Advertising: A Bloodline Of Our Culture

Jimmy Hu Professor Cacoilo Media 384 Nov 5, 2016

Advertising: A Bloodline Of Our Culture

Jean Kilbourne once said that “advertising is the foundation and economic bloodline of the mass media. The primary purpose of the mass media is to deliver an audience to advertisers” (Kilbourne 121). TV commercials are one form of advertising that has permeated our culture and the children are learning from it. The children are influenced by these advertising images which could potentially create a negative environment. Kilbourne would say that advertising is a great “‘educational’ forces in the culture--one that greatly affects our self-images, our ability to relate to each other, and effectively destroys awareness and action that might help to change that climate”(Kilbourne 125). In this age of mass media, no one is immune to these kinds of advertising images that are pervasive and are sometimes sexist or racist. These kind of images may be so influential that if an image was a woman with a hammer building a treehouse, we may recall that image with a man instead of a woman because the sexist images are rooted in our brains.

I do not think it is possible to escape the mass media and advertising images and if someone said she did then I would have said I am so sorry when I said see you later when you can’t see. For an advertiser, image is everything and they reinforce their images with many symbols to influence people into buying their product. Most of the time the companies are not selling products but the idea imbued in those products. Those idea are harmful especially to the women of our society. Sometimes the product is harmful to the women of our society as shown in "the Ms. Gazette, we do a brief report on a congressional hearing into chemicals used in hair dyes that are absorbed through the skin and may be carcinogenic" (Steinem 114). Thinking about things that are carcinogenic, cigarettes come to mine. Cigarettes may be the most popular product that have negative effect on the health of women and the image of women. In the “Virginia Slims theme, ‘You’ve come a long way, baby,’ has more than a ‘baby’ problem. It makes smoking a symbol of progress for women”(Steinem 115). I am not sure if the baby is a subtle message that say women are still object of men’s fantasy but it seems like a contradiction to the progress women supposedly has.

Ad from Virginia Slims. Taken from Pinterest. Notice that the product is small compare to the women.

While images from advertisement are very ambiguous, they clearly show the gender and racial differences.  The men and the women would have different gender roles in the advertisements like a man shown tuning a car while a women is in the kitchen.  These commercials are seen in something medical like an advertisement for a pill or drug. The people would be found in gender stereotypical settings saying, after they took the drug they feel better.  There are also those fashion commercials featuring beauty products commonly showing white models.  The lack of diversity in these commercials reinforce racism because it is saying the others do not have representation in the media.  Since Ads are everywhere it would be better to have a variety of images so that the youth could see the diverse culture that they live in.

I like to think that the advertising culture is more diverse now but there should be more of something different because of the years and years of the same.  The Honda advertisement with Kevin Hart shows something different because it is not white only and it is relatable.  Advertisers should include more and more of people from other races and ethnicity so that the numbers of representation may balance already existing images.  They should have one commercial representing white people and three commercial representing the other communities like the LGBTQ or the Asian or the black or the Hispanics, or etc.

Another way for the Advertising to be diverse is to include girls playing with princess and monster trucks.  While boys are known to like firetrucks and action figures that display multiple functions, girls are flexible with the toys, since all girls do not like princesses and tea party.  Toy advertisers should include more for girls since the toys for boys are already awesome.  Having more toys accessible to both boys and girls would provide a culture where girls could play with any toy.  This could provide a future where girls do not only appear but act like the boy with a police car or firetruck.

From LEGO, taken from npr.org.  This one was specifically for girls.

From LEGO, taken from Pinterest.  Lego are played by both boys and girls.

The Modern society appears to have more advertisements due to social media.  People have taken the role of a products by having a brand which may restrict their activities.  Applying for a job seems like having a good brand is important.  I just hope that in the future, advertisements include everybody since everybody buys.  Looking at the social media sites can provide people's ideas about what is acceptable and what is sexy and how advertising culture has influenced people's lives.

Work Cited

Kilbourne, Jean.  Beauty and the Beast of Advertising.

Steinem, Gloria. Sex, Lies and Advertising.