Ryan Moss 20312357 The effects the media has on a society through consumerism Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Baccalaureus Technologiae in Photography Degree, School of Arts, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Swanepoel, M. Meyer, G Word Count 2928
March 2008
Since the 1960’s television has begun taking up most of our spare time, mass media and pop culture, wield a vast influence on our society. Television supplies the world with information and in so doing, liberates the population while simultaneously causing the masses to depend on the media for that same information and since its birth, has played a vital role in influencing society’s perception of the world on many levels. It consciously and subconsciously conditions the mind, constantly providing imagery and semiotic signs which restrain us from freedom of thinking. Advertising agencies use television as a medium to induce mass consumerism, and although it has detrimental effects no real infrastructure has been implemented to prevent the social conditioning on the younger generations, no real change will come about to prevent this.
In the subsequent debate a number of issues will be addressed with regard to the role of advertising in television and media. Television is central in manipulating reality. The way people read into this reality is based upon their cultural background, social status age and gender and the entire nature of television, as seen by McLuhan (1964: 317), has forever shaped societies, and has transformed the publics “sense lives” and their very mental processes. Namely the objectification of women in the media will be the key focus in this debate and the effects television has on consumerism. Case studies have been analyzed and illustrate scenarios of objectification.
Advertising Nazi’s Commercial mass media, being television, radio and print, are all reshuffling on a cellular level, manipulating our emotions and creating controlling relations between immaterial needs and the raw material products. One lives in a technologically advanced world dominated by electronic mass media, television and the internet. The producers of visual media, film makers, photographers, advertising agencies and artists all use images to influence our thought making process. The world is under a mass media-consumer trance. Society conforms to sitting in front of an unemotional box, day after day only to be inundated with subliminal advertising encouraging irrelevant needs thus being coerced to conform to consumerism. In advertising as well as product placement within film, one is forced to speculate just how television influences your purchasing decisions?
Consumerists look for products that make them feel like somebody else, someone more important, and someone that completely nullifies their present lifestyle. They look to someone that they can correlate to, look up to and look at as a role model. No product can help one fully escape your old identity. With the continuous purchasing of products, and with little or no effect on the ideal form they want to achieve, frustration mounts, self criticism appears, and internal degradation deepens. As Burnett, Moriarty and Wells, (2006: 5) explains, advertising is an intricate communications medium that controls, be it consciously or subconsciously, strategies forced on consumers that impact on the consumers feelings, thoughts and actions. Receiving information through our senses and assigning meaning to the messages is a process called perception. How we perceive certain adverts, images and sounds are all based on our cultural surroundings and upbringings.
“Seeing comes before words, the child looks and recognizes before it can speak. But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it.” (Berger: 8)
For advertisers to create an exceptionally effective advert, it first and fore mostly has to be noticed. In order to sell a product, advertisers create a demand. According to them, demand creation is a way of creating and using a peripheral message that induces this drive for a need or want. The industries are pursuing growth and extreme profits, by objectifying woman. By creating ideals that are unmentionable to attain and maintain, they enforcing a need to conform. However advertising critics, believe that advertising mirrors cultural values rather than setting them. This mirror debate is one of the issues we need to explore research and critically need to deal with. .One way of promoting these consumer needs are the by objectification of woman. One example, are woman buying beauty products to fulfill a need to be beautiful, or is it advertising that’s manipulating them into buying them through the belief that the products offer hope? Media activist Jean Kilbourne in (http://www.media-awareness.ca) concludes that, "Women are sold to the diet Industry by the magazines we read and the television programs we watch, almost all of which make us feel anxious about our weight."
With the influx of these visual images, adverts and subliminal messaging in the media, it only serves as the pathway to creating a personal idealism for one. Ideology in dictionary.com’s definition is the body of a doctrine, myth or belief that guides an individual, social movement institution, class or large group. The ideology prevalent within today’s society is that of mass consumerism. Consumerism enforced by the media. Society has been inundated by the media with prescribed ideals; namely health, status and beauty. The repeated exposure
of society to these ideals ensures that consumers live their lives trying to achieve some or all of them.
