I Need This, That & The Other Thing You're Selling

Advertisers play a huge role in society. Their job is to successfully sell things to the public and that's fine. How they construct and design ads, essentially package a certain product is the most important. They determine what the masses will see; something with that much power and influence is never a great idea. According to Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads: Sexism in Advertising, a successful advertisement campaign will do two things: "raise [the] anxiety level ...[and] "persuade [the public] that [they] need something." 

Past strategies of selling products through sexually suggestive images have worked and so that method is here to stay. Sex sells and now even naive girls as young as 11 know that thanks to the excessive amount of exposure to these advertisements but they wouldn't know any better from the photo-enhanced photographs and reality. It is even more devastating given that in today's culture, "women seek [role models] on the screen and the glossy page [of magazines]." If that's where females find their aspirations, it is sure to take a toll on their self-esteem as it's not humanely possible to strive to a level of perfection that does not exist. For those who are not critical of the media and its influence on them, it can affect them at a greater level. (Unfortunately, there are many who are not aware.) According to a poll taken by UK adults, only a mere 41 percent "felt the media was responsible for dictating public perceptions of the ideal body shape." Crazy!

Androgynous Model Andrej Pejic on Dossier Cover

Part of the reason why advertisers hold so much power is because they get to dictate to the public what they think the idealized version of a female and a male will look like. They're God almost. For men, they can either have the tall, thin hipster-like look or be buff and muscular, athletic. For women on the other hand, they must be ultra slim yet also be curvy with a great rack and a Brazilian butt. When public figures don't fit into that mold, there's controversy. That's exactly what happened last year with androgynous model Andrej Pejic. Born a male, he has looks every female would kill for: long blonde hair with high cheekbones. However, major bookstore companies Barnes & Noble and Borders banned all copies of Dossier Magazine being uncomfortable with a shirtless Andrej. The cover photo caused uneasiness with many corporations and advertisers because his unconventional image doesn't fit into a certain norm. He shook things up. How do they pigeonhole this less publicized identity? 



Thankfully, there are always exceptions with everything in life. For manipulative advertisements, there is something called subvertising. The primary goal of subvertisement being to be informative, encouraging users to look at everything in the media with a critical eye. (It's lingo is a mixture of the words: subvert and advertisements. They are generally spoofs making fun of corporations or products.) The image above is a great representation of that. Created by the EFF, Electronic Frontier Foundation aims to "defend rights in the digital world" and in this image, it criticizes big tech company Apple.  

Subvertising of Apple's Ipod.

The spin-off ad creatively pokes fun at Apple and their hidden intentions through one of their most successful products, iPod. They question the actual relationships between the company and the consumer and the company and the artist. Either way, Apple comes out on top taking money from all sides even being deemed in an article as the next "Evil Empire."

 Instead of having a certain liberation from choosing what songs you want to add in your music library for only 99 cents, Apple hides the fact that overtime consumers will become so dependent on iTunes that it'll be too much of a hassle to find other mediums to purchase music. This idea that iTunes will be their go-to source for all of their music necessities builds on to the advertising strategy of audience allegiance. What's worse is Apple's customized products are built in a way where only they can fix the product (iPod) should any problem ever arise in the future. The iPod and iTunes hurt artists as Apple receives a compensation for every song that is downloaded, leaving little money left for them which is stated by the subvertisement by showing the iPod are chains for the consumer. 

There is slight progress. Marie Claire recently published an issue with Jessica Simpson on the cover with no makeup and no usage of Photoshop. It's a rare sight to see on drugstore shelves where magazines are sold. This was last year. All we can do is remain hopeful that within the near future this will become a reality for every outlet, every issue. Then more precious lives won't be lost and girls like and can stop starving themselves to aspire to be like Barbie to have unattainable measurements of 38-18-34. Women everywhere will start to learn that it's not them that needs to change but the media and the sexually suggestive advertisements around them does.

...And future memes like this won't exist.

Sources

Cortese, Anthony. “Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads: Sexism in Advertising.” Provocateur Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising. United States Of America, 2004. 45-76.

Wolf, Naomi. “The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women.” Gender, Race and Class in Media. William Morrow and Company, 1991. 

Kilbourne, Jean. “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising." Gender, Race and Class in Media.  Ed. Gail Dines, Jean M. Humez. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc, 2003.

Steinem, Gloria. “Sex, Lies and Advertising.” Gender, Race and Class in Media.  Ed. Gail Dines, Jean M. Humez. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc, 2003.