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  • Essay / Discussion on the issue of women in advertising

    Women in advertising Today, advertisements are omnipresent and have a greater and greater influence on us every day. They cater to men and women and determine what they buy. We see advertisements on television, on billboards, in magazines and on social media. Bill Bryson, the author of “The Hard Sell: Advertising in America,” states that “advertising was already a well-established phenomenon by the turn of the 20th century” (122). Bill Bryson makes it clear that the advertising industry is getting bigger and bigger and has a greater influence on its audience every day. Advertisers use different tactics to sell their products and one of these tactics that they use to sell their product is including women in the advertisement. Women are used to sell products for men and women. Due to the exposures of women and their bodies, companies are determined to use their bodies as a tactic to get people in their demographic to buy their product in hopes of achieving their unrealistic body. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay These women in the commercials all have things in common. These are all women that the media presents as “perfect”. These ads could also be photoshopped to make the women look even more beautiful. In William Lutz's essay, "With These Words I Can Sell You Anything," he says, "Remember, advertising is trying to get you to buy a product, so it will put the product under the best possible day, using any deviance, trick, or legally authorized means” (69). Advertisers do this to make their audience feel insecure, giving them the impression that this product will make them even more beautiful, slimmer, sexier and also more popular. Advertisers use women in advertising to sell their clothes. This first DKNY ad shows a man and a woman walking down the street. As you can see, the woman is the center of attention. The guy is an accessory for the woman. He is carrying a bag that appears to be one of his. They use it to show their concentration by looking at it on the other page. She has long, straight brown hair, fair skin, tall and skinny. The model wears all black, with a black zip-up hoodie, while looking at the camera with a passionate and stern face. Instead of trying to get the guy's attention, she tries to get the audience's attention. The DKNY logo is in large white capital letters spread across both pages and placed in the middle. At the bottom of the right page, it says in tiny capital letters “#ONLYINDKNY”. On the left page, this gives us the DKNY website. DKNY literally puts their name on the woman to make the point that if the public buys a DKNY product, they will also receive attention from men and hope to look like the model in their ad. This demographic of this ad is aimed at older teens and young adults. . DKNY wants to make its audience believe that if they wear this clothing brand, they could be like the woman and the man. This makes men believe that if they wear these clothes, they will be able to be with any beautiful woman they want. This makes girls believe that if they own these clothes, they are about to look like the woman. The public neglects and forgets to keep in mind that a woman does not naturally look like this. This model spent hours doing her hair and makeup with professionals before taking this photo, and sheprobably been touched up with DKNY to make her even more intimidating in the public eye with her beautiful features and a man at her side. The second ad is a car ad for Cadillac. Cadillac also uses a woman to advertise its product. There is a woman with tan skin, red lipstick, curly brown hair and a skinny figure. She wears a black fur coat and poses on the driver's side with her arm on the steering wheel. The model looks at the audience with a sexy and stern face. She seems very confident in herself. The ad is divided into four small sections. In the first section you see the cream leather seats inside the car. There is an inscription on the center at the top of the page, in capital letters, that says: “Breathtaking. EVEN IN A PARK. This ad may be saying that to the car, but it's also saying that to the woman in the car. The car may be breathtaking in itself, but the woman is advertising it. The main focus of this advertisement is on the woman rather than the car. Instead of the car being the center of the advertising. This ad is trying to sell this car to the upper class. The woman further emphasizes why he is “breathtaking” when he is in a park. This ad promises that the car will bring attractiveness and attention, which is what most men want. Cadillac put what people want inside the product to make it more desirable. The demographic of this ad is upper class males. This Cadillac commercial focuses on an attractive woman, hoping to attract attention to older men hoping to purchase their product. A car company uses a woman to sell a product that should not focus on the attractiveness of the woman, but on the features of the car. Perfume companies also use women in their advertisements. This third advertisement is an advertisement for a Burberry perfume. Burberry is trying to sell its new fragrance, Blush, to this demographic. The first thing that caught my eye were the women leaning on the gigantic bottle. They use a skinny woman, with shoulder-length brown hair. She appears to be nude with a blush jacket covering her from the chest down. She is leaning against the large bottle of Blush perfume. This advertisement uses a common word, which is “new”. At the bottom of the left page, in white capital letters, it is written “LE NOUVEAU PARFUM”. The background, perfume color and jacket are all a blush pink color. Pink means unconditional and caring love. The first thing that catches your eye in this ad is the size of the bottle. The Burberry company makes a bottle as big as the woman to show that the woman needs the bottle to support her. The model in the advert is leaning against the large bottle, he needs the bottle to sit on. The company does this to give the audience the feeling that they also need this fragrance as support to feel beautiful like the model. Additionally, this advertisement uses the appeal of beauty to attract its audience. The model seems to be giving a seductive look to the camera to grab the audience's attention. If the model looked away from the camera, the audience would not have the same reaction to their product. This demographic is teen and adult women who want the support of fragrance to help them feel beautiful. Burberry wants you to believe that if you buy this perfume you will feel and smell sexy. The advertising also wants to make women believe that buying this perfume can also allow them to.