Gender Identity In Advertising

For the longest time now, advertising has played a huge role in how we identify ourselves in the United States with the American culture, and how others identify themselves with all the cultures of the rest of the world as well. It guides us in making everyday decisions, such as what items we definitely need to invest our money on, how to dress in-vogue, and what mindset we should have to prosper the most. Although advertising does help make life easier for most, at the same time it has negative affects on the people of society as well. Advertisement discreetly manipulates the beliefs, morals, and values of our culture, and it does so in a way that most of the time we don’t even realize it’s happened. In order to reach our main goal of

Everywhere we turn there are advertising, sometimes in places we least expect them to be. Well-designed advertising can have dramatic effects over consumers. Nancy Day acknowledges how advertising can educate us, but it can also “ reinforce racial,cultural,and sexual stereotypes” (Day). An example of a cultural stereotypical commercial is Kendall Jenner’s 2016 Pepsi Commercial.This advertisement was supposed to promote the Black Lives Matter movement, but in contradiction to the purpose, Pepsi used a privileged-caucasian model as the lead role. Advertising main point is to persuade consumers to purchase an item, yet so many advertised are doing the complete opposite.

I believe that gender codes in advertising do have an effect on how we interact with people as we picture how people are ‘supposed to look’ from advertising and compare them to the people we see in our day to day lives. When we see people who are acting different than the media dictates they should act then we silently judge them and maybe whisper about how they should be acting according to what we see on the media. It is especially explicit when we look at female athletes as they are powerful and strong in their sport but the media has them pose in accordance of the gender codes for women, so that people can see that they are truly feminine and not too masculine, since they play sports. As well for some sports how we dress to play the sports also follows gender codes where we should be wearing skimpy clothes that are revealing, this is explicit in volleyball where girls wear spandex that barely covers and a tight shirt to go along with it, and it is seen as weird if girls wear anything other than that to play. As well gender codes dictate what professions certain genders should have so when I see certain people in professions the opposite gender typically is in it could appear as weird to people since they only see males being plumbers, electricians, or mechanics, and females as nurses, maids, and stay at home moms.

Are the "Codes of Gender" suggested by Goffman apparent in advertising today, and are they a reflection of us as men and women in today's society?

Since the emergence of advertising in American culture one thing that has remained constant is the visible truth that men and women are portrayed differently. In consideration to the evolution of man kind gender roles have evolved immensely throughout time, although advertisements have not kept up with this process of evolution. Companies to this day use their tactics and skills to reach out to specific genders such as pretty fonts with a stylish message, while advertisements towards men portray the character as strong and intimidating. The typical viewer can easily spot the difference in the portrayal of genders. Men are portrayed this way because the viewers look up to these characters, they want to be

Kilbourne demonstrates three major main criticisms of advertising. First, advertising objectifies people and objects for the purpose of sales. This critique promotes products as more important than people and exploits human deeds and desires. Kilbourne offers ample evidence to support her first criticism of advertising. For example, Kilbourne examines advertisement such as the Thule car-rack - which humorously places more value on sports equipment been a child's life - is evidence of the trend that advertising is “objectif[ing] people…trivializ[ing and exploiting] our most heartfelt moments and relationships. Every emotion [,person, animal, and natural phenomenon] is used to sell us something” (Kilbourne, 2006, 369). Second - according to Kilbourne - advertising promotes and perpetuates the unnatural passion for products rather than personal relationship. “Advertising corrupts relationships and then offers us products, both as solace and as substitutes for the intimate human connection we all long for and need” (Kilbourne, 2006, 370). Within this concept, advertising also commits ‘cultural rape’ by manipulating sacred symbols for their utilization as emotional leverage in advertising. Third, advertisements damage the personality and structure of culture. For example the Giwch’in tribe’s traditional culture was almost erased by the introduction of advertising through television. “As multinational chains replace local character, we end up in a world in which everyone is Gapped and Starbucked…[Thus] rampant commercialism undermines our physical and psychological health, our environments and our civic life, and creates a toxic society” (Kilbourne, 2006, 371), which robs individuals of cultural and personal diversity. Based on the evidence presented by Kilbourne, I strongly agree with all three of these

Every day, companies present the people with advertisements everywhere they go. Advertisements have become very prevalent in today’s society nowadays focusing in on a negative connotation. Advertisement has become an effective way for producers to display their new products. In present day, they come in forms of billboards, flyers, e-mails, and even text messages. It is widely known that companies create advertisements to persuade people to buy specific products or goods; however, it is not widely known that advertisements can make a negative impact on today’s society. The companies manipulate people’s mind and emotions, swaying people by new promotions and therefore generating a strong desire to fit into the society, that causes them to make inessential expenditures. Advertisements pose a critical impact on the American culture.

