Buying Into It

For a really long time, advertisers and marketers have been targeting audience based on their demographics. Whether you are old/young, black/white, rich/poor, man/woman, there was a product being sold to you across many mediums. They want you to get their product and they are manipulating you into buying into it.

When looking at the entire world of advertising and consumerism, it seems like one big, ugly circle; we are just going around and around.  In Susan Bardo’s article, Hunger as Ideology, paints a very clear picture of advertising manipulation and the psychology of it all. “In constructing the images, of course, continual use is made of knowledge of consumer’s lives,” says Bardo. This statement means that the images we see flash across our screen in between our favorite TV shows or thrown into our favorite magazines were constructed with the knowledge of how we live on a daily basis.  She goes on to highlight the psychology that the people behind media use to target their audiences and it is a scary revelation. “A careful reading of contemporary advertisements reveals continual and astute manipulation of problems that psychology and the popular media have targeted as characteristic dilemmas of the ‘contemporary woman,’ who is beset by conflict role demands and pressure on her time.”  Since marketers know that women struggle with each role that we take on and are expected to take on, they take advantage of that. That is what Bardo is saying. Ads for mascara or hair products using specific words like “perfect” and “control” to draw women in with this knowledge that using these products will help them gain control and become perfect. 

I think one can almost say that when it comes to media and advertising, there are no coincidences. Everything down to the colors and timing are specific to an audience. In Sex, Lies, and Advertising, Gloria Steinheim discusses the wondrous world of advertising in a women’s magazine.  This is so obvious in the part of the article where she discusses General Mills, Pillsury, Kraft and a few others who wanted to place adds next to the recipe section. However, apparently the problem is that in doing this, it will associate food with work, which is a negative thing.

Another great example of this idea is discussed in Douglas Kelner’s article, Reading Images Critically.  Kelner focuses on the symbolic images in cigarette advertisements such as Virginia Slims and Marlboro. These cigarette companies purposed to make smoking “cool.” How did they do this? Well, Virginia Slims did it in the 1980’s by marketing to women and convincing them that the new, modern woman smokes Virginia Slims. Their anti-patriarchal ad that portrays the Virginia Slim woman can handle it all and not be held back by society’s roles. Marlboro did it in their campaign by associating their product with being a “real man.” I remember many of the Marlboro ads with the real, rugged, good-looking man smoking a Marlboro red. This is just another manipulation by advertisers to create symbolic images to associate their products with.

As someone who actually works in media and marketing, I recognize these things. I, myself, am guilty of pinpointing my target audience and figuring out how to reach them. However, I don’t use sex or gender roles to put forth my “product.” I think it is possible, but still a fine line to walk. I don’t think marketing and media will ever go away from the “image.” The reality is that advertisements and media as a whole are mostly visual. We can never escape that. Whether you are a corporation, business, non-profit, or one person, you will always want to put your best foot forward and that includes how you look. So the question is, how can people sell their products without manipulating or selling sex? Although I am not completely sure, I think that recognizing the problem is part of it. Second, I think it starts from the executive level and also on the consumer level. Advertisers continue to sell us these ideas, whether it is sex or body image, we as a society buy into it. Maybe as we grow in our knowledge of the other side of advertising, we will stop letting them dictate to us what we want, what we should like and how life should be.