Context in an Ad ~ Nivea 'Smooth Milk' Body Shea Butter

  In this visual ad presented by Nivea, a primarily skin-care company, to the general Indian public, the main conceptual understanding mainly derives from the slogan of the ad itself, "For visibly smooth and touchably soft skin", the need for intimacy from the attractive man holding the main 'character', the female whose implied to have used the skin product, closely as though they are in an intimate relationship as well as the logos used from their statement, "100 years of skincare for life". From both the slogan and the use of logos, the message, or understanding from this ad is that, by using this product, Nivea's 'Smooth Milk' Body Shea Butter for Dry Skin, you will get the man of your dreams and look as beautiful as the main ‘character’.
  This visual text reveals possible contextual information by using a famous Bollywood actress for the main ‘character’, showing how this is an ad targeted at the general female population of the country of India, where Bollywood is the most prevalent, popular and, in most cases, influential on a person’s decisions, relating to the use of celebrities for ethos. This visual text also reveals, through the use of the Nivea logo, that this is a skincare product as this company is known for their specialty in the field of skin care products, already allowing the general public to understand just who this ad is for, women who wish to improve their skin conditions or wish to be better than they already are.


  By understanding the context of the ad, already, the analyzers are able to understand how certain techniques used by advertisers, from the placement of a hand to the direction the main ‘character’ is facing can completely change the audience type, the message or conceptual understanding taken from the ad and the overall ‘feel’, ‘aura’ or visual ad type (i.e. more romantically-driven, becoming famous, becoming ‘more’) that the advertisers have made this ad into. From this, we are able to discern the target audience, what needs the advertisers aim to ‘hit’ or target, what the message is, or rather, why one should purchase the aforementioned product or service, how it benefits the customer, whether short term or long term, and appealing to pathos, logos and ethos to make it seem like the product or service is ‘too popular and great to pass up’.

'We Believe: The Best Men Can Be | Gillette (Short Film)' ~ Analysis

  In this advertisement, called “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be” by Gillette, there is a large sense of the appeal of the need to nurture for the targeted audience. The audience is men, as the product is directed at men (Gillette shaving products for men), but this advertisement is not only for the general male population, rather, it is mainly directed at fathers, elder brothers, older children in older grades, influential figures or friends as the need to nurture is directed at how men in these positions have the power to shape the attitudes and thinking processes of the younger, more influential generations of young boys. This advertisement mainly uses ethos, more specifically the use of the emotions of guilt, shown through what happens when men don’t stop the destructive, stereotypical actions of younger boys, and fear. Fear from, firstly, showing how men pull the ‘boys will be boys’ card and allow young boys to become violent and disregard the respect that they should show to everyone –  even women. Fear, as well, is shown through the multiple news stories of sexual harassment, stories of bullying shown through clips and the clips showing how destructive stereotypes are shown in everyday life, such as the man disrespecting a woman in a show set while an audience laughs at the act. The need to nurture is especially shown through how, in every real-life story clip, a young boy is shown to be exposed to these destructive and stereotypical-like acts, showing how they are now learning that these actions are acceptable. In a twist, the men, in the end, stop others from carrying out these destructive acts and clips are shown where they stop another man and tell them that it isn’t the right thing to do. Especially in the last scene where a father stops other boys from bullying a young boy in front of his own son, who watches with wide eyes, eyes that are known to learn and grow from experiences. This connects directly to the values of the advertisement and, in theory, the general public of the 21^st century who do not believe the worn-out term ‘boys will be boys’ and, instead, place their values in the unity and equality of people of all genders, ages, nationalities, races and religions. This ad specifically concentrates on how wrong the culturally stereotyped version of men are in this world and, unlike in the past, the images that, historically, show what a ‘man’ should be are not be followed or taught to be followed. The stereotypes shown in the ad are how men should see women as equals, not objects, all men should be images for their kids, whether they are fathers or elder brothers or school seniors or friends, men should see violence as violence, not some sort of play, men should see that they are allowed to express their emotions, not be robots that run on nothing but brute force, men should see that bullying is not accepted, even if the other is so ‘weak’, and men should know that conflicts aren’t solved by violence but, rather, by cooperation and discussion. The context of this ad is the sudden influx of sexual offenses brought up by victims around the world which have taken to the news to a point where the general population has started to look into what else is ‘put under the rug’ due to men around the world stating that men and boys do what they do because ‘boys will be boys’. Because of this, men now feel threatened as, even though they know some of their actions are wrong, the stereotypes are still valued and they feel ‘weak’ if they do not express them or act upon them. That is why this ad aims to tell all men that these stereotypes are wrong and that they need to be taken out of our lives, in other words, teach the younger generations of boys to be different, be ethically stronger and be better than those before them.

