Historical Overview

Sex Sells

Advertising is a form of communication that persuades people to buy a certain product. One study has found this statistic: 44% of readers notice an advertisement; in that 44%, 35% can identify the advertiser, and only 9% actually read half of what the ad says. Therefore, it is extremely important for companies to come up with advertisements that draw consumers’ attention to their products. Sexuality in advertising is using erotic or sexual images, words or phrases in advertising to make the products more appealing to consumers, therefore increasing the chance of the products being sold.
Sexuality has been used in advertising as early as the beginning of the advertising era. Even as early as the 1800s, physical attractiveness and sexuality began to have a great impact on society. The very first forms of advertising that used sexuality were wood carvings and illustrations of attractive women, which were often naked from the waist up. Soon after, these illustrations started appear on posters, signs, and ads for tobacco, saloons, and tonics. In 1885, W. Dukes & Sons Tobacco Company was the first tobacco company known for inserting trading cards featured attractive, provocative starlets into tobacco packages. Soon after, sales increased as the brand was wildly known, and W. Dukes & Sons Tobacco became the leading cigarette brand by the 1890s. In many cases, sexuality proves to be a powerful tool to reverse business revenue. One of the most striking advertisements of the early twentieth century that involves sexuality was that of Woodbury’s Facial Soap. In the early 1900s, the soap company was reportedly having a decline in sales. At this time, the company featured the doctor’s face on wrapper and in advertising of this product. The breakthrough for declining sales was when the company studied marketing problems that it faced. The company decided to insert romantic paintings of beautiful, young, appealing women to advertise for the soap. These images, along with the slogan “A Skin You Love to Touch”, were welcomed by young men. Sales of soap boosted up in the following decades. Many historians argued that the advertisement of “A Skin You Love to Touch” of Woodbury’s Facial Soap was the very first advertisement that used the attraction and appeal of sexy women in modern advertising.
Traditionally, women often appeared on print advertising as an attraction to sell the products. Over the past decades, men started to show their faces and bodies on ads as well. Sexuality has made a transformation across the centuries, and also depended on what products being sold (how much of the body is being revealed). Through investigations of the effect of sexuality in advertising, many researchers have found that sexy ads do attract more people comparing to nonsexual ads; however people may not remember the brand. Female characters are used very often in advertising with sexuality to sell the products (51% with female characters comparing to only 15% with male characters).
Sexuality in general is always a debated subject. The use of sexuality in print media advertising has stirred up many controversies in society over the decades. Most of print advertisements depict women as passive, subordinate to men, and often as sex objects. Many even strongly argue that these images lead to women become sex objects and victims of domestic violence in may cases. On the other hand, sexuality in print advertising persuades people that if they purchase the products, they can be just as beautiful and sexy as those male and female models the ads use to illustrate. However, supporters of sexuality used in advertising use the First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, to shield it from heated debates. Nonetheless, researches have found that images related to sexuality to be the most powerful attention-getting technique of many advertisements until today.



Time line

Late 1800s: Companies began to realize that adverting was the best way to promote their products and invested in it.
Illustrations of attractive women (sometimes were naked from the waist up) made of wood carvings started appear on posters, signs, and ads for tobacco, saloons, tonics.

1900s-1950s: Woodbury's Facial Soap's campaign of "A Skin You Love to Touch" marked the first time sexual appeal used in advertising.
The American Association of Advertising Agencies published the advertising code of ethics.

1960s-now: Print advertising's jumped to more realistic and provocative as Playboy magazine was born.



Works Cited

Brooks, D., Brown, S., Matthiae, C., McGill, L., Monk-Turner, E., Wren, K. 2008. Who is gazing at whom? A look at how sex is used in magazine advertisements.
Rosselli, F., Stankiewicz, J. 2008. Women as Sex Objects and Victims in Print Advertisements.
History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web. "Model Interpretation." http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/ads/model.html
Slick Tips. "Images In Print Advertising." http://webhome.idirect.com/k/koufis/slicktip_092903.htm
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. "Sex in Advertising." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_in_advertising

