WEEK 4 EOC: Role Of Women In Contemporary Advertisement

This is the contemporary woman, as displayed in marketing advertisements for American Apparel. This brand has always been notorious for their exploitation of extremely young, frail women. They have been sexualized and seen more as an object than a person.

But here’s the question. How is it possible to sell women’s lingerie, to women, but by objectifying women? I guess it goes to show that men are still the ones with the upper hand in marketing campaigns. We all know men are not the one buying lingerie, women are.

In my opinion, retail needs to start to respect women, instead of sexualizing them. That pose this women is in, is for men to look at, not woman. I know I don’t want feeling that gives other people, but to me, it gives me a cringe. Was this really the classiest pose they could have put her in to show off the product?

At the same time, this picture is sexualized and scandalous. It makes you talk about it regardless of how you feel. So I guess this is really a good job for advertising. It does go with the theme in most magazine advertisements though.

Women are always bent over, posed provocatively, showing a lot of skin, and sometimes even seen being dominated by men. In Dolce & Gabanna Ads all over magazines, there are a lot of men, pretty much dominating a scantily clad woman. This isn’t rare of the image of a woman in contemporary marketing,

WEEK 3 EOC: Tobacco Advertisement

There are so many disturbing factors in the ethics behind this Copenhagen Tobacco advertisement that I’m not sure where to start. In October of 2015, the previous ad started popping up all over the pages of TEEN magazines and maybe more alarming than that is the girl pictured in it, she doesn’t look a day older than 14 years old. The message attached to it is “ do whatever you want”. So exactly what do you want when you are an impressionable teen? Well apparently according to this ad it is to chew Copenhagen tobacco, This is sad, especially because a few inches down is the medical warning that it does cause gum loss and cancer. So this is what the advertising companies thinks is ok ?  I will follow up with framing this with the 8 points from our textbook.

HOW TO FRAME A SCENARIO

·       1. Determine the scenario: What happens in this frame?

• There is a young girl holding a container of Chewing Copenhagen tobacco.

·       2. What is the setting? What are the conditions?

• The setting seems to be a pink walled adolescent environment, perhaps her bedroom.

·       3. Who are the people or groups?

• The people are young, preteen, girls who like pink, or boys who like teen girls. The age range is that of teens who do not yet wear makeup.

·       4. What is their point of view around this specific experience?

• The point of view is that you should be able to do what you want, and what you want to do is chew Copenhagen tobacco.

·       5. What are their goals?

• Their goals are to get young teens to chew their “natural Copenhagen” tobacco.

·       6. What are their assumptions? What are their perceptions?

• They assume young people, especially girls can relate to this wide eyed blonde all American girl who likes pink and likes doing what she wants, and what she wants in this image is to chew Tobacco.

·       7. Are there conflicts? Is there cooperation?

• There are no conflicts in this image.

·       8. What are the outcomes?

• The outcome is that this type of girl will be interested in Copenhagen chewing tobacco. 

WEEK 2 EOC: Red Bull: is wings really what it gives you?

It is brave to make such a bold statement as to say one 16 Oz can will make you fly. But this is exactly the bold route that Red Bull decided to take. Quite contradicting to their emblem, which is two Red heavy Bulls, their most notorious campaign uses a statement that might make people feel light weight and magical.

Because sometimes, regular coffee doesn’t cut it. Regular coffee doesn’t let you fly, and when life become more than bearable, there’re red bull to give you the super natural, to give you the ability to fly.

Personally, I believe in the power of Red Bull and their marketing techniques. They definitely catered to the right crowd when I was attending college. There were girls dressed in cutoff shorts and Red Bull tanks passing the drink out from their Red Bull shaped back pack. And who better to get hooked on your product than tired college students?

What appeals to me about this product is the sleekness and thinness of the bottle. I do have to admit, there is something addicting about the product. The taste is exceptional to me, and I can definitely tell the difference between this beverage and a different one. Not to mention, ordering a vodka Red bull sounds way more chic than ordering a vodka tonic.

To me, drinking out of that skinny blue can, means that you are a very busy person, and you have to resort to above average measures to keep up with your busy busy life.

But Red Bull indeed, settled a false advertising lawsuit in March, 2015 to the tune of 13 million. The class action suit claims that Red Bull is misleading, as it really does not give you any kind of “wings” or “boost” and the ingredients are less than average, as the active ingredient is caffeine.

I guess this explains why lately, we haven’t seen any of the cute stick figured Red Bull men grow a pair of wings. I wonder what the advertising community will do to come back from this.