Representation of Woman in Advertisements

by Kendra Bermosk

  We live in a time when advertisements have taken on a completely different meaning than when they were first created.  It is no longer a simple black and white ad trying to sell a household product.  Now we are bombarded by images selling anything from common household products to vacations in the Bahamas.  Millions of dollars are spent to research what it is the public wants and how to sell it to them in the most appealing way.  Images are in color, high tech, and sometimes it’s even difficult to see exactly what is being sold. 

As I am finishing my senior year of college I have learned a few things along the way.  I have learned how important it is to take a critical look at the media and visual culture so that I can make educated decisions about what I am being told and not just accept it all at face value.  I have learned that it is important to inform others on how to make these educated decisions as well.  If we are all aware of what the media/visual culture is trying to say or sell us, we will be able to take an active part in resisting or engaging in this form of visual culture. 

In the following paragraphs I plan on answering the question: Based on advertisements how are woman taught to view their role and place in society?  I will be looking at one particular ad found on the web at a site called AdCritic.com.  This site has a wide variety of advertisements on it that you can view and then post comments on.  You can search their site using a key word and it will show you all kinds of advertisements dealing with that word you chose. 

  I plan on discussing the Sprite: Lingerie advertisement that can be found on AdCritic.  I will be applying semiotics as my method in order to analyze the ad and then I will use ideological criticism and Stuart Halls theory on representation.  I hope that this paper will allow you to not only look at this particular advertisement but other advertisements as well and be able to answer not only the question listed above, but also the question of whether or not this is a fair view of woman.

Semiotics is the study of signs or a sign system and how they make meaning. It is a method used to decode an image.  It is a very important method that can tell people a lot about what is happening in the advertisement or image.  The image or sign is the signifier and the signified is the concept brought to mind by the images and sounds.  When you put these together this is how the viewer makes sense of what is going on.  Symbols are also used to help the viewer understand what concept the advertiser wants to come across to the audience.  There are different types of signs.  The first one is an icon.  This is something like a photograph.  It looks like something that you have seen before so when you see it that picture resembles something else and you think of that other thing.  The second type is an index or (causal symbol).  This is when you see something and think of something else.  The third type of sign is symbol.  This type is when the sign means the same thing for which it is the symbol.  Signs help produce meaning when put into a logical order or relationship with something, so by using the above forms of sign it is possible to look at the technical, written, and narrative codes and understand the image.  By breaking the image down into these various parts it is then possible to decode the meaning and come up with an educated idea of what the image is actually trying to do and say to the viewer.  Semiotics makes it possible to read codes, which are a rule governing system shared within a culture.  By looking at the social, technical, conventional, and ideological views within a society it is possible to come up with a list of binary opposites and then see how these positions are reinforced within the society (Berger, 35-51). 

There are certain characteristics that can be seen in most advertisements that have woman in them.  The woman is usually the center of attention.  She is viewed as a sex object.  She is normally wearing something very revealing.  The camera usually takes the view of the male eye, looking the woman up and down.  The woman is both childlike and needy, the object of desire for the man, or seen in a maternal light.  She is taking care of the kids, cooking in the kitchen and waiting on the male.  She is often portrayed as ditzy, unintelligent, irrational, or demanding.  Her voice is generally low and seductive.  She usually is willing to give the guy in the ad sex as a reward if she gets what she wants which is generally something stereotypical such as flowers or a ring. If you look closely she is generally portrayed in an unintelligent way.  In real life no one prances around their kitchen in their underwear talking seductively about their shampoo, but that is usually what happens in advertisements.  The following semiotic analysis is a specific example of an advertisement depicting a woman in a usual, but more exaggerated light.

Semiotic Analysis of Sprite: Lingerie Advertisement: (AdCritic.com)