Gender Splendor As the media becomes an extreme force in the shaping of our society, and the youth, the struggle to maintain our unique individual and self perception becomes somewhat more difficult. Public awareness of the topic both in its existing form as well as its damage need to be addressed extensively if one wants to eliminate it. To demonstrate the influence media has on the lives of women, it is important to recognize the types of messages conveyed by the media. We also need to look at the self perceptions of woman. The vicious message, for many, is a world of demanding specifications and unrealistic standards of beauty. They are simply not good enough.
The manner in which woman are portrayed in the visual media creates or supports cultural stereotypes. As Burnett, Moriarty and Wells (2006: 76) puts it, a stereotype is a cultural group, accentuating trait or traits that do not necessarily depict the group accurately. As mentioned before the shape versus mirror debate reinforces the issue of stereotyping. Stereotyping woman for example as a sexual object has long been embodied in our culture. If we exploit woman as a sexual object in the media, it’s relating to a cultural value, whether or not we see this negatively. Thus by stereotyping sexuality in an advertisement in any medium, we are then contributing to strengthen the cultural value.
With out a medium through which to communicate the message, the connection between consumerism and objectification could not be linked. This is the domain of advertising and television. Both of these media have been subject to a controversial debate about whether they advocate a product, or mirror reality.
Fig 1
As portrayed in this advertisement for skyy vodka, (the typical stereotype of the man) man in this image is shown as an income earner, as indicated by his suit and also the graph like background on which he is placed. Stereotypically the woman is shown in a sexualized state; the impression is strengthened by her moist appearance and being placed in water. She is shown making direct eye contact with the viewer which makes her seem more attainable while the man, whose attention is casually focused on her, gives the opposite impression. Images such as this reinforce the notion of discrimination between sexes as to the prescribed roles they should fulfill within society.
Links between Television viewing and stereotyped sex roles have been noted in several studies. According to Williams (1986: 290) the appearance of how woman appear on television is more important than the quantity. In his research as well as several others, the depiction of opposing stereotypes within the media, is successful in constructing less stereotypical attitudes, and concludes this has the potential for changing attitudes.
Woman, Woman, Woman Until super model Twiggy showed up in the 1960’s, curvy bodies and natural bodies were appreciated, yet now according to McConnell, as they are portrayed in the media, "desirable" physical characteristics include being thin, long-legged, slim-hipped, and large-breasted. Stereotypical images of desirable female forms are everywhere. In advertising nearly everything is sold using the woman, and her body as a marketing tool. The desire to be, younger, taller and thinner is prevalent in contemporary society.
“To be naked, is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others, and yet not recognized for oneself. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude.” (Berger: 54).
Women are conditioned by society to perceive their appearances as inadequate right from a young age, with the introduction of an object as simple as a Barbie doll, which 90% of all girls between the ages of 3-11 posses (Tomblom, Para 2), this already provides an unnatural and unattainable role model in the crucial years of young girls’ lives. Advertising and media images that encourage woman, and more specifically teenagers, to focus on looks, and sexuality, are harmful to there emotional as well as physical health. One example is the Bratz dolls, (fig2) who all are dressed in sexualized clothing such as mini skirts, fishnet stockings and feather boas. The media further imposes this perfect ideal by linking images of thinness and beauty to concepts such as status, success, happiness, love and prestige. These ideals are further ingrained into the psyche of the average
woman and cemented by repeated exposure via mainstream media. As written by Tomblom, (www.ecclectica.ca) woman who embrace these ideals may not truly accept them, but may not simply be trying to adapt to a world that judges them not as people but as parts.
