I have a major essay to write for my pop. culture class (which I hate btw), analyzing some advertisements on the basis of any, or all of, the following ideas: stereotypes, mythologies, ideologies, hegemony, gender, sexual orientation, social class, status and prestige, ethnicity, etc.

I've got some basic ideas, but I'm still coming up on a mental roadblock, and you guys are always sooo helpful, so I thought I'd share :D


Here are the ads I'm analyzing:








Anyone got any ideas?

Well... alot of TV commercials for Detergents and other cleaning products in Europe are incredibly sexist, always depicting women doing the chores. Not much of an idea but hey... it's free of charge. :P

I'd love to help but to me it's not clear what you are looking for. May be you could set this up as a poll and we could rank which ad is most sexest or some thing like that...

I did so much of this kind of thing in college. Fun stuff.

The first one intrigues me the most. A shower curtain back ground that is clear and yet masks what is behind it, the drink is cold and inviting, the outfit shows confidence and desire, her wrap, which is hanging on the back of her chair is made of fur, it shows wealth or style. The ad is darkish and passionate, sexy and strong. And it all has to do with shoes which aren't inherently any of those things.

My guess is that it is aimed at a female audience, unlike the second which is aimed at a male audience.

Women can give almost anything emotion. Shoes become all of the above mentioned emotions when put in the right setting. Sexist maybe...but I wouldn't slap anyone that said I was darkish, passionate, sexy and strong.

The second is for men. A beautiful woman with her hand on his car....tried and true. Isn't it interesting also that the car is wet. Water sells a lot of products...try noticing, it is amazing how many adds have water in them.

^ :clapping:

KG really is very good at marketing and PR; that's what her degree is, in fact.

Also, the second ad suggest something else (Okay, the title itself "Gorgeous gets in everywhere" is suggestive). This appears to have been made by or for a european market--the steering wheel is on the right (notice it doesn't show in through the open door). This suggests that the girl is a passenger and the man, who is barely noticable in the right side of the image, is the driver and scored the woman (wearing a wedding rign) with the Jaguar.

It is also done in sophisticated colors and the girl is very well dressed. Read in: smart and classy. In a very Atlas Shrugged type of way I think it may also be saying that you get what you pay for.

It may be way too obvious but each of these ads seem to be counter to the kinds of ads I'm used to seeing in the states. Each of these products seem to empower the women who use them; allthough I think the women are using sexuality as a means of manipulating the world to get what each wants. Did all of these ads come out of the same publication?

On a deeper level though, these ads are playing right into traditional sterotypes--the women all look kind of similiar in terms of body types and each seem to be making the statement that external looks (fashion) are a key both to beauty and power. Maybe that's just what I'm seeing though.

It seems to me that the top ad is designed to get guys in trouble with their female counterparts. The ad makes us drool and get all googoo eyed at which time our lady friends get all pist off at us :(

Then I spose to get back in your good graces we are supposed to go out and buy you some shoes eh?

Empowerment....I think you just hit the nail on the head. That was exactly what I was trying to get at.

I think the ads are all very satirical...and it's somewhat of an admittance by the companies behind them, that consumers aren't as stupid as they think. They're using very basic stereotypes in a tongue-in-cheek way.


The Town Shoes and Kenneth Cole ads are from Fashion and the Jaguar ad is from Vogue....Which is kinda interesting, because it seems as though the Jag ad would be targetted towards men....but then again, it brings in the idea of empowerment.


KG - you noticed a lot of stuff about that Town Shoes ad that I didn't....really helpful! Thanks! :D


Thanks everyone, this is exactly the kind of stuff I needed :)

Keep the ideas coming if you got 'em ^_^