she is an animal because she is on all legs.
Not only do clothing ads use women in sexual and degrading ways but actually, Burger King used a woman in an inappropriate way by having her mouth open and having a sandwich go into her mouth in a sexual way. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKsdyvWzNaI5G0iGB8EjkXkN4vyfT177NMToN5Eb-eUgEyviHxdS5uCwZdFyvXq2kotIy7s0lggipNdg0uoMGctZ6SDo3K_1NQutxtBsJBXmAKkFpvTSL8QhxmCyeqqjGovCNiHsOy1k/s1600/wtf.jpg .Now this is a good example of how you can discreetly use words and a picture to make a particular image and tone. Now this next ads was portrayed as “most disturbing ad found in December in 2008 fashion magazines” http://media180sm2010.blogspot.com/2010/08/advertising-is-defined-as-any-paid-form.html . This ad shows a man wearing a suit who is strangling a woman on the hood of a car wearing next to nothing. The man is in control and the woman is seen as helpless. In ads men and women as portrayed frail and weak.
Going from how women are seen in ads if we look at a few examples of men in ads, they look masculine and strong and very desirable.
This Calvin Klein ad shows a shirtless man with a lot of muscles http://ms10lm12.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/calvin-klein-man-ad.jpg. The ad is called MAN so it is fitting to have a man. Although I do not believe that this man needs to be half naked. This ad is supposed to make you feel as though if you buy this cologne you will look like this man.
My last ad example is a man looking so undesirable that he doesn’t just get one lady he gets two. Also with the women being almost naked it seems as though if you buy this suit you will get women out of their clothes. http://adoholik.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/che_affair.jpg. By presenting ads like these you can see that this is a tacit to try and trick people to buying the product.
By just a few ads it shows how the Media presents both genders in magazine ads. Since these ads have been around for the last few years it seems as companies will continue to make them since they seem so appealing to others and people buy the product.

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