This advertisement starts out with a black screen and then fades into a room. In the center of this room is a couch.  This couch is hard to see because it is in the dark side of the room.  What your eye is drawn to is the light streaming in the window pointing toward the center of the room.  The room looks like it is an old ballroom from back in the earlier part of the century, or perhaps from a castle in Europe.   As the camera moves into the room it gets lighter drawing your attention to the couch in the center of the room.  The columns in the room all have lines leading straight down to the floor.  As you look at the floor you notice the light reflecting from the windows. Where the light and darkness meet is right where the couch is situated.  As the camera moves in the center of the room becomes the couch with the reflection of light on the floor point toward the couch.  On the couch there is a woman sitting in nothing but her underwear and a bra.  The couch that she is sitting on is red velvet, which is generally thought of as a very rich type of material and color.  Red is usually associated with love, passion, sex, and being seductive.  As the camera continues to move into the room there is a fade to a close up of the woman’s face.  You see that she appears to be pretty young.  She has long flowing red/brown curly hair.  They are showing her bra strap and upper part of her body. Her strap is in a line that points upward toward her face.  You focus in on her face. There is a look of quiet concentration or peace on her face.  As the camera is fading you hear music in the background that is supposed to make you feel peaceful.  It’s kind of like the music you hear at the beginning of a story that they would tell at the Olympics when they are doing the life background of one of the athletes.  When the camera is focused and rests on her face for just a second she begins to talk.  She has what sounds like a British accent.  Accents are usually considered very attractive because they are different and we are generally drawn to that which is different from ourselves.  She says: “There is a moment that poets have been trying to describe forever but quite haven’t been able to do.  It’s about perfection; it’s about being a woman.”  She gets up and the camera goes to a full-length shot of her backside as she’s walking away.  She walks toward the windows and the room starts fading into darkness again.  You see her profile as she is walking, and she tosses her hair over her shoulder, kind of like a runway model would do.  She then moves back to the couch and is sprawled out on the couch.  The lines of her body and the camera run upward from her legs to her face, directing your gaze to follow that of the cameras which would be seen as the male gaze.  Then as the camera focuses on her face again she says, “it’s about power, it’s about serenity.”  As she is saying these lines the camera goes to shots of her rolling around on the couch in different positions with a full view of her body.  There are then two flashes of light as though it is a dream or something and then I think the camera is focused on her bare midsection when she says, it’s about ultimate surrender.  You then see her laying there and she starts to say it’s about again when all of a sudden she sits up and crosses and pulls her legs up onto the couch.  She is centered on the couch, which is centered in the room.  She starts laughing and then says,” hey, who are you kidding.  Your never going to look this good, face it, I’m kind of …unbelievable.  Give it up.” The camera then goes to a black screen that has written on it in cloudy white letters, Image is nothing. Thirst is everything.  Obey your thirst. Then the old spite logo pops up and you realize that it’s a sprite commercial.  The ending music is a piece of an ACDC song and is rather heavy music. 

There are many things that can be seen in this advertisement by using semiotics, which I described earlier in the paper.  By breaking down the advertisements and looking at the images, text and sounds it is possible to make meaning of this advertisement.  Below is a list of binary opposites that can be pulled from this advertisement. 

Women in general could be viewed as: womanly, successful, modest, independent, human, intelligent, and not honest. Woman in advertisements are: childlike/maternal, jobless, seductive/provocative, dependent upon a man, perfect, ditzy/unintelligent, and manipulative. Based on these opposites and the semiotic analysis earlier I will now try to give an idea of what the sprite advertisement is trying to do and then tell who the audience of the advertisement is and it’s importance to woman. 

The light and dark contrast at the beginning be seen as going to sleep and then being some in some kind of a dream state.  The woman is obviously rich and important to be in a huge ballroom with large windows, chandeliers and hardwood floors.  The deep rich colors of burgundy and red are in the room. The couch looks like an old sitting room type model that looks like it would have been in a fairytale such as Cinderella.  The woman on the couch is flawless.  She doesn’t have zits all over her face and she’s not fat.  She looks “perfect”.  She has the perfect body and is walking around practically naked.  This is usually considered every man's dream woman.  She has the deep British accent that attracts you to her voice.  Her words are also used to pull you in.  A woman hears them and thinks that her ultimate goal is to have power.  These words along with the woman rolling around on the couch in different positions suggest to a woman that the ultimate goad of a woman and the way to achieve power is to be perfect, to be serene and to ultimately surrender her body to a man.  This of course doesn’t sound to bad to the male viewer because ultimate surrender for him stereotypically is to get the most beautiful woman he can find to sleep with him.  The flashes of light in between can be seen as dreamlike or as somewhat frightening. I am not sure what is so disturbing about it, but it makes you think that you as the viewer are seeing something you shouldn’t necessarily be seeing or you don’t want to see.  In the end it’s as if the woman puts a stop to the dream.  She tells all the woman viewers, your never going to be as good as me so don’t even try, and all the men viewers are left wanting a woman as good as her.  It then cuts to the shot that says image is nothing, which is completely ironic.  They have just spent the entire ad giving the viewer an image of what society says perfect is and then they tell them that that isn’t what it’s all about.  If that were true, they should have used a 300 lb. Man in sweatpants and a t-shirt with stains on it.  Image most certainly is something.  Thirst is everything is an interesting line as well, most men were probably drooling over the woman in the advertisement, obey your thirst, and go find a woman like this.  Woman this is what a guy wants so go make yourself this way so you can have a man.  Only after this do you see the sprite logo at all and for a split second.  This advertisements is basically saying, men go find a woman that looks like this, she will make you happen and she doesn’t really care about anything but giving you what you want.  If she’s willing to walk around in her underwear and bra she’s probably willing to go farther.  This is what you want, this is what you have a longing (thirst) for so don’t worry, it’s not really a dream. She exists so go find her. 

