In Beauty and the Beast of Advertising, Kilbourne states: "[...]
the ads sell a great deal more than products. They sell values, images, and
concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and
normalcy. They tell us who we are and who we should be" (Kilbourne,
121). This statement could not have been closer to reality. When we reach
out to grab a bar of soap in the aisle of a supermarket, we are told that
there are female colors vs. male colors, female fragrances vs. male fragrances
and that distinction is further pronounced with shapes, angles (or
curves), and of course a visualization of what is male and female according to
societal standards. I recall, at a younger age, the older female figures in my
family would pick up a bottle of shampoo or see a cheesy ad on
television and point out the absurdities and lies the company was selling.
I never fully comprehended their agitation with those ads until I was old
enough to realize the impact similar ads had on my consumer behavior and my
inner monologue.
However, little did I pay attention to race or gender-specific roles
in the ads I was exposed to even after I realized they were perpetuating unattainable
beauty standards. Questions such as why a Caucasian female on the face of the
ad instead of an Asian, African American, or Middle Eastern never occurred to
me. Why have a male play the engineer, physician, or over-all dominating role
in an ad was never a question. It was normal. Almost ten years later and during
a discussion I had with a family member, they proceeded to mention that word:
“normal.” I was brought up between two very distinct cultures and my definition
of normal (or rather what I learned to define as normal) turned out to be
different from what the other person perceived as normal. What is normal, I
then asked. Define it, give examples, expand, is it applicable to human beings
or are the attributes associated with “normal” gender and race specific.
“By remaining unaware of the profound
seriousness of the ubiquitous influence, the redundant message and the
subliminal impact of advertisements, we ignore one of the most powerful
‘educational’ forces in the culture – one that greatly affects our self-images,
our ability to relate to each other, and effectively destroys awareness and action
that might help to change that climate” (Kilbourne, 125).
If the purpose of advertisements is to persuade us to buy a product or
service, then tapping into our imaginations and inner fantasies should be their
most fertile playground. This, again, can be done by assigning gender specific
colors, shapes, and imagery – essentially creating a map for our perception. In
Reading Images Critically, Douglas
Kellner points out the visual choices Marlboro and Virginia Slims chose for
their ads. For example, “Marlboro ad draws on images of tradition (the cowboy),
hard work…(this cowboy is doing some serious work), caring for animals, and
other desirable traits, as if smoking were a noble activity, metonymically
equivalent to these other positive social activities”(Kellner 128). In 1983,
Virginia Slims ad also attempted to “associate its product with socially
desired traits and offer subject positions with which women can identify...The
caption, linked to Virginia Slims slogan ‘You’ve come a long way baby’ next to
the package of cigarettes, connotes a message of progress, metonymically
linking Virginia Slims to the progressive woman and modern living” (Kellner
128).
We rarely get to hear kids’
perspective about their consumption behavior; mostly because we think they lack
the words to express how they feel or we think we’ll just receive “…because I
(don’t) like it.” This video, shown by her parent, filmed Riley expressing her
frustration with the gender-specific marketing of the toys section. And while
she does express her feelings in a very simple but very expressive manner, her
message is right on. Surprisingly, as we get older, the same gender-specific
marketing tactics remain perpetual, yet we never seem to have any frustration;
in fact, we tend to side with the gender we identify with. This begs the
question of whether our lack of frustration is a result of what we “normalized”
or that we just stopped questioning.
Works Cited
Kilbourne, Jean. Beauty and the Beast of Advertising.
Kellner, Douglas. Reading Images Critically - Toward a Postmodern Pedagogy.
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