5 Sexist Advertising Trends
- What am I supposed to be buying exactly?
Alex Leo, feminist and media-savvy blogger for 23/6 and The Huffington Post, offers this critical listicle (cristicle?) on her blog: 5 Sexist Trends the Advertising World Just Can’t Shake. We’ve all seen them (been persuaded by them?), now let’s think about them:
Bondage
Sex sells, violence sells, sexy violence is therefore a jackpot that Rémy Martin has been tapping this year with its leather bar-themed website/computer gameand an accompanying series of commercials. Obviously a lot of advertising that uses sexy women to push its products to male consumers is tapping into a dormant desire to possess, control and dominate coveted objects, but bondage-themed commercials take this advertising trick especially far and make it undeniable. Check out, for instance, the Sisley commercial at right that is infinitely more troubling than the Rémy Martin ads Leo discusses. And how about these ads for watches by Diesel and Accurist?
Rape
Like bondage without somewhat ambiguous hints of play and consent, rape imagery pervades advertising, shrouded in respectability by glossy paper, slick set-dressing and celebrity photographers. For an example Leo asks us to look at this Dolce & Gabana ad (since banned) with its gang-rape scene:
Although what do we make of their rape-revenge ad:
Not to mention this all-male sexploitation spread (inappropriate pun?):
Clearly the ad agency behind D&G’s campaign is on some wild role-play sex-inspired trips. Otherwise, thankfully, such explicit rape-references in advertising is relatively sparse. Instead advertisers tend to choose a more socially acceptable and less morally risqué narrative, like…
“Sluts”
Already a morally loaded term used by the abstinent and/or married to scoff at others, there’s the additional problem that just about any ad offering a sexy model instead of the product it’s pushing falls under this banner. Slutty ads might look like:
Note the nearly nude women subjected to domination by powerful men. You’ll want to hold your outrage horses until you see this Guiness ad though:
Girl-on-Girl Action
Especially with states banning and allowing gay marriage bills last month, lesbian and gay imagery is a hot (and popular) topic for advertisers to seize upon. That said, it’s used to sell goods to straight men more often than for tapping into gay niche markets. Once again, Dolce & Gabana leads the pack:
Money Shots
Leo uses a different term, but the imagery makes pretty clear what we’re talking about. These ads are all about showing male pleasure and binding it to the product being peddled. To that end, women generally figure as little more than sex objects, like in this Skyy Vodka ad:
What stones does Leo leave unturned? How about the exploitative advertising imagery of a certain LA-based house of hipster fashions:
Don’t worry, they have ads for gay niche-marketing now too:
Oh my God! That Guiness add is outrageous? Was it only aired in Europe or something?
Please! Get off your prude moral soap boxes already.
I cannot believe that Guiness ad- I am disgusted and disturbed. Katherine, I agree with you on this one. Doug, go drink a Guiness.
[...] commercial commentators that we are, we always find ourselves being surprised by some new development or old [...]
I LOOOOOOVE the Guiness ad!!!!!… ha ha ha…
Very nice information. Thanks for this.
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
[...] advertising today gets away with a strange post-gender extremist sexism, but back in the day there was a kind of homey casualness to sexist advertising. This doesn’t [...]
Doug, get off your sexist privilaged high horse…..all of these ads are so ridiculously offensive and sexist…including the Guiness ad. If you think women are being “prudes” for being outraged, you probably are just proving the point that society has brainwashed men to think women should always be readily availble and agreeable. Thank you for proving our point you closeminded asshole.
Doug, I hope you are aware that every fifteen seconds a women is raped. over a billion women worldwide are subject to gender violence each year. And you think its funny to laugh about the ways in which patriarchy and sexism have infiltrated themselves into the number one source of communication in our culture. Discourse and ideology is produced through media representations, and what exactly is it that these people are selling? They are constructing women as docile, mindless and emotionless creatures. The lenses through which we see the world filter our perceptions, which makes media images a powerful vehicle for advancing ideologies. Is it not so blatantly obvious to you that these advertisements play an enormous role in the way that women are valued in our society? As long as we continue to view them as objects to be purchased, bought, used and then sold once their usefulness is gone, we will never stop the litany of violent acts committed against women each and every day.
Its advertisements like these, and people like you that make me question humanity.
There’s no such thing as a “moral” advertisement. They are creating needs you don’t have, peddling sophisticated crap for the twisted 5% of the world that buys it. Consumers need to be enticed, appeals to the reptilian brain are a must. It’s $5ooo pieces of clothing what’s obnoxious, not models in light bondage. Marketing and Advertising are just the alluring face of consumerism. Bringing to the billboards and magazines fantasies of rape, gang-banging and girl on girl action. So the sheep can get outraged about it, crying for changes in the way thing are sold, but never questioning why are they bought.