Fig 2
Another trend in current advertising is the objectification of women in a sexual context, of which teenagers are not exempt. Intensified media portrayals of younger girls in sexual ways tend to be shown more and more. According to Poynor (2006: 36) the female flesh is shown from the thigh up and, in this meat market, smiling is beside the point; the models role is to look like she is offering herself to the buyer. He further states this encourages emotionally immature readers to judge themselves, from an early age, in terms of a standard of physical attractiveness that may be unattainable. The increased use of younger models in the advertising and fashion industry, and the camera angles, facial expressions, poses, are similar to pornography in nature.
Fig3. The female figure portrayed in advertising is usually sensationalized, which is used to seize the viewer’s attention. With so much nudity and sex used in advertising, the combination is getting somewhat clichéd. However people or more specifically men will always find this kind of images appealing. The images in Fig 3 are adverts for Tom Ford Fragrances. The images use blatant sexual innuendo’s to the gage the intention of the consumer. This advertising campaign by Tom ford unashamedly objectifies woman, showing them to be sexual objects of desire, linking the scent of this fragrance with sexual desires and most prominently will increase the sales figures for the product.
“If appearances are more important to us than ever, though, it is because we now study them so obsessively and unforgiving in extreme close up through the microscope of the media. Behind the brilliant smile, framed by the glossy lips, the inner reality is increasingly uncertain and dysfunctional.” (Poynor, 2006: 38)
No matter how a person is portrayed in the media, behind the entire make up, smiles and beauty lays the doubt, the hesitant beauty and the way we see our society and our culture. We do not live in a normal.
Fig 4 Dolce and Gabana created an advert, Fig 4 which in their mind, according to Newsweek , was created as artistic and was meant to “recall an erotic dream, a sexual game.� They regret the way the advert was perceived and insist that they were not intending in anyway to demean woman. This advert was not directly produced to promote violence on woman, but by the way one as a society, from experienced cultural backgrounds can perceive this as to be a scene of rape. The image exposes a group of dominant males weighing down a single female. Notice how all the people within the image are models of extreme beauty. The way Dolce and Gabana said they wanted the image to be seen, is of sexual connotations, sex games and fun. This then by my limited research influences the notion of objectification and more so sexual objectification of woman.
Fig 5 In fig 5, the women dressed in fur and feathers and caged like animals provide the main view point when looking at the subliminal messages within the advert. The central message in this advert and this campaign is that people who conform to wearing Diesel are geared up for successful living. By wearing the Diesel brand they are of a higher social status. Women are portrayed as if their perfect identities are packaged (the use of cages) and sold like animals in a pet store. The woman in the cage in the foreground has the emotional need for the men to scurry up, look at her, and take her home, much like a puppy at a shelter begging for love. This too can be said for a woman who conforms to fit in with the social trends, she is however degraded as he has in fact no interest in her yet he takes more interest in the animal on his shoulder and dismisses any hope of affection from him towards her. It could be viewed as saying that women are just accessories for men in society. The image portrays the importance of male dominance within current society.
Fig 6 Advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, New Zealand, grabs the bulls by the horns, and comes up with an ingenious way to sell sex without infuriating feminists or conservatives. In the ads for Fayreform lingerie, they avert criticism by adding humor to this advertising campaign. Although they have done it in this manner, there is still the use of sexual objects of desire to sell their product. The adverts all depict women only in lingerie in somewhat, enticing positions. They could be viewed as the ideal. Long thin legs, flat stomach, perfect round breasts and clear skin facial features. The bottom left corner boasts the Fayreform brand name and under it the subtle use of the line “work your curves” is viewed as an inviting gesture to flaunt yourself. Buy this lingerie, and go work your curves, is a subtle sexual innuendo. Bringing the catch line “bet you did not notice….” In all the adverts brings about this humor that makes one think twice as to what one is looking at. One could argue that this is slight subvertising, and makes one think “but do I look at her in this way?” The adverts make a person stop and think about ones ethics, morals and values of how one looks at a woman.
