Advertising is creating of awareness or making known of a product to the proposed or targeted customer. Advertisements consist of a picture(s), wording or the message, and sound. Adverts could be targeting a first time product on the market or an existing product that a company is still advertising its new developments, or reminding the customers that the product is still in use, and retain them. Advertising is important because it makes the company and the product known, as well as increases of sales, and keeps in touch to the customers and persuades them to buy your product or continue using it if they were. Different medium like the TV, radio, newspapers, internet, or the billboards may be applied in advertising. The advertiser should make sure that the adverts make sense, so that the customer will easily understand the ad or the product being advertised.
It is true that beauty and body image are such a big issue in our lives today. People who are considered beautiful get away with many things, compared to the ‘normal’ person. When it comes to products or good that we need as consumers, we admire that pleases our eyes. Beauty is visual and is what is seen first, and are likely t judge by it.
According to Dhar, visual or appearance of a commodity is important while advertising, especially on Television. People not only want to hear the message but also enjoy the good appearance of the advertisement. People easily remember interesting ads for a very long time, so the company should do their best to capture the customer on instance.
Therefore, it comes without saying that, consumers are be enticed by the beauty of the person advertising the product and end up buying it even if they really did not need it. This happens all the time for the undecided buyers or exploring buyers. Just because a certain product is associated with a certain person, a person you look up to or admire, you will buy it because of that simple reason. Even in the stores, a person will be attracted by a product that is well packaged, compared with the one that is dull and not inviting.
In the first ad where Keira Knightley is advertising the perfume, it denotes that the perfume makes you feel or look as beautiful as she looks in that ad. You can also say that it denotes that the perfume is simply natural, or harmless or just beautiful. Her being naked connotes that the perfume is as smooth or natural as she looks in that advertisement. It also looks seductive, sexy and lovable, thus capable of attracting men too. Men will buy the perfume for their girlfriends or wife, while ladies will want to be associated with her and Chanel products too. Again, when you look at her, she is not looking at the perfume itself at all. There is no attachment of her to the perfume. She does not look like she really likes the perfume. It is just placed besides her, so you would think she was just posing for a photo or doing a movie. The first thing you actually see is her nakedness and the cap that is hiding the breasts. She looks at the consumer, like she is trying to tell them something verbally. The consumer will most likely be looking at her body first, then the perfume.
When the consumer looks at this perfume, they imagine the price to the perfume. Chanel products are expensive, and identify with a certain class of people. It would be easy for ladies and young men who like her or admire her to want to use that perfume, and may be it is not the perfume she uses herself. Keira is skinny herself, so the girls watching this ad may have the ambition of looking just like her. Some these images are exaggerated on the ads and they are not what the customer thinks it is. Ads that portray beauty especially by skinny models are that it may cause the growing up girls to have unrealistic goals or expectations as they grow up. They may want to look just like those models. If they do not achieve theses goals, they may end up depressed, have a low esteem and feeling inadequate in life. They may try dieting, starving, or having an eating disorder. This is wrong because beauty has got no particular standard that is used to measure how beautiful a person is. You cannot measure the amount of beauty that one should possess for them to be totally beautiful. The media should portray ads that empower people but not unrealistic ones. They should have ads that encourage the young people but not destroy their self esteem or self worth.
In most of these kinds of ads, women are only portrayed to concentrate on their outside beauty and not intelligence. Growing up girls grows knowing that they only need to be beautiful and of a certain size to get whatever they need in life. They think they have to have the perfect body image; be thin, a little masculine at the same time beautiful. Basically the media dictates to them how they ought to look and live. Women can advertise without being portrayed as sex objects. The advertisers should make sure that although an ad can be sexy, but should not be sexual at all. This sends the wrong message to the innocent minds and may grow up knowing otherwise from the reality of life. It is unfortunate that life judges from physical appearance. Beautiful or handsome people are favored in pretty many areas of life. They get away with many things just because the society terms them beautiful.
Women may be used to advertise men products so that to attract them to buy the product. Some of them may not be decent. For example, an advertisement of a new car that shows a bikini wearing lady or a see me through dress is displaying herself on top. This may be too revealing, attracting a lot of attention to the customers. As much as this ad is going to attract the eye of many men, it is not decent enough for the fellow women, so it does not feel okay.