Mens Magazine Survey - Kelsey

Hypothesis
After doing media research we found a vast amount of sexuality in print media advertising. Not only did we find this in Maxime magazines but in Women's Health, Elle, Playboy, Cosmo, Vogue, and even in People. We wanted to research a couple of topics through out survey. 1)Does Sex Sell 2) Do different genders respond differently to sexuality in advertising 3) Is the use of sexuality or sexually explicit messages an affect form of advertising. We hypothesised that in general with less sexual ads men's and women's responses would be more similar. As the ads became more sexually explicit we believed that men would be more likely to be interested in the ad and that they would also think the ad was appropriate in today's soceity. Repectively, we thought that women would be more likely to still be interested in the ad, however we thought women would be less likely to accept sex in advertising as socially acceptable means of selling a product.

Survey Process
In order to test our hypothesis we created 2 surveys of six ads each. The survey itself was exactly the same but the ads were different. We wanted to see if there would be a gendered response to how the ads were received based on the kind of magazines they came from. I,Kelsey took around the men's survey that used six ads from magazines like Maxim, Men's Health, and Playboy. For both surveys we used 2 non-sexual ads, 2 moderately sexual ads, and 2 overtly sexual ads to creat a scale of sexuality in the advertisment that would help test our hypothesis.






Part I
Scale 1:not at all 2:slighly 3:somewhat 4:yes, strongly 5:very strong
How old are you?
What is your gender?
Are you religiou? (scale of 1-5)
Are you sexually conservative or liberal? (scale 1-5 1-conservative 5-liberal)
Please rate your self esteem. (scale 1-5)

Questions for each Ad
1- Do you find this advertisment to be seuxally arousing?
2- Would you buy this product for yourself or another person?
3- Are you in any way offended by this advertisment?
4- Do you find this advertisment to be appropriate in public media advertising?
5- Would you feel sexier if you used this product?
6- Is the person in the ad someone you find sexually attractive?
7- Without the advertisment label, and only the picture would you know what this ad was selling?
8 What words describe the following ad?

Follow up questions
Ad 7 and Ad 8
Which of these two ads do you prefer and why?

Survey Results




Ad 1
1) 100% men - not sexually arousing
100% women - not sexually arousing
2) 73% men - yes I would buy this product
46% women - yes I would buy this product
3) 100% men - not offended
98% women - not offended
4) 100% men - felt this was appropriate
100% women - felt this was appropriate
5) 33% men - felt sexier for using this product
12% women - felt sexier for using this product
6) 100% men- not attracted to person in ad
96% women - not attracted to person in ad
7) 85% men- yes I would know this was selling cars
78% women- yes I would know this was selling cars
8) Some responses were : sporty, automotive, tough

Ad 2
1) 23% men- found this ad to be sexually arousing
97% women - did not find this as to be sexually arousing
2) 56% men - yes they would buy this product
32% women - yes they would buy this product
3) 100% men - not offended
98% women - not offended
4) 100% men - felt this was appropriate
97% women - felt this was appropriate
5) 97% men - would not feel sexier
99% women - would not feel sexier
6) 76% men- yes they were attracted to the person in the ad
12% women- yes they were attracted to the person in the ad
7) 97% men - no they would not know what was being sold
98% women- no they would not know what was being sold
8) Some responses were: Strong, confident, sporty




Ad 3 )
1) 12% men – yes this is sexually arousing
89% women- yes this is sexually arousing
2) 72% men – yes, they would buy this product
89% women – yes they would buy this product
3) 5% men – yes, they were offended by this ad
12% women – yes they were offended by this ad
4) 97% men – yes this ad is appropriate
89% women- yes this ad is appropriate
5) 33% men – yes they would feel sexier
10% women – yes they would feel sexier ( product not for women)
6) 12% men - yes this person is sexually attractive
89% women – yes this person is sexually attractive
7) 98% men- no they would not know what was being sold
96% women – no they would not know what was being sold
8) Some responses were: captivating, wet, intense

Ad 4)
1) 86% men – no they did not find this ad to be sexually arousing
78% women – yes they found this ad to be sexually arousing
2) 73% men – would buy this product
93% women – would buy this product
3) 10% men – were offended by this product
16% women- were offended by this product
4) 92% men – yes this ad is appropriate
91% women – yes this ad is appropriate
5) 46% men – yes they would feel sexier
71% women – yes they would feel sexier
6) 90% men – no, this person is not attractive to me
94% women – yes this person is sexually attractive to me
7) 99% men – no they would not know what was being sold
93% women – no they would not know what was being sold





