The discussion that we had in class was one of, I think, the most interesting we have had so far this year. At times, I think we can all get a little worked up and shout at each other, but I think it's good that a lot of us have strong opinions. I thought Tony brought up the interesting point that the reason all of these sexual ads are out there is for the shock factor, which can result in major profit for the company. Kilbourne mentioned Calvin Klein showing ads with border line child porn to get that shock factor and it had a huge positive effect on his sales. It is kind of sad that this is what advertising has become, but it's obviously working. Now we just have to figure out a way to fix it.
I also thought that Brittney and Ieysha brought up a good point when they said that people are probably not just going to stop buying a certain brand of jeans just because they have an offensive commercial. If people really like the jeans, they are going to keep buying them. This is I think part of why it is so hard to change advertising.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
"Two ways a woman can get hurt"
I agree with most of what Kilbourne is saying in this section taken from her book. I definitely believe that the way women are portrayed in ads contributes to violence towards women. I think one of the most important things that she mentioned was that men are encourage to not take no for an answer. I think that is a huge problem, and can lead to sexual harassment. Some guys probably do not even realize that it is harassment because they think that they should not take no for an answer and the girl is not being serious. I've actually seen this happen. I really like when the author talked about how it is ok for little boys to say sexual things about older women and to look up their skirts, but if little girls acted that way, we would think there was something wrong with them. I had never thought about that before but it is so true!
There were a couple of things that I did not agree with that Kilbourne said. One was when she was talking about how a man was acquitted of rape charges against a woman, and Kilbourne thought that it could have partially been because the jury was made up of mostly women. She said that women can be especially cruel judges of other women's sexual behavior which she said was because we are so desperate to believe that we are in control of what happens to us. I do not think that a mostly female jury would want to acquit a man with a history of violence because they were cruel judges. I think women would be sympathetic, some of them probably had been sexually abused and they knew what it was like. They have to be cautious in their every day lives , so that it does not happen to them. I would have been more sympathetic because I am a girl.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this section of Kilbourne's book. I thought she made some really good points and made me think about things that I had not thought about before.
There were a couple of things that I did not agree with that Kilbourne said. One was when she was talking about how a man was acquitted of rape charges against a woman, and Kilbourne thought that it could have partially been because the jury was made up of mostly women. She said that women can be especially cruel judges of other women's sexual behavior which she said was because we are so desperate to believe that we are in control of what happens to us. I do not think that a mostly female jury would want to acquit a man with a history of violence because they were cruel judges. I think women would be sympathetic, some of them probably had been sexually abused and they knew what it was like. They have to be cautious in their every day lives , so that it does not happen to them. I would have been more sympathetic because I am a girl.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this section of Kilbourne's book. I thought she made some really good points and made me think about things that I had not thought about before.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Commercials I saw
I was watching the E channel, and there were two commercials that I picked to talk about in here. The first one was a commercial for Febreze. This commercial was definitely geared toward women, and stay at home moms in particular. It showed a woman who was dressed in the typical mom clothes spraying Febreze on the furniture after the kids and dog had been on it to get that "fresh air clean" smell. The commercial showed the woman vacuuming and doing all of the other typical housewife duties. And of course the house and furniture were perfect. The commercial was appealing to women who are obsessed with that perfect image. This commercial was kind of similar to the one about the car that we watched in class today.
The other commercial that I decided to talk about was for the credit card Citi. It shows a father and a son who decide to go to Norway because it is the land of their ancestors and they do all this fun stuff and enjoy the culture. Then they look at some records and realize that they are in fact Swedish. The commercial ends with the son buying two tickets to Stockholm. This commercial has the family bonding appeal and the idea of taking great trips and creating great memories. It is appealing to the emotions of the audience which I think could be anyone in their early 20's up to 50's. I think it has a broad audience because there is that family appeal. It had a nice little comical part when they realized that they weren't Norwegian like they thought. The commercial ends with the motto "Citi, let's get it done."
The other commercial that I decided to talk about was for the credit card Citi. It shows a father and a son who decide to go to Norway because it is the land of their ancestors and they do all this fun stuff and enjoy the culture. Then they look at some records and realize that they are in fact Swedish. The commercial ends with the son buying two tickets to Stockholm. This commercial has the family bonding appeal and the idea of taking great trips and creating great memories. It is appealing to the emotions of the audience which I think could be anyone in their early 20's up to 50's. I think it has a broad audience because there is that family appeal. It had a nice little comical part when they realized that they weren't Norwegian like they thought. The commercial ends with the motto "Citi, let's get it done."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)