Sunday, October 27, 2019
The Image Of Women In Tv Advertisements Media Essay
The Image Of Women In Tv Advertisements Media Essay The first television advertisement appeared on July, 1941 during a baseball game on a local New York channel. The 10-second commercial spot broadcasted by the company Bulova Watches has revolutionized the television (Business Wikipedia). It knew a large overwhelm that pushed many other companies to jump on board .By 1948; many additional companies adopted this new marketing technique, and little by little , the new tool has become familiar and very used and companies were obliged to compete against each other to attract the largest number of customers . For this reason they tend to employ the more attracting image to convince people to buy. One of these images is that of woman. Since the late 60s, there have been concerns about womanà ¿Ã ½s portrayal in the media. Western advertisers introduce her in different commercials since they had noticed that her appearance is very effective in term of attractiveness. But, it is so noticeable that in the majority of ads, women are stereotype d and abused. However many wrong ideas are promoted about them, since they are always viewed as objects used to attract peopleà ¿Ã ½s attention. Besides their devaluation, the content of advertisement contains a lot of violence against them. Their abuse and their image misuse should be considered a serious issue as it affects the audience and change their minds and gazes. In Fact, advertisers tend to play on peopleà ¿Ã ½s psychologies, so they can easily manipulate and convince them to buy unnecessary goods. The question here is how western TV advertisements stereotype women and how much this could harm the audience. Chapter 1: Literature review 1. The Image of Women in TV Advertisements: 1.1 Women in TV advertisement; from a subject to an object: a) Women as a Sex Object: Nowadays, advertisements are seen everywhere at any time. Most of advertisers seek to present a beautiful sexy woman in their commercials in order to market products and by doing so they consider her as just a sex object that can persuade the consumer by means of seduction to buy. Many companies have succeeded in increasing their revenues by using the sexual context which has enlarged their customer base and attracted a largest number of clients. Therefore, Berger considers these advertisement techniques as à ¿Ã ½sexploitation of the female body as one of its communication toolsà ¿Ã ½ ( Ilona P.Pawlowski,2007). Historically, the employment of women as a sexual object has evolved gradually; à ¿Ã ½in 1983 only 28% of women shown in ads had some sexy clothes in their bodies but à ¿Ã ½in 2007, 75%à ¿Ã ½ of them dressed in an attractive sensual way. Nowadays women appear partially nude in advertisement. In other words, à ¿Ã ½women not only continued to be portrayed in a sexual manner, but also the degree of sexuality increased over timeà ¿Ã ½ (Ilona P.Pawlowski,2007). In the article à ¿Ã ½The Exploitation of Women in Adsà ¿Ã ½ written by Kanter on the web cite Study mode, the fact that many fashion photographers return pornographic publications to take sexual and attractive poses or only parts of womenà ¿Ã ½s body is mentioned. The book stresses the image of women as a sexual object, a thing or a part of the merchandise to be dehumanized especially by showing just parts of her body. To conclude as Cortese notices in his book Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertisement à ¿Ã ½advertising sells much more than products, it sells values and cultural representations, such as success and sexuality.à ¿Ã ½ Moreover, women are more used than men in advertisements and according to this article à ¿Ã ½How Advertising Women Models Can Reach Market?