Ad 5
1) 92% men – yes this ad is sexually arousing
96% women- yes this ad is sexually arousing
2) 83% men – yes they would buy this product
89% women – yes they would buy this product
3) 23% men- yes they were offended by this ad
31% women – yes they were offended by this ad
4) 92% men- yes this ad is appropriate
72% women – yes this ad is appropriate
5) 72% men – yes they would feel sexier for using this product
94% women – yes they would feel sexier for using this product
6) 96% men – yes this person is sexually attractive
98% women – yes this person is sexually attractive
7) 99% men – no they would not know what was being sold
93% women – no they would not know what was being sold
8) Some responses were: sensual, lustful, sweaty

Ad 6
1) 98% men – yes this ad is sexually arousing
97% women – yes this ad is sexually arousing
2) 96% men – yes they would buy this product
94% women- yes they would buy this product
3) 13% men – yes they were offended by this ad
28% women – yes they were offended by this ad
4) 92% men- yes this ad is appropriate
78% women- yes this as is appropriate
5) 93% men – yes they would feel sexier for using this product
92% women – yes they would feel sexier for using this product
6) 98% men – yes this person is sexually attractive
96% women – yes this person is sexually attractive
7) 97% men – no they would not know what was being sold
98% women – no they would not know what was being sold
8) Some responses were: hot, sexy, passionate




Skyy Vodka Comparison
Ad7 vs. Ad 8
97% men – preferred ad7
75% women – preferred ad 8

Reasons why: Men - “Hot almost naked chick” “ Do you not see the big boobs and the guy straddling her?” “ Its sexier” “I wish I could do that”

Women: “The other ad is degrading” “ I like the snake” “why would I want a man standing over me”
(These results were interesting because in the other ads women were accepting of the sexuality in the advertisement and now they find it demoralizing. This might be a result of gendered acceptable sexuality but we would need another survey to determine this.)



Final Conclusion
There were many things that men and women agreed on and a couple things that showed greater differences. The greatest differences were found in what men and women find acceptable in print media advertising. In general the women tended to be more conservative on what they though was appropriate, and men were more accepting of explicit sexuality.
In general as the ads became more sexual both men and women were more likely to purchase the product. Therefore as sexuality goes up so does the viewers sexual arousal and likely hood to purchase the product. The one thing I found most interesting was, regardless of the sexual content of the ad most people would not know what the ad was selling if it did not outright tell them. Finally, I feel that overt sexuality in print media advertising is very affective, extremely relevant, and generally accepted in today’s society.

Women's Magazine survey -Amanda

Here is a copy of the survey questions we used for each advertisement.

Please use this scale when answering the following questions:
1: Not at all 2: Slightly 3: Somewhat 4: Yes 5: Very strongly

1. How old are you?
2. What is your gender?
3. Are you religious? (Scale of 1-5)
4. Are you sexually conservative or liberal? (Scale of 1-5)
5. Please rate your self esteem. (Scale of 1 low-5 high)

Answer for each Ad 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
1. Do you find this advertisement to be sexually arousing?
2. Would you buy this product for yourself or another person?
3. Are you in any way offended by this advertisement?
4. Do you find this advertisement to be appropriate in public media advertising?
5. Would feel sexier if you used this product?
6. Is the person in this ad someone you would find to be sexually attractive?
7. Without the ad and only the pictures would you know what was trying to be advertised?
8. What words describe the following ad?

