Gender Stereotyping

I do believe that gender stereotyping still exists today, and will continue existing because it works. If it's selling a certain product, you can be sure that it captivates the certain targeted gender.

In almost all the perfume ads in magazines, there are naked women. If their goal is to sell the scent, how is it even being captured? When these ads are viewed, it somewhat makes the audience believe that women look perfect if they wear that specific perfume. It makes women and men believe that if they use a certain perfume, they will look beautiful. It is always the same type of woman: blonde, light-skinned, and skinny. Even in the black and white photo, the woman is seen as light-skinned because there is a light shining on her.

A stereotype common about nurses is that they are all women, and this is what I found most of the advertisements on Google to show:

As you can see, most of the images are of women. Although men can do just as well at being nurses as women can, society tends to think of a woman when we hear "nurse."

This doesn't only happen with women. There are certain jobs and careers in society that males are "supposed" to have too, like firefighting and working on construction.

Unfortunately, I do not think that advertisers are going to get rid of gender stereotypes because they help sell many products and ideas. Without gender stereotypes, how are men and women going to know what to look like?

Racial and Gender Diversity in the Media

I found the television show "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" to break a lot of the stereotypes that are common in society.

Our society has shaped our minds to believe that people of African descent, as we talked about in class, have depictions related to master/slave relationships, danger, and others that show them in a negative way. This may be because it happened in the past, but it is still being used in the media today.

In The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Mr. Moseby (an African American male, shown above), is the manager of a hotel. He is hardworking and must always keep the hotel nice and organized. As far as the episodes show, there are no African American stereotypes that he portrays. He is not considered dangerous or a thief.

A white male, Arwin, is shown as a clumsy plumber who always messes things up. An Asian female, London, is clueless and not very bright, which breaks the stereotype that all Asians are smart. Another female on the show is Maddie, who is Irish. Her family, as the show portrays, is the total opposite of London's rich family. They do not have a lot of money, so she works at the hotel selling candy.

As you can see, this show breaks many stereotypes, which can be a good thing. It makes me think though - are the producers doing that to bring irony to the show or just playing with different stereotypes to show the audience that anyone can be anything? Because this is a show targeted for a younger generation, I'd like to believe that they are showing all the viewers that there really isn't a certain way that specific races or genders act.

A clip of Mr. Moseby teaching London how to drive

While I was younger, I would watch this show and hear the people around me in school talk about how funny the show was. The interesting thing is, they thought it was funny because it was uncommon to see a "dumb" Asian in contrast to a "smart" white girl. In a way, this show reinforces the common stereotypes - only in a different way that we normally see it.

Racial Stereotyping

Unfortunately, racial stereotypes are used greatly for advertising purposes in today's world - and it works. However, I don't think that makes it right. Although it seemed to be more obvious in the past, there are many instances in which advertisers slip it in without us really noticing. A lot of advertisers play with racial stereotyping to attract certain audiences, knowing that they will "fall" for it.

Here is an advertisement for "build[ing] a resume that makes a lasting impression." This plays on the racial stereotype that all Asians are smart and is great with technology. Although these may be stereotypes that are considered "positive", it is not true with every Asian.

This is an advertisement for whitening cream that Vaseline posted on their Facebook in 2010, which clearly implies to all of society that it is better to have lighter skin. While it says this, it also says that having dark skin is not something that people want. I think it is a shame that advertisers are molding our minds to think that having lighter skin is considered "better." This proves that racism in advertising is not just a thing in the past. It is still being used - in this case, to make us believe that there are certain skin colors that are more superior.

Here is another advertisement with the same idea as Vaseline. Not only does the whole idea of "lighter skin is better" pertain to Americans, but it has also become something universal.

I do believe that advertisers have ethical responsibilities. However, their goal is to make the thing they're advertising known (and known in a positive light), so they do with what they can get away with. I think racial stereotypes have become so common that it seems as if it's alright to "play along" with it. I honestly don't think that advertisers are using racial stereotypes to offend anyone on purpose; they are only just trying to promote their products in ways that they can get the most exposure.

Semiotics

Semiotics: the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.

Although we may not have known exactly what semiotics meant before studying it in class, we apply it everyday without even noticing.

In this print ad, we see that it clearly states, "Volume that won't wilt." On the bottom left corner, there are a couple of products by "Bumble and bumble," the brand. We also see a woman on the right side with a flower in place of her hair. The size of the flower is about five times as big as her head. For those who are familiar with Bumble and Bumble (a hair products brand), we know that this advertisement is connoting that by using these products, your hair will have as much volume as this woman's "hair."The word "wilt" is used to describe and relate to the flower. The relationship between flowers and wilting (getting limp/droopy in hot temperatures) can be used as an analogy with voluminous hair and "wilting" as well. Voluminous hair will also "wilt" in hot temperatures, but since Bumble and bumble products do not require any sort of heat, it shows that using them will keep the volume in anyone's hair.

In this television ad for the perfume "Lovestruck" by Vera Wang, we see a woman on an escape route outside of an apartment in a lovely dress. There is a man holding flowers, running, and climbing on the ladder to (what looks like) get to her. He eventually reaches her and hugs her while she throws the flowers that he gives her away. Because this is a perfume ad, we can connote that whoever uses this perfume will draw men towards them. The woman is also in a very pretty dress, which could mean that wearing "Lovestruck" will make you smell elegant and sophisticated.

In this outdoors McDonalds ad, we see the word "HUNGER" in furry block letters behind bars. There is a sign that says "Please feed!" and the infamous McDonalds logo right next to it. We can connote, from this ad, that the advertisers wants us to feed our hunger at McDonalds! We might also get a little hungry from seeing the word and the color red. This connotation is easy to recognize - one second is all we need. This was most likely the goal of McDonalds. Because people are traveling and not walking slowly like they would in an art museum, advertisers must get their point across as quickly as they can.

Brands

I believe that the reason why people love brands so much is because it shows us our status in society. We want to make ourselves look good, and what better way to do it than to buy the brands we know are well-loved?

There are certain brands that have made a name for themselves, like Apple and Nike, who have taken over the world. So many people recognize these brands and their products; they notice them without having to even mention the words "Apple" and "Nike". People automatically know that you're holding an iPhone based on the shape or wearing Free Runs because of Nike's famous checkmark logo.

The thing that I have noticed about brands is that we use them to define others. If someone has a Louis Vuitton bag or a 2013 Ferrari, we assume that they have a lot of money. It doesn't necessarily mean that  they do though. By purchasing certain brands, we can change the way others view about ourselves.

Of course, not everyone thinks this way. I think that many people buy certain brands for different reasons, such being that 1) they have always bought the same brand and have never thought about switching to something else, 2) they buy whatever is cheapest, 3) they make good quality clothing, etc. This is something to think about: why do you buy the brands you do?

Dietmar Dahmen

Because of Dietmar's enthusiasm and passion for advertising, he easily caught all of our attention while presenting his topic, "The Future of Advertisement", to us. I thought it was interesting when he talked about how different brands vs. consumers used to be compared to now. Brands used to talk and sell and consumers would listen and buy. Now brands talk and sell, but consumers talk more and sell also. I knew exactly what he was talking about because I see it all the time on YouTube.

Although I believe that YouTube is mostly “me-vertising”, brands sponsor many of these people who put up videos to feature their products. Not only can some brands give products to people to advertise, but many will be happy to go out, buy a product, and feature that without being paid. (The best example for this was the video that Dietmar showed us of someone demonstrating the art of lacing up shoes.)

All in all, Dietmar was a very compelling speaker and has made me think greatly about what advertising could become. Not only has it given many people jobs, but it has changed our world tremendously!