Post 2 - Advertising

No matter what, we can’t ever escape advertising, how would businesses be able to run if they can’t get people to buy their stuff. I believe this will never change because society or most of society finds it funny to poke fun at stereotypes, why? Because its easy. Advertising is, “a form of communication for marketing and used to encourage, persuade, or manipulate an audience to continue or take some new action.” Why are we pressing this Easy Button?

We're Pressing this...

When this is what we should be pressing...

In Constructed Bodies by Cortese it is said that “Advertising Images provide culturally sanctioned ideal types of masculinity and femininity.” I believe since they are trying to explain to a mass audience  they use these cookie cutter images that we portray ourselves in movies and tv. Cortese also says that, “Ads use visual images of men and women to grab our attention and persuade.” Sometimes in a negative way. They make men seem stupid and dirty and messy while women are perceived to always have to please the man when in reality most people break out of that tradition like stay at home dads and women who take care of themselves. In the advertisement below it pokes fun at men drinking a certain kind of beer and yes a woman in media is usually the victim but here our ads where men are victims too!

Advertising is Everywhere, you go on certain sites and you get popups and emails about similar items, most of us use spam filters and pop-up blockers for that annoying advertising, but do we hate it, we hate the stuff that is annoying and now people are looking at how it makes us look. Some people watch the superbowl just for the commercials, we do because they make us laugh, but also makes us look bad too. As a guy why do I have to drink a certain alcoholic drink because something else could be less manly. In Sex lies and advertising it is said that, “Traditionally, wines liquors didn’t advertise to women: men were thought to make brand decisions, even if women did the buying.”  Why is it that women aren’t seen to make choices yet always taking the backseat and never in charge, It’s that way because we constantly see the same image over and over again that perceive the same interpretations. The video below is from Scrubs, JD always orders an appletini and always gets made fun of also because its not a "manly" drink.

In Wolf Culture, it is said that, “Women’s magazines for over a century have been one of the most powerful agents for changing women’s roles.” I believe that women should see that they are strong and can overcome anything! However these same magazines want to point out all there flaws that people are usually self-conscious about. Look at Seventeen which is considered, “girl’s Bible” which Killbourne writes about. In this magazine the front cover says it all where you can lose weight, get better clothes, better make up, find the perfect guy, and more crap that don’t help girls be confident in themselves.

In order to change advertising so much needs to be done, in a world where we pretty much control what is seen, with youtube and instagram where we are controlling the media why not start memes that say what we want! If something goes viral it would be seen around the world in seconds, or if something is really bad same reaction because the media loves controversy. Why do we go on websites and the computer apparently has to cater to our needs and tell us what we might like, that’s scary and if it doesn’t change now when will it, it starts with us.