Women on the other hand are being told,  You have a body and you can use that body to get what you want.  What you really need, the thing you long for is a guy.  If you look like this, if you are what he wants, if you give him yourself and if you allow him to do whatever he wants with you, that will make him happy and in return you will get a man which is what you need to make you happy and complete.  This advertisement is pretty typical, the woman’s only means of power is her body and the man will do whatever he can to get her body because that’s his ultimate dream and goal.  As long as this happens both sides are happy and everyone gets what they want.

Now I will start talking about the theories that can be applied so that it is possible to take a look at these advertisements like the one above and understand a little bit more how the viewer is encouraged or taught to look at these images.

Ideological Criticism: 

 I will now define and discuss ideological criticism and how it pertains to this advertisement and other advertisements with woman in a central role in them.  Ideological criticism is criticism based on issues of political or socioeconomic nature that are of interest to a certain group.  An Ideology is the belief system held by a certain culture or group that explains reality.  It establishes rules and goals for a class within a social group.  It’s the rules and systems that are taken for granted. A particular group has a set of beliefs and by looking at those beliefs you can see what goals and reality shape a certain group of people within a society.   Marxist critics say that hidden messages within images shape the consciousness of the people receiving them, which can definitely be seen in advertisements.  Because ideologies are generally accepted and go unnoticed or taken for granted, it is very difficult to go against them and change them (Berger 71-91). 

Individuals are shaped by the culture and environment that they grow up in. As they grow up they are taught certain things and are bombarded with images.  These later become the norm and are, in essence the ideologies (beliefs) of a society.  If we live in a society that is constantly showing woman in a certain way, that becomes the accepted norm and ideology of how woman should act and behave.  If we live in a society that says woman should have a certain place within society that becomes the normal ideology as well.  People stop noticing that it could be a different way and that way becomes the accepted way.  I think that this is very evident when viewing advertisements with woman in them.  If a woman is always portrayed as a sex object, then that is what she will see herself as.  More and more you see young girls walking around with low cut shirts on, and short skirts, or skintight pants.  They try to do whatever they can to be noticed and they know that if they show enough of their body and make themselves look desirable enough they will have succeeded.  This is a tactic used by advertisers everywhere.  If you have a girl or woman who believes she needs to have a man to be happy in life and the only way to get a man is to look good, that is exactly what a girl/woman is going to try and do.  This is one of the accepted ideologies of our culture and is one that most certainly pops up everywhere in advertisements to sell products.  Get the girl/woman to see that a man in an advertisement sees her as desirable when she does or wears a certain thing and you will then be able to sell that product to the woman because she will believe that if she wears or does what the advertisements says she will be a desirable woman and maybe that one new product that she buys will be the one thing that attracts the attention of a guy and gets him to notice and accept her, thereby wanting her.  This brings to mind a video from Frontline about the midriff and mook that we watched in class.  There was a young girl in the clip; I think that she was twelve years old.  She was going to a modeling agency to try and become a model.  She had on a skimpy very revealing outfit and had make up on and her hair done just right.  She said at one point in the video that she needs to look good for her friends.  She dresses up even if she is just going to a friend’s house to do something.  When the people at the modeling agency asked her what she thought her target audience was she said that it was somewhere between the ages of fourteen to seventeen, and then she told the modeling people that she was only twelve years old and they didn’t believe her.  They acted pleased to see a girl so young look so much older.  Later on she was at a club dancing and partying and playing to the camera.  It is precisely images like this that make us aware of the expectations placed on girls and woman.  In the Sprite ad that I analyzed earlier the girl didn’t appear to be that old, she was prancing around a room in her underwear and bra playing to the camera. Her hair was done and she had make up on. She was talking about a moment that poets have tried to describe for years, but weren’t able to.  She said that it is something about being perfect, about being a woman.  Woman are not only encouraged to use their bodies as a tool to get what they want, but they are also encouraged to make sure that they look perfect so that they will have the necessary means to use their body to get what they want out of life.  These can definitely be seen as a common American ideology that has spread like wildfire. Woman/girls are pictured on magazine covers everywhere selling not only the product but themselves as well.  Women are also very often seen as manipulative in advertisements.  They use whatever they can to get whatever they want.  This can be seen as teaching girls as they grow up into woman to do whatever it takes to manipulate people into doing what you want them to do.  In order to this all you have to do is use your body and be seductive and you will have no problem getting what you want out of life, because there will always be someone that wants you if you look good enough.