Advertisements on television find creative ways to capture the attentions of viewer to promote a new product or service. Commercials are a tool for companies to reach a broad spectrum of new potential customers. The use of clever gimmicks, catchy phrases, and the promise of looking as good as the models increases the sales anti aging products. Products that promote anti- aging have been used by both men and women to look and feel younger such as creams and ointments to reduce the signs of aging, hair color for cover gray hair. The advertisement companies find new ways to display products to different types of culture. Today, ads for men who need hair color, shaving products or skin care designed specifically for their gender can be found in the evening viewing time. Commercials for products designed for women are found in the morning and afternoon viewing time. The ads are designed for the stay at home moms who are needing ways to improve their appearance. The different ways in demonstrating how well a product works is important in promoting new products to both men and or women.

How does advertising use of gender effect our views of males as consumers in the auto industry? Auto advertisements, specifically truck advertisements, use an all-male platform from the voice describing the truck, the physique of the male looking at or driving the truck, to the male purchasing the truck from another male, thus leading us to the great assumptions that males are the consumers of the vehicle being advertised. This assumption that men are the consumers of trucks begins at a very young age. As David Buckingham stated in Childhood in the Age of Global Media “…this is a very pink and blue market” (46) With this type of advertising beginning at such a young age, it is easy to see how advertisements in the auto industry, specifically

Gender portrayal in advertising has been a widely discussed and researched topic for years by social scientists, consumers, and advertisers alike. However, many people have looked at the topic solely from the perspective of male and female consumers and the effect that gendered advertisements have on them. In an article from The Journal of Advertising, Linda Tuncay Zayer and Catherine A. Coleman researched this topic from a different angle. The article, Advertising Professionals’ Perceptions of the Impact of Gender Portrayals on Men and Women: A Question of Ethics, analyzes the issue from the advertiser’s perceptions of what they are putting out in the media. Zayer and Coleman had two central research questions: “What are advertising professionals’ perceptions of how gender portrayals impact male and female audiences? In what ways do ethics inform their creative and strategic choices regarding gender portrayals in advertising?” (Zayer and Coleman 2015). Research was completed with two rounds of data collection on a wide variety of informants with different levels of experience in the industry (Zayer and Coleman 2015). Research methods included semi-structured and unstructured interviews, a focus group, and field operations (Zayer and Coleman 2015). After research was completed, the informants were placed in four different categories based off three interrelated dimensions of their research. The three dimensions are; (1) the extent to which

Gender advertisement is everywhere, whether your driving by billboard, listening to the radio, watching television, seeing mall posters, looking at magazines, or on social media. You can not miss advertisement. When it comes to advertising the ad's that are put out, have messages. Whether it is to sale going on or buy a new toy for your kid its a message in there. Also, the message could be leading more towards men, women, boys, or girls. Gender is a major key in advertising. Ad's with women as the main focus are often sexualize, as for men it is often something about masculinity. By these ad's being what young girls and older women are seeing everyday it start to be socialize in their minds that " this is what a woman has to look like and

Marilyn Monroe, Marlboro Man, Hugh Heffner, Pamela Anderson, and The Rock are all examples of the society of idols whom the American public has looked up to in various media forms. In today’s society there are many gender and social stereotypes that remain a prevalent part of the advertising tactics of the media. In the particular ad that I have chosen are examples of gender stereotypes that I would like to analyze and discuss using Douglas Kellner’s article “Advertising Images”. Kellner states that the tobacco industry in both the past and present use subliminal messages with the intention of portraying lifestyles and choices to the American public. Cigarette ads in particular, Kellner argues, “contribute to identity formation in

In gender advertisement, images are used to portray stereotypical gender roles. In this advert I would briefly describe its and then I would do the analysis. The advertisement is for Huggies diapers a company that sell baby supplies. The purpose of the advert is to establish the role of a particular gender against the other. The advert shows a father and his child. The attention of the advert is to challenge the gender stereotypes because it shows a man who is taking care of the child. The context of the advert is to show that the father is responsible for taking care of the child which is strange because mother is usually take care of children. Most of the ads associated with childcare prefers women so it is not common to see a man taking care of a child. The whole point of the is that the company us trying to say that father is also responsible for taking care for the child not only mother.

The roles of males and females in society have significantly changed, as opposed to the predominant roles in our history. In the modern culture of today, women have begun to break out of the mold that which society has placed her in. This much can’t be said when it comes to modern gender representation in mass media advertising. It can be safe to state that woman are seen as sexual, fragile, exotic—whereas men are portrayed as tough, in control, and aggressive. This trend can be one seen as an inhibitor to the advancement of our culture, because especially for women, it is hard to pull away from the stereotypes that are continuously represented. As examples of the given trend, the following

Specific wordings used within advertisements can also impact the appeals of what is being advertised to men and women. Chris Privet, along with other researchers from the Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Princeton University, and the University of Waterloo, did research and discovered that “employment ads can signal whether a job is typically held by men or women… in the form of gendered words” (2011). After studying more than four thousand recent job postings, finding gender-based wording differences, recreating their own postings of identical job positions, and seeing how these differences would affect people’s responses, the researchers found that wording differences had an influence on the job's appeal despite the type of job it was. When more masculine wording was used, the traditionally female-dominated jobs became more appealing to men, and when more feminine wording was used, it made the traditionally male-dominated jobs more appealing to women (Privet, 2011). Gendered wording can affect what roles men and women choose to perform within society; creating limits to their beliefs in their abilities.