1. Which of these two ads would you prefer and why? (Ad 7 & 8)

EVALUATION OF THE SURVEYS
We each had 15 males and 15 females each take our survey on sexuality in print media, for a total of 60 people. They answered each of the above questions on 6 different ads. I, Amanda was in charge of the ads that came out of girls magazines such as Cosmo, Elle, and Women’s Fitness. Kelsey was in charge of the ads that came from guy magazines like Maxim.
Before going into this, my hypothesis was that there would be a clear cut on men’s views versus women’s views. I believed that the males would be more sexually aroused and less offended, agreeing that the ad is appropriate for public media advertising, whereas the women would be more likely to buy the product being advertised, yet not agree that the ad itself was appropriate.
The results turned out to show that the less sexual the advertisement was, the more similar the results were for both guys and girls. The more sexual they got, the differences started to become clearer. When they had to describe what they saw within the ad, the females tended to be more creative, where the majority of males stated the obvious.
Once the participants finished the survey we asked them one last question: Which Sky Vodka ad they preferred. Ad#7 (the sexy one) or ad#8 (the not so sexy one)? And why they chose whatever one they picked.

For males, all of them picked ad#7. Some of their reasons included “it’s the shit”, “sexy almost topless chick”, “the girl’s hot”. For females, 10 of them picked ad#7 and 5 of them picked ad#8. The reasons for picking ad#7 included: “it’s at the beach”, “men are better than snakes”, and my personal favorite “I would love to have some guy stand over my almost naked body with some glasses and some vodka for a night of fun!”. The reasons for picking ad#8 included: “no bodies”, “ad 7 is perverted”, and “ad 7 has too much boobs”.

SURVEY RESULTS



AD#1
In ad #1 men and women had exactly the same results for all the questions but two. 100% of males and females answered that they are in no way offended by this ad and that it is appropriate, and that they would not feel sexier if they used this product. 100% of females also said that they are not sexually aroused by this, whereas 13% of men were sexually aroused. Women said that this ad was fun, free spirited, and did not relate with the picture. Men described the ad as pink and girly. I was surprised at the similar results of this ad, and what little differences were brought about.

AD#2
In ad#2 the results were similar when it came to being offensive and is it appropriate. Together, 100% of males and females were in no way offended and 83% found the ad appropriate. 13% of females and 3% of males found the ad was not appropriate. Men and women had complete opposite views when it came to feeling sexy if using the product and if the person in the ad was sexually attractive. 13% of men said they would feel sexier if they used the product, and 93% said they were sexually attracted to her. 67% of women said they would feel sexier if they used the product, and only 7% said they found her sexually attractive. Female’s words to describe the ad contained: fresh, innocent, and smooth. Male’s words were: skin, purple, hot girl.





AD#3
In ad #3 the results were less similar. Only 1 of the 15 males said that this ad was not sexually arousing, while all 15 females said it was not sexually arousing. 80% of the women said this ad was not appropriate in public media advertising and 93% of men said that it was. Although you only see the female’s side and butt in this ad, all 15 males said that she was sexually attractive. For the females, only 4 said she was. Female’s words to describe the ad contained: toned, athletic, curvy. Male’s words were: nice butt, distracting, hot.

AD#4
Ad #4 was very similar in results between males and females. The results were VERY similar to ad#1. 100% of males and females answered that they are in no way offended by this ad and that it is appropriate, and that they would not feel sexier if they used this product. 33% of women found the male attractive and 60% of men found the female attractive. The statistic that I found most surprising was for if you would buy this product for yourself or someone else. More men (80%) said that they would in fact buy this product, however, only 20% of women said they would. Female’s words to describe the ad contained: warm, playful, cute. Men’s words were: black, man sniffing shoulder, flowers.




AD#5
Ad#5 was similar in which 15 of the 15 males and 14 of the 15 women said they were not offended by this ad. 13 males and 2 females were sexually aroused by this. On average, half of the males and females said that this ad was appropriate, and the other half said it was not. 6 females said they would buy the product and only 3 said they would feel sexier if they used it. 13 males said they would buy the product and only 9 said they would feel sexier if they used it. Female’s words to describe the ad contained: sexual, scandalous, and sick. Male’s words were: dirty, silky, 2 very happy people.

AD#6
In ad#6 the only similar answer was that 57% of men and women believed the ad was appropriate in public media advertising. The other results were not too opposite of one another, just different. 93% of men found this ad to be sexually arousing. 20% of females found it sexually arousing. There were no men who were offended by this ad and 27% of women were. All the males said that they found her sexually attractive and 67% of women did not. Female’s words to describe the ad contained: wet, revealing, slut. Male’s words were: sexy, oily, topless.