Woman have been trying for years to break free of the stereotype of being barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen waiting on the man hand and foot, but this seems also to be a common ideology that is held and seen in advertisements.  If a woman’s body isn’t being used as the center of attention and the desirable object, the woman is usually doing something very much seen as being in the private sphere, such as taking care of the children.  I saw an advertisement while I was going through looking at advertisements about woman and found one for bluenile.com.  This advertisement showed a woman sitting her kids down in front of the television and giving them food and toys while popping in a video.  She then gives her husband a “look” and they head up stairs to have sex because he bought her a diamond ring.  In another advertisement that I saw for a car, there were two agents in a car, one a man and one a woman.  The woman is telling the man that they must push the button on the armrest of the car seat; the man says no that he doesn’t want to.  Finally the woman pushes it and a voice comes on saying it’s the helpdesk and the woman proceeds to ask for directions because they are lost.  All of these other examples help to show that woman are seen as the care givers, they are the ones who will nag their husbands or coworkers to do something such as ask for directions, they are the ones that are needy and dependant.  This fits with the American ideology of woman as being in the private sphere and the husband out in the public sphere as the breadwinner.  For the most part these stereotypes are accepted because that is what many people believe a woman’s place is and should be in the world.  Her world should be taking care of others and staying at home.  This should be her role as a woman, to give take care of others and give them what they want.  This can even be seen in most of our lives.  My mother was the one that always cooked and took care of everyone.  She planned the meals, made them and then cleaned up the house. She did the laundry, packed the lunches, and took care of making sure everyone got to where they needed to go.  She now continues to do this while helping care for my nephew and also working a full time job on top of everything else.  She is just supposed to accept that this is her role though, because it’s what she was taught and what she has always done.

There are many other stereotypes, which have become accepted belief systems or ideologies that can be seen if you take the time to truly watch the advertisements and images that are around.  These ideologies shape an individual and help make them who they are.  They shape how one views oneself and others in a society.  They shape the role that woman are to play and the place they are to occupy.

Stuart Halls theory on Representation:

Another theory I will be applying to the representation of woman in advertisements, particularly the sprite ad is that of Stuart Hall and his theory on Representation.  This information is off of a video that Stuart Hall did entitled “Politics of the Image”.  In this theory Stuart Hall says that an image can have different meanings.  By asking questions about the meaning and probing the image we are able to not simply immerge ourselves in the image and just accept it, but we are able to better understand the image.  Hall talks about visual representation he says that the old view says that words have double meanings.  It either represents something else or what is actually there. A representation is something that stands in for the meaning for us.  It is also the way in which we give something meaning.  The new view on Representation is that it has one fixed meaning.  What people make of it is the meaning.  The representation happens within the event not outside of the event taking place.  The image has meaning in it’s self because of the representations being depicted in the image.  There is something called a conceptual map.  This is a classification or meaning that we give something.  It is a basic genetic feature of humans to do this.  The classification system is something that you have to learn though.  The language we use is how we are able to come up with a classification system.  Language is what allows us to place a meaning on a certain thing and then be able to describe that thing.  Without language meaning could not and would not exist. 

Representation works in a very simple way.  There is a sign that is associated with an object.  This is what the media uses to produce images in order to sell you something in regards to advertisements.  What signs you see and what signs you don’t see but expect to see are both very important in making meaning lf the image as well.  When you see or don’t see certain things you make assumptions based on the representations you place to that sign. So for example with the sprite advertisement, you see the woman looking seductive and rolling around on the couch.  You assume that somewhere there is a man and that she is trying to appeal to him and get him to do what she wants, with the ultimate goal that they will wind up sleeping together.  We have applied the meaning of seduction/sex to the woman walking around half naked staring at the camera in a certain way.  She doesn’t come out and tell us that is what she wants, but that is what we assume will happen.  There is no man there with her, but we assume that there is one watching her. 

