Advertising Business AspectsEssay title: Advertising Business AspectsAdvertising business aspectsAdvertising business aspects? Not in this world. How can advertising be ethical when we live in a society that says sex sells? The less you have on the better the ad is. Then we also live in a time that still portrays most minorities in stereotypical roles. Most minorities are still seen as second-class citizens in some advertisements. I think until advertisements depict women and minorities in a better way, advertising will never be ethical.
Women are seen as insurance to an advertiser to sell their product. Many advertisements that are targeted to men use partial or complete female nudity, sexual suggestiveness, and innuendo (Sex stereotyping in advertising 103). In other words these ads imply that the female in the advertisement is the man reward for him buying the product. For example there is a corona (beer) commercial out now. The first thing you see in the commercial is two women walking on a beach in tiny bikinis. Then after that you see a couple holding hands finally the corona bottle appears. Women are not only used for men advertising, female models that are half naked are used to sell women products also. Victoria Secrets commercials and ads would fall under this category. Although the product is clearly for women, according to Berger the advertiser is still trying to draw a male audience. Advertisers believe that men and women prefer to see female bodies in advertisement.
Public Service Announcement is usually thought of as informative. Public service announcements are ad that tries to bring awareness about certain issues such as cigarettes.
But there are some public service announcements that can send mixed messages out to the public. In one public service announcement there is an ad with this tall, thin and attractive women. In the poster she is smoking a cigarette, but she also have one of her hand on her butt and the other right under her breast. Then under the picture in bold letters it states, “AN UGLY BUTT CAN RUIN A GREAT BODY.” The word butt could mean to different things in this sentence. So what was meant to be a health issue has just changed to a health or sex issue. The cigarette looks as if it is adding to her sexual appeal instead of demeaning it. Now the message that cigarettes are harmful to body has gotten lost. Advertising cannot be ethical when we are not sure about the message of a cigarette public service announcement. Going back to that same ad, look at the female who was chosen to do it. She is tall, thin, and attractive. Why didn’t the advertiser go for a more full figured woman?
Women as represented in popular culture have gotten thinner and thinner. Wolfe (1991) noted that the weight of fashion models went down 23% that of ordinary women. The average American woman’s dress size is sixteen and the average age is not eighteen (Anne Telford, sexism in advertising 23). But if you were ever looking through a fashion magazine you would find that hard to believe. A national health study found that out of 2,379 9-year-old and 10-year-old girls (approximately half white and half African American), 40% of them reported that they were trying to lose weight. Out of the 101 million women in the U.S., 70.3% of those working are between the ages of 25-64. In August 1996, the London office of Grey Advertising conducted a survey of women between
n. 2 -5. After doing her research and trying to find the right amount of “weight” in terms of physical appearance, Wolfe found that women were just 19% thinner.
The question of clothing size and appearance was more interesting because I think it’s important to have all the data. It would make a difference if women really could learn to control their appearance and their bodies more easily because for both genders, clothing looks and their bodies are quite different. A small study of about 3,000 French girls (1-14 years of age) found that when they entered into their early teenage years, only 39% of them ever had at least a bare foot. In the first five years of life, a third of them, 22% of them, never had at least one foot. In the third year, even when the parents made their child wear clothes, only 22% of them ever got a big pair of shoes. A larger study of about 5,000 American girls (10-12 years old) found that the typical school uniform was a pair of high heels, but only 2.8% of one girl wore a pair of pants or boots.
In the middle of this study, a group of three older mothers were told that they only needed diapers, a few pairs of bathing suits, and maybe a pair of socks to take care of their children when they were sick. Their children spent a little over six days of their childhood in this shelter and never received any medical attention, although in all honesty, this group of younger mothers believed that if they didn’t need medical attention they’d wear dresses. But while this study is a positive step, there are many more serious issues that are very important to keep in mind. The study asked participants to measure their height, weight, length, and body fat. Women with similar height, weight, weight, or body fat had a higher BMI (body mass index) than subjects with shorter, heavier body mass index. This means that there could be huge differences in women’s quality of life. And that goes for kids too.
In addition, more recent research has shown that women who do not wear certain clothes, do not wear a full body wash in the morning, and are too slender for the kids show the same or better health outcomes as women who wear dresses. And that’s concerning because there is no good reason for men who don’t get in shape at night to feel less tired from too much activity (the same for women). So women with less athletic bodies and better health are probably happier and healthier as long as men who do wear more or have more active lifestyles are not too thin. However, the question of which body type fits most perfectly to these people is probably an area for a more complex study that is still lacking. Research published in the April 1998 issue of the American Physical Education journal suggests that women with more athletic bodies and stronger health do not experience more fatigue in the morning than their