Alternatives (Revised)

Advertisements have been brainwashing/controlling us for decades now. It started with Edward Bernays who convinced Americans that the United States should join World War II. He then started to target women and manipulate women into thinking that cigarettes were “torches of freedom.” Now women are being targeted everywhere, especially in magazines. According to Jean Kilbourne, “We are exposed to over 1500 ads per day, constituting perhaps the most powerful educational force in society (121). Kilbourne also states that the ads, “sell value, images and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy” (121). Edward Bernays’ “torches of freedom” does just that, it brings the value of equality and status. Due to these values, we have made ads a “powerful educational force.” That means “schools” that educate us are the big corporations! Corporations are essentially creating a cult, and in that cult we are to believe that “no one is ever ugly, overweight, poor, struggling, or disabled either physically or mentally” (122). In Beauty and the Beast of Advertising, Kilbourne points out the dehumanizing and objectification of women in Ads. She explains how we have ads that just use women’s body parts as a convention. A common body part that is used is the legs. The sad part is that we get sucked into this vortex of ads and allow it to get us to buy it, even though it does not make sense.

Luckily some companies are starting to see how inhumane their ads are. One company would be Dove. Dove decides to take a different approach in advertising. The approach is one where they use “real women” as models. Women of different colors and sizes. Not only do they have “real women” as models, they also have a campaign that tells women to embrace there supposed “flaws,” such as freckles, wrinkles, or weight. This is a good step into the right direction. It’s a baby step, because Dove’s probably using this campaign to their own advantage, and the campaign probably helped them with their sales. Even though this is a marketing scheme, the ads that Dove puts up probably gave women inspiration in embracing and accepting their looks. Even though Dove is using this campaign to their advantage, I really feel that it can set an example for other brands. I saw the Dove Evolution video in 2010, and it had left a huge impression on me. I knew about Photoshop, but this video was really an eye opener, I had no idea Photoshop had that much power to change a person's looks so drastically. Dove also branches their campaign out to older women, in telling them to to proud of their wrinkles. They also have a campaign for kids, that helps with self esteem. Dove’s approach on advertising would be what Cortese calls “institutional advertising.” Cortese says, “Institutional advertising is designed to remind consumers that this company had been a part of their communities for a long time and should continue to be a part of their lives” (51). Cortese used the example of the fuel efficient car that was invented for the environment. Dove is just like that fuel efficient car, except it’s saying that they are changing for “real beauty.” Instructional advertisings are all advertisements that help companies promote that they are on the good guys side, but really they just want to sell their product.

from Google images

           Cortese made a few points about advertising and that is the fact that they create an illusion that everything is genderized. Now a lot of things are genderized because of the ads. He made a great point when he used those cartoon pictures where the media presents men as doctors and women as nurses, or men eat and women cook. Women are always shown as service to men. There needs to be ads that address equality in women and men. There needs to be an ad where women and men are both cooking and eating together. Lego does have a ad that complements this. They made an ad where a boy and a girl have legos. We need more ads like this. It shows equality. Both kids are posing happily in the same stance; neither appears more active than the other. This ad is also an alternative to the children that pose as sex objects. Children posing as sex objects is another problem Cortese brings up. We need more ads like this Lego Ad where kids are just happy and having fun, just being kids.

from msmagazine.com

Another major alternative to mainstream images would be the Ms Magazine. This is a feminist magazine, and from Gloria Steinem’s Sex Lies and Advertising, one can see the strong and touching history with Ms Magazine. In Sex Lies and Advertising we see how Ms Magazine had trouble getting companies like Estee Lauder to put their ads in Ms Magazine because they believed that feminists do not wear makeup. When Ms approached the president of Estee Lauder, his excuse was, “Estee Lauder is selling “a kept-woman mentality” (119). Revlon also opted out of Ms when Ms had a Soviet woman on the cover of their magazine. The reason Revlon opted out was because the Soviet woman had no makeup on.

Ms Magazine is different from other mainstream magazines. Mainstream magazines like Cosmopolitan would have ads from Estee Lauder and they would have good relationships, because they have beauty sections that tell women how to apply foundation on or how to look younger. According to Naomi Wolf, “Women’s magazine transmit “information” about the beauty products in a heavily self-censored medium. When you read about skin creams and holy oils, you are not reading free speech” (82). In other Wolf is saying that when the women’s magazines have articles on looking younger, or on applying creams and other beauty products they are not writing what they want to write, they are writing what the advertisers want them to write about. That is the difference between Ms Magazine and mainstream women’s magazine, Ms would not have articles that advertisers tell them to write. If an advertiser told them to write an article on their beauty product, they would not follow suit.  

Another great aspect of Ms Magazine is the fact that they follow the oppositional gaze. Ms Magazine writes on experiences of women from different cultures and backgrounds. They do not Photoshop their pictures. There articles touch on things that really matter in life such as equality for women, and it does not just dedicate a few paragraphs  the whole magazine is dedicated to it, unlike the Seventeen magazine where they have one page that tells girls to pledge to accept their bodies, when they have a “flawless” model’s picture on the next page. Ms does not have that, they will tell you to pledge and when you turn the page you learn about issues in equality and the picture on the next page will not be a airbrushed picture of a model, it will pictures of real women that have advocated and dealt with real issues. These women are women that are fighting for all the other women out there.

taken from msmagazine.com

Resources:

Gloria Steinem - “Sex, Lies and Advertising.” 

Jean Kilbourne - “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising."

Naomi Wolf - “Culture”

Anthony Cortese - Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads Sexism in Advertising

http://www.msmagazine.com/

http://www.jeankilbourne.com/resources-for-change/ (kilbourne provides a lot of resources and alternatives here)