Research essay ENFL100 23 PDF

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Effect of advertisement on gender, religion race , and caste...

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Messages that Advertisement sends to the consumers Advertising is a creative and fast-paced industry that uses various means to motivate consumers to buy the products and service and change their attitudes. Advertising is incredibly effective and powerful in promoting causes and beneficial products, however at the same time be negative for forcing ideals upon the audience . Portrayals of people featured in advertising can thus have an impact on how people see themselves and others . Advertisements frequently use gender role to promote their product .Gender stereotyping in advertising negatively effecting the gender equality in the society. Most of the advertisements portrays the stereotypes who created unrealistic beliefs about social categories , race and sexual orientation. Gender stereotyping in advertising is very common . Those type of advertisements contribute to the construction of masculine and feminine ideals which leads to unrealistic expectations about an individual’s physical appearance and behavior . The representation of female in the stereotypical advertisement shows that women are more soft hearted and fragile in nature .They are more emotional and house oriented as compared to men . On the other hand men are represented more tough and mentally strong individual . It also states activity preferences such as women like to shop and men like to play sports. Martin Eisend stated ,“Research shows that activation or reinforcement of gender stereotypes through advertising reduces women’s professional performance, achievement aspirations, and positive self-perceptions and thus challenges the provision of equal opportunities for both genders in society” ( Gender Roles , Martin Eisend ; 73 ) . Gender stereotype advertisements promoting the negative view that men are work orientated and women are household work and kitchen oriented . The advertisements of kitchen appliances only have female model in it .

Kaur 2 for example Prestige Home Appliances always have a female figure promoting the brand ( Times of India Newspaper, Mumbai 04 nov,2018) . Also the advertisements for body building products such as proteins and gyms only have a male role model because of their masculine physical appearance . This view point of feminine and masculine is unrealistic because nowadays woman and man both are participating on the same level in household chores and in the professional work as well . Thus gender stereotyping lacking women viewpoint of the world which is responsible for negative social consequences . This is the reason why society always lacks in accepting women as independent ,strong and powerful figure. In addition to it in most of the advertisements use sexual content to increase its effectiveness. Advertisements often feature provocative images of well-defined women (and men) in revealing outfits and postures selling things such as clothing, alcohol, beauty products, and fragrances . Using sex in advertising has been shown to assist sales. For example, in 1995, Calvin Klein jeans launched a controversial sexual advertising campaign which, although caused massive controversy, doubled sales of the jeans (Ivinski, 2000). But the use of sexual content in the advertisements negatively effecting the viewers in every possible way . Advertisements increasingly portrays women objectified as sex objects and shows that women are fundamentally dependent on men which every women finds it very offensive. “Paglia claims one of the reasons men continue to represent women as sex objects is because they are desperately trying to regain power from the femme fatale who has controlled them throughout history (Booth, 1999)”( Amanda Zimmerman , John Dahlberg , The Sexual Objectification of Women in Advertising: A Contemporary Cuiturai Perspective ;71)The portrayal of women as a sex object effect the

Kaur 3 view of sex and sexual behavior. The exposure of younger girls to these type of advertisement leads to more aggressive sexual behavior and they start practicing it at very young age which then results into early pregnancy .Also the sexual content in the advertisement always portrays only opposite sex in a romantic relationship . However that is a stereotypical view. It has been suggested that heterosexual couples are overrepresented in mainstream advertising (Oakenfull et al., 2008). Although up to 10% of the population in Western countries live as openly non-heterosexual, such couples and families are rarely featured in mainstream advertising (Oakenfull et al., 2008). This indicates that there is a strong heterosexuality stereotype in mainstream advertising portrayals. This stereotypical representation is unfair other people with different sexual orientation .Thus these type of stereotypical representation of relationship makes it hard more society to accept the people with different sexual orientation . Hence advertisements portrays unrealistic and unfair beliefs about sexuality . Femininity and beauty ideals are historically and culturally constructed .Skin color and skin tone is commonly used to determine a person’s race and class. Advertising from companies in the fitness, beauty and health industries have created cultural and societal norms that paint women and men as only being healthy and beautiful under very specific and often times unrealistic standard. These type of beauty standards are not only unrealistic but also negatively effect certain races and their beliefs . “. In modern days, skin tone is also used as an indicator of one’s social, cultural and class location (Hall, 1997), as well as physical attractiveness (Frisby, 2006). Beauty is traditionally associated with women and femininity, and skin tone has been an important sexual attribute of women (Frost, 2005).( Qinwei (Vivi) Xie and Meng Zhang , White or tan? A cross-cultural analysis of skin

Kaur 4 beauty advertisements between China and the United States ;538). In general it is believed that skin color and the definition of beauty is different across culture , society , nations and generations . However in most of the advertisements promoting a beauty product only portrays a model with white skin tone , lean body and long hairs. For example the advertisements for lipsticks . Those type of advertisements always shows white woman applying dark lipsticks because it fits the contrast of her white face and dark colored lipstick . This view point is unrealistic , unfair and disrespectful to other castes and nations such as Africa and many more. Due to this unfair definition of beauty standards discrimination towards people from different nations is increasing. Advertisements impact on how people see themselves and others . Advertisement always shows the perfect beauty and fitness to promote beauty and fitness products . Those type of advertisements change consumer’s attitude towards the product and also how they look at themselves . After watching the perfect models in advertisement they develop the hope to look like them .But they are unaware of the fact that the perfect beautiful face is the result of filters not the product . Advertisements mislead consumers about the product and its effectiveness . When customer doesn’t get desired results its lead to disappointment . To conclude , Although advertisement is the most effective way to promote the services and products among the consumers , it

also has negative influence on the

consumers. By promoting gender stereotypes advertisements negatively affecting gender equality and promoting unrealistic definition for feminine and masculine . Additionally the sexual content in advertisements negatively effective younger viewers and its also against the law of child pornography. Also the representation of unrealistic beauty standards making it difficult for people from other nations to get along with everyone .

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Kaur 6 Work cited

1. Eisend, M. (2019). Gender Roles. Journal of Advertising; Jan-Mar 2019, Vol. 48 Issue 1, p72-80, 9p, 1 Chart. The Sexual Objectification of Women in Advertis2. Zimmerman, A , Dahlberg ,J (2008). ing: A Contemporary Cultural Perspective. Journal of Advertising; Mar2008, Vol. 48 Issue 1, p71-79. 9p. 3 Charts. 3. Xie ,Q (Vivi) , Zhang, M (2013) .Asian Journal of Communication.Oct2013, Vol. 23 Issue 5, p538-554. 17p. 3 Charts. 4. Development, Daisy. “Olivia Wilde.” Olivia Wilde Actress - Celebrity Endorsements, Celebrity Advertisements, Celebrity Endorsed Products, 2017, www.celebrityendorsementads.com/celebrity-endorsements/celebrities/olivia-wilde/. 5. “All-In-One Lean Muscle Shake: Anabolic, Muscle Shake, Muscletech.” Pinterest, 2017, in.pinterest.com/pin/543457880004468759/. 6. “Prestige Pressure Cooker.” Pressure Cooker Buying Guide, 2019, www.ttkprestige.com/Products/Innerlid-Pressure-Cooker.aspx....