Research For Media Investigation

Coursework Research Investigation
Stereotypical Views of Women in Advertising
Television remains of the most predominant mediums which promote stereotypical views about gender roles in contemporary advertising. (3)“Media is very effective at creating stereotypes because they are some times the only source of information we have about other groups and they often represent a distorted view of those groups” (Straubhaar 2004). NO matter what type of life a women lives, there will always be a certain stereotype about her within society. Women in commercials are confined into what roles they can play on television commercials. In most advertisements in which women act in, the commercial is set out to capture the interests of stereotypical women’s hobbies and interests. A stereotype would be best described as when one ignores diversity and makes sweeping generalizations about a group’s values, behaviour, and beliefs (Straubhaar 2004). Commericals remain mirrored in outdated gender stereotypes by portraying women as having an ideal body image, many eating disorders and acting as sex symbols.

Ideal Body Image

Commercials today elicit many perceived ideals of a selective body image in which women must strive to attain ultimate perfection. Many commercials that exist today have many stereotypical views about women and one is having an ideal body image. Women in the media are seen as the Barbie doll figure which has been proven to have negative effects on the average women. Women in commercials operate as a role model for other women and adolescents that view television advertisements on a continuum, which in turn affects the way women are represented.(4) A study done by D. Hargreaves and M. Tiggemann show that women and adolescents that had exposure to commercials that consist of ideal media images were dissatisfied with their bodies (Hargreaves and Tiggemann,). This experiment consisted of 80 women and adolescents, some exposed to 20 images of the thin ideal media and the other 20 non thin ideal media. This study concluded that after two years it was shown that the group that viewed the thin ideal body images was more dissatisfied with their body image. Women strive to obtain an ideal body image because they want to be perceived as having an attractive body that resembles the prefect bodies which are repeatedly shown on television. As shown in Hargreaves and Tiggemann experiment, commercials that have outdated gender stereotypes are still prominent in contemporary advertisements today. Take for example a perfume advertisement. In stead of focusing on the actual product; emphasis is placed on the model/actress who is representing the product and she is clearly underweight to present the desire thin and attractive body image. Consequently, women and adolescents that view this advertisement believe that if they buy this product and wear it they will attain this ideal body image portrayed in the advertisement. Television is no-doubt one of the most important mediums that affect the way women and adolescents perceive themselves because of its audiovisual nature.

Eating Disorders

In society today, self esteem is placed as one of the most important issues that affect women. Advertisements still support stereotypes in projecting a thin ideal view and therefore, may led to anorexia and bulimia among female viewers. Female viewers watch this advertisement and therefore they want to obtain it. As they women try to find ways to obtain this ideal, they discover that they have one of two paths to follow. First option is hard work and exercise on their body or they can do a yo-yo diet. Women usually opt for the yo-yo diet because they have many other pressures riding on them and believe that this will be a quick and easy solution to their problem. Without knowing it, some of these women become anorexic and bulimic because of the unrealistic desire to look perfect. Studies done by Myers and Biocca show those commercials which attain ideal body images have an indirect effect on anorexia and bulimia. The two variables that had an effect on self perception were ideal-body programming and ideal-body commercials. This result found that only did this lead to eating disorders but also to depression and a self-perceived body image. 

Sex Symbols

Women are portrayed as sex symbols in the media in order to sell products in which they are advertising. Female sex symbols are features in commercials, support the fact that commercials are still mired in outdate gender stereotypes by producing commercials and advertisements in which are desirable sex objects to men. Most producers assume that if they want to sell a certain product to a male audience, the best way to do so is to appeal to them with sexuality. A content analysis that was done by Gad Saad suggests that over a time period of fifteen years, Ms. Magazine demonstrated an increase in the portrayal of women as sexual symbols (Gad Saad 601). Let’s take for an example a beer commercial. Generally speaking, we can assume that the majority of beer drinkers are men. The producer or director will link the product to some thing else those men like to sell it, a female. By including attractive women in beer advertisements, the underlying message is that if men drink a certain type of beer they will be able to attract a certain type of female. However, stereotypes can be deemed a powerful vector as they create inaccurate portrayals of individuals that affect the way a group is perceived.

One of the most prominent features of perfume advertising is that they are strongly based on visuals. (6) A pioneer study carried out on perfume advertising in magazines in Portugal (Tuna, 2004) reveals that a significant number of print perfume adverts rely on pictorial elements alone, with no other verbal elements but brand and product names, which are also prominently displayed, thus providing enough verbal cues and contextualizing elements to the advertising message.

Reliance on pictures, on the other hand, may also be the result of an internationally oriented standardized campaign. Indeed, like many fashion and cosmetics products, perfumes are often marketed as part of an international brand’s product range, which means that pictures are likely to be part of the overall advertising strategy. Despite acknowledged pictorial cultural dimensions, it seems to be a fact that the iconicity of pictures makes them more suitable to cross borders (Messaris 1997), and this is commonly a feature of cross- cultural and/or global advertising approaches.

Typically, the perfume advert consists of one or two people, a sophisticated perfume bottle, the perfume name and a short text line indicating the product’s target audience (for him, for her, for both). It may eventually depict the perfume bottle alone, even though this is a less frequent approach.

