Gendered Advertising is Dehumanizing

Mario Rivas

Professor Rowley

English 1 

9 June 2015

Gendered Advertising is Dehumanizing

Imagine a guy at home watching a football game when all of a sudden the game goes into a commercial break. One of the commercials features a beautiful, blonde model in a revealing bikini eating a hamburger from Carl’s Jr. You would probably imagine the guy giving his full attention to the commercial because of the way the model is portrayed. This would be an example of the concept of what Steve Craig calls “Men’s Women,” that is, the form of gendered marketing which “are designed to give pleasure to the target audience since it is the association of the product with a pleasurable experience” (189). In his article “Men’s Men and Women’s Women” Craig explains to the readers the different types of commercials that can be seen on TV and how the gender responds once they are targeted. This form of marketing, however, is both manipulative and dehumanizing, as it sets certain standards of how women must act and look to be accepted in society. These patterns seen in advertising are unhealthy to women as it elevates society’s expectation for women, and with the growth of mobile technology, poses a bigger threat to people’s own health in general. Therefore, the use of gender in advertising needs to be either redirected or stopped altogether.

The global advertising business has seen an exponential growth in the last few years thanks to internet ad traffic. According to TechCrunch, a news website focused on information technology; in 2014 alone, the advertising industry spent about $121 billion in internet ad traffic, accounting for 23% of all ad traffic seen across all media consumption (13). The amount of ads generated online pose a new health threat to men and women because of our new-found addiction to mobile technology. We are constantly on our cell phones, and because of that, Tech Crunch says we now tend to see around 5,000 ads a day. The problem with these ads is that they aren't exactly healthy to watch. We always see both men and women models in these ads, which give people false expectations of how they’re supposed to look and act in society. Such expectations can lead to various health conditions, such as to eating disorders and depression.

Gendered advertising targets both men and women, but they are often shown in different ways. These advertisements also vary depending on the gender that the advertisement is targeting. In the case of Men’s Men, the general idea in these advertisements is that all men are usually portrayed “as men without women. The presence of a woman in the commercials might serve to threaten men’s men with confusing uncertainty about the nature of masculinity” (Craig 191). In other words, according to these ads, men don't like to be seen with women because women threaten their manliness. This is wrong because it gives men the idea that women hold them back rather than being a positive influence. In the internet Cadillac advertisement, a man is seen talking directly to the camera explaining to the viewers how stressful work is and how he needed a vacation with “just the guys.” Although the man does talk about work, and you can see his wife walking past him, they don't really make these topics a good thing in the commercial; work is stressful, and the wife simply walks past him without any sign of verbal contact with him. In other words, this commercial asserts the idea that a woman's presence in a “Men’s Men” commercial must be as minimal as possible. Him saying that he wants to get away with just him and his male friends implies that there’s something wrong with her companyThe idea that him and his other male friends must go on a vacation together asserts the idea that the commercial must show some idea of masculine camaraderie without the need of women to hold them back. Because of this type of advertising, men may develop a certain resentment towards women. Men may only see women as a object of pleasure and not as another human being that is capable of loving him as well.

A “Men’s Women” commercial shows a completely different side to the dehumanization of gender in advertisements. These advertisements consist of women with open clothing and “almost always shows hints of sexual availability in these commercials“ (Craig 192). The commercials even go so far as to show a woman completely naked, but having different objects in the commercial cover her parts. In one Carl’s Jr. commercial, model Charlotte McKinney is presented as naked and walking down the sidewalk with a handful of men staring at her. The commercial would be a perfect example as it degrades a woman’s image. Because all the men are staring at McKinney, women get the impression that all men want is a women that looks similar to her. This advertisement, however, not only sells the product, but also has the power to alter the way women act after seeing the advertisement. Women may go to extremes of changing their appearance because of the social pressure that has been put upon them to always look and act sexy. 

Advertising is a very powerful form of social communication in society. This social communication, however, is not always a positive thing as it dehumanizes genders. These gendered advertisements don’t mimic how society is, but mimic the way a certain gender is supposed to be. This creates various complications and negative fluctuation in today’s society expectations.  In Steve Craig’s article, “Men’s Men and Women’s Women,” Craig shows the different forms of social advertisements and the negative effects of them. The negative effects may range from simply not including women in a man’s commercial because men need to be seen as “masculine,” to showing off a woman's body in a Carl’s Jr. commercial to get men to buy a burger. These commercials do prove to be successful, but do so in the wrong manner. An advertiser should be aware of the social complications that it creates in presenting a commercial both online and on a television. Advertisers are close minded and need to come up with different advertisements which do not affect society in a negative way. What the media needs to do is turn away from basing an advertisement on gender and base it on other positive values which attracts just as many people. Advertisers should focus on the positive things that come through a relationship and the supportiveness that a woman gives her man and vise versa.

Works Cited 

Cadillac. “The First ever ELR: Poolside.” Online Video Clip. www.Youtube.com. Youtube. 7 Feb 2014. Web. 27 April 2015.

CarlsJr. “Carl's Jr. Charlotte McKinney All-Natural Too Hot For TV Commercial.” Online Video Clip. www.Youtube.com. Youtube. 21 Jan 2015. Web. 27 April 2015.

Craig, Steve. “Men’s Men and Woman’s Woman.” Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. Eds. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins. 2012. 187-199. Print. 

Lundun, Ingrid. “Internet Ad Spend To Reach $121B In 2014, 23% Of $537B Total Ad Spend, Ad Tech Boosts Display. TechCrunch. 7 April 2014. 28 April 2015.

Sharliee. “How Many Advertisements Do We See Each Day?.” Telesian Technology. 15 April 2014. 28 April 2015.