Marketing and Gender Analysis

 

3000 ads a day are seen per person

 

There are pattern in the pictures we see. These are portrait statements about what it means to be a woman in this culture.

 

One of the first things that ads tells women is that beauty gives power but is short lived and unfulfilling.

 

People feel personally exempt. "I don't pay attention. I tune them out". But these ads sell more than products. They sell societal values, images of power, concepts of love sexuality romance and importance of wealth.

 

Ads tell us who we are and who we should be. They tell us what's most important about women is how we look.

 

"If you've got it- flaunt it! if you don't- create it"

 

Ads tell us that we should change our bodies to fit the clothes... but maye we should quit the clothes!

 

Jean Kilbourne sites a study in her film. This study shows that girls feel fine about themselves until they are between 8 and 10 years old, but then they hit a wall. Negative self images and inner hatred become the centerpiece of the young adolecent girl's mind. This is not true of boys.

 

Mens bodies are rarely dismembered in advertising and when they are it is a BIG deal! The difference between female objectification and male objectifications is that we actually use both to tell women what they should have. Women need to have a flawless figure and symetrical blemish free face. They must have the product that the advertisers are sell. However, they must also HAVE the sidekicks that go along with the ad... the perfect man, the perfect family, the perfect career... etc. The demands are endlessly unobtainable.

 

 

 
 
 

Men and women inhabit different worlds. Men don't live in a world where their bodies are routinely and systematically judged. Women do

 

The sterytypes that harm men are less intimate and not as often attached to the body. Generally they are more attactched to acheivment. It's the goal rather than home base.

 

For women, the emphasis is always first and formost on how we look .

 

However, equality in objectification is not the equality we seek.

 

Only 5% of americans have the only body type we ever see in ads.

 

You can't make yourself fit into this body type any more than you can make yourself taller.

 

When models have large breasts they have almost certainly had implants. This body type of long lean bodys and large firm chests doesn't actually exist. Still, it's the only one we see.

 

"There are three billion wome who don't look like suermodels and only 8 who do"- The body shop

 


 

 

Jean Kilbourne     -     Killing Us Softly     -     2000

 GAP

We believe that Gap has done a good job of reaching out to a diverse customer market. They seem to have really shaken up this idea of gender inequity in advertising and pay close attention to the roles that men and women portray in their ads. Featuring images of family, women in traditional roles of mother and sex object as well as women who appeared strong and independent, also powerful men and sensitive men, Gap has highlighted more than the hegemonic binaries.