EOC Week 4: Role of Women in Contemporary Advertisements

The role of women today as opposed to yesteryear is to be real and strong. Where in the past, women were encouraged to be weak, frail, susceptible beings, not able to be held afloat without a man, now you see women embodying thing like strength and honesty.

The first ad I chose is a Dove ad that was hugely popular in the US. This is the Dove “Real Beauty” campaign. This is because there ad been a huge uproar from women about the extensive use of Photohopping and airbrushing done in women’s advertisements. It was creating (and still does) an unattainable standard of beauty. There have always been instances of editing and touching up of photos, ut never to the extant it is now with technology today. Often times, unedited pictures would be placed next to the edited version so people could see how huge of a difference it made. Dove decided to stand with the group of women who were sick of it, and began creating ads showing what real women look like, no Photoshopping. Having them stand in their underwear, looking clean and natural, portrays woman as individuals and real humans instead of long limbed and alien-looking supermodel perfection. The role of women was no longer to strive to be a sex object for men, but to feel sexy just as they are.

The second ad I chose is a Nike ad with a woman flying through the air. When you first look at the picture, the woman is looking very dynamic, legs and arms extended as she jumps through the air. She almost looks like a flying superhero. Nike has long been marketing to women, and this is an example of an ad campaign they have been promoting encouraging women’s strengths. The idea is that every woman is capable of these admirable things: being in shape, having a strong body, being proud of her hard work, and tremendous inner drive and strength. What better way to show this outwardly by wearing Nike? The striking way this woman is poised, and the picture was able to capture her mid-movement. This woman is being shown at the peak of her fitness efforts, and showing women are capable of physical greatness.

The last ad I chose is a very recent one. It was shown during the 2015 Superbowl. This was one of my favorite ones. It began with little boys and older girls being asked a smile question. “Show me what ‘run like a girl’ looks like.” The kids would run in a silly manner, hand flailing around. They then asked, “How does a girl hit a baseball?” The kids pretended they were too weak to hit it, or acted clumsy. They then asked these same questions to a few girls who were much younger, and had not been influenced. These girls, when asked to “run like a girl,” ran super fast in place, a look of determination on their face. When asked to hit a baseball “like a girl,” they hit it out of the park. I liked how they are proving that negative stereotypes of woman are taught or learned, and that they can be combatted. This ad by the brand “Always” really gets their point across, and gets it across with such basic clarity, that it is hard to ignore.  It proves that there is an issue, but that the issue can be changed. I found this honest and blunt angle to advertizing very refreshing.