Women's Representation in Advertisement has Changed

There has always been clear differences and unfairness between women and men since the early centuries. That comes as no surprise. Men have always been perceived as superior. They are the leaders. Women are inferior, and thus follow.

Advertisement of earlier years portray just that.

I was not alive in the mid 1900s but I have an understanding that the role of women in society was very different than it is today. But if I want to see exactly how different, all I have to do is search up advertisements of that time.

This ad shows a woman dressed conservative and with an apologetic expression on her face. She has a smoking pan on the background. Her husband has his arm around her, looking down on her with a smile. He doesn't seem concern. His other hand is gesturing towards two beers placed on the kitchen table. The quote on the ad reads "Don't worry darling, you didn't burn the beer!"

This is an example of an ad probably from 1960-1970, where the common role of a woman was to stay home and keep a clean house, prepare meals, and be ready to assist her man whenever he got back from work.

As we discussed in class, this is an image that portrays the woman as a "child." She doesn't know any better. She needs a man to tell her what to do. She is submissive.

I don't believe advertising is at fault at all. In fact, I believe advertising holds a mirror at society and shows us how we really are.

This is a more recent ad for a Guess perfume. Just like every perfume ad I have encountered, it portrays an attractive woman half naked if not posing in a provocative way. The product they are trying to advertise is a perfume. But if the perfume was removed from the ad, I would have no way of knowing what was being sell to me.

Take this other ad from Calvin Klein. The ad has three men and one woman. Two guys have no shirts on and their jeans are unbuttoned. The woman is lying down as two of the men are on her. This is what is being sold to us. If I had no idea what Calvin Klein was, my best guess would be that it was a porn agency. There is no clear message here.

The pattern between all the ads is that women are still shown to have a clear role in advertisement. In the first ad, it was that of a housewife. In the following ads, women are being used as sex icons.

I have to be neutral with my stance on whether advertisement does portray society as it is. I believe it does, to an extend. Unfortunately, we live in a generation where sex sells. So because it does it successfully, some advertisements don't do a good job in truly showing women as they are.

Stereotypes: The Tool of Advertisement

It is very clear that stereotypes emerge in every form in our society, and advertisement is not the exception.

Stereotypes, in the context of advertising, helps advertisers send a message to a broader audience. Therefore, we'd like to think that there is no harm intended behind their edgy stereotypical ads. However, with the freedom to advertise their clients' companies comes great responsibility and at times advertisers do cross that thin but clear border line between right and wrong.

So let's dive in by asking the first question: "Is it ever right to racially stereotype for advertisement purposes?"

As group creative head of Oglivy Delhi said, "There will always be a few who like the work and a few who don't. As long as people, the consumers, are engaged, entertained, and not offended, there's nothing wrong."

I have to agree with this statement. I find that in some countries like America, it is okay to use stereotypes to help advertisement. The U.S. is a country full of diversity and it would be inconsiderate for advertisers to only use "white" people portrayal in their ads. Advertising has to appeal to a broad audience. So it is mandatory to keep in account all the other ethnicities and groups of people that make up this society. If done with good taste and a sensitive approach, stereotypes can be used as a positive tool.

"A lot of comedy is based on stereotypes. Most stand-up comedians use stereotypes as material. It all depends on whether it was a lighthearted attempt or not," chief creative officer of DDB Mudra said about stereotypes in advertising.

I am completely on his side of the topic. People have to learn to accept that there will always be stereotypes among ourselves and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. We cannot stop it or control it so might as well embrace it. I feel advertising does just that. It embraces stereotypes. Advertising has done a good job in evolving with society. The advertising published in recent years is not racist to the point of offending. However, that opinion remains subjective.

This brings me up to my next question: "Is racism in advertising a thing of the past?"

I cannot speak for everyone but I say, yes, racism in advertising is a thing of the past. Yet, some people have accused recent advertising as racist.

One example is the Dunkin Donuts ad in Thailand that was in hot water for the racy ad that featured a woman darkened up with make-up to appear of a charcoal color.