Gendered Voices in Children's Television Adlvertising

The goal of advertising is to lead consumers to new products that will allow them to feel a sense of satisfaction. To maintain the motivation of the consumer to spend money, advertisers need to develop several advertising strategies to make the newest goods and services sound desirable. However because of ability, age, and other factors children do not purchase products,it is the responsibility of the parents to ensure the well being of their children. With this fact advertisers appeal to themes of fantasy and fun in children's advertisements. Advertisers use the image-based influence that emphasizes gender identity, a popular strategy used when designing a campaign for a younger audience. In addition to imaging advertisers use linguistic markers, some obvious some subtle, that advocate gender stereotypes. Advertisers put so much thought into these campaigns because children are seen as a training base for consumer culture, they are suggestive to fantasize and do other things kids are expected to do. Because advertisements are becoming part of American culture,children are thought of having the potential to want to spend
instead of save their money. Advertisements offer a model as to how children should behave thus enforcing gender roles for instance commercials where only girls play with barbies or commercials where boys play with leggos.



Reference: Johnson, Fern. Young, Karren. “Gendered Voices in Children's Television Adlvertising.” in Critical Studies in Media Communication. (Eds) EBSCO Publishing, 2003.

A Beautiful Campaign?

This revolutionary article is part of a campaign that is attempting to change stereotypes of women. The campaign wants to empower women, broaden the definition of beauty and make the public aware of these issues. The article discusses how women are pressured to follow the patriarchal expectations set by society that is based upon conventional beauty. Finally the article discusses how the internet promotes traditional views of oppression and power. Though the article is informational it is mainly evaluated in the cultural context of Israel.


Reference: Lachover, Einat, and Sigal Barak Brandes "A Beautiful Campaign?." Feminist Media Studies 9.3 (2009): 301-316. Women's Studies International. EBSCO. Web. 10 Dec. 2009.

Third-Person Effects of Idealized Body Image in Magazine Advertisements

For years it has been argued that the idealized body image shown in advertisements causes negative effects on a woman's self concept and perception of body image. The striving need for bodily perfection, like the models displayed in advertisements, is thought to be related to an increase in eating disorders. Though this increase is believed to be a result of the media, studies regarding this topic are inconclusive on how and why idealized images negatively affect women. Other researchers suggest negative body image effects on women are rooted in men's expectations of women's bodies. Women believe men like thinner bodies however men report to like slightly thicker bodies then women perceive to be. Studies have shown adolescent girls strive for perfection because they believe that is how their male peers are going to judge them because it is the new norm, not because they believe idealized images are real. The more women are exposed to idealized images, the more influence advertisements have on them. When a woman's self esteem is damaged, "she is motivated to gain, maintain, and restore self esteem". Because physical appearance and the idea of attractiveness is part of self esteem, women rate their own bodies satisfactorily so other women can not rate them lower thus damaging their self esteem.


Reference: Jounghwa Choi, Glenn Leshner, and Yoonhyeung Choi. "Third-Person Effects of Idealized Body Image in Magazine Advertisements" in American Behavioral Scientist. (Eds) Sage Publications, 2008.

Women as Sex Objects and Victims in Print Advertisements

Many advertisements use sex to sell a product, along with this notion comes the idea of women as sex objects. Though some may argue using women as sex objects is acceptable there is a fine line between women as sex objects and women as victims in print advertisements. This article examines 1,988 advertisements from over 50 well known American magazines. The advertisements were coded in a way that labeled women as sex objects, victims, or aggressors in a way that would now skew the results of the study. A woman was considered a sex object depending on her posture, facial expression, make up, activity, camera angle and amount of skin shown. The coding was subjective being that a woman wearing a bikini might not be coded as a sex object while a fully clothed woman in a suggestive posture could be considered a sex object. The coding for women seen as a victim is if a woman is involved in an act of violence, a man is overpowering a woman in a sexual act or lustfully staring, a woman appears lifeless and a woman is tricked or lied to. A woman was viewed as an aggressor if she was participating in violent acts or was dominant over a man in a sexual way. The study concluded that about half of the advertisements displayed women as sex objects, 9.51% portrayed women as victims and about 7% of advertisements depicted women as aggressors. However it is interesting to know that 75% of the women portrayed as aggressors were sexualized as well. The conclusion of the article states that women are constantly judged and that their value is based upon their sexuality and physical appearance. It also states that more exposure to women as victims creates "an acceptance of rape myths, interpersonal violence, and gender role stereotyping" thus making it normal and justifiable.


