Thursday, March 14, 2013

Post #2 - Advertising


For some reason psychology could probably explain, people tend to follow the crowd. Once something is commoditized everyone seems to want it to be able to fit in. In a capitalist society this is where advertisement comes in. To know what the next big commodity is you need some sort of information to tell you all about it and why you should buy it. For some people these forms of information need to provide motivation for them to spend their money. Eventually advertisers realized manipulating the public with images could serve as that motivation. 

The purpose of these images are to manipulate the viewers in many different ways into associating a certain product with a certain ideal or lifestyle. In Gloria Steinem’s “Sex, Lies, and Advertising” she mentions how a toy train is subjected in an advertisement to manipulate consumers. She says about an advertiser, “They fear that, if trains are associated with girls, they will be devalued in the minds of boys.” What literal aspect about a train is masculine and disassociative to femininity? There are none that the eye can see. These advertisers targeting a male demographic are just suggesting that boys should not, and don’t want to play with toys that girls play with.

The unintended affects that could come from these kinds of advertising are the promotion of a patriarchal mentality. This may not concern advertisers who are making these ads to make themselves money but advertisers could also be shutting away the female consumers who could have potentially been interested in train toys to. The bigger issue out of the two is the reinforcing of stereotypes that counter the intelligence of our society. These ads support the idea that the stereotypes that are upheld in our society are ok. In Bell Hooks’ “Understanding Patriarchy” she talks about a title that accurately describes our society and how people tend to react to it. She says “Often in my lectures when I use the phrase ‘imperialistic white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ to describe our nations political system, audiences laugh.” This suggests that people are so used to these stereotypes that are supported through advertising and media that they don’t even take it seriously. Does that mean that they are so used to it that they are not affected by it or that they understand that they are just made up stereotypes? Does it mean that these ads are just presenting new ideas people naturally think are funny or entertaining? 

I think that these ideas are learned through interaction in our society and that the media reinforcing them turns them into popular culture. While some ads that portray these stereotypes are solely criticizing them; others are just playing off of them to entertain their audiences that they have conditioned to enjoy these ads. Below are two contrasting ads, one seeming to be a critique while the other playing off of a stereotype to manipulate.


Alternatives to these demeaning advertisements are ads that still entertain without falling to the feet of sexism and racism. An ad can still be funny and stimulating without playing off of racial and sexual associations. Advertisers should be challenging themselves to make entertaining ads that captivate audiences without taking the easy way out. We all know stereotypes so something new could really turn things around for the advertisement industry. People are getting smarter and more educated and will eventually not accept the idiotic ads that are popular today. An advertising strategy that could reinforce anti-patriarchy and anti-stereotype are to release more ads like the NBA ad I attached above. People can relate to the harm that stereotypical ads do to the psyche of our society. If ads that expose the horrors of patriarchy or denounce them were more present in the media the audiences would be equally stimulated if not more. Once people know what’s wrong with these types of advertisement they will champion ads and media that go against it.

At the end of the day advertisement companies just want to make money and sell their products. Once more companies take the leap and abandon stereotypical advertisements it will prove that they are not necessary. It will prove that companies can still make profits and sell products without them. It will also expose that people no longer want ads like that. We are smarter than that and we want to create and consume smarter media than that.

Below are links to the photo and video above that I pulled from You Tube and Google.

Sexist Ad:


Critique Ad

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