Wolf says that due to these pressures some women may end up feeling inferior just because they think they should look like those people in the advertisements (p 35). Some ads may make the women look less important or cheap to the men because of what they are displaying.
Girls and boys who are still growing up may have the wrong impression about beauty and brains. They may think that girls can only be beautiful, but the boys should have the brains, which is not the case at all. Baker says in her book that every woman must free themselves from beauty trap.
Women should understand that what works for other people may not work for them. They should explore for things that match their skin color, interests and things that feel comfortable in their skin. This is the only way that they are going to be their true self. Coping what other people does, or wears, or drive among other does not make them a better person or like them; it makes one their slave. This is because they will have to wait until they tell you what to use or wear or drive next! Every person is an individual and should do things as they like. The unique features in every person are what make them stand out and be beautiful, but not what others say is beautiful.
Lee Monle says that there are ads that portray women only as housewives, or men as superior than women. The woman of today is successful and has achieved a lot in the men’s field, therefore they should not be portrayed as the weaker sex, yet they are as powerful if not better. The media should not only focus on the beauty of a woman but also other things that the can do and are as good and important too. They should use women’s successes to advertise things that matter.
Advertisers manipulate the customers on the popular culture or trend to be able to sell their commodities. They make the customer do their things the way other people who are perceived to be ideal or perfect do. They buy clothes because a certain celebrity does or was seen on the television, magazines or the ads having that clothe. People never become themselves because they have to look in a certain way to fit in the society, or feel like one of them. Buyers should be given the power of purchase without being manipulated by the advertiser. The problem is, how do you make sure you are not manipulated when all these advertisements are all over; in the TV, radio, internet, basically everywhere you go? Americans watch television when they are not working therefore they are likely to come across these ads almost all the time. The only factor left is being able to restrain from the ads and be an individual and do things how you like them and not how you are told to.
Advertisers invest on the model they are going to pick to do their ad. If it is a man, they pick the one who is pleasing to look at by their standards. That is body size, voice, among other. They are aware that they will make good sales if they do their ads very well, considering what entices people most; for example David Beckam who is a successful footballer. You realize that women buy male clothes for the men in their lives. Women shop a lot, so they make sure the ad attracts the woman too even if it is for the opposite sex. They continually make people think that the western culture and the thought of beauty on a stereotyped Hollywood model as the true beauty. This has brain washed the customers to think that that is how an ideal life should look like or ought to be.
The feminism in the women is usually expressed to be sexy. Sex in ads attracts attention just at once for both men and women. It does not matter if the ad is provocative or not. If people like it, they will talk about it. If they do not, they shall still talk about it, thus the product shall advertise itself either way. Actually if they do not like it is when they will talk about it more. But that does not mean they will not use the product. The advertiser just has to make sure that the message is passed. The female body is out there selling everything; edible and non-edible. Women and men are both attracted by the sexual appeal of either sex. It catches that eye at once and that means immediate sales.
Girls are made to believe that they have to be beautiful to be happy with themselves, thus going to the extremes to attain what they see from the media. For instance, adopting awful eating habits so that they may look exactly like the model they see on television or those other mediums. They want to weigh less; go for surgery to change their looks to fit what is displayed by the media. The advertisers know how to get their clients buy the product so they will not stop doing it. They have to be in business regardless whatever.
Strasburger says that looking at the ads can for the short term affects a person’s self esteem, especially teenage girls, who are greatly exposed to these media things ideal physical appearance and beauty. Some ads that touch on drugs may also influence the young people to thinking that drinking of alcohol is fashionable, yet it is not. The effects to these may be adverse to their life and for a long time.
On the second ad, David Beckam is advertising chocolate. This ad denotes that the chocolate must be a health one, may be calories-free or something. This is because, Beckam being a footballer, is expected to lead a healthy life, not eating chocolates without caring. It further connotes that this kind of chocolate is tasty, of good quality, and must be expensive. This is because he is a celebrity and is expected to belong to a certain class of people. For this chocolate, a very large number of ladies are going to want to taste that chocolate, just to know how it tastes or because Beckam ate it. Some men will buy the chocolate too, especially if the women in their lives like Beckam, and chocolates too.