Reference: Francine Rosselli. Julie M. Stankiewicz. “Women As Sex Objects And Victims In Print Advertisements.” in Sex Roles. (Eds) Springer Science + Business Media, 2007.

Who Is Gazing At Whom? A Look At How Sex Is Used In Magazine Advertisements

The article written by scholars at the Old Dominion University in Norfolk, examines the portrayal of males and females in advertising to determine if sex is used to sell products to consumers. For the purpose of this article, sex is defined as one of three things, being the object of self or another's gaze, wearing provocative clothing, or alluring behavior. The article focuses on the objectification of women and how it differs among female or male target audiences. The scholars have found in previous research that advertising which emphasizes appearance, conveys the message that it is acceptable for women to be admired and manipulated by men. For example in advertisements which target males, women are more often portrayed as sex objects rather than in female targeted advertisements. However advertisers argue that advertising simply mirrors gender stereotypes and mainly uses social constructs to sell products. In the advertisements that used sex to sell a product, women actors were far more likely to be used over men, 51% of the characters were women while only 13% were men. The article also discusses how men are more likely to be gazing at objectified characters (60%) than gender neutral (24%) and female audiences (16%). In both male and female targeted advertisements characters wearing provocative clothing posed in an alluring manner are used far more often than in gender neutral advertisements where using sex to sell products is very rare.


Reference: Brown, Stephan. Brooks, Derrick. Matthiae, Chris. McGrill, Leanne. Monk-Turner, Elizabeth. Wren, Kristy. “Who Is Gazing At Whom? A Look At How Sex Is Used In Magazine Advertisements.” in Journal of Gendered Studies. (Eds) Routledge, 2008.

Cultural Masculinity/Feminity Influences on Advertising Appeals

The article written by Chingching Chang is based on a study that examines whether or not cultural masculinity and femininity influences an individual's response to advertisements and utilitarian appeals. In researching earlier work on the topic, Chingching found that a high percentage of Americans described themselves are more masculine than feminine while in Taiwanese participants the difference 4.47 for masculinity and 4.69 for femininity is negligible. In this case masculinity was described as ambitious, capable, successful, independent, goal orientated, and daring while feminine were considered to be compassionate and caring. However in the study, Chingching found that participants from the United States, a mainly "masculine" culture, preferred and believed the utilitarian advertising over the image appeal advertising. American participants also found image appeal advertisements to be more credible when they were preceded by utilitarian advertisements. In participants from Taiwan, an "androgynous" culture responded to both advertising appeals equally with no influence from the order in which they were presented. In an interview also conducted by the experimenter, she found Americans value accomplishment, being involved in multiple competitive activities and communicate in a direct straightforward way while Taiwanese participants value personal achievement, good family relations, friendliness, avoiding risk taking behaviors but encouraging activities with their loved ones and communicate in a more understanding empathic way. These outside variables may also have an effect on the different responses to advertising appeals.


Reference: Chang, Chingching "Cultural Masculinity/Femininity Influences on Advertising Appeals." Journal of Advertising Research 46.3 (2006): 315-323. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Dec. 2009.

Glorian Steinem, "Sex, Lies, and Advertising"

“Sex, Lies, and Advertising,” was an article written by Gloria Steinem. This was an article that discussed the aspects of feminism and how advertising companies such as magazines use women to sell products. Advertisers have been using women to sell products since the late 1800’s, but according to Steinem, modeling has become the natural way to advertise and sell products, but is it right to do or no? Advertisers utilize women to virtually sell anything. Examples of products are alcohol, fragrance, cigarettes, credit cards, insurance, and even financial services. Steinem does not agree with the fact that advertising companies are using women to sell their products and I would have to agree with her. They are portraying women as “tools” draw in consumers who are in need of the product they are advertising. In a way, it is almost like they are brainwashing the consumers.

