Essay

Tristan Currie BA (Hons) Graphic Design Level 4

This essay will evaluate the following statement with reference to past and present theories:

'Advertising doesn't sell things; all advertising does is change the way people think or feel' Jeremy Bullmore.

The theories cited in this essay will challenge the preceding statement and present different aspects on how advertising influences on society and the way people think.

What is advertising? The oxford dictionary defines advertising as “the activity or profession of producing advertisements for commercial products or services”. This definition doesn’t suggest or point out what Bullmore was expressing in his statement saying that advertising changes the way people think or feel. So does this mean that Bullmore is incorrect or is the definition from one of the world’s most prestigious dictionaries in the world wrong?

However another big name in the advertising industry expresses a similar statement. Known for being one of the most creative men in advertising [1], Leo Burnett said that “Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief”.

Therefore if two of the most influential men in advertising are stating that advertising is changing the way people think, there must be some truth to this.

Jean Kilbourne, a feminist author who is known for her work on women in advertising says “The first thing the advertisers do is surround us with the image of ideal female beauty, so we all learn how important it is for a woman to be beautiful, and exactly what it takes”. In this statement she is essentially saying that advertisers aim to change how women think about themselves and how others will perceive them in society. The main aim being for women to contemplate not being that way and buying what is advertised. This leads to women changing the way they feel and think about themselves.

Although this maybe the case now, women in advertising have not always had the same roll.

Earlier advertisements (fig.1) show women in a different aspect, when women were still fighting for their rights, advertisers showed women in the kitchen. The message they were putting through was that women belonged in the kitchen and not at polling sites.

In the 60’s advertisements started to appear that were diet orientated aimed at women (fig .2).

The advert contains a pear, and states that “this is no shape for a girl”. The advert mentions things such as having a proportional body, claiming in can reshape you. This was just the start of many to come advertising campaigns that were aimed at changing the way women thought and felt about themselves. Girls started to be influenced from magazines about the idea of a perfect body shape, lowering women’s satisfaction with their own beauty.

Barbara Stern states that “most advertising has an androcentric message and is reinforcing the idea of male and female roles in life as well as perpetuating stereotypical ideas about women”. This can be identified by the way women appear in advertisements. In fig .3 the advert is not just advertising Skip Detergent, first it uses breasts to capture the attention of the viewer but at the same time it raises the idea of washing at home being a women’s job. In some occasions women or parts of women are used just to attract attention to the advert.

Another example where this is present is in a Great American Volleyball advert (fig .4). The woman posing is essentially to get the viewer’s attention and is stating that women are principally sex objects.

The advertisers are using consciously women to deliver these messages and at the same time making them subconscious for the viewer, unless more time was put in to looking at the adverts the viewer would not notice them.

Jerry Mander states in his book Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television that “advertising exists only to purvey what people don’t need”. This statement is highly noticeable in modern day advertising. A clear example is cologne adverts. Cologne is not something essential in our day to day life yet most people have the desire to smell nice and believe this is more attractive. This is idea is put through with the advertising of these products. Looking at different adverts for men and women cologne (fig .5 – fig .6) both want to communicate different messages and make the viewer think and feel a different way. The first common aspect for both adverts is that they are promoting attraction. The models for each advert are young looking and have elegant looks and features.

In the case of the men’s cologne advert (fig .5) the main subject has a woman grabbing him from behind, the subjects face gives the sense of strength and desire. The woman indicates attraction to the man and insinuates that it is because of the cologne. The cologne has made the man more attractive and more desirable to her. In the case of the woman’s cologne (fig .6) she is wearing red lipstick making her lips stand out against her pale skin. The dress chosen doesn’t cover much of her upper body making her catch and engage the viewer’s attention.

She looks into the distance as if she is watching someone with desire. The advert is brandishing the attractiveness of an ideal woman.

These attractive images lead you to desire and want a certain product consciously or subconsciously making you believe that having them will make you more like the person in the advert or to have a similar lifestyle.

Although most advertising campaigns of this style tend to put through the same ideas and use the same methods it is not always the case. In 2004 Dove launched a campaign called “The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty”. Through this campaign they were hoping to transform the way younger girls and women recognize and appreciate beauty. The main aim for this campaign was to improve women’s self-esteem as other advertisements were challenging and putting through another view on the female figure and the idea of attractiveness. In other words they were trying to change todays conventional view on beauty.

Ali Fisher, brand manager of Dove Skin said “we are passionate about our social mission and want to continue our support to help young girls and women develop a positive relationship

with their bodies”. Brands and advertisers had noticed the negative effect adverts had been giving on women and with this campaign they were trying to bring back in to society that all women have beauty and that they shouldn’t be ashamed or embarrassed by there bodies.

However this campaign had been criticized, as Dove was owned by Unilever. Unilever also owned the brand Lynx, who’s campaigns contradicted the Dove campaign for Real Beauty.

