Advertising, Sex and beliefs

An Arabian shampoo ad
(Image Source: adoholik.com)

I believe advertising has changed over the years, whereby the growth of feminism has evolved the advertising industry, bringing forth a more gender equalized society. However, studies found that over a 15-year span, the portrayal of women as “sex objects” and “alluring” has increased dramatically in advertisements to further benefit the industry financially (D'Enbeau, 2011). Fung (2000), on the other hand, suggest that the feminist philosophy has flourished in the West, though it differs in Asia despite its modernization and development, seeing that the Asian society is still deeply entrenched in the patriarchal tradition.

Megan Fox for Armani
(Image Source:http://djanecouture.wordpress.com)

The article ‘The highly sexual art of selling perfume’, which was published in the Daily Life on the 21^st of May 2012, explains how advertising agencies promote their product with portrayals of women in hyper-sexual images. Madonna’s first fragrance, for instance, was highly criticized for revealing scantily clad images in its advertisement, which was subsequently banned in the States soon after it was launched.  In a nut shell, the article emphasizes that high-end brands often glamorizes imageries that are perceived as overly sexy (Oakes, 2012).

(Image Source: simply-showbiz.com) 

Schriver (1997) relayed that individuals interact and interpret words and visuals based on their values and beliefs. In other words, individuals whom live in dissimilar cultural backgrounds or beliefs may deduce an advertisement in a different manner. Hence, if the Asian society employs advertisements that were suited for the Western community, there is a high chance of creating an offence among the society of Asia due to their conservativeness and practice of traditional values. With that in mind, I find that the advertising industry needs to take extra precautions and understand the audiences’ cultural context before producing an advertisement. So, with the Western marketers producing such distasteful advertisements such as Madonna’s, perhaps it is time for a change, instead of constantly associating women with sex found in advertisements.

References

D’Enbeau, S 2011, ‘Sex, Feminism, and Advertising: The Politics of Advertising Feminism in Competitive Marketplace’, Journal of Communication Inquiry, [e-journal], vol.35 no.1, pp. 53-69, Available through: SAGE journals online [Accessed 8 June 2012].

 Fung, A 2000, ‘Feminist Philosophy and Cultural Representation in the Asian Context’, International Communication Gazette, [e-journal], vol. 62, no.2, pp. 153-165, Available through: SAGE journals online [Accessed 8 June 2012].

Oakes, S 2012, ‘The highly sexual art of selling perfume’, Daily Life, 21 May, viewed 8 June 2012,<http://www.dailylife.com.au/dl-beauty/the-highly-sexual-art-of-selling-perfume-20120518-1yvd4.html>.

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design, John Wiley & Sons, New York, USA.