Another example is the 2013 Super Bowl Coca-Cola ad that was accused of being racist for the use of an Arabian man in the middle of the desert pulling on his camel. This is seen as racist because it portrays an image of the Arabian man that has been played out a little too much according to critics of the ad.

Despite these ads being seen as racist by some people, I don't see the racism. Recent ads compared to ads from earlier decades don't have a drop of racism.

Here's a good example: a 1930's ad

Now this I find completely offensive and discriminative of a huge population of America. Where do I begin? The "N" word is being openly used, the African man is portrayed very dark, and the features they use are unappealing to the eye.

The last question that remains unaddressed is: "Do advertisers have ethical responsibilities?"

My answer is an absolute yes.  Advertisers have a great deal of power and influence. They decide what will be publicized and they must understand the responsibility that comes with their job. They have to spend as much time debating whether their piece of ad will be seeing as offensive to some people, as they do creating the ad. It is true that the work advertisers do cannot be liked by everyone. To repeat Delhi's words, "There will always be a few people who like the work and a few who don't." In my opinion, advertisers shouldn't worry about pleasing all audiences. They should just worry about keeping a mindful perspective when addressing a huge audience.

Analyzing the Ads through the Semiotics Lens

For the denotation and connotation blog assignment this week, I chose three different brands to do them on.

1. The first piece of advertising I will be analyzing is the billboard (outdoor).

Denotation: I see a few words written in different fonts, I see an exclamation point, I see a number (2012), I see the use of primarily two colors (blue and magenta), and I see a smartphone being held by a pair of hands.

Connotation: I read the words "Transform your Commute!" which makes me think this is a billboard targeting all the commuters seeing this. I see "VTA Express" and I automatically associate that name to probably the name of a bus transportation company. I make the assumption that it is a bus transportation because the smartphone the hands are holding have the image of a bus. The bus follows the same pattern of colors as the billboard. I also see the words "Beginning January 2012" followed by a "Wi-Fi"  sign below it so I imply that wifi will be added to their buses on January 2012. This billboard is very appealing to all the commuters that are probably stuck in traffic reading this.

2. The second piece of advertising is print. I chose Michael Kors.

Denotation: I see two young people, probably in their early 20s. It is a female and a male. They both are wearing aviator sunglasses. They both are wearing color-coordinating clothes. The male has longer length of hair than average. The female has long opaque-blonde hair and she is wearing jewelry accessories and a beat-studded yellow handbag with chains and a gold lock on it. They are both facing up and into the horizon. The male has a serious face and is sitting inside a yellow convertible. The female is sitting on the outside part of the car with a smile on her face. In the background, I see the frame of what seems to be a helicopter. Half of the background is foggy but the other half shows a clear blue sky.
Connotation: When I see this print ad, I think of the targeted audience to be young and sophisticated. This is what comes to mind because in the society that we live in, we wouldn't consider both of their wardrobe as ordinary casual wear. The male is wearing a shirt that is tight to his body and tugged in, adding attention to his belt. They are both dressed very elegant and so I assume that they are classy and have a good taste of things. They are knowledgeable of good quality products. The bag she is holding matches with the convertible they are sitting on, so the bright yellow bag catches by attention. It has the signature gold lock of Michael Kors bags so I automatically think that the product this ad is trying to sell is the bag. The helicopter in the back gives me the impression that they are wealthy and were just dropped off on the roof of their penthouse.

3. The last piece of advertising I chose is T.V. I chose the Apple Ipad vs. the Windows 8 commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UGxKX6IU1U

Denotation: I see two iPads, or electronic gadgets. One on the left and one on the right. The left one is white and the right one is black. The background is white. There are a pair of two hands using both iPads at the same time. The one on the left has a woman speaking about the things it cannot do. The one on the right is just an iPad without the voice and it is doing everything the other iPad (left) cannot do. At the end, both iPads get picked up and in the place of the iPads, there is black bold text that says the price of both iPads (respectively).

