Advertising: Representations of Women

1) What was the Protein World 'Beach Bodies' campaign?

It featured a tanned, blonde female who was marketing supplements for Protein World. The text said 'Are you beach body ready?'. It then showed the supplements to lose weight or look like the model in the ad. These were called, 'the weight loss collection'.

2) Why was it controversial?

It was suggesting that women would have to look like the model in the photo. The main argument is that the photo was body shaming women and tap into their insecurities to make them feel that they have to buy the supplement to look like this to go to the beach.

3) What did the adverts suggest to audiences?

It suggests that it you have to look like the female in the photo to be ready to go to the beach and to have the perfect 'beach body'. It's implying that you have to be thin to go to the beach.

4) How did some audiences react?

71,000 women had signed a petition on change.org for the ASA to take the ad down. Also other women posed next to the advert in their bikini's to create a more real picture of what women's bodies look like.

5) What was the Dove Real Beauty campaign?

An FBI trained sketch artist drew the women in the campaign based on their own depictions and then that of a stranger. In outcome was that the depictions of the total stranger were more attractive in the eyes of the female.

6) How has social media changed the way audiences can interact with advertising campaigns? 

There is more of a direct communication to institutions and a wider reach to have a conversation or debate about different ad campaigns where they can voice their opinion. Before word-of-mouth was the only communication and people couldn't tell if a lot of people felt that an ad was offensive or attractive as we couldn't communicate to the mass around the world.

7) How can we apply van Zoonen's feminist theory and Stuart Hall's reception theory to these case studies?

With the Protein World ad the target audience was female(19 - 30) but had attracted males with 'the male gaze'. The ad was print in the London Underground where it stood out to the monochrome and dull colours that are usually featured in the Tube. Because this stood out, people would remember the ad and have more of a distinct view or opinion of the ad. The representation of women is dependent and because this is a ad, the attraction here for a weight loss product would have the male gaze, which would also attract women. The reading here by the audience could be dominant, negotiated or counter-hegemonic based on the attraction the audience have on this advert. If women thought this was body shaming women to make them feel insecure to buy the product it would have an oppositional reading to the text.

The Dove campaign here is endorsing reality that all women look different and this is what real beauty looks like. It seeks pleasure from female audiences to recognise that they look fine just the way the are and they don't have to change to have a 'beach body'. The representation here would be dominant as it was highly regarded and was relatable to women. It wasn't a campaign for the male gaze, it was all about empowering women and targeting them.

8) Through studying the social and historical context of women in advertising, do you think representations of women in advertising have changed in the last 60 years?

They have definitely changes. In the 50s and 60s females in advertising were only there to pleasure men and were portrayed in patriarchal/traditional housewives roles. The 70s and 80s were all about sexualizing women for the male gaze and also to mostly see them as sex objects. The new century has now empowered women and we see them with more respect with this third wave of feminism creating this message that all women are accepted. 

Read these extracts from an academic essay on gender in advertising by Reena Mistry. This was originally published in full in David Gauntlett's book 'Media, Gender and Identity'. Then, answer the following questions:

1) How does Mistry suggest advertising has changed since the mid-1990s?

The gender and sexual orientation of characters in advertising are now left to be vague. There are now more homosexual images in advertising that do not use over the top camp stereotypes that are used in the mainstream media.

2) What kinds of female stereotypes were found in advertising in the 1940s and 1950s?

After the war there was this society crash. After the war stereotypes were put in place to create rules orfamiliarity in society. Women were targeted to feel guilty if they didn't fulfil their role as a housewife and mother. Their purpose was kept and reinforced with the increase in domestic goods such as washing machines and convenience foods. The domestic role was reinforced by advertising these goods to make it easier for women to fulfil their role in their homes.

3) How did the increasing influence of clothes and make-up change representations of women in advertising?

Women's femininity were seen to be created by acting passive and having their personalities created by commodities for male attraction. The female is meant to be controlled and awoken by men where they are sheltered from reality and were meant to be seen as 'perfect' and to remain this way until Mr. Right comes along. Women were objectified for men in advertising.

4) Which theorist came up with the idea of the 'male gaze' and what does it refer to?

Laura Mulvery(1975) came up with the 'male gaze'. It was created as men were seen in patriarchal roles at the time and women were passive in advertising. Women in advertising at the time were there for men to see. It was also seen in movies like James Bond where the female were seen as the damsel (Propp character roles) and were only used in the story to be looked at, 'men act, women appear'.

5) How did the representation of women change in the 1970s?

Women were a lot more sexualised in advertising. Products were now created on how to attract males. But also women are seen as sex objects in advertising for male products. The Gucci advertisement shows that the female 'comes with' the product. The female is used for the male gaze and the product gives men the requirement to attract a female.

6) Why does van Zoonen suggest the 'new' representations of women in the 1970s and 1980s were only marginally different from the sexist representations of earlier years?

Women in advertising were seen in work clothes and gave effort to presenting themselves in the workplace. However they were only there to be looked at, they never actually did any work to show that they now do have a meaning representation of themselves. It's no different from the male gaze in earlier years as they are seen to have no working role in a narrative apart to be looked or gazed upon by both sexes.

7) What does Barthel suggest regarding advertising and male power?

Young women in advertising now can defend the male power or keep them the way they are, posing no threat. But also with them gaining power a reassurance has to be made that no gender change has occurred.

8) What does Richard Dyer suggest about the 'femme fatale' representation of women in adverts such as Christian Dior make-up?

Products are used to make women appear that they are reclaiming their sexuality and that them using make-up is for their own enjoyment. But it still doesn't change the fact that women are still used in advertising to be looked at. It is only giving in or reinforcing male's sexual advances for women to be gazed at. It is this false sense of feminism.