A Sexist Littering Ad

The Men's Ad

The Women's Ad

  This is a campaign run in Essex by Love Essex in September, 2015 featuring a female and male counterpart of a littering poster in bus stops. The female poster, aimed at the female population in Essex, is highly sexist where the woman is in an objectifying, submissive position with her legs crossed, body tilted and hand brushing back her hair. This is further developed into a sexualized image through the use of a short dress. Although, another stereotype used is that women are uneducated and focus only on their physical beauty that others perceive. The quote used for the advert “BIN YOUR LITTER / It’s a PRETTY Quick Thing To Do” specifically points at that stereotype as the bolded word “PRETTY” instead of the male counterpart’s “SMART” creates the image that women focus on looking beautiful through sexualized clothing, perfume and make up, which the woman is wearing, being submissive and the ‘second’ in a relationship, which is shown through the woman’s posture, and how important it is for a woman to be perceived by others as beautiful in their looks and actions, which is implied by the quote saying that it is “PRETTY” to throw away one’s trash right.

Advertisers Have a Moral Duty

  Just as it can be said that parents have a moral duty to become the positive images that their own children learn from to become and to exceed, it can be said that advertisers have the moral duty to create images and ideas that are ethically correct and that aren’t destructive to our already fragile still-building images of our varied races, religions, genders and nationalities. Advertisements aren’t just viewed by the educated minds of open-minded adults, but are viewed by the younger, more influential generations of teenagers, children and toddlers whose views can so easily be manipulated to believe the stereotypes they are exposed to. These advertisements are everywhere from the billboards found on the sides of highways to the ads found in your nearby bus station. It is because of how frequently we are exposed to advertisements, whether they create destructive stereotypes or not, advertisers have total control of how individuals around the world ‘see’ those of different races, nationalities, genders or religions. Advertisers hold the paintbrush that paints those pictures and, if done wrong, images can become hurtful. For example, the image of women in advertisements for decades have been detrimental to the constantly developing equality between both women and men. In many advertisements, such as one of AXE’s commercial for their body spray, the woman in the advertisement is given a decorative portrayals and, additionally, she is heavily sexualized with high heels, a shorted and tight skirt and an exposing and body-tight shirt. She is not seen using the product, the body spray, and, even though she is a woman, she is involved in an advertisement for a product that is focused on men. She has no involvement with the product and yet, she is involved not as a person or potential customer, but a by-product that is ‘earned’ when the product, the cologne, is used. Her sexual clothing, submissive positions and actions and a lack of a voice role make her an object, not a human. This can give a negative image for women and cause young men or teenage boys the idea that women don’t have a mind and are, instead, objects that they can treat as they like. This can be the cause or can lead to domestically abusive behavior in men when they get older. This is only one of the possible hundreds of effects that an advertisement can have if it creates a degrading and unrealistic stereotype for a certain group. It is because of this that advertisers have the moral duty to avoid making new stereotypes and, in the long run, destroy existing stereotypes.

Gender and Stereotype Inquiry

Ad #1 - 'JOY' by Christian Dior starring Jennifer Lawrence (Sept. 1st, 2018)

Ad #2 - 'J'adore' by Christian Dior (Oct. 28th, 2018)

Ad #3 - 'Parfums For Her' by Karl Lagerfeld (2014)

Analysis:

  Each of these selected ads above are quite recent depictions of gender portrayal in our world. The first ad is Christian Dior’s new fragrance ‘JOY’ introduced on September 1^st, 2018 and revolves around the actress, Jennifer Lawrence, as she swims around the pool and poses seductively for the camera. She is not seen using the product, the perfume, has no speaking role within the advertisement and wears a revealing swimsuit and dress. This allows the woman in the advert to have a decorative portrayal that is mainly submissive and sexually attractive. This emphasizes how, in this society, a woman is portrayed as beautiful with a thin body with clothing that is more revealing and, through this ad, advertisers are trying to express the message to women that if they purchase this product then they, too, can reach society’s standards of ‘beauty’. This specifically shows how important society has made this image of ‘beauty’ for women to follow rather than focus on celebrating all types of women, no matter the shape, size, color, nationality or even style. This message is also heavily conveyed through Dior’s later released perfume ‘J’adore’, which was released on October 28^th, 2018. It starts off with a golden-tiled bath chamber filled with multiple women in revealing dresses modelling around the chamber in submissive, ‘sexy’ poses while the main actress is seen within the bathtub. The main actress is focused on as she walks out of the bath and the chamber itself, followed by her entourage of women but is not seen using the product, the perfume. She, alike Jennifer Lawrence, is used as a decorative portrayal in the ad and is, therefore, turned into an object. Alike the ‘JOY’ ad, women are stereotyped as submissive and held to an impossible standard of ‘beauty’ by society. Although, this ad takes this image further to where the blond-haired female was seen as the ‘main’ whereas the brunettes and dark-haired girls trailed behind her as ‘backups’, showing how blond-haired females are perceived as more beautiful society. The last ad is by Karl Lagerfeld for their fragrance 'Parfums For Her', which is aimed at women. This ad poster was made in 2014 and, alike the previous ads by Dior, this woman is also a decorative portrayal of society’s standard of ‘beauty’. She, unlike the other ads, models with a male model who is shown as the ‘dominant’ in the photo with her in a submissive pose, showing how women are shown to be ‘weaker and more ladylike’. It is most likely that the advertisers for each of these ads had ‘effectively’, in their minds, used the role-product congruity theory where advertising effectiveness can be increased when ‘appropriate’ models are used, in this case, the thin, white and young females for the perfume ads. These women express the standard of ‘beauty’ in our society and help to keep gender stereotypes alive, no matter how insulting or incorrect.