à ¿Ã ½ the writer confirms that à ¿Ã ½even for products that the target consumers are malesà ¿Ã ½ woman image is often employed. It creates on them an impression that women would like a man that uses that product. In other words, à ¿Ã ½women want this. Get the product, get the womanà ¿Ã ½ (Cortese, 2008). This shows that nowadays, women are used as a sex object with all kind of products from electronics to make-up. An article titled à ¿Ã ½Russia-Campaign against sexism in advertisingà ¿Ã ½ insists on the same idea, à ¿Ã ½the female body is portrayed as a propaganda for pornography, violence and prostitutionà ¿Ã ½ in order to advertise products that men buy such as cars, beers, perfumeà ¿Ã ½for example in cars advertisement, womenà ¿Ã ½s hot body is most of the time present, à ¿Ã ½they act as a supplement to the car, as one of the options available to be expensively purchased by a successful manà ¿Ã ½. Danesi, a moralist, advertising professional and student of contemporary marketing communication knowledge, writes in his book Sex in Advertising that if we read about psychological studies that examine how males think, we can notice that à ¿Ã ½the reward centers in the brains of young heterosexual males were activated by female faceà ¿Ã ½. This means that the reason of creating a suggestive advertisement is that by showing womenà ¿Ã ½s body as a sex object we can activate and influence the reward centers of a man and push him to purchase a product, simply because there is the image of a female body on its cover. Also, by showing womenà ¿Ã ½s body we can access to the subconscious of a man and make him implicitly remember the sexual thing (women). Thatà ¿Ã ½s why à ¿Ã ½Advertisers believe that the more outlandish, the sexier, the more skin shown, the more the brand image will refuse to leave your memoryà ¿Ã ½ (Dansei, 2011). Figure 1: A nude woman in DG ad. This psychological explanation is another definite proof that womenà ¿Ã ½s body is abused for marketing benefits for which many famous companies tend to portray women in a sex context , such as Dolceà ¿Ã ½ Gabbana, Calvin Klein, Yves Saint Laurent and many other well-known brands. Besides, according to the article à ¿Ã ½Sex in advertising à ¿Ã ½by Dansei, there are à ¿Ã ½5000 advertising messages a dayà ¿Ã ½ that a person can receive and 20% of these ads contain sexual images. So, advertisers consider that womenà ¿Ã ½s bodies are not only à ¿Ã ½a beguiling approachà ¿Ã ½ to attract consumersà ¿Ã ½ attention, but also the best tool and can be à ¿Ã ½ Commodified as products that have a use value.à ¿Ã ½(Dansei,2011) Ità ¿Ã ½s so clear then that a sex object is something that has become essential in every advertisement in a way that objectified and dehumanized women. This can be explained by the fact that à ¿Ã ½people believe that sex sells productsà ¿Ã ½ (Province,Monique,2010). As a result à ¿Ã ½sex in advertisement contributes to the building of strong, vibrant, and long-lasting brandsà ¿Ã ½ (Ilona P.Pawlowski,2007). Verhoeven explains in her article à ¿Ã ½Axe body spray ads and women as sex objectsà ¿Ã ½ that à ¿Ã ½advertisements do not just sell products, they also promote and establish our cultureà ¿Ã ½s values and ideasà ¿Ã ½ so naturally à ¿Ã ½stereotypes are reinforced by advertisementà ¿Ã ½ (Verhoeven, Hanna, 2011). Axe body spray is one of the many examples of ads that make stereotypes against women. Figure 2: pictures of Axe spray commercial: The fallen angel To set an example, these two images belong to the commercial spot of Axe body spray for men. It is titled à ¿Ã ½Fallen angelsà ¿Ã ½; this ad shows many beautiful women introduced as angels that came from sky, on earth, they go directly to the place from where comes the smell of Axe body spray. When they find the man who puts it, they take off their crowns, forget about their innocence and seduce him. The message this ad delivers to the male audience is that women can not control themselves when smelling such a perfume. Ità ¿Ã ½s always a sex context. b) The image of the traditional housewife: Another inappropriate image the advertisement reflects is the perfect housewife whose tasks are raising children and taking care of her house and husband .An article titled à ¿Ã ½Womenà ¿Ã ½s Images in Magazine Advertisement: How Far Have They Come?