Women and men both play significant roles in advertisings in order to allure consumers and persuade them to buy certain products or services. It is prima facie discernible that men and women are portrayed differently in advertisings to attract maximum number of people towards the advertised products. This paper intends to discuss images of women and men in the advertisings and further examines how positive or negative their portrayal is. This paper further discusses the reasons of their representation and analyses how effective they are in their objectives.
Women, in advertisings, are largely portrayed as physically attractive, ideal housewives, caring mothers, and sex objects. On the contrary, the image of men is portrayed as career oriented, sex appeal, macho man, outdoor worker, adventurous and dependable. In some advertisements, women and men are represented in egalitarian images. The image of Women is also portrayed as adventurous and outdoor but number of such advertisements is less. Research reports suggest that there are some changes in the image of men and women in advertisings I recent times as compared to the past (Coughlin and O'Connor ).
Role of women and men is portrayed more or less in the same manner in television advertisings however the trend is different in magazines and news papers. Usually the role of women is portrayed as traditional, housewives, flexible, physically and sexually attractive in men’s magazines. On the contrary, the image of women is portrayed as modern, adventurous, innovative in women’s magazines. The image of men also is portrayed differently in women and men magazines (Hetsroni).
Sociologists and organizations, that work for social and gender causes, believe that this portray is negative portrayal of women and it impacts their growth in a negative manner. Portraying women as sexual object is not fair and it negatively affects their prospects and performance. Such portrayal of women in advertisements presents a wrong image before men and society. Society considers women as sexual objects and their abilities are underestimated. Women are taken for granted and men hit them every when and then because of their portrayal as sexual objects (Hetsroni).
The mindset of men, which is already biased towards the competence of women, gets more reasons to believe that women achieve everything due to their sexual favors to others and not because of their competence. Portrayal of women’s image in advertisements is not in the interest of women as well as in the society. Though advertisers have their own reasons to present women in the way, they are presented. Advertisers believe in stereotyping men and women because it helps them in selling their products.
These commercials are though effective and have been found advantageous for companies irrespective of their negative effects. Companies present women as sexually attractive which is already in the minds of men. Presenting women in attractive image inspires men to see these advertisements and it certainly increases the selling of advertised products. On the other hand, when men are presented as adventurous, handsome, macho and perfect guy, it inspires men to but the advertised products since every man wants to be like the image that is presented in the advertisements.
The image of women and men is stereotyped by companies in order to sell their products. Traditionally the role of women has been of a mother and house keeper. Advertisements portray the image of men and women that a major section of society accepts. These advertisements present men and women in traditional ways and in the way that appeals men and women consumers. Irrespective of men and women roles and their effects on the society, it has been observed that these advertisements impact the society in a substantial way.
Below are two pictures that suggest how advertising companies are presenting women and men in order to sell their products. These pictures also suggest how women and men are presented in the advertisements. Picture 1 belongs to a product that makes women slim and sexually attractive. A woman has been presented in semi nude position with the food product that shapes the body of women.
Picture 2 represents a handsome man that uses a particular cosmetic product which makes him attractive and lovable. This image forces another man to purchase this product in order to be like the shown image. Companies, in order to sell their products, keep presenting such tricky advertisements ( Dwivedy et al.).
Picture 1 Picture 2
After having observed, the succinct view of the above mentioned subject, it can be concluded that men and women are presented differently in advertisements. Their images are stereotyped by the advertising companies in order to sell their products. These advertisements though impact women’s image negatively but certainly increases the selling of advertised products. These advertised products are portrayed as well as promoted in a way that impacts thinking of men and women.
Works Cited
A. K. Dwivedy,P. Patnaik and D. Suar. "Role portrayals of men and women in print ads." Psychological Studies (2009): 171-183.
Hetsroni, Amir. Advertising and Reality: A Global Study of Representation and Content. New York: A&C Black, 2012.
M. Coughlin and P. J. O'Connor . "Gender Role Portrayals in Advertising: an Individual Differences Analysis." Advances in Consumer Research (1985): 238-241.