There must be an identity placed with the representation.  If there wasn’t an identity given to the representation it wouldn’t work as a representation.  It must already be put into place in order to make a representation mean something.  Advertisements work if we identify with the representation of a group in the advertisement.  This is why when looking at the sprite ad from earlier it will sell sprite.  If woman identify with the woman in the advertisement she will actually see herself as able to be like that woman if she drinks sprite.  She is also quite aware that the phrase at the end Image is Nothing does not actually fit.  Thirst is everything, it is what you long for if you are dry and need water, the same thing happens if you “thirst” for a man to like you and want a man to notice you.  Obey your thirst, try to look like the woman represented in the advertisement because that is the only way you are going to be able to obey your thirst and get what you want. 

When you see certain people portrayed in the same light over and over again, this then shapes how you see that person or group of people.  For example if you see a black man in a movie constantly portrayed as unintelligent or scary that is how you will view the person in real life.  The representation of that group of people as seen in the images that you watch is what gives meaning to that group for you in reality.  In the case of the sprite advertisement and other advertisements woman are seen as sex objects, as desirable because of their bodies, as unintelligent, as needy, looking a certain way, as maternal, moody, manipulative, and the list goes on.  If woman are constantly portrayed in these roles or in this light that is how people will build their understanding of what a woman should be.  If woman are represented in this way, woman will be expected to act this way in reality.  The advertisers do not want us to think about this though, because this would change the way the signs were viewed and the way that representation of woman was portrayed in the media, if woman started to speak out about this issue and wanted it changed it would changed the meaning of the advertisement.

  Stuart Hall says that there is no fixed meaning given to an image, but that there are preferred meanings.  Ideologies and power give an image a preferred meaning.  This works in well with my earlier theory of ideological criticism.  Corporations have the power, they are behind the products.  They are the ones that have the ability to take an image and portray it in a certain way.  There are also many ideologies that we take for granted.  This combined with the power is what enable advertisers to put together a certain representation of woman in advertisements and have woman and men buy the product and think nothing of it.  This is what allows woman and men to stay trapped in the same system doing the same thing ignoring what an advertisement is actually trying to tell them.  This is what sells a product.

  So in conclusion I would like to get back to my earlier question:  Based on advertisements, how are woman taught to view their role and place in society?  I think that I have shown here that there are certain ideologies and representations of woman in place that make it difficult to see woman in any other light then the ones portrayed in advertisements and other media.  Women are to view their role in society as that of the dutiful woman or housewife.  She is to be easily pacified.  She is to do as she has always done and remain in the private sphere.  She should be at hand whenever the man wants her or wishes to have sex.  She should take care of the children, and she should clean the house.  She should do whatever she can to become the object of a man's desire and she should fix herself so that a man will find her desirable.  Her place is in the home or next to the man doing whatever he wishes. 

This may sound a little drastic, but I don’t believe it is to far from the truth.  I think that there are those who would call this a feminist view and say that I am just reading advertisements to fit my own view.  I would challenge this with a few questions of my own though.  When is the last time you saw an average looking woman without the perfect figure on an advertisement?  When was the last time you saw a sports channel advertisement with the woman portrayed in an intelligent light knowing a lot about sports?  When was the last time you took a look at the clothes and things young girls are buying and how they are dressing?  Recently I went back home to my old high school to see my little brother’s talent show.  Some friends of mine and I were commenting on how the girls looked.  They had on very provocative outfits with something usually being revealed.  They used their bodies in such a way as to attract the gaze of the boys around them.  They all had makeup on and their hair done just right.  What does this tell me? This tells me that the advertisements are working, that girls/woman are buying the products because they care what others think of them.  The may not always like that they must look perfect, or that they must be the dutiful housewife, but they feel trapped and stuck and aren’t quite sure how to get out.  Who can blame them if they are bombarded with images of perfection and the role a woman should play everyday. 

I believe that we need to start training people to be critical thinkers.  To understand what the representation of woman and men in the media means, we need to point out the ideologies that are taken for granted and we need to change the way we think.  Only then are woman’s bodies not going to be exploited in the media, only then will advertisements like the Sprite: Lingerie ad be an outrage and not something for guys to drool over and woman to live up too.  I hope that we one day can reach the point where we look at the visual culture around us and see people, not just objects.