The advertisement I have chosen for my critique is one for ‘Durex XXL Condoms’. This ad was posted on Durex’s Facebook page back in 2012, not so long ago, and caused a lot of controversy, which sparked a reply from Daily Mail. The image portrayed is the lower half of a woman’s face with bandaids on the corners of her mouth, this implies that she had performed an oral sex act on a man with a large penis, and the result is her mouth being injured. Based on this conception I believe this advertisement is geared solely towards men, as why would women buy something geared towards harming other women? I chose to critique this because upon seeing it I was absolutely shocked and could not believe it was a legitimate advertisement from the media or the fact that this was passed. I find everything about it horrendous, degrading, and truly disgusting due to the intentional themes of gender and power roles, and the normalization of violence against women.
By the use of this simple image, there are obvious differences between the genders and the coexisting roles assigned to each. The woman in this ad has been targeted and sexualized as an object to be abused and to simply become submissive to the unseen male figure. This undeniable objectification has lead to something that can only be labeled as violence against the woman and all women. It’s the argument of pain versus pleasure, who dominates and who submits. Much like Jean Kilbourne said in Killing Us Softly 3, the woman in this
Jean Kilbourne’s essay Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt is a powerful piece of work that brings the problems of the sexualization and objectification of women and children in advertising out in the open. Kilbourne states that this pornographic advertising is promoting male dominance over women, and in return promoting male violence against women. Domestic abuse and violence against women have always been a problem, but the media may be making it worse. Her audience is middle-aged and younger women who are most likely to experience male violence. She does try to include a little for a male audience, but her main focus is on strong and independent women who will understand her point about the use of degrading pornography in ads.
In the article “Two Ways a Women Can Get Hurt,” by Jean Kilbourne she writes about how women in our society are depicted as a sex other than a human. According to Jean, it’s the fact of showing women as objects in the media, which generates most of the violence or mistreatment women experience in our current society. Kilbourne later mentions recognizes that the role given to men and women in advertisement is such a representation of what is a norm “the popular culture idealizes a template for relationships between men and women that is a recipe for disaster: a template that view sex as more important than anything else, that ridicules men who are in control of their women”. Proving that Jean believes that if women are abused today, its only
In Jean Kilbourne’s article “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence, Kilbourne first states that she believes that advertising companies dehumanize and objectify humans, (i.e. woman) through sex, power, violence, and nudity. Throughout Kilbourne’s article she specifies/elaborates her assumptions with facts, pictures, stories, and even our everyday-to-day experiences in our communities. At the beginning of Jean Kilbourne’s article, she claims that woman tend to be more dehumanized or seen as objects based on the ads that certain advertising companies share with our communities. For example, Kilbourne briefly discusses that appealing ads tend to have woman in either poses/postures that are sex related, include pornography, or
Kilbourne’s support for her argument relies on the Appeal to Authority she makes, citing specific ads of big time companies and businesses to demonstrate how these ads are encouraging sexual aggression and violence. She alleges that ads affect us on an unconscious level stating we’ve become immune to the fact that these ads affect us (417). At the same time, she declares ads are pornographic, since they encourage rape and sexual assault. Kilbourne maintains that all women are vulnerable because “in our culture there is widespread objectification of women’s bodies, glorification of disconnection, violence of women, and blaming of the victim” (433). It all refers back to Kilbourne’s main claim that ads depict individuals as things which encourages sexual hostility.
Dominance over woman is also a huge role in violence in advertisements. The dominance over women is brutally shown in this advertising of the women in the diagramed picture. In a society in which violence against women is normalized, this ad is accepted and considered. This means that it has become a normalcy to see a women naked in an advertisement. In places where this ad is shown, millions of women and girls are raped, beaten, and trafficked
We've all seen and read many advertisements and we usually find them appealing and very persuasive. However the question is, what are they really advertising? Women are usually used for many different advertisements, not only are they used for women's clothing but also for other materials and objects. These are the ads that we look at each and every day. In, “Killing Us Softly” by Jean Kilbourne, she introduces her problem with how women are being used to advertise products. She shows us ads that she has seen where women are being used to advertise a company’s product. While our women are being used, dehumanized, and sexualized in our society, we’re going on with our life like it’s normal.
