Many of the ads that are made for women usually target their bodies and self-esteem. In their book titled Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill, Maggie Wykes and Barrie Gunter look at the media's impact on body image namely about women. According to them "Women feature in culture more often than not because of how they look and the preferred look is young, slender, sexual, and white." (Wykes and Gunter, p. 206) This is most apparent in today's advertisements. Much of the time that a woman is featured in an advertisement it is for one of two reasons. Either it is a product aimed towards the male audience and the woman ends up being sexualized or a woman is made fun of and told to change her appearance in order to attract attention.
With body image being a big issue among women, advertisements also aim to appeal to their want to improve their bodies. However, this also adds to the notions that all men want is a thin attractive woman instead of one with a few extra pounds. Susan Bordo wrote an article titled "Hunger as Ideology" and she address women's battles with weight and appearance. She writes,
"But in the nineties, features on diets, exercise and body-image problems have grown increasingly prominent in magazines aimed at African American readers, reflecting the cultural reality that for most women today --whatever their racial or ethnic identity, and increasingly across class and sexual-orientation differences as well--free and easy relations with food are at best a relic of the past" (Bordo, p.103)
What she is saying here is that women can no longer enjoy food without being judged. Much of the judgement is based on a woman's weight. For example, if a plus sized woman decides to eat some McDonald's, people may think she is obese. On the other hand, if a thin woman decides to only eat a salad or a sandwich, people may assume that she needs to eat more to be deemed normal. As a result, women may sacrifice a sense of happiness with food in order to be accepted.
In recent years, companies have actually tried to highlight the typical man and woman in their advertisements. For example, Dove launched a campaign for their products using plus sized models in an effort to appeal more to general consumers. In addition, they showed that any woman can be seen as beautiful. My aim for a new ad campaign is inspired by Dove and also addresses the issue of men being impacted by advertisements in a negative way.
The video posted above is an example of what I like in a new ad campaign for men and women. In the video, typical men show that they come in all shapes and sizes. In addition, it also shows how shallow the advertising companies appear when they cast an attractive model in their ads. My aim is not to hate on the models but to show them and the general consumer that advertisements are all about the ideal and not true to the reality of society. Women could do a similar thing and maybe pose in a store like Forever 21 or Victoria's Secret. Once again my ad campaign's goal would be to highlight real people and show that beauty can reside in anyone.What may not seem beautiful to some will be seen as beautiful by others. In addition, it will show that people will not have to change much in order to be noticed.
Works Cited:
Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley: University of California, 1993. Print.
Wykes, Maggie, and Barrie Gunter. The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill. London: SAGE, 2005. Print.
*The picture can be found at the following link: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8LJWHy-iJmTn-wMS2DjcSnJtjn16jPeMkStM4thlmwkbNZ4NkJdae00i06CcJPhrSE-NtjM6pY8tM1zOOzCo5QCCwbcfDHzEVX30SzTbFJQD0zMMxqUwc61JLjDj5Lzw1rLZl_t_Acxpc/s400/objectification1.jpg
*Link to the video: http://youtu.be/jdeBp8J0rqs
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