Connotation: I think the message of this piece of advertisement was very clear. The white iPad is suppose to represent the Apple iPad. We can infer this without getting any names or logos because most Apple products are white and Apple does carry an iPad. We can also conclude that the product is an Apple product because of the famous voice of "Siri". Siri is a feature that characterizes one of Apple's iPhones. Siri is telling the user of the iPad that it cannot perform all the things that the other competitive iPad can, thus emphasizing all the cool features the other iPad has. The last impressive thing the ad does is tell the audience the price difference, as well as revealing the name of the other device: Dell Tablet. The message is that the Dell Tablet is more user friendly than the iPad and that it is also more inexpensive than the iPad.

Advertising the 1960s

I have never watched Mad Men or even knew what the show was about. But after a little research, I discovered it is a series that first came out in 2007 and it is a good representation of advertising in the 1960s.

The 1960s is said to be the "creative revolution" for advertising. Many things occurred during this period of time that took the world by surprise.

Bill Bernbach, a Jewish staff member of Grey Advertising at the time, started an advertising agency of his own along with other Jewish coworkers. His agency named Doyle Dane Bernbach began in 1949 but it didn't start taking off until the 60s. Bernbach's unusual idea to combine art directors with copywriters proved to be a success. This created competition among the advertising world.

Leo Burnett is another influential man of the 1960s worth mentioning. Burnett created his own ad agency at age 44. He believed in simplicity and adding humor to advertising. He is responsible for branding Tony the Tiger, the Pillsbury Dough Boy, and the Marlboro Cowboy.

Besides important men making a difference for advertising in the 60s, there was also campaigns that forever changed the world. For example, the campaign of Clairol. Clairol made it possible for women to have access to hair dye in the comfort of their homes. No longer did they have to make it public, by visiting hair salons.

To read more on other ways advertising was changed forever in the 1960s, you can click on this link:
http://historyofads.the-voice.com/the-creative-revolution

Here are a few 1960s' advertising pictures that I found interesting:

Clients, Campaigns, and Competition

It is no secret that advertisement and anything related to it is competitive. As some people call it, it is a "cut-throat" business. Competition is a key factor in advertising. Brands are competing with one another, but also agencies. After all, agencies cannot survive without the clients.

In a business field like advertising, agencies are crucial for the clients in terms of their success as well as their profits. But agencies are also very important for the advertising agents.

After doing some research of my own, two advertising agencies caught my interest; Grey advertising and Wieden + Kenney.

Grey advertising is a full-service agency, which means it does not limit itself to just advertising. It has 121 offices in 116 cities and 94 countries, including in New York, where head quarters is located, and in San Francisco. The clients range from Volkswagen, Coca-cola, Toshiba, Radioshack, Canon, and TJ-Max among many.

Some of its clients have been with them for a very long time, and others are relatively new to the agency. As we learned in class, agencies don't keep their clients forever. Surprisingly though, Canon has been a client of Grey's agency since 1976, making it one of its oldest clients they've kept through the years. Other companies were P&G that has been with this agency as early as 1956. Coca Cola adds to the clients list, since 2004.

Grey advertising has been a part of good campaigns like "Maxxinista", by TJ Maxx, and "Baby Talk" by E Trade.

Here is the TJ Maxx campaign:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKeXwbb0RX0

Wieden + Kennedy is another full-service integrated ad agency that had the privilege of ranking on the Top 12 agencies in 2012. It is an independent agency with offices located in Portland, N.Y., London, and Tokyo just to name a few.

The clients list includes: Chrysler, Coca-Cola, Converse, Facebook, Levy's, Nike, Old Spice, ABC, and ESPN. The clients vary, however, from location to location. New York had the least amount of clients.

Wieden + Kennedy is responsible for such campaigns like "Game on, World" by Nike and "Facebook Home" by Facebook.

Here is the "Game on, World" campaign:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjpYA95oxyA

In conclusion, advertising is a big world full of competition and decisions. As a future employee, you have to do your research and understand the different forms of advertisement agencies there are. You also have to keep an open mind. The two ad agencies I mentioned are, in my opinion, the top agencies to be a part of. But sometimes even smaller, less known agencies can contribute more experience and knowledge than you'd expect.

Can you hear me now?.....Not so Good.