John Berger has written of the way publicity images “belong to the moment but speak to the future.” They refer to a continually deferred fulfillment of all the spectator-consumer’s fantasies of wealth and power- to make the spectatorconsumer envious on the way to becoming enviable. This could also be said for mass media, that we all transform our lives by buying something more. (Berger, 1977: 130) The purpose of advertising is to make one dissatisfied with our current life and if we buy what advertising is offering, ones life will become better. It offers one an improved alternative, this idealism he strives to be. A shockingly small minority of society has the genetic allowance to match with what the media professes to be attractive.
Williams (1986: 409) explains that it experience rather than age that is the important factor. Television is one of the many ways media portrays society and one of the important ways of showing the behavioral actions of men and woman, the way they dress, work and interact as a society. Children use parent’s siblings and other humans to compare these televised role models against. Television is not going to change, advertisers are not going to stop the use of objectification in the media, but rather they would curb the amount and intensity of it. His conclusion is that changing the way people use and perceive television will be significantly easier to change than actually changing the majority of distasteful television programs. (1986: 418)
In conclusion, knowing that; advertising will continue to engulf our society, and with the fast growing electronic media advertising will without doubt rapidly increase. When one is unaware of the effects television has on society, they cultural values, and our upbringing or experience is one of the dynamics of societal behavior. We might not be able to free our world of it, but nonetheless we can rid it out of our minds, to reduce the power to influence our actions. We are now in need of liberation from this mass media trance that engulfs our lives. Individuals need to become media literate, and in doing this one is more knowledgeable in rupturing the messages of the media. With the ever prevalent culture jamming movements, and research projects and the minor essays like this, when all added up into one world of uncertainty, the need to understand the media’s detrimental effects are slowly and surely becoming more prevalent.
Source list Books Berger J. ND. Ways of seeing. Johannesburg; Penguin Books South Africa. Burnett, J; Moriarty, S; Wells, W. 2006. Advertising principles and practices. New Jersey. Pearson Education inc. Calegero, R.M., Davis W.N., & Thompson J.K. (2005) The role of selfobjectification in the experience of woman with eating disorders. Sex Roles. (4350) Lasn, K. 2000. Culture Jam. New York. Harper Collins Publishers Inc. Mcluhan, M. 1964. Understanding Media: The extensions of man. ( 2nd edition). New York: Penguin books. Messaris, P. 1997. Visual persuasion: the role of images in advertising. California; Sage Publications Inc. Poynor, R. 2006. Designing Pornotopia. London; Laurence King publishing. Williams, T. 1986. The Impact of television. Orlando, Florida. Academic Press Inc.
Websites Ditrich, L. (n.d) Destructive Advertising and the exploitation of Women Worldwide. http://home.mtholyoke.edu/~nshah/fashioncrimes/Sexploitation.html. [Online] Available: March 2008 Dictionary.com. http://dictionary.reference.com/brows/ideology. [Online] Available: March 2008. McConnell, M. (n.d) Media and gender stereotyping. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/local/scisoc/sports03/papers/mmcconnell.html. [Online] Available: March 2008. Newsweek. (n.d). www.newseek.com. [Online] Available: March 2008. Tomblom, H. (n.d) A feminist investigation: Objectification and well-being. http://www.ecclectica.ca [Online] Available: March 2008 www.media-awareness.ca [Online] Available: March 2008 Jean Kilbourne in (http://www.media-awareness.ca) Available online: March 2008
Images Fig 1. http://www.about-face.org/goo/newten/6/ Available online: March 2008
Fig 2. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-02-19-sexualized-girls_x.htm Available online: March 2008
Fig3. http://pzrservices.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/ 09/12/tomfordfragrancead.jpg Available online: March 2008
Fig4. http://pzrservices.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/dolce_ rape_ad.jpg Available online: March 2008
Fig 5. Diesel. 2007. [Online] Available: http://www.diesel.com [19 Nov 2007] Fig 6. http://pzrservices.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/ 09/29/fayreform1.jpg Available online: March 2008