Reference: Steinem, Gloria. "Sex, Lies, and Advertising" in Simon and Schuster. (Eds) Moving Beyond Words. Touchstone, 1995

Naomi Klien, "Ads under Attack"

Naomi Klein wrote “Ads Under Attack,” which discussed the aspects of how advertising has taken over our country. This article takes place in New York and consults about a man name Jorge Rodriguez de Gerada. Gerada does not like the fact that billboards have taken over his area. The billboards advertise popular products such as beer, cigarettes, and cars. So to fix this problem he takes matters into his own hands and paints over the billboards in rust. He may think of it as a good act for his city, it is still considered a felony because he is vandalizing for what is already there. He claims that he has dodged being arrested a few times because he quotes that how poor neighborhoods already have problems with alcohol and drugs, advertisers do not need to influence his neighborhood even more. And with that, I respect for what Gerarda is trying to do. He is standing up for what he believes in and that is not advertising products in a area where the product already exist.

Reference: Klein, Naomi. "Ads Under Attack." (Eds) NO LOGO: No Space, No Choice, No Job. Picador USA: New York, 1999

Naomi Wolf, “The Beauty Myth”

Naomi Wolf is the brain behind this magnificent article. “The Beauty Myth,” is an article that discusses the aspects of feminism. She argues that "beauty" as a normative value, which is socially constructed into patriarchy. It is a social system that determines the male as the head of the household, having authority over women and children. Patriarchy also refers to a system of government by males, and to the dominance of men in social or cultural systems. It determines the content of that construction with the goal of reproducing its own hegemony. Wolf portrays the idea of an "iron-maiden," as a standard that is used to punish women physically and psychologically for their failure to achieve and conform to it. Wolf criticized the fashion and beauty industries as exploitative of women, but claimed the beauty myth extended into all areas of human functioning.

Reference: Wolf, Naomi. "The Beauty Myth." in Bryannan, Laura. (Eds) We've Come A Long Way, Maybe. HarperCollins Publishers: Boston, 1991.

Sut Jhally, “Image Based Culture”

Sut Jhally is the author behind “Image Based Culture.” This article is a fairly dramatic example of how the institutional structure of the consumer society orients the culture through attitudes, values, and rituals. The marketplace and its major ideological tool, advertising is the major structuring institution of contemporary consumer society. Because we live inside the consumer culture, it is sometimes difficult to locate the origins of our most cherished values and assumptions. For example, Jhally explains that everyone in this culture knows a "diamond is forever." It is a meaning that is almost as natural as the link between roses and romantic love. However, just like roses diamonds did not always have this meaning. This entirely new generation of young people has grown to marriageable age. To the new generation, a diamond ring is considered a necessity for engagement to virtually everyone.

Refernce: Jhally, Sut. "Image Based Culture." (Eds) Advertising and Identities. Washington Times Corporation: Washington, 1990.

Roland Marchand, “Apostles of Modernity”

Written by Roland Marchand, “Apostles of Modernity” discusses the overview of print ads from 1920-1940. Drawing upon copious research, Marchand makes the case that many of the features of modern print ads first appeared during this time period. Ads from Lysol and Lucky Strike are featured as well as some from lesser-known companies. Innovations such as the use of color, sex, and the use of the dramatic monologue are also featured. It lays out important paradigms for the analysis of advertising of the period. His accounts of the different advertising "parables" created during the time to sell more and more consumer goods. This is a must read for those interested in history, business or graphic arts.

Reference: Marchand, Roland. "Apostles of Modernity." (Eds) Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920-1940. Univ of California: Berkley, 1986.

Finance and economics: Economic focus: The money in the message

"Finance and economics: Economics focus: The money in the message" is an interesting article that is found in The Economist distrubited in London. The article discusses how advertisers doubt the fact that people are good at making decisions for themselves. In order to make a good decision people need to be informed but finding the right information is often too time consuming for the everyday consumer. As a result advertisers thrive off of creativity combined with psychology when developing a new campaign. A "signaling" theory suggests there are two methods that appeal to consumers. Presenting the consumer with "hard" information that states the product's price or it's function and "signal"information whcih appeals to emotion. Deciding which type of information will coney the more successful message is the job of the advertiser. Despite the psychological basis of advertising, adertisers understand that most comsumers are rational and will therefore ignore adversitments that "offeres nothing but an enticing image or a good laugh". However the article also discusses how making informed decisios are skwed by the idea that if a company does not have a good product, they would not spend as much money on advertising. When a consumer sees multiple ads for the one product, they simply want to purchase it because more advertisements are often associated with high quality. The article then wonders if low quality firms can be successful through the right advertising, but stresses despite advertising the decision is ultimately up to the consumer because their money is at stake.



