1) Ad for Golf Institute of Canada in "Golf Magazine".
2) Ad read in "Men's Health".
3) Ad in "Good Housekeeping".
4) Ad in "New York Magazine".
5) Ad in "People Magazine".
6) Ad in "Black Enterprise" magazine.
7) Ad in NCAA basketball.
8) Ad in Internet advertising.
9) Ad on Reality TV.
10) Ad in the Oklahoman.
2) Ad in "Men's Health" is actually a spread copy taking up both pages in the particualr segment of the magazine. On one side we see a black Boston Celtics player and the left we see an out-of-shape, hairy white man who just got out of the pool. The writing compares their drastically different stories, but does not overshdow the fact that they are both athletes and are passionate about their respective sports. This doesn't break down the tradtional "blacks are more athletic" stereotype well, but at least it's acknowledging that they are both at least called athletes.
1) Ad in "Golf Magazine" shows beautiful greens and scenic environments from which to play gold upon, and a group of white men standing, their backs toward us, looking off into the the majesty of the course of the Golf Management Institute of Canada. The thing that's wrong with this advertisement is that all of these men look white and well into their middle ages, cutting out the sense that young people as well as people of other races can be out playing gold and excelling at it, but there is no other racial representation in the ad.
3) This advertisement surprisingly broke down the traditional streotype that women cannot play active sports, that they are confined to the kitchen and are physically incapable of performing such tasks. But wee on the ad a small young girl playing with a croquet mallet. The mallet is almost two feet taller than her and yet she is playing with it. Granted, it's not the revolutionary non-conventional effect that, say, an ad that showed a woman playing football would but it's definitely a start.
4) Ad in "New York" magazine shows an ad for ShopVogue.tv. We see all the features that the Web site has to offer and everything that we will be able to do should we log on. But the smiling faces/models that they use to advertise this with are all white, skinny, beautiful women. Almost as if, byt placing these faces up there and by ordering their products, customers can then look like these wondrous women. Which is not only folly, but just plain ignorant.
5) Ad in "People" magazine was an ad for clothesoffourback.com and showed that items were being offered up for auction, the proceeds going towards children's charities. The two most famous items are a collared-down shirt worn by Clay Aitken and the blouse of Jordin Sparks. It's easy to see the advertising parallels in this. After all, if you're gonna have one "Idol" in this ad, you have to include other "Idol" competitors of different races to increase your scale of marketability.
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Reflections?
ReplyDeleteI think that are society is comfortable with what they see on tv. In the Golf Magazine ad, the only minority youll probably will ever see in golf ads will be Tiger Woods. Its as if advertising companies know what their doing but do a little bit to keep people happy but in doing so we can now see that its not enough. How can we look past the racial and gender issues? How can we take a take to fix this problem or will it ever get fixed. To me as of right now we see the problem but we're doing nothing to fix the problem.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you found some very interesting advertisements. On your ad #3 I will agree with you that it is a step in the right direction for women and athletics, but I will say it is croquet. Croquet is a sport yes, but not very strenuous. I think they are a little afraid to put a little bit of a masculine edge to women, because they are afraid of losing their sexy, house wife, fragile image. Another thing along the lines of women and athletics is do you know anything about women’s basketball? I am talking about on the professional level. Why are they more important than the men’s league? Is it because the game itself started as a male only sport so it is viewed as masculine?
ReplyDeleteI wanted to comment about all of the advertisements I have seen with beautiful white women. It is absolutely absurd that size zero, big breasted women are being portrayed as the average woman in the United States. The average sized woman is actually a size 14! And since when is it normal for skinny women to have such big boobs?? This gender stereotype creates unnecessary pressures on young women and can cause low self-esteem and even depression. It isn't fair for women to be held to such high standards like this. Why is it okay for men to be of different sizes but women can't?
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