Hi, so I'm going to present my further oral.
First off, I have a video of a men's magazine, which to contextualize,
features nearly naked women in its pages. The commercial I'm going
to show was made for the 10th anniversary of the magazine.
It's called the babysitter.
This video reenacts the times that as a child, our parents would hire a
babysitter for the night they were going out. Here, the wife doles out
instructions like she's there to sit a baby ("He just had a snack, but
you can give him a bath, behave now and no complaints").
It is important to notice that the wife is portrayed as responsible, she
has the formal look with a blazer and she opens the door and leaves
the baby with the dad.
While walking out, she proceeds to say a phrase we probably have all
heard before "We'll be back soon, any problems give me a call".
Of course, this scenario is of pure imagination, as the wife seems to
be ok with the fact that another scantily dressed woman is taking
care of the husband. We see the real intention in the last scene, where
the woman is wearing just a top on, and the husband looks delighted.
As a babysitter is in control of a child, the woman is in control of the
man, we can see this by her body position on the last scene.
The slogan "Let us keep on dreaming of a better world" of course is
directed towards the men. This shows that the babysitter sketch is all
a man's fantasy really. This is actually a metaphor as it alludes to a
dream world, into a "better world" that can start to be fulfilled if they
read the magazine. In the point of view of a man buying the
magazine, this "better world" would simply be materialistic and
focused on his interest of physical intimacy. As this is a men's
magazine, the woman is a symbolization of the fantasy model that the
magazine includes in its pages frequently.
I'm going to compare and contrast a Pepsi-Cola commercial from
1957 and a J.C. Penney commercial from 2011 to show how much
hasn't really changed.
- During the 1950's the women were depicted as spouses, house
makers and mothers in the advertisements.
-Characterized as submissive, unintelligent to a certain point, passive,
dependent, and preoccupied with her physical appearance in
commercials.
What we can notice about the Pepsi-Cola commercial:
-The narrator, a male voiceover, is indicative of the environment
during the 50's. The male voiceover also represents the power men
have to tell a woman's story from his perspective and isolate her
from the conversation.
-The narrator constantly refers to the woman as the "beautiful, slim,
and attractive heroin".
-There is a word being often repeated, which is "modern", referring
to the lifestyle this woman lives, as a suburban homemaker with her
husband. The advertisers try to connect her modern lifestyle with
their product, which was modern at that time, because it was new.
Here, the advertisers position the audience as consumers who want
to be modern, therefore the commercial plays from this desire, a
desire typically frequent at this time. At the end of the commercial,
the advertiser says that a Pepsi goes along with the heroin's modern
taste, and then tells the consumer to have a Pepsi, hinting at the
opportunity for the consumer to live the lifestyle of the heroin.
-The constant referral to the woman and husband being "ordinary"
impacts the audience and influences their decisions and habits into
becoming ordinary.
-She is depicted as a housewife who has nothing better to do than to
take long walks with the baby in the stroller, to keep her figure trim,
and to go shopping, which is referred as a sport for the woman. This
is the image that the men producing these commercials wanted to
diffuse, making this a goal for women.
- The life goal seemed to find a husband to depend on and guarantee
a happily ever after
JC penny commercial:
-Attempts to promote its menswear brand Van Heusen.
-The commercial immediately positions its male audience as one that
is not interested in advertising for clothes, so instead of describing
anything from the menswear brand, it opts to show a split screen
with an actress getting out of a pool in slow motion emphasizing her
body and the soaking wet red bikini. The woman is given a larger
part of the screen than the man. This has a bandwagon effect on the
male viewers.
-The commercial clearly depicts the women as sexual objects with
decorative roles.
-in this case, the sexuality of the woman is used to sell the product,
even though her presence has no legitimate relation to the product.
SIMILARITIES
-Male narrator/voiceover
-Female is at the center of the
narrative, but is undermined by stereotypes.
-Reflects
the
culture
and
constructions at the time and now.
DIFFERENCES
-Types of stereotypes (passive,
superficial housewife vs. sexual
object)
-men are stereotyped in the JC
social Penney ad as only being interested in
bikini wearing women vs. not like
that for the Pepsi-Cola one.
-Pepsi is successful because it
establishes a connection between the
woman's modern lifestyle and a
modern refreshment, Pepsi.
- JC Penney as is unsuccessful
because it fails to substantially
connect iconic woman with the Van
Heusen brand.
The woman in the Van Heusen commercial is just there for sex
appeal, and despite the sexualized culture we live in, it is not enough
to make consumers interested in the Van Heusen brand