Reference: Anonymous. “Finance and economics: Economics focus: The money in the message.” in The Economist. (Eds) London: Feb 14, 1998. Vol. 346, Iss. 8055; pg. 78, 1 pgs.

Hypersexual Informercial

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Sexuality is used heavily throughout the media in order to maximize profits. Even when there is a lack of cleavage and normal wording (devoid of sexual terms), there is the less than subtle actions resembling sex acts.

Henceforth, commentary highlighing the obvious...

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Milkie Melissa, “Contested Images of Femininity: An Analysis of Cultural Gatekeepers’ Struggles with the “Real Girl” Critique”

This article came is written in the same journal “The Gendered Society,” but a different author, Melissa Milkie, wrote it. This article examines the various interpretations of women. The research provided by Milkie illuminates the struggles of femininity by examining how cultural gatekeepers respond to girls as a vocal critique of inauthentic media images. She interviews with10 editors at two national girl magazine organizations to provide a rare glimpse into their contradictory responses to requests for depicting what they quote as "real girls." The editors share in the critique, claiming they should change images, but cannot. In these accounts, they reveal struggles over altering narrow images of femininity at the organizational and institutional levels. Editors also justify these girls as misguided by calling on the media organizations norms and schemas about how the “good” reader is supposed to understand the images. Ironically, the editors claim that they can change images but should not, because the power of a girl’s resistance is tempered, as both sets of responses lead to the girls critique being inefficacious in redefining femininity. The study contributes to an understanding of how femininity is defining cultural institutions as an operation to create and sustain gender stratification.

Reference: Melissa, Milkie. “Contested Images of Femininity: An Analysis of Cultural Gatekeepers’ Struggles with the “Real Girl” Critique.” in Kimmel, S. Michael and Aronson, Amy. (Eds) The Gendered Society Reader. Oxford University Press: New York, 2008.

Karen Zittleman, "Being a Girl and Being a Boy"

This article was an eye catcher when involving sexuality. The author Karen Zittleman is an educational author and teacher that visit’s a middle school where she surveys boys and girls. She examines the different aspects between boys and girls on how they behave with one another and each other. For example, Zittleman demonstrates the Title IX, which are the Educational Amendments constructed in 1972. This landmark legislation bans sex discrimination in schools, whether it is in academics or athletics. Before Title IX, schools naturally had sex-segregated classes such as girls learning how to cook in home economics and boys learning how to manufacture things in wood shop. Another example is how girls use to be segregated from sports, but now forty percent of athletes are girls. According to Zittleman, he mentions want boys call the “tough guise” characteristic. It relates to boys having to be tough, in control, powerful and athletic. If they do not fit into the narrow box, they are often referred as a wuss, pussy, sissy etc, and it’s all learned from the media.

Reference:Zittleman, Karen. "Being a Girl and Being Boy" in Kimmel, S. Michael and Aronson, Amy. (Eds) The Gendered Society Reader. Oxford University Press: New York, 2008.

Modern-day Man, the Pleasure Seeker

"One form of this ideal has found expression in 'Playboy' magazine. Its pages make explicit what is only implied in other commercial media- that sex and beautiful women are consumer products, accrourements to the good life."
- E. Anthony Rotundo, American Manhood

Should sexuality be allowed in Print Media Advertising?

Our group believes that it should be allowed. Without exploiting sexuality in print media advertising, ads would be less entertaining and less persuasive. People would not be interested in looking at the ad, let alone buy the product. If sexuality was not exploited, it would be less influencing. People look towards the sexuality in ads, and aspire to be that person: the man working out with a six pack, or the female cooking on her new cooking supplies for her children.