DOES ADVERTISING TREAT MEN LIKE THEY WERE MONKEYS AND WOMAN LIKE

THEY WERE STUFF?

BEFORE THAT, I WOULD LIKE TO

THANK YOU ALLFOR BEING HERE

“ “

While the journalism informs, advertising motivates.

This is a saying by the advertising guru, Edson Athayde, meaning that advertising could do two different things:

• Be the change, it wants to see in the world;

• Reinforce stereotypes.

So, let’s analyse, in a brief way, what advertising tell us when we are children, and because of that too innocent to argue against, and what advertising tell us when we are grown-up.

Let’s get started!

In our first years, ads show boys playing with toy cars or toy guns and girls playing with dolls, dresses or beauty cosmetics. In my opinion, this can be interpreted this way:

• Boys should be rational and aggressive human beings;

• While girls should be emotional and maternal.

“Mom, what if I don’t want to be like that?”

“Mom, what if I don’t want to be like that?”

Then, they will be called tomboy or sissy.

We all know how children can be mean.

But are we aware of how mean can advertising be?

When we are all grown-up, advertising continues to bother us, saying:

• Men should be successful and virile human beings;

• While women should be hot.

Perhaps you would end up having this kind of thought:“If we want men to buy more beer, we should associate beer to virility, and, in order of that, put lots of sexy women in our ads. Maybe it works!”

IMAGINE BEING THE ‘ADVERTISING MACHINE’ DURING ONE REGULAR DAY...

So, let’s go treat men like monkeys. They will appreciate that!

Why shouldn’t they?

In the ads above, women are commoditised, which means: treated like stuff, while men are treated like those fellows over here:

This is tricky, but we can say that are two kinds of woman in advertising:

• The woman-motive, like in the beer case we have just seen;

• The woman as a consumer, that feels empathy with the actress in the ad, her role model.

By purchasing the product,

men feel they are closest of

hot celebrities, which they

always wanted to meet.

By purchasing the product, women feel

they get closer to perfection.

FIRST CASE:

SECOND CASE:

But what is perfection either way? And what does advertising know about it?

In human terms, I believe this ad communicates three things:

• Her perfect boobs;

• A sense of her sexual availability, perhaps;

• And that she is been seeing naked, but not recognized by what she really is.

So, women discrimination is a long story and has a long tradition in advertising: we can see it below:

Even when advertisers did not use directly a woman body, they claim one that exists in the society imagenery:

• The premise of the ad is:

“This beer is as much authentic as a virgin, because the non-virgins are not authentic, of course.”

Even when advertisers did not use directly a woman body, they claim one that exists in the society imagenery:

• The premise of the ad is:

“This beer is as much authentic as a virgin, because the non-virgins are not authentic, of course.”

What a silly thought!

I believe we face a symbolic violence, which eliminates, in a symbolic way, the woman herself from society.

And because of this, and some other reasons, women are seen as passive, submissive, and weak.

WHICH COULD NOT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!

I believe we face a symbolic violence, which eliminates, in a symbolic way, the woman herself from society.

And because of this, and some other reasons, women are seen as passive, submissive, and weak.

So now I would like to address your attention to this ladies, known as guerrilla girls.

“Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous group of female artists and feminists, devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world internationally. The group formed in New York City, in 1985, with the mission of bringing gender and racial inequality within the fine arts to light. Members are known for the gorilla masks they wear in public appearances to remain anonymous.”

Guerrilla girls with Yoko Ono.

Guerrilla Girls’ slogan: “Fighting Discrimination with Facts, Humor and Fake Fur”. 

As artists, they design a lot of posters, like this one:

Make us think…

Guerrilla girls in action:

Guerrilla Girls satirical movie poster:

So I decided to be a ‘guerrilla girl’ at my own terms:

I will fight by the little boys who wish to play with dolls and the little girls who wish to play with car toys. I will fight for the right children have of not being conditioning to social roles. I will fight for a more clean and human advertising. I will fight for the right of refusing the beauty and behavioural pattern advertising imposes to us. I will fight for the right men have of not being treated like monkeys and woman have of not being treated like stuff.

OUR SOCIETY, IN MY OPINION, SHOULD NOT SUPPORT A CONDITIONING ADVERTISING LIKE THIS ONE.

AND THAT IS IT.THANK YOUFOR READING!

PORTUGUESE REFERENCESBalonas, s. (2006) A publicidade a favor das causas sociais. Tese de mestrado em ciências da comunicação. Braga: Universidade do Minho. 36-49 Mota-Ribeiro, s. (2002).”Corpos Eróticos: imagens da mulher na publicidade da imprensa feminina portuguesa” in cadernos de noroeste. Vol.17. Separata da revista. Braga: 145-164 Singer, Peter (1995) Ética Prática. Cambridge University Press (segunda edição): 39-47 Lima, Juliana (2008) “A imagem do feminino na publicidade contemporânea: estudos de caso”. Bacharelato em comunicação social – publicidade e propaganda. Fortaleza: 1- 53 Carapinha Veríssimo, j. (2005) As representações do corpo na publicidade. Tese de doutoramento em Comunicação Social. Lisboa: Escola Superior de Comunicação Social: 1701-1721  Outros documentos:Jornal Oficial da União Europeia de Setembro de 2008 (pág 43-46)Código Deontológico da Publicidade