Media Analysis

Media Analysis: Negative Image
When looking at the evolution of advertising, one can easily see how much has changed since its early days. Advertising used to be so bare and simple; only the product that was being sold was shown along with the price. It wasn’t until recently that advertisements, as well as commercials, became over the top, praying on the exploitation of women’s sexuality. Provocative, vulgar, raunchy, and pornographic are all adjectives that have commonly been used to describe the advertisements and commercials of today’s society. Just flip through any magazine and you will quickly realize why such strong words are being used. No matter what the product is that is attempting to be sold, women in these ads are exploited through their sexuality. In some advertisements, that exploitation is so extreme that the viewer has a hard time differentiating between what is being advertised; the woman or the product. In such advertisements women are seen in sexually seductive positions and in minimal clothing with a passive look painted across their face. Such images have been imprinted into the minds of the mainstream population, desensitizing them to such exploitations. Many Americans don’t even know when an advertisement is crossing the line, and this is unacceptable.
In today’s fast paced and racy society, women have been stripped down of all their worth and have become nothing more than a shadow or silhouette of society, waiting for a man to come and fill her in. Jessica Valenti described our culture in a very age appropriate way; “Pop culture sex is sugar and spice, tits and ass” (41). In this way, they are treated as an object and possession rather than as a subject, and this comes through in the advertisements that are seen on an everyday basis. A perfect example of this is an ad that Skky Vodka published. It portrayed a man and a woman lounging by the pool having a cocktail. The first thing that draws the viewer in this ad is the bright orange of the pool raft in contrast of the vibrant blue of the pool water. This is so the viewer stops at the ad and takes a closer look. Next, their attention is focused on the woman lounging in a wet, see-through dress; the ultimate male fantasy. The male viewers are hooked. This specific ad is implying many things, most being underlying messages. One such message is the fact that the man is on the side of the pool, versus the woman, who is in the water floating on a raft. What can be taken from this is that the man is on stable ground while the woman is in water, which is unstable and easily moveable. Thus meaning that men are the stable gender and women can come and go with the current. Another interesting underlying message in the advertisement is the positioning of the models. The woman is laying in a sexually seductive manner, almost inviting the viewer to look at her as an object, where the man is laying passively on the chair looking down at the woman. He is pouring her a drink and the bottle of vodka, supposedly the main aspect of the ad, is conveniently pointing between her breasts. This is so the audience is drawn to the bottle and then to the breasts, yet another objectifying aspect of this ad. The last message that can be obtained form this advertisement deals with the beauty standard of our culture. The woman is tall, thin, big-breasted and blonde. If this isn’t screaming the stereotypical bombshell beauty that our culture knows and loves then I don’t know what is. Having this portrayed in the advertisement just contributes to the concept that if you wish to be desirable in society, you must have the “ideal-beauty” which the model in this ad perpetuates. “None of us want to be ugly; in fact, we all would really like to be beautiful-and it’s killing us. Literally” (197). In this statement, Valenti explains the desire of women is to be seen as being beautiful and they will go to any length necessary to reach that goal.
This advertisement is aimed at both genders, showing males they can get the bombshell beauty if they pour her a class of Skky and it shows women that if they drink this vodka they will be seen as beautiful. The point of view that his ad takes concerning body image is disgusting. It just backs up the ideals of the beauty standard and keeps it spinning in its vicious cycle. As a society, we need to become more aware of the objectification our women are taking in these advertisements and stop it if we wish for our culture to become better as a whole.

Works Cited
Valenti, Jessica. Full Frontal Feminism: Beauty Cult. 197-212. Print.
Valenti, Jessica. Full Frontal Feminism: Pop Culture Gone Wild. 41-59. Print.



Media Analysis: Positive Message
Ever since the nineteen-forties, women have been used as objects to sell a variation of products. Back in those days, the majority of advertisements were propaganda advertisements trying to get women into the workforce to help out their men in whatever way they could. Many became Army nurses, and many began working in the factories. Rosie the Riveter, who was the cultural and feminist icon of this time period, represented the women in the workforce during World War II. The advertisements that she was featured in showed her fully clothed and doing something that gave a woman the sense of power and entitlement to do something to help her country out. Obviously, the advertisements of today contrast greatly from the days of Rosie the Riveter. In today’s society, popular culture has objectified and dehumanized women to simply represent a man’s desire and lust. They are not looked at for their intellect, athletic ability, or even their face; the only thing that is important for a woman is what is between her neck and knees. The advertisements of today often place women in sexually seductive positions, with little to no clothing on, selling anything from lingerie to jeans to perfume. “After all, while billboards and magazine ads may feature a ripped guy from time to time, it’s mostly women who make up what sexy is supposed to be” (41). It is sad to think that mainstream has been desensitized to such extreme objectifications of women for the male consumer-product economic market.
Although this prior statement deems true in today’s society, not all advertising companies wish to portray such messages when using women for the purpose of selling a product. There are some advertisements that do send positive messages about women and their body image through depicting women in their natural beauty; no alterations necessary. Some show plus size models in bras and panties where others show women with no make up on, portraying their natural look. A perfect example of a positive message ad was run in the March 2009 edition of Shape magazine. It was advertising ASICS running shoes, and that was noticeable from the second you look at the ad. The bright green colors, along with the text which reads; “Be satisfied with the grass on your own side of the fence” that is scrolled across the double page advertisement, makes you stop and think about the underlying meaning. Obviously, the ad is trying to sell the ASICS running shoes that are shown in the lower left hand corner of the ad. The woman that is modeling the shoes seems to be muscular and athletic by the looks of her leg muscles. This type of image is so important for popular culture to see because it helps offset different ideas concerning women and the American beauty standard; that women are supposed to be fragile and take up as little space as possible. Jessica Valenti agrees with this in her essay from Full Frontal Feminism: Pop Culture Gone Wild. She says that all of these contradictions that are out about women and their body images “make it more difficult for young women to find an authentic sexual identity” (49). Going back to the text of the advertisement, this is another positive innuendo that the ad is exuding. It is a play on the popular saying “The grass is always greener on the other side” which is a message that many advertisements today are sending out. The ASICS ad stands out against the rest because it is implying that viewers need to be comfortable and content with themselves exactly the way they are with no changes being required. Observably, the advertisement is most likely trying to target a female audience seeing as how a woman is modeling the shoes and it is thought that women are the only gender that is affected by negative body images, which we know isn’t all true.
All in all, this specific ad is such a great example of a positive message of body image as well as a positive use of using a woman to sell a product. From their play on words, to the athletic woman they used to model the shoes, the ASICS ad is positive all across the board. In so many ads today, women are objectified by their sexuality and are only identifiable by how they attract the graze of a man. If more women were seen in advertisements as being intellectuals, as athletes and even as holding some sort of power for themselves, the change we would see in popular culture would be astonishing.

Works Cited
Valenti, Jessica. Full Frontal Feminism: Pop Culture Gone Wild. 41-59. Print