How are women represented differently in order to sell
products, paying particular attention to Fairy Liquid and Roberto Cavalli
campaigns?
“Women have always been very beauty conscious
and insecure about their appearances and advertisers have exploited this by
bombarding them with ways in which to ‘improve themselves’”(8), whether
that be domesticated or completely sexualised. Insecurities develop
opportunities to sell products.
In this investigation, I will be
analysing and investigating female representation in Fairy Liquid and Roberto
Cavalli advertisement campaigns. To show the stereotypes in female
representations, I will discuss how companies attach branding and ideology to
sell products. Ideologies and representations are carefully constructed to
appeal to female audiences. I will use primary analysis and secondary
research to assist my investigation including theories. In my
investigation I will apply Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory, discussing how
women are objectified to help sell products to an audience. I will also
investigate the uses and gratifications model to question why the campaigns
help persuade women consume these products. I will also question if stereotypical
gender roles are also present, representing females in contrasting roles from
the motherly, family, domesticated role to the hyper sexualised.
Firstly,
I will explore how women are represented, or misrepresented in fragrance
adverts to create a hyper reality. I will be focusing on female objectification
in a Roberto Cavalli advertisement, and if it succeeds in not just selling products
to males, but to females. I will then go on to explore a Fairy Liquid ad
campaign, and compare and contrast the existing representations of
females.
When
viewing advertisements, it is easy to believe that “women are shown almost
exclusively as housewives or sex objects”(4). In the first 10 seconds of
Roberto Cavalli advert; this is clearly present on screen, as model Elisa
Sednaoui is being drastically sexualised by the camera. The first shot is a
long shot of her spread out on a bed, lying on her front with a small section
of sheet covering her behind. The camera then shoots a mid shot of her sitting
up in bed, pushing her chest out with the sun hitting her golden looking skin.
Sednaoui then leaves the bed as the camera shoots a close up of her feet
stepping onto the floor; it then cuts to a close up of tiger’s paws walking
across the floor. Next, the camera shoots the model standing in front of a
mirror, wearing nothing but a silk sheet, putting on a necklace, which is the
first viewing of the brand logo of Cavalli in the advertisement. Suddenly, it
cuts to Sednaoui standing alone in the room, however now the silk sheet is only
covering the bottom half of her body, her top half has nothing on it and her
back is completely exposed, this is also objectifying her, as her face cannot
be seen. “She is tall and thin with very long legs, perfect teeth and hair and
does not have a blemish in sight” (3). The advert represents her as powerful
and animalistic, a common trait in the Cavalli advertisement campaign. This
causes the viewer to want to buy into this product, thinking it will make them
feel empowered via beauty and therefore confidence. “Females are not
represented in the Media for doing something; they are represented for how they
look” (6), which is proven in this specific advertisement.
There are several men present in the frame as the
woman is walking through the party. Although she looks like she has a sense of
power and authority, the males admire her and she is clearly the centre of
attention. The reason she has any power is superficial, it gives out the
message that if females appeal to men, they will gain power. “Sexual women are
used in advertisements to imply that the product will increase the users appeal
to men” (5). Later in the narrative, Sednaoui chooses the man sat down in
a throne like chair, depicting him to look like royalty, however the reality of
the advert is that this woman entered the scene wanting to be seen and admired
by this specific man. This depicts that "Women are projections of males
narcissistic fantasies" (10) explaining why there is now a common ‘male
gaze’, especially in fragrance advertisements, objectifying women. A
contemporary trend is hyper sexualised representations are being used in advertisements
targeting females and creating much insecurity. "Female’s are praised for
their appearance or physical beauty" (11) rather than their intellect.
This stresses the importance of mistype of products.
From a very young age, girls are exposed to a great
deal of television and advertising. This is causing many to grow up with the
ideology that what they see is 'normal'. "Media influences on peoples
conceptions of reality can potentially 'absorb or override differences in
perspectives and behaviour that stem from other social, cultural and
demographic influences'"(8) These false conceptions of reality are
changing women's opinions of what they should look like, making them insecure
from childhood and wanting to change themselves. “Many people suffer from inner conflicts
as a result of failure to achieve the body of a top athlete or fashion model.” (9) They
buy into products, such as designer fragrances, to almost give them the feeling
of bettering themselves and becoming one of these ‘perfect’ women. “Women are
constantly exhorted to emulate an ideal, to feel ashamed and guilty if they
fail, and to feel that their desirability and lovability are contingent upon
physical perfection”(3). This is made clear in the Cavalli advertisement as the
woman being represented in this particular advert, is already attractive and
then being hyper sexualised and edited via post production to look 'perfect’.