The Lynx campaign (fig .7) clearly portrays the model as a sex object. This is just one of the many adverts from Lynx that portray women in this way. The question in the advert read, “Can she make you lose control?” This statement suggests that she can make men lose control because of her beauty characterizing women as thin and attractive. Adverts like this are the ones that make women become unsatisfied with their bodies. In advertising it is evident that sex sells and this adverts main approach is that. John Berger notes in his book “Ways of Seeing” that “women are depicted in a quite different way from men–not because feminism is different from the masculine–but because the ‘ideal ‘spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the women is designed to flatter him”. The model has no relation to Lynx or to the advert but she still attracts male customers in to buying this product because of the use of her glamour and sexiness. Berger also mentions in his book that men “survey women before treating them”, the model is giving men the idea that when buying this product will give the promise of sexual encounters with women like the one in the advertisement.

So is Unilever a hypocrite? In one campaign for one of their brands they go about using everyday women and saying that real beauty is what matters and in another brand they portray women as sex objects. It could be said that Dove are adjusting to the market and trying to make a change in society yet in other adverts they still use skinny models. At the end of the day the campaign was successful but was it just a strategic approach to advertising? Women will still desire to have the attractiveness and bodies of models such as the one that appears in the Lynx advert.

In beauty advertisements the general appeal is for skinny, long haired and perfect skin models because this is what advertisers and society have suggested is acceptable beauty. Most companies still go on this acceptable beauty however brands like Dove try to break away from this stereotype with campaigns like the one mentioned before.

One of the most controversial things in the advertising world has been the airbrushing and photoshopping of models for advertisements. Last year H&M admitted that they had been

using computer generated bodies (fig .8) and only using the head of real models for their website. Hacan Andersson, a spokesman from H&M, confirmed this by saying "It's not a real body, it is completely virtual and made by the computer. We take pictures of the clothes on a doll that stands in the shop, and then create the human appearance with a program on a computer." They argued this by saying it simplified the photo shoot and that customers were supposed to focus more on the clothes then on the models in the images. He went on to explain that "the result is strange to look at, but the message is clear: buy our clothes, not our models."

This started controversy because H&M were creating unreal bodies and a fake reality that women would live up to. By doing this women would admire and want to have a body like the one in the adverts, but this was not possible as the models bodies were not real therefore they would desire something that doesn’t exist. This campaign was a clear representation of how advertisers want to sell and change the way people want to be.

In the book Ways if Seeing by John Berger he says “The purpose of publicity is to make the spectator marginally dissatisfied with his present way of life”. Advertisers achieve this through many topics and subjects. For women they sale them the image of perfection, glamour, sex. For men they sale them similar ideas but advertisers have focused more on women to change the way you would think or feel about certain subjects. To do this they mainly focus on the past or the future to advertise, trying to sale you the idea that your life will be better of by buying this product that your life will change by just obtaining this product. Advertising supplies false needs, the desire of having new things needs to continue so the brands can keep making money. Berger also states that “publicity speaks in the future tense and yet the achievement of this future is endlessly deferred”. With this statement Berger proposes that the existence of a commodity self is not achievable, because once a commodity is owned it no longer is new.

‘Advertising doesn’t sell things; all advertising does is change the way people think or feel’ this was the statement that started this essay. After viewing how advertising works day to day in life and how it makes and forms part of the way people feel and think. It plays a big part in society, not just advertising the products but changing people’s thoughts. Advertisers main aim is to make people consume and buy things they don’t need. Throughout the last decades

advertising has become more focused on the female figure and sex. Many cases of advertisements show how women are changed or made to look more attractive just to sell a certain product. How it has become more important to impress other with things we don’t need or really want but are tricked into consuming by the advertisers. Adverts have made women sex objects in order to sale to the male public, subconsciously transmitting the message of sex and desire through subtle images that suggest these things.

Many questions can arise from the theories and techniques used by advertisers to make consumers consume. Is it morally correct to change the way people feel about certain subjects with out them knowing, subconsciously putting thoughts in to their minds. Objectifying women, to make them feel less attractive in order for them to buy products that will not change them but will only make them feel more uncertain of themselves.

Overall advertising is changing the way people feel and think about themselves and certain subjects. It could be questioned or argued that if advertising is changing the way people feel in to buying certain products it does mean that advertising is selling. But advertising is selling a lie, a false image, airbrushed bodies and photoshopped faces in order to make society consume. Desire to be something that is fake, to desire a lifestyle that a cologne advert puts forward. All these things influenced by adverts and placed there by the advertisers themselves. It all comes down to money, big brands and companies all want to make money and they don’t care how as long as they are making it. Changing people’s thoughts or feelings without caring as long as they get the big numbers at the end of the month. The society we all live in is consumerist, everything is about having something better or having more then someone else, this is how advertising has affected society and changed the way we think and feel.

Bibliography: Anon. (2013) [http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/advertising?q=advertising] Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Berger, J (1972) Ways of Seeing, United Kingdom, Penguin Classics Kilbourne, J. (1999) Killing Us Softly 3, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FpyGwP3yzE] YouTube, Mander, J. (1978) Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, New York City, Willam Morrow Ogilvy, D (1963) Confessions of an Advertising Man, London: Southbank Publishing

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