The target audience for this advertisement is women or girls. Beckam is a football celebrity who is admired by all kinds of people, mostly the ladies, for obvious reasons. When they see Beckam eat the chocolate, they like to be associated with the celebrity. People not only need the product but also it has to be pleasing to watch. Men who like Beckam might want to taste the chocolate too or give it to their wives.
Wykes says that although most interest is focused on the women beauty, men are too more and more defined by their bodies. Male are being used to portray their young toned powerfully built male bodies, or on menâs clothing and physical appearance. Young men want to have the masculine body because it is being displayed as beautiful by the media as well as women. People want a perfect body, not a normal body.
Different sizes of body are good for the individual persons but not everyone. This means that men are also defining the perfect look for a guy. Customers differentiate good products from bad ones by just looking at them. Sometimes they buy things just because they are well packaged and not because they know they are good products.
It is true that beauty controls the sell of a product, so the advertisers know how to manipulate buyers into buying the products. The way the ad is done is very important too. It should be alluring to the customer for them to be able to want to buy it. Things that deal with ladies need to outline what they need to know and hear about the product. The product may not be as good, but you will have bought it anyway. Products that touch on women may be advertised by men that are mostly women’s favorite. Men who have a nice body, voice or a great personality may be a great influence to the ladies to buys the product. Businessmen know this factor so well so they will use it as many often as they can, to make sure they make sales.
A very boring ad may not sell at all, because nobody is going to be interested in looking at it. If any person or company want to sell a product, especially to the ladies, it must look good. It must sell itself. Make it beautiful. Sometimes people see the television while they are tired from work, and like to see things that please the eye and not something that will add on to the stress. You need to converse to your users easily and pleasantly. Ads should not be boring. It should be able to bring smiles in people’s faces. You should put yourself in the shoes of the customer and think like a consumer. Think about those ads from other companies, those that you really like yourself, and what you like about them. May be they have something that you do not have in the ad. This way you will bring out the best for your organization.
Other advertisements can also be done by women for women. This is because it will only touch on them and they are the ones that understand it better than the men. For example household things, beauty product, are well understood by women themselves. Women are created differently and have different features that God blessed them with. For example, an ad that talks about beauty products. Beauty products portray those women as smooth, light colored and beautiful. All women cannot look the same. These kinds of ads makes them to want to look just like what they see on television, and may end up being disappointed if they do not get the same results from the product. At this point they will not be able to blame the ad but themselves.
We cannot all be the same in the society. Everyone cannot look the look that is referred to as beautiful. We are different and will always be. Each individual is beautiful in their own way, and nobody can standardize that one. Believers of the Bible know that they are wonderfully made in the image of God and cosmetics do not make it better. Human beings are unique in various aspects, and that is what makes them beautiful. We cannot say that whites are beautiful than blacks or the vice versa. This is because beauty is displayed differently in every person. Beauty products and ads have nothing to do with it. It is how a person looks at themselves.
Different people have different perceptions for each advert. This cannot be controlled either because people look at things differently. The advertisers take advantage of this and influence people to buying their products. They do this by using the sex stereotypes.
Besides the fact that what is displayed by the media is not true beauty, not every person is able to afford them these clothing, the make up, the surgeries among others. This way, many young girls get much stressed or even may result to doing extreme things like prostitution in order to get the money for the âbeautyâ. Others may turn to drugs for the simple reason that they want to forget the self that they do not like, that is they hate their self. The victims must have a sense of self realization to resist the constant media output, telling people to buy this clothing or change clothes so that they will achieve the state of beauty as seen on television. Society will, through understanding play with these culturally assigned roles and transcend the stereotypes, created, and perpetuated by the media. If you consider something beautiful, then it is. If one considers something ugly then it is. The media is only concerned with making money. People need to resist. If society does not break free from the mind set that the media defines beauty, we will forever be slaves to the time. Beauty can exist in everything and should not be based on what the media defines it to be.
References
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- Kevyn Aucoin , Face Forward
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