Tag Archives: advertising

#aerieMAN

Posted on by
10

When scrolling through my Instagram I came across this post from American Eagle advertising their new product under Aerie. This is a store owned by American Eagle that sells pajamas, underwear, and workout clothes. I, at first, thought the long haired individual was a women but when he turned around I was surprised to find out that he was a man selling men underwear.

*click video to view commercial*

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1qtgSW14kE[/youtube]

This video first caught my attention because Aerie is both advertising male and female undergarments, whereas many stores you can just find one for each gender. Another aspect of this video that caught my attention is the model in the video. In the TED talk “Looks Aren’t Everything: Believe Me I’m a Model done by Cameron Russell she talks about how she won in the genetic lottery. She also states that models are taught to be a sexy girl. She also states that we, as a society, has define beauty as being tall and slender. It was very refreshing to see an underwear model that was not the “typical” model. This model had a bigger butt, bust, and does not have a thigh gap. I know this commercial is about Aerie making men underwear and it’s great that this company is not just targeting women, but its also great that this company is using “normal” body figures in women and men.

What do you think?

 

 

Women’s Products or Sexist Pricing

Image

16

If you scroll through Target’s webpage, you’ll notice men’s body wash is in the four to seven dollar range. Women’s on the other hand, is the five to ten dollar range. Weird, right?

Boots is a UK originated retailer, similar to Target or Wal-Mart. Recently; the store has tried to resolve the issue of sexist pricing. It was brought to their attention by a petition that was written titled, Boots – Review the Sexist Pricing of Everyday Products. The description is very opinionated.

“An investigation by The Times found that women are being charged 36% more on average for products marketed as ‘women’s products’. The Fawcett Society describe this as a sexist surcharge for women – and I think that’s exactly what this is.”

While you may be thinking it only applies to women because feminine products are more expensive – think again. What about the men who purchase these items for their wife, mother, daughter, or sister? Or, to shake up your brain, what about the men who use these products? This applies to us all.

Adidas is Amazing

Image

7

Many sports attire stores such as Nike, Puma, and Under Armor use male and female when trying to promote couples athletic wear. Although on Valentines Day this year Adidas pushed the boundaries on the “couples wear.” As you can see in this picture it is two girls most likely kissing and working out. Now when I first saw this picture I didn’t think anything of it, but then I read the comments about people being upset and saying Adidas shouldn’t have done this. In chapter 7 we talked about ways that women should do when they are Growing Up Feminine. Women should be worried about their appearances, be sensitive and caring, negative treatment by others, and be superwomen. In this add it is showing women, not only being in a relationship, but also being fit, working out, and getting stronger. Many people had a problem with this add because it’s two women, but all I see is love for and individual and love for being healthy.  Thoughts?

*click on the Adidas word to view the image*

 

#puppybabymonkey

Posted on by
4

When watching the super bowl last night and seeing all the unique commercials that were played during those four hours, one that stood out to me the most was the #puppymonkeybaby commercial promoting Mountain Dew’s new drink. This commercial was promoting the new drink by saying that it has three awesome things combined in the drink. This drink is called Mountain Dew’s kickstart, which includes dew, juice, and caffeine. Although many thought that this commercial was very strange the aspect that stood out to me the most was that they just showed men drinking the new drink. The men were sitting around the television just “chilling” and then the puppy baby monkey comes out and hands the men the drinks and they drank them and started dancing around.

This stood out to me because in chapter 6 we talked about sex and gender. Julia T. Wood ( 2015) states that sex is based on biology, whereas gender is socially constructed and expressed. For example, in this commercial women are portrayed to not just sit around a television and “chill” for the night. Someone even in my class today commented, when we watched the video that it was strange and weird and that’s why women weren’t portrayed in it. I believe that adding a women role in the commercial would have made it more relatable to audiences and the target audience could be both men and women. I love Mountain Dew and watching that commercial is was sad that there was not a woman role portrayed.

 

 

 

Sh*t Girls say about their Hair…or boys?

Posted on by
2

Does anyone remember the shoes guy? ‘Shoes…let’s get some shoes’, well apparently men acting as women through comedy is back on the social media top hit lists! I was browsing around on YouTube recently when I came across this new advertisement for Aussie hair products. It’s interesting because it’s a man who I believe is cross-dressing, acting as a women with our many various daily hair issues. I personally find the advertisement funny because I can relate to it, but I feel it would be a different story with men. Watch the video below!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-igSlC7oD4[/youtube]

Also, check out Daily Mail’s article on how the video stuck up millions of hits, but along with a lot of controversy. It’s funny to me how boys can be spot on with things they don’t even have to deal with everyday. I find it interesting that these kind of videos are becoming increasingly popular on all types of social media, how men act as women and women act as men.