It is clear throughout the ad that the ultimate goal of this production is to help those who are being affected by the domestic violence issue around the world. We see this through the powerful statements being used in the text next to the photo. The statements like “the only illusion are if you think it was her choice” and “stop abuse against women”, this helps to convey the feelings needed in order to realize that show their desire to
While if the viewer is a parent, a young woman triggers the emotion of fear at the thought of that being their child, or grandchild. Then for woman viewers this causes a different state of fear, because the young woman being abused in the ad could reflect themselves, and the possibility of them being put in that situation. Another point of pathos in this ad is the look on the woman’s face. She gives off the look of dread, isolation, and depression. The look in her eyes causes the viewer to feel empathy toward the woman and everything she has had to undergo.
The intended audience of this advertisement doesn't only apply to women,
Jean Kilbourne is an advocate for women and is leading a movement to change the way women are viewed in advertising. She opens up the curtains to reveal the hard truth we choose to ignore or even are too obtuse to notice. Women are objectified, materialized, and over-sexualized in order to sell clothes, products, ideas and more. As a woman, I agree with the position Kilbourne presents throughout her documentary Killing Us Softly 4: The Advertising’s Image of Women (2010) and her TEDx Talk The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women (2014.) She demonstrates time and again that these advertisements are dangerous and lead to unrealistic expectations of women.
It is also noticeable, that in a lot of ads women appear dominant and aggressive. They make the first move and men apparently play victims, or a "sex object", as Kilbourne noticed. Advertisements for the body spray for men, Tag, say, "WARNING, the makers of Tag Body Spray will not be held liable should your attraction to your Tag wearing boyfriend cause you to engage in behavior that grandma may consider unladylike'"; the picture is as impressive as the warning. The first thought that popped in my mind was "would only the grandma consider such behavior unladylike?" I do not think so. The second one was about the actual capability of a man to attract a woman. The real picture occurs if we reverse the subject and the object. Imagine a man on top of a woman, as it is shown in the ad, the result will be terrifying it would look like a rape. Kilbourne says, "Although these ads are often funny, it is never a good thing for human to be objectified. However, there is a world difference between the objectification of men and that of women. The most important difference is that there is no danger for most men, whereas objectified women are always at risk," pointing out a very interesting fact: nobody would take seriously an ad where a woman abuses a man., but if reversed, it would be very realistic and true (464). Men are never concerned about daily protection,
Males try and prove that their superior to women through their physical strength. This superior acts have the purpose to scare women to not retaliate back from the society that tried to rule men over women. Men are usually violent and demonstrate it through their physical strength. In an ad used in Jean Kilbourne’s essay we’re able to see how our society allows violence to be portrayed through advertisements. She describes it as, “Wear it out and make scream,” Says a jean ad portraying man sliding hands under a womens transparent blouse.” She explain this ad by stating, “This could be a seduction, but it could easily be an attack. Although the ad ran in the Czech version of Elle portraying three man attacking a women seems unambiguous, the terrifying image is being used to sell jean to women” (Kilbourne 496). Both ads illustrate the type of society we live in. A society that shames women and overpowers them by men. In the world women are beaten and mistreated because of the numbness our society has when it comes down to gender inequality. However, women still find it within them to push through this society and don’t allow humans to walk over them. An example of this toughness is when a male and female have a child. In cases some inconsiderate males choose to abandon their family because they're too scared of what’s to come from having a baby. Yet, mothers stay without thinking
‘’We consider the images were gratuitous and objectified women, and were therefore sexist and likely to cause serious and widespread offence,’’ said The United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Association. The ASA banned this ad for having the ‘’potential to normalize predatory sexual
The Tiger Beer advertisement shown in the appendix is a clear example of the objectification of women in advertising. The Tiger Beer advert was made to appeal to men from the age of 20 to 60. The advert seeks to get a cheap laugh from the target audience with the image of the woman in a sexual pose and the picture of the beer. The ad promotes the idea that beer is the most
The most conspicuous part of the advertisement is the image of the woman in front of a black background so that only her face is visible. This in itself is important because it is automatically making her face the focus of the advertisement and not her body. Unlike most advertisements in which a woman’s body is exploited to sell products to men, the UN Women advertisement draws attention to her eyes, therefore making her your equal, since you have to make eye contact with her instead of looking anywhere else on her body. She is completely expressionless, looking at the viewer with a blank stare, a totally blank slate onto which viewer’s reflect their own views. Even more important, the woman pictured is a Muslim woman, as displayed by her hijab. The hijab is widely seen in western society as a form of oppression by men, to make women subservient to them, and by juxtaposing an ad for equality with the