à ¿Ã ½ discuss this topic. It emphasizes in fact that advertisers à ¿Ã ½characterize them as possessing low intelligence, analytical ability, and rationalityà ¿Ã ½ and when the audience especially men get this message, they will generalize these characteristics to all women and of course this result in a devaluation of the woman and its important role in society. Standing for the same idea, Naughton Michael states in his book à ¿Ã ½The Popularized Housewife in Advertisementsà ¿Ã ½, that à ¿Ã ½The creators of ads made it appear that the full time job of a woman should be a housewifeà ¿Ã ½. Women are considered as mades or servants who are responsible just for the rest of the family. Figure 3: The traditional image of a hou sewife Therefore, many advertisements present the image of the housewives wearing the magic uniform of work. Usually ,they wear à ¿Ã ½aprons, skirts, high heels, and pearlsà ¿Ã ½ (Naughton,Michael,2006). He adds that à ¿Ã ½The ad showed that women are expected to be in this professional uniform all the timeà ¿Ã ½. they are always placed in the kitchen or the bathroom (described by Naughton as their à ¿Ã ½officeà ¿Ã ½). These two elements of job (uniform and office) à ¿Ã ½strengthens that the housewife is, indeed, an important job as any other isà ¿Ã ½. This message delivered by advertisement reinforces the idea of the dependency of women on men. Figure 4:The commercial of Schlitz beer à ¿Ã ½Negative characterizations made by advertisers such as womenà ¿Ã ½s place is her house or women are weak and need men protection, push men to think that these ideas are true and women are really weak fragile and unable to go out for working. Moreover, advertisements show that women as housewives can not make expensive purchases. They are not intelligent enough to make such decisions. Differently, men in advertisements are introduced as businessmen who are usually busy outside the house .They also make big decisions and à ¿Ã ½look after women who are not capable of looking after themselvesà ¿Ã ½ (Shrikhande,Vaisahli 2003). It is so obvious here that advertisement stands for gender inequity. In fact it tends to present women in inferior positions comparing to males. Moreover they are very devaluated when their activities are limited to house shores. As an example, an ad for Schiltz beer shows a woman that burned the dinner that she prepared for her husband. She cries for this, then her husband says à ¿Ã ½do not worry darling, you didnà ¿Ã ½t burn the beerà ¿Ã ½. The idea of the woman who serves the à ¿Ã ½man of the houseà ¿Ã ½ (Naughton, 2003) in order to make him happy is so clear. c) The Image of the Dumb Blonde: The article à ¿Ã ½The Dumb Blonde Women Stereotypeà ¿Ã ½ demonstrates that blond women are considered as beautiful, thin, sexy and attractive but not intelligent not serious and not responsible. Again she is seen as an empty minded who has no opinion or personality. Blonde women are always shown busy taking care of themselves in order to look beautiful; their main interest is to wear provocative clothes, put sexy perfumes and make-up .They are portrayed as stupid and superficial. à ¿Ã ½This stereotype is often expressed excessively in blonde jokesà ¿Ã ½ (The dumb blonde women stereotype). In addition, advertisers treat blond women as a à ¿Ã ½piece of meatà ¿Ã ½ (Kazay,Ginger 2007). The question here is why this image of the dumb blonde is employed in ads? Advertisers portray a blonde as a stupid women to attract the consumer attention and to keep the ad in his mind. They want to create original, funny ideas. When the consumer watches such funny images, he will laugh and t ell others about it. The ad is registered in his mind and transmitted to others. This is the result that advertisers aim to achieve. 1.2 Violence against Women in Advertisement: a ) Physical Violence:The first aspect of violence against woman that advertisement shows, is the sex context excessively used when introducing women in ads. Women are objectified and seen in a weak position, helpless and à ¿Ã ½boundà ¿Ã ½ (Evans,Rachel), however men are seen strong and à ¿Ã ½with power over womenà ¿Ã ½ (Evans,Rachel). Advertisers send, through this image, the subliminal message that women like and want violent men. Evans explains this idea in her article à ¿Ã ½American Experience: Does Selling Sex in Modern Ads Advocate Violence against Women?