So Hot

Posted on by
4

Planet Fitness… who decided this would be a good idea? Sure, in the communications field you sometimes have to do risque things to get your advertisements noticed. Especially because the competition is so steep in the advertisement industry but some people believe they took it a little too far this time.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQfmpXsLV_4[/youtube]

Planet Fitness completely contributes to societies view of the gender role that women are sex objects. The commercial starts with a young woman in a locker room who’s hair is wind blown, make up done, shirt that only covers her chest, saying the words “soooo hot” repeatedly. Two other “hot” women join in as a middle aged woman with no make up on stares at them in confusion. If you look in the background, two women are in bath towels stroking one another as well. The commercial then shows the middle aged woman walk into a Planet Fitness and says to an employee “…and thats why I don’t like gyms.”

Was the point of Planet Fitness’s commercial to say they don’t have women like that in their locker rooms? I hate to break it to you Planet Fitness, but I highly doubt any gym has women in the locker rooms that are acting that way. People will never stop turning women into sex objects if society doesn’t make a change.

“Don’t Risk Dudeness”

Posted on by
8

I came across a Veet commercial that I saw as society saw as comical but was full of gender stereotypes in advertising. Veet was trying to portray a funny story line of a wife and husband and if you do not know what Veet is, it is a hair removal creme that lasts longer than simply shaving your legs or underarms. This supposedly funny commercial turned into pressure for females to conform to femininity.

The post goes onto fight that “America can no longer take a joke” and although yes it can still have some laughs connected to it, but this commercial is still publicly advertised and does not help the progression of society to which we have already created.

Take a look at the video!

Like A Girl

Posted on by
11

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs[/youtube]

Every year, millions of Americans religiously tune into the NFL Super Bowl and this year was no different. Some for the football, some for the commercials, and some just to have Super Bowl parties and eat a lot of food. I didn’t get a chance to watch the Super Bowl because I had homework to do, but I made sure I went back and watched the most talked about commercials played during the game. One that caught my attention and probably my favorite commercial that I saw was Always’ “Like A Girl” commercial. In the commercial it has a variety of people, mostly children, act out what they think it means to do different activities “like a girl.” The boys in the commercial all made it seem like girls were very incapable of doing anything they were told to do. However, they then asked young girls to do things “like a girl” and the results were very different. They did everything with as much effort and power as they possibly could. This reminded me of our first couple of gender classes where we talked about the different gendered boxes everyone in put into by our society to be the “perfect” boy or girl. I love this commercial so much because it challenges what everyone thinks it means to do things “like a girl.” Our society discourages girls to be athletic, intelligent, assertive, daring, etc. because that “isn’t what girls are supposed to do.” I think we should have more commercials and campaigns like this one to help encourage young girls in our society to be themselves and let them know they can do anything they want, and do it just as well as any boy can.

Ford’s Speed Dating Breaks Gender Norms

Posted on by
3

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nyr1Ao7iZA[/youtube]

This Valentine’s Day, instead of breaking hearts, Ford is breaking gender norms with their ad titled “Speed Dating”. In their ad, Ford recruits a professional female stunt driver to go on a series of blind dates with unsuspecting men.

While on the date, the stunt driver offers to give her dates a lift in her new 2015 Mustang. Upon first entering the car, her dates clearly pull from the stereotype that “women can’t drive”. Her dates make comments such as, “Should I drive?”, “I could show you a thing or two”, and a few even instruct her on when to switch gears. Little do they know they are in for a big surprise.

During the drive, the stunt driver tries to “turn around” in an empty parking lot. However, instead of turning around she puts the pedal to the metal and reaches speeds of 120mph while doing a series of doughnuts. The guys are clearly surprised at their date’s capabilities and feel that they had wrongly stereotyped her.

Ford is showing the world this Valentine’s Day that women can break out of their gender boxes.

#Gogurt

Posted on by
2

When asked to stop and look around you for an example of gender, it actually had me thinking for awhile what a great example was.  There is so much around us that could show a great example of gender.  The one example that I came up with is something that I am actually using for another class as well in a presentation about gender and I know we all have seen it!  When you ask anyone around you, “Who is the parent that stays home to take care of the house?” Most people would answer that with stating that the mother is the one that stays home.  With the mother staying home she is the one that has to get the lunches together for the kids to take to school.  Within the Gogurt commercial, you can see that the dad is the one that prepares the lunches in the family.  The boy though communicates with the father using Post-It notes to remind him to put the gogurt in the lunch box.  It is possible too that this family could be a single parent family but we are not 100% sure because we do not see the mother at all.  Even if it is a single parent family it is something that shows the men are starting to step up in our society and taking the roles of the women too.  [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KyHo63_IyY[/youtube]