Monday, December 3, 2012

Ethical Framework


There are several ethical considerations for sex and gender representation in advertising. Stereotypes for men and women are heavily used in advertising to make messages clear. For instance, a woman in the kitchen cooking a meal while the husband gets home from work is a stereotype that is often used to sell dinner items. Another ethical issue to be addressed is the “sex sells” approach. There is sex all over the media, especially in alcohol and clothing advertisements. This approach, whether it works or not, captures the attention of consumers and tries to sell the product through objectifying both genders. I will introduce ten guidelines for the best practices to address these considerations to better serve the consumers.

1.     Advertisers should be aware of the goal of their advertisement
a.     Advertisements serve the purpose of selling a product or making the product known. 
b.   Advertisements do not always have to shock people to get their attention, be aware of the foundation of the advertising message.
2.     Use realistic portrayals instead of using the common stereotypes
a.     Yes, some women are stay at home mothers that cook and take care of the kids while the father works. That does not mean that there are no stay at home fathers out there as well. Or that there are no women that work in business settings as a CEO.
b.     Using realistic portrayals will have a positive effect over using the same stereotypical messages
3.     Coordinate with feminist consultants
a.     If the advertisement could potentially offend women, asking an outside opinion will prevent future complaints.
4.     Truth is greater than sex
a.     Sex may sell, but consumers want to know about the products ability to enhance their life.
b.     A sexy picture might capture the attention of consumers, but a purchase will be made only if the consumer thinks the product will benefit or meet their needs.
c.     The Trojan condom commercials integrate both sex and truth. The truth part of the ads gives the facts about the products while maintaining the attention of the consumer.
5.     Research the target audience
a.     It is important to clearly define where and when the message will appear.
b.     For example, a beer advertisement with a semi-naked woman might be found in Maxim magazine. If a middle-aged woman were to pick up the magazine and see the advertisement, most likely she would not be offended if she were picking up the magazine in the first place.
6.      Test the advertisements
a.     Examine the reactions of the target market and people that are not a part of the target market.
b.     This will give advertisers an idea of how the message will be received, if it is offensive and if the ad needs to be revised.
7.     Relevancy
a.     Make sure the imagery used in the advertisement matches the message of the product you are trying to sell.
b.     
c.    This advertisement is for Wonderbra and the picture and message do not match. This is a stereotypical advertisement that is trying to use sex to sell the Wonderbra.
8.     Create a unique message
a.     People are not going to remember another stereotypical advertisement with that woman cooking or that man in the work place.
b.     Consumers will buy something that stands out to them, not something they have already seen. 
9.     Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
a.     Creating new ideas of beauty will improve societies expectations for what is beautiful and what is not.
b.     The Dove Campaign (previously mentioned) allows normal women to express their ideas of beauty. The results for the campaign were positive and inspirational to other women.
10.   Empower each gender
a.     The main focus is woman, to diminish stereotypes
c.     This commercial makes women the main focus and describes how “unapologetically strong” they are.

Dimension 3

Industry Perspectives and Self-Regulation

  • Self-regulation is a code of conduct for the industry to follow
  • “The rules are based on the belief that advertisements should be legal, decent, honest and truthful, prepared with a sense of social responsibility to the consumer and society as a whole and with due respect to the rules of fair competition.” (www.adstandards.com)
    •   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr8r-lztTeg
      •  This is a series of sex in advertising through alcohol commercials
      •  The advertisements are pretty risky but never show full nudity
      • These actually endorse stereotypes and relate men drinking beer to sexy women
  • The National Advertising Review Board has issued papers about safety and women in advertising (Rotzoll & Haefner, p 169)
  • The National Advertising Division investigates the truthfulness of an ad. The advertiser can then appeal the NAD’s decisions through the NARB. All arguments are heard in front of the NARB panel before a decision is made.
    •  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXrT_cR8hFw
    •  This advertisement was banned across the United States. I think this ad took sex sells to an entirely new level. It also objectifies women and goes along with the stereotype that old men want young women and those young women are gold-diggers.
  •   Beauty is being redefined, which is a step up in self-regulating
    •  The Dove Real Beauty Campaign, presented in 2004, shows real women in their bras and panties
    •   http://wikicubbuster.wikispaces.com/Media-Visual+Literacy+Assignment
    • According to Sheehan, research has shown that realistic portrayals can have positive results for advertisers. Objectification has been causing negative results.
    • These ads have received positive feedback from men and women saying that the ads can help improve the unrealistic expectations society has for women
Sources:

Haefner, James; Rotzoll, Kim. (1996). Advertising in contemporary Society: Perspectives toward understanding. Chicago: University of Illinois.