à ¿Ã ½ she writes about modern advertisement à ¿Ã ½They are desirable to women, that desirable women are submissive, and that a woman doesnà ¿Ã ½t really mean no when she says ità ¿Ã ½ she adds that à ¿Ã ½this image of violence towards women results in à ¿Ã ½desensitizing consumers into thinking that violence against women is not only acceptable, but encouragedà ¿Ã ½ (Evans,Rachel). Such message is reall y a very dangerous way to portrait women .It is so unhealthy to make people believe that women like violence. Dealing with the same issue, Mc Cormack an assistant sociology professor collected many ads from the most famous magazines in America like Business Week and Cosmopolitan that show à ¿Ã ½women smiling as they are being hità ¿Ã ½ ( Rob,Roberts1991). He deduces that advertisement make the audience believes that women like to be hit and this is of course so wrong. Unfortunately, this kind of message that people get from advertisement encourage men to be violent with women. Mc Cormick ensures that à ¿Ã ½We never see men in these positions, we never see men upside down, we never see men tied up, we never see men being assaulted by women, we never see men being hit by women, being hit by things in the head. We certainly would not see men enjoying ità ¿Ã ½ (Rob,Roberts1991). This picture is a concrete example of the conception of violence that advertisement emphasizes. It is an ad made by the famous company Calvin Klein, à ¿Ã ½the image was demeaning to women by suggesting that she is a plaything of these men. It also demeans men by implying sexualized violence against women.à ¿Ã ½ (Doherty,Elissa 2010) Figure 5: a woman as sex object in Kelvin Klein ad Another company that its ads are plenty of violence against women is DolceGabbana. For this reason Dina Price made an interview with the Italian designer of this brand. He stated that à ¿Ã ½these ads do not represent rape or violence, but if one had to give an interpretation of the picture, it could recall an erotic dream, a sexual gameà ¿Ã ½. The idea of this à ¿Ã ½sexual gameà ¿Ã ½ is adopted by the majority of famous brands. à ¿Ã ½All these companies consider violence and humiliation sexy. They transform these into that art that shocks the public opinionà ¿Ã ½ (Sex and Violence in Advertising, A Mainstream Phenomena). In fashion world, we notice that à ¿Ã ½fashion photographers have an ongoing obsession with images of women looking deadà ¿Ã ½ (Katelate Stephanie,2011). These dead-like women are shown in a sexy and attractive poses. We can deduce here that advertisers and designers use violence to present something sexy (Katelate stephanie 2011).So women are shown again portrayed in shocking images. They are usually seen in à ¿Ã ½an unhealthy wayà ¿Ã ½ and suffering from the physical violence such as à ¿Ã ½torture and killingà ¿Ã ½ (Rob,Roberts1991) caused by men. b) Psychological Violence: Sexual exploitation of women has increased over the last decades as a new marketing strategy. They are seen as attractive bodies and nothing else. This emotional violence can also be proved by discrimination, based on skin color, made by advertisers. White women are always preferable when choosing a model for a commercial spot. Ità ¿Ã ½s so rare to see an advertisement with a black model, and even if it happened, she would be introduced as a vulgar and unsophisticated one. More moral violence against women is seen in advertisement when just few parts of womenà ¿Ã ½s body are shown like legs or a mouth. This is a clear dehumanization of women. à ¿Ã ½The reduction of women to body parts for menà ¿Ã ½s consumption can significantly damage a womanà ¿Ã ½s self-respectà ¿Ã ½ (Katele, 2011). Moreover, woman is treated as a prostitute in the majority of advertisements. She is not serious or respectful but happy with a smiley face. Considering this picture; they are not only intro duced as prostitutes but also proud of it! 1.3 Advertisersà ¿Ã ½ Definition of Beauty: a) The White Skin: To be beautiful as a first condition is to be a white-skinned person! This what advertisers promote asà ¿Ã ½White beauty is viewed as superiorà ¿Ã ½ as Banks Michaela Choo confirms, because white women are seen more innocent, shiny, with straight hair and à ¿Ã ½light skinà ¿Ã ½. In contrast, black women are viewed à ¿Ã ½as animals more than as humansà ¿Ã ½ she adds. We can deduce then that racism is another negative value advertisement spreads. Furthermore, advertisers à ¿Ã ½define the white standard of beauty in terms of the skin tone, hair type and body shapeà ¿Ã ½, Bank says. One understands from this definition that not all white women are considered beautiful. Advertisers have many criteria to be followed. According to them the perfect white women must be thin, with straight hair, nice smile and preferably blond. A concrete example is when an African-American model was refused by the company of Ciroc Vodka (Bitchie,Nicole 2009), simply because she was a black wom an and the company admitted it. She wondered à ¿Ã ½What message does this send? If you are not light you are not right? If you are black get back? What does this do for the self-esteem of young à ¿Ã ½dark-skinnedà ¿Ã ½ African-American girls every where? Tell them that they are ugly because their skin is too dark? Is this a type of mentality that you like to promote in your marketing campaigns?