The media make problems that do not exist to help them sell products, again,
present in the Cavalli advertisement as model Elisa Sednaoui is being
represented as an idea of perfect due to the fact she is wearing this
particular fragrance, making women buy into the ideology that females are
judged superficially. This has helped advertising massively as products are now
being sold through advertising that have a false sense of ideology and
perfection attached to them.
Another advertisement that stereotypically and falsely represents women is the
Fairy Liquid advert, “I Hardly Ever Buy Fairy Liquid”. Though this advert does
represent female’s stereotypically, it portrays them in a
completely different way to how they are represented in the previous Cavalli
advert I looked at. This advert shows the opposite side of women’s
stereotypical representations, the domesticated woman.
The advert
consists of several repeated sequences; each performed in different decades,
showing the length of time fairy liquid has been used in households. The
sequence starts with a woman, styled to represent different periods in time,
stating, “I hardly ever buy fairy liquid”, portraying the product as long
lasting. She is standing in the kitchen by the sink, or in more recent decades,
next to the dishwasher. A child then appears in the scene, showing the woman as
being a carer, housekeeper and parent, very stereotypical traits of women. The
majority of sot types throughout the montage of decades are al so establishing
shots, making the setting clear, as it shows the women in the advert and the
audience that the kitchen is where these women ‘belong’. The child that appears
in every sequence is also female, which almost makes them look like they are
aspiring to be this way by following their mother. “Gender roles persist
throughout childhood, with parents choosing and rewarding certain stereotypical
activities for their children, from playing with dolls for girls to sports
activities for boys.”(12) Advertising companies putting a female child in this
advert instead of a male is forming the expectations and ambitions girls have
of how they will be when they grown up from an early age. Frequently putting
girls in these circumstances in the media will subconsciously cultivate young
girls to grow up with conditioned ambitions of being a housewife and a
mother.
Another factor that interested me about this
specific Fairy Liquid advertisement is the fact that although shot through
several decades, each time the woman is in exactly the same role of the
domestic housewife. This, I feel, is an unrealistic representation of female
evolution, as it shows women’s ‘place’ as being in the kitchen. There is no representation
of the successful woman with a career, which would represent a more
contemporary and postmodern society. A false representation and ideology is
present that this is where women should be, and have been throughout time. Even
though, in society today this is not the case, with just “2.04 million women
‘looking after family or home’, a fall of almost 1 million since records began
20 years ago”,(13) advertising is still sticking to to this stereotype to try
and help them sell products, no matter how unrealistic it really is. Although
stereotypical, this advert shows clear gender roles of the female. It portrays
them as nothing but the mother and housewife. Domestic. “75% of all adverts
using females were for products used in the bathroom or kitchen and 56% of
women in adverts were shown as domestic housewives”,(3) which, compared to the
dramatic fall in stay at home mothers previously stated, is a completely false
representation of domestic women. Advertising showing women as powerful women
with strong careers is rare as many advertising companies are run by men and
want themselves to stay the more dominant, powerful sex. "Men and women
often have difficulty relating in the workplace because men instinctually want
to exert physical dominance over women."(14)
“Women’s representation in popular culture facilitates
the stereotype of the simple-minded, emotional, and domesticated female”(7)
This
is a representation that the reason for these structured and controlled
representations of females in advertising are shown, as they are desirable to
both men and women. As advertising companies strongly believe men see the
sexualised or domesticated woman as attractive and therefore will respond to
these portrayals of women, it cultivates women to feel the same as they believe
they will achieve happiness through love and romance if they conform to these
ideologies. It is a concept that is thrown onto females from a young age
through television that you have to be skinny and attractive to find happiness
and once you find that happiness, your role belongs at home, cooking, cleaning
and looking after your children. Although this is an extremely unrealistic
representation of what women should be, many females still conform to this role
as they feel it is the easiest and most successful way of finding happiness,
because although the figures for stay at home mothers have drastically dropped
since records began, the numbers are still quite high, with “2.04 million women
‘looking after family or home’”(13).
Throughout
this investigation I have selected research and analysed opinions and theories
of representation of women, whether people see these representations as
negative or not. I have looked at both the similarities and differences between
the two dominant representations of females in not only advertising, but the
media as a whole. It is clear from my findings that woman are predominantly
represented as sex objects and domestic housewives. I have also discovered that
not only do these representations appeal and sell to men, but also to women, as
they are the primary audience of the two texts I have focused my study on.
Word Count: 1563 (excluding references)