We've all been there: sitting down on the edge of our seat, barely blinking... the scene is getting intense and then... No! Commercials. But commercials, just like anything, can be good and accomplish just what they're suppose to, or they can be irritating and a waste of air space. But what makes a commercial a good one?

I've grown up in front of a television being exposed to countless numbers of commercials in my lifetime so I'd like to say I can differentiate a good commercial from a bad one.

A good commercial will:
-grasp the audiences attention
-entertain the audience
-connect with them in a personal level
-be memorable from the rest
-persuade the consumer to try their product

An example of a good commercial is the one of State Farms; "state of unrest." I think this is a good commercial because it is very entertaining to watch, it gets the message across clearly and effectively that State Farms is always there, as their slogan states "Like a good neighbor, State Farms is there." It also makes good use of the time on the air to let their audience know about their new services, which is that now they have a 24- hour customer service.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47cAxRX3aDg

Another great example is the Snickers bar commercial. Their catchy slogan "Hungry? Grab a Snicker." The message they're trying to get across is that whenever customers are hungry, they should grab a snicker because it satisfies their hunger and because when they're hungry, they are not being themselves. There's more than one of these commercials but my favorite one is where there's two guys and two girls at a party and one of them is trying to talk to the girl and he says "We're not good enough for you?.... What do you  model? Gloves?" I found this commercial so clever, a great way to re- enforce their message, and personally hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3njod6lveI#


By far, one of the worst commercials I have seen has been an old Verizon commercial where a Verizon employee would walk around asking "Can you hear me now? Good." The commercial was annoying, it lacked creativity, and it did not entertain the audiences. The only good thing it did was to persuade consumers to switch to the company because it showed that it had good reception. But the commercial did not exactly accomplish its task because it did not show it. You had a Verizon employee TELLING you, not showing you that the reception was good. In a competitive market like that of wireless companies, it is difficult to change consumers to switch to your company, but commercials like these certainly did nothing to help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPwPo-IAQ-E

Commercials in general have a very specific task; and that is to persuade consumers that their company is the best among the competition. But with that pressure and consumers becoming less gullible, it is easy to miss the target and make a bad commercial. However, once in a while comes a commercial that will appeal to all audiences and become memorable.

What's in a Brand?

What is branding? And why should it matter? Branding is by far one of the most important parts of creating a successful business. Not only does it help a specific company stand out from the competition, but it also has other favorable outcomes. If done successfully, branding will:
-Assure consumers' loyalty to that specific company
-Deliver a strong message to the audience
-Help increase the targeted group
-Connects emotionally to consumers

Coca Cola is a great example of what good branding can do for a company. Coca Cola began as early as 1886 and throughout the years, it has incredibly been able to keep up with the moderns and demands of their customers. This 127-year brand is known world wide because of its captivating commercials like those that used polar bears. The brand "Coca Cola" is estimated to be worth a whopping $70 billion dollars.


Apple is another good example of branding. The Apple Company revolutionized the world with their products varying from laptops, desktops, i Pods, iPhones...etc. Apple branded all its products with the famous "apple" icon. It wasn't late before Apple had become a company customers could rely on and trust. The advantage that Apple had was that their only competition was the PC and they used that idea and ran with it. One of their best commercials was the one with two formal dressed men; one representing a PC and the other a Mac. That's where the clever slogan came from: "I'm a Mac." With easy to use and high quality products, Apple today, can be said to be a growing empire. Customers are gradually leaving their PCs for Mac's and with the new iPhone coming out almost every year, it is safe to say Apple will be around for years to come.

  
Lastly, one of my favorite examples of excellent branding is that of Starbucks. Starbucks opened in 1971as a small single store in Seattle. Today, Starbucks has more than 18,000 stores located in 62 countries. Why Starbucks has become this huge iconic coffee place can only be the result of good branding. Starbucks offers their consumers "world's finest" coffee beans. Starbucks attracts customers to their stores because they sell the people the coffee experience. The pros of being such a big coffee company is that the competition is almost non-existent and that the brand sells itself.

As you can see, branding is an important aspect that any starting company should take into consideration. With catchy slogans, powerful messages, and a strong emotional connection with their customers, a company can become huge and leave the competition behind.