Women In Advertising
November 19, 2007
In homage to the wonderful discussion going on in the comment section on our post about the launch of Womenkind, we thought we’d highlight the NOW Foundation’s new campaign titled “Love Your Body,” which focuses on ads they have deemed “Offensive to Women.” The group has selected eights print ads and created a larger PDF with more examples along with explanations of themes NOW finds offensive. They also offer a few examples of male advertising (strength, authority, age is sexy, etc.). What do you think?
Here are examples of more ads along with their themes:
1. An unachievable beauty standard via airbrushing (L’Oreal) and false beauty claims (St. Ives)
2. Women as a product (St Pauli Girl)
3. The use of women’s body parts as a selling device (Lynx Shower Gel and Tom Ford)
4. Sexualized violence (Dolce & Gabbana)
5. Women as a marker of success (Three Olives Vodka)
6. Belitting women’s real bodies for the purpose of male bonding (Maker’s Mark)
7. Women as servers (Lucky Jeans and Skyy Vodka)
8. Women preening for male pleasure (Bortaga)
To see one male’s response to these ads, please go here.
November 19, 2007 at 8:13 pm
The female models probably got paid more than the males. That offends me as a woman. !Equal pay for talent in bad ads!
November 19, 2007 at 9:32 pm
I don’t know what’s funnier Balls comment or the fact that most of these ads are in magazines that target women.
November 20, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Just a few of advertising’s finest examples of how the madmen of advertising regard the most powerful consumer segment.
Mama’s don’t let your babies grow up to be art directors.
November 20, 2007 at 3:55 pm
While i would agree with the negativity and poor taste of these ads, I don’t believe it’s particularly fair to label them all as the creation of sexist men.
Do you believe that there are no women working on the Paul Mitchell account? Gucci? L’Oreal?
Secondly, sexism in advertising does exist and is a problem but there are lots of men who can’t stand it, and are working to make sure it doesn’t happen in their workplace. I understand the frustration but offhand labels like “how the madmen of advertising regard women” aren’t particularly accurate or fair.
November 20, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Yeah I’ll buy that Schrodinger. I’m not on board with dissing the L’Oreal ads because of airbrushing. I mean did we see Brad Pitt on the cover of Details? They airbrushed the hell out of him. Airbrushing is just a way of life now it has nothing to do with sexism.
November 20, 2007 at 8:24 pm
C’mon Schrodinger, you want us to believe that a woman art directed that Tom Ford ad?
I agree that there are lots of men in the business who respect women, but in terms of the ads depicted here, I’m willing to bet that 90% of them were conceived and executed by men.
Women just wouldn’t stoop to this level.
PS — Is that a rocket preparing to launch on the computer screen in the Candy’s ad?
November 20, 2007 at 11:24 pm
To know for sure what was done by sexist men and what was done by women, you’d have to research on a case by case basis.
All i know is that, anecdotally, i’ve worked with female creatives who could crank out sex-related ads that would make a sailor blush. A female writer i had in ad school told a story of how she defended sexist, yet conceptual, ads to the client by saying, “I’m a woman, and I don’t think they’re sexist.”
And in the real world, there are tons of female fashion-industry execs who have for decades happily bombarded our culture with unhealthy expectations. Though i believe that is to make the ideal unattainable (and therefore prompt more consumption) than it is to be sexist. Note the powerful female fashion marketing exec who thought the “Real Beauty” campaign was not strategic because it wasn’t aspirational. Which to me is code for “these girls aren’t perfect enough.” (wish i could find that interview, but i can’t.)
Is the ad industry sexist? In many cases, yes. Are the ads in question sexist? Yes. Should we immediately blame all that on men who work in advertising? don’t think it’s that simple.
November 21, 2007 at 11:45 am
Is there anybody in this industry with media-consuming age female children who DOESN’T painstakingly explain, deconstruct and debunk EVERY FREAKIN’ female-targeted ad they see.
My 13-year-old is up on all the industry’s dirty tricks used to create an image of beauty that is, literally, impossible. Those digitally slimmed necks can’t support skulls with those digitally enlarged eyes.
But, like every group that complains about the way they’re portrayed in ads or on TV, NOW fails to appreciate that women are not the only group to see 2-dimensional, objectified, cartoon versions of themselves in the media.
This is American media. Everybody looks stupid.
December 11, 2007 at 5:17 am
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