Women and their bodies have been used for advertisement throughout the years. Most ads taught women that their bodies can get them anything they wanted. They could be used as weapons for good or bad. Many times ads will choose a particular part of the body to advertise their products. Usually the body parts that are used have a meaning that can be obvious or hidden. As stated in Women’s Lives Multicultural Perspectives (WLMP, p. 208) about how women are represented “dominant U.S culture often reduces women’s bodies, valuing us only as sex objects or bearers of children”.
This Pinnacle Vodka ad that I found online is advertising a whipped cream flavored Vodka. Two things caught my attention the most and they’re the reasons why I choose this advertisement. The first thing is the woman in the background. Her body is clearly being used to promote the alcoholic beverage. Looking at her more closely it’s seen that her bikini is actually whip cream. The fact that her body is displayed in the ad shows that she is being used to sell the product. Here we see an example of commodification. Another key detail is that they used a Caucasian thin woman opposed to a thicker woman of color. Referring back to her weight I think it’s a significant part of the ad because we live in a world where thin is “ideal”. “Feminist scholars have analyzed the oppressive nature of ads and media representations that bombard women and girls with an ideal of beauty defined as thin, lean, tall, young, white, heterosexual…” (WLMP, p. 208) this represents how our idea of beauty impacts our lives in every way.
The second part of the ad that seemed to pop out was the quote on the bottom. This quote can mean many things depending on how it’s broken down. In my opinion it seemed as though it were saying that women are controlling over men. For the simple fact that in the background there is a woman and that it said “been whipped lately?” just gives off that impression. Another reason is that this ad seems to be more for the male audience. That’s what gives off the notion that by saying this it’s referring to how women are towards men.
Using women, specifically their bodies, is demeaning because they are being used as objects. Advertisements don’t necessarily need to have women representing an object (example a chair) it can include using their body parts to sell their merchandise. Either way it gives off a bad impression towards women and their bodies because, they’re no longer seen regular people but instead as some sex object. Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy way to end this issue, at least not until people learn that beauty goes beyond physical appearances.
Works Cited:
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women’s Lives Multicultural Perspectives 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.
Pinnacle Vodka. 2011. 11 October 2011. <http://www.pinnaclevodka.com/advertising>.
Yes, I totally agree. What I also think is being insinuated by the quote and something that it reminded me off is the expression " your whipped", mainly when a man is "whipped' by a girl, saying that he really likes her and does practically anything for her. Seems to me as though they may imply that since she is an" attractive hot sexy woman" that in that case it is completely acceptable for a man to be whipped. And having the alcohol that is being promoted just makes it even worse. I feel that the message is "get drunk with this and a hot sexy woman will come to you with whipped cream on her bodys parts so you can lick it all off" . It has a guy fantasizing already on all the possibilities that could happen at a party with a woman when they are drunk.
ReplyDeleteI also love that last statement, people really do need to learn that beauty goes beyond physical appearance, and I feel that will never be socially recognized in the media.
Stepahnie,
ReplyDeleteYou make some very interesting points about the way the woman's body is being used within the ad. You include textual analysis to develop you claim effectively! Good job!