Monday, 19 January 2015

Women in Advertisements: Shown in the Wrong Ways

By the usage of women in advertisements it changes the way people think of women because they are shown in a sexist or degrading way, by using a perfect body women or a stereotypical advertising of them it affects the innocence of women, it’s to help the consumers of the products more appealing to it or to make them see woman in a lower comparison to men. These four advertisements demonstrates that the portrayal of some advertisements have a negative effect on women. I used the attitude, symbolism, and the idea of how woman are compared to men to further prove this.
This image of a woman in an advertisement is of a Alcoa Aluminum brand that would be found on “most famous and flavorful brands”. By looking at the advertisement you can see that it is portraying a woman being so amazed at this product and then at the bottom it reads “You mean a woman can open it?”. By the saying of that it is trying to say that women are the weaker sex because you can notice that they don’t mention both male and female not being able to open it. Also by the amazed expression on her face its proving that this women is actually in amazement that there is finally a cap that she is able to open, which is a very false accusation, women are capable of opening other products and both men and women can have a struggle on them sometimes. In this image they have also underlined the word ‘woman’ to try to make sure that woman know that they are actually able to open these products now, which is very insulting thing to do because they have now single out the woman.  When i also read the advertisement i picked out a sentence that proved of the negative effect on woman, it says ‘without a knife, blade, a bottle opener or even a husband!” by saying or even a husband it's implying that women are always reliant on their husbands to open things for them once again trying to say women are suppose to be the weaker sex. Overall the idea of this advertisements image is trying to make women look as if they are too weak to open a bottle cap making this sexist and degrading against women.
Budweiser Beer Girl.jpgdownload (1).jpg
In the Budweiser advertisement and the Original Red beer advertisement shown, both depict the images of woman, one against a beer bottle and the other actually objectified as the beer bottle, the Budweiser has a girl in a revealing bathing suit and the original red beer has a woman in the hands of what i think is a man. These features are both helping the product to attract attention because of the use of the woman. The way these advertisements are setup makes it seem like these women are being 'sold' along with the product. The attitude of the Budweiser women supports the idea of a negative portrayal because the way she is put in the advertisement makes her vulnerable and with less decency and by the finishing of the brands letters on her makes her seem like she is the bottle. The body of the woman in the Original Red beer advertisement has actually made the woman now the bottle to show that having this beer is like being able to have a woman and  it shows that she is what is also being consumed because she is now part of the bottle. The idea behind these two advertisements is to use the woman and make them part of the beer so that the men will be attracted to it because of the way the woman are put into the advertisement.
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This next advertisement is of the product the Kenwood Chef. The Kenwood Chef is a type of mixer made for mixing foods. In this advertisement there is a man and a woman could be symbolizing as a husband and wife, then to the left of them is the words “The Chef does everything but cook - that's what wives are for”. That statement is trying to say that this product may be a helpful product for cooking but it doesn't cook because that's the stereotypical role that has been set on woman that they are suppose to be the ones cooking. Not only is that statement very sexist but the fact that its trying to say that the husband and neither the mixer cook because that's the wife's job is proving that its making the woman seem like that's what people see them as doing, like they are the ones to cook even though men are capable of cooking. Another part of the advertisement that proves how woman are being shown into advertising is the slogan in the corner that says “I’m giving my wife a Kenwood Chef”. This slogan is implying that this is a product for woman, its something a husband would give to their wife because they only seem to mention the woman when they’re talking about cooking. Overall although there are men that are amazing cooks, this advertising is focusing more on the woman being cooks but in sort of an insulting way as if men aren't capable of getting this mixer because woman are the cooks.
This next image of a Dr.Pepper TEN advertising shown is portraying the drink and a phrase that says “It’s not for women”. This advertisement is of a drink that anyone should be able to drink there's nothing that serious about drinking a can of Dr.Pepper but because of the bold new only ten tasting calories it's now apparently become too much for women to handle. This stereotype of women being the weaker gender is also portrayed in this advertising. This drink is also a recent type of drink yet the stereotype of women being weak is still being used even though its been demonstrated in ads from a long time ago. The idea of women not being worthy enough to drink this Dr.Pepper is sending a very negative message to females, and it’s very wrong.

The stereotypes and sexist degrading images of these advertisements all have a negative effect towards females, some of them are actually influencing females to try and be like how these other females in the advertisements look. When in reality everyone is different and no one should try and act or look like someone they are not.

Alcoa Aluminum. “You Mean a Woman Can Open It?” Aluminum Company of America. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2015.

Budweiser. “Budweiser Beer Girl.” Budweiser. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2015.

Original Red Beer. “Original Red Beer Body Bottle.” Original Red. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2015.

Kenwood Chef. “Kenwood Chef Advertisement.” Kenwood Chef. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2015.

Dr.Pepper Ten. “Dr.Pepper Ten Bold Tasting Calories.” Dr.Pepper Ten. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2015.


  1. This was very interesting to read and I think you described clearly what these images portray. How do you think most woman would react to these advertisements? Do you think they would find them funny or offensive?

    Why do you think companies continue to sell these products, if it only really appeals to the male audience? When they could be doing things that would help persuade both men and women to buy their product.

  2. I find it alarming that women are objectified so blatantly in advertisements. There has been a shift from the sexist attitude that women "belong in the kitchen" to an attitude where women are valued as sexual objects. I find it pleasing, though, that there seems to be a revival in feminism and that more and more young people are now willing to actually see how women are negatively portrayed in the media.

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