When it comes to participants, the depiction of female models is by and large the most common motif. There are indeed more adverts for female perfumes, and there are more perfumes for women in most brands, but it is also a fact that there are also adverts for men that use female models, and female perfume adverts that depict men. Even so, the image of the woman is extremely exploited in perfume advertising, and female nakedness has become very common in these advertisements. The typical image of the sensuous woman enticingly or defiantly addressing the viewer continues to be repeatedly employed in contemporary advertising, assuming the form of an ‘agent provocateur’, whose main function in ads is that of eliciting the desired emotional response in the viewer (Cortese, 2004).

Feminist author, Jean Kilbourne says; “There have been some changes in the images of women in advertising and then goes on to conclude women will always conform to the stereotypes within advertising, even though the image of women has changed. 

Gallup & Robinson, an advertising and marketing research firm, reported that in more than 50 years of testing advertising effectiveness, the use of the eroticism was a significantly above-average technique in communicating with the market place. In contemporary mainstream consumer advertising such as magazines and TV, sex is used to sell a large amount of branded goods – even those not associated in any way with sex. Clothing, alcohol, cosmetics, cars even electricity are all examples of products sold through the message of sex. In any one TV advert break for example, a large proportion if not all the adverts shown will be linked in some way to sex. Research by marketing firm Gallup-Robinson, which analysed sex in advertising since the 1920s, found that companies that used sex to sell averaged recall scores 77% above their respective product norms and that it had an effect just as powerful in men as in women.


However, sexuality in advertising can alienate some of the audience and that using sex to draw attention to a product that has no relevance to sex can have a negative effect. In many ways, it is abusing your audience and can make them feel cheated and talked down to. Resorting to sex just to sell when there is no direct correlation to the product being sold is often seen as a “cheap shot,” which can negatively affect a brand’s image. Many commentators believe that consumers are bored with a strategy that is employed too often – reverting to sex to sell is old hat and has been exhausted.

A motif that is frequently adopted by perfume advertising pictures is the image of a couple, which is recurrent not only in adverts that promote male and female fragrances simultaneously, but also in per- fume adverts in general.Some of these pictures exploit eroticism quite explicitly, which seems to reveal increased permisiveness in contemporary Western societies. This may raise some cultural issues, including that of taboo concerning the use of themes such as sex and eroticism in advertising. These motifs are often used as strategies for increasing the appeal of products that, intrinsically, do not present any kind of taboo association, in an effort to make them look more daring and risqué (Odber de Baubeta, 1995) Freitas, 2008: 148), as befits lifestyle goods such as perfumes. 


Classen et al. (1994) claim that perfume adverts reflect the changes in the role and image of women in Western societies. The changes referred to by the authors concern the motifs and images explored in perfume advertising since the 1950s, when advertising messages drew on themes such as femininity and elegance, displaying images of glamorous social events, and projecting the idea of women whose main objective in wearing a perfume was to please men.

(5) According to Bharwada (2010), there is one element that arouses the immediate interest of both men and women. Sex has the greatest universal acceptance of all strategy in advertising.

MULVEY

Her outlook on the Male Gaze theory involved men looking at women purely for visual satisfaction. She believes that women are completely passive in this topic and are only seen as sexual images for men (the 'lookers'). This is present in perfume advertisements. 
Scophophilia: Men are the bearers of the look. 'The pleasure of looking'. Introduced into the male gaze theory by Sigmund freud.   

Theorists:

Marjorie Ferguson (1980) identified four types of facial expression in the photos of women in advertising:

Chocolate Box: half or full-smile, lips together or slightly parted, teeth barely visible, full or three quarter face to the camera. Projected mood: warm bath warmth, where uniformity of features in their smooth perfection is devoid of uniqueness or of individuality.

Invitational: on this pose the emphasis is on the eyes. The mouth is shut with only a hint of a smile (teeth barely showing at times), head to one side slightly. The mood is suggestive of mischief or mystery, the hint of contact potential rather than sexual promise.

Romantic or sexual: Dreamy, heavy-lidded and unsmiling. Overtly sensual or sexual. The projected moods are possibly 'available' and definitely 'available'. Often clothing is limited or props are used.

Super smiler: this is of a full face with a wide open smile with teeth visible. Looking happy and giving off a good vibe. The Head is forward and the chin is back. Hair is often wind blown and suggests 'Look at me' approach.

Hypodermic Model: The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response. The bullet theory graphically suggests that the message is a bullet, fired from the "media gun" into the viewer's "head". With similarly emotive imagery the hypodermic needle model suggests that media messages are injected straight into a passive audience which is immediately influenced by the message.

The simulacra and hyper real theory: Explored by Jean Baudrillard. He believed that advertising no longer refers to real things and the issue of representation is problematic. He suggested that the representation of has become more real to the audience than reality. 

Simulacrum is when the copy places the original. Hyperreality is when the media image constructs a reality which does not actually refer to an actual reality. 

   Berger: 'Men act and women appear, men look at women and women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women, but also the relation of women to themselves.