Dimension 2

Social criticisms and regulations of sex and gender representation in advertising
  • Sex and Gender in advertising is a sensitive topic to some people
  • What some people enjoy watching, others might find extremely offensive
  • Bob Garfield said, “there is nothing crass about commercialism: there are only times when commercialism seems crass. This is why there are no billboards in cemeteries” (Sheehan, p. 85).
  • Most social criticisms stem from deception and manipulation in advertising, the effect of advertising on our value system, commercial clutter and offensiveness. (Arens, Schaefer & Weigold, p. 11)
    •  Deception and manipulation in advertising:
      •  This advertisement suggests that oven mitts could be the “key to a successful relationship”. This also stereotypes women as cooks and men coming home from a long day of work.
    • The effect of advertising on our value system:
      •  The thought that society is becoming more materialistic through advertisements
      • Advertisers spend their money trying to make people believe that if consumers buy their products, they might end up looking like the model that is using the same product.
      • Olay Regenerist creams are around 25$ for 1.7 ounces of cream. The model in this picture is young and clearly touched up.
    • Commercial clutter:
      • The average person may be exposed to 500-1,000 commercials per day (Arens, Schaefer & Weigold, p. 15)
      •  Most commercials will have stereotypes to make the message more clear
      •  Some of these commercials will have inappropriate sexual references
    •  Offensiveness
      • Sensitivity and taste are considered to be in the eye of the beholder

      •  Abercrombie & Fitch is for middle-school aged children and up. College students might not find this advertisement offensive. Parents that are buying their 13-year-old children this clothing might find these types of advertisements very inappropriate.
      • The Snickers advertisements are generally in good taste. In this case, many people might find this inappropriate since Snickers is a candy that is enjoyed by young children and older generations.

Sources:

Arens, William F., David H. Schaefer, and Michael F. Weigold. Advertising. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2012. Print.

Sheehan, Kim. (2004). Controversy in Contemporary Advertising. USA: Sage Publications.

Dimension 1

Intended and Unintended Consequences of sex and gender representation in advertising

Intended consequences
  • We are familiar and comfortable with stereotypes
    • Ex) We instantly recognize what is supposed to be the jock versus the nerd in advertisements
    •   In commercials, we expect to see a mother doing the grocery shopping and making dinner for children. If the father did these types of things, we would second-guess the commercial and maybe not even realize it.
  • Consumers are attracted to beautiful things
    •   Ex) An advertisement for flowers with a Victoria’s secret model will be viewed more positively than the same advertisement with a random girl from Michigan
    • I think consumers are attracted to beautiful things to a certain extent. There are other ways, such as fear or humor tactics, to get a message across.
  •   Role-product congruity
    • “Research has shown that certain stereotyped portrayals for men and women are appropriate for specific categories of products” (Sheehan p 105).
  •   Sex sells
    • Advertisers tend to use more attractive images to induce a positive feeling with their product
    •   I am doing research in my ADV 375 class on if college men prefer humorous alcohol advertisements versus sexy alcohol advertisements.
      • The results show that men will say they prefer humorous advertisements but when shown an example they choose the sexual advertisement instead.
Unintended consequences
  •  Stereotypes limit social roles
    •  If you see the image of a mother caring for her children, you will assume that most women are stay at home mothers.
    •  The limitations of social roles are good and bad.
      •   It can be good because advertisements have such little time to explain the setting or situation. With stereotypes, it makes it easier for people to understand the advertisement.
      •  The limitations can also be bad. We have grown in many ways as a society and stereotypes hinder our growth.
  • External beauty is the only thing that matters
    • Consumers will start to rely on how they look compared to the models in the advertisements
    • This can cause unhealthy habits, such as eating disorders, in young people
    •  I have bought a product just because the way the model looked in the advertisement. I believe this is common among most people when buying a product.
  •  Objectification
    • Advertisements will zone in on male and female body parts to make an advertisement more appealing
    • Ex) Beer advertisements such as Budweiser and Sam Adams have objectified women by showing their body parts next to their beer
    • Objectification goes hand in hand with the intended consequence that sex sells. They are both not ideal but in most cases sex and objectification work in selling products.
  • Marginalization
    •  Consumers are so used to seeing men and women in traditional portrayals versus nontraditional portrayals

Sources:

Sheehan, Kim. (2004). Controversy in Contemporary Advertising. USA: Sage Publications.