I always have an eye out
for advertising that participates in active stereotyping. We have learned
throughout this class that the media falls short of inclusion and accurate
representation of all people, women and minorities get the short end of the
stick in advertising. Women are solely used as an object of desire. We have
learned that sex sells, and marketers use women to sell sex throughout the
industry. Recently I was at Palm Beach Tan and saw this ad:
This ad pictures a boy and
girl who seem to have tan skin, that’s not what jumped out at me. The girl in
this picture is holding a teddy bear and a toy spin wheel and appears to be
very shy and dependent on this strong man. Although I did just go in for a tan,
this advertisement was very offensive to me. Most of the ads for Palm Beach tan
use women as sex objects, so you would think this would be a little bit better,
but it’s not. I find if very offensive that the female race is depicted as so
weak in this photo. Not only is she seen dependent on a man, but also she is
depicted as more of a child, holding toys. When women are the main consumers of
their product, I don’t understand why the company would go out of their way to
demean them. Sure, I might be the only woman who walked into Palm Beach and
thought of this advertisement as demeaning, (I have this class to thank for
that,) they lost me as a customer, whether they intended to or not. This
affects me because, even when I am trying to do something as simple as tan, I see
advertisements than demean my success and portray me as weak. Women have a hard
enough time as it is gaining respect and fulfilling success. We already have a
number of advertising that portray us as an object of sexual desire, we don’t need
more advertising portraying us a weak and childlike. Advertising should focus
more on not being gender specific.
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