à ¿Ã ½ (Bitchie,Nicole 2009) For more credibility, researchers made statistics to figure out the percentage that white women take in commercials. As shown in the table below, white women are used in most ads of product categories. Models with light skin accounted by 64.8% in the clothes products ads compared to medium and black-skinned models by only 35.2%. This shows that advertisement designers prefer white women and consider them the more beautiful. For perfumes products black models are present in just 20% of ads when the rest (80%) is for white ones. For make-up products 65.5% of ads for white models and 34.5% for dark models. Through this obvious discrimination, advertisers tend to manipulate the unconsciousness of the consumer and oblige him to adopt the idea that the white skin is the first condition of beauty. Product category Light skin models Medium and dark skin models Hair product Shoes Perfumes Public service Ad Electronics Skin care Makeup Other 50.0% 66.7% 80.0% 58.8% 54.5% 57.1% 65.5% 61.5% 11 10 12 10 6 16 19 40 50.0% 33.3% 20.0% 41.2% 45.5% 42.9% 34.5% 38.5% 11 5 3 7 5 12 10 25 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% Table (*): Product for light skin models b) Super Skinny Models: Nowadays, skinny models are seen in all types of advertisement. They are preferred by many fashion designers who find them very attractive, beautiful and à ¿Ã ½as the way their skin tightens up over the bone in most places in their bodies is what makes them look sexy and attractiveà ¿Ã ½ (Barrett,Patrick,2004). à ¿Ã ½Not only their bodies are easier to dress with but also the clothes hang better on them, says Joanna Hill, an advertisement designer in New York. à ¿Ã ½Skinny models just look betterà ¿Ã ½ says Karl Lagerfeld, a fashion designer from Germany. For that reason, most models shown in commercials of famous and well known brands are always super skinny ones. This excessive exposition to this image will lead people to think that to be elegant, beautiful and sexy, you should be too thin that your bone could be seen easily! This is of course a wrong idea, women are of different weights and being too thin is not a beauty indicator. However many women today seek to loose weight just to imitate what they see in T.V. As a model of perfume ,clothes or makup commercials, they think if such a famous brand employed this model to advertise its product , they should be necessarily so perfect. And to be beautiful, they should just look like her. c) Beautiful is to be Young: Sexy women are frequently seen in all types of advertisements. As sex sells every thing, advertisers employ attractive women posed in provocative way to buy products. But before beauty, models should be of course young women, the age is so important to advertise especially for feminine products .Beauty is so related to youth, this what advertisers promote. This idea can deeply harm the female audience. Every woman that gets over 30 or 35 will consider herself as an ugly woman that can not be seen as beautiful in a way or another. A woman may think that way due to the fact that the message excessively sent to the audience generalizes the idea even if is totally wrong, it makes everybody believe it even though it is illogical. It is so clear then that advertisers promote their own opinions and ideas and seek to standardize peopleà ¿Ã ½s mind in a way that serves them and convinces consumers to purchase what is advertised. 2. Stereotypes Against Women in TV Advertisements and its Impact on Society: 2.1 Womenà ¿Ã ½s Body Dissatisfaction: Today, TV advertisement is a common way by which a company promotes its products. Thin and beautiful models or celebrities are the main image that companies relies on to attract the audience. In fact, this repeated image of the same physical characteristics of models create on women a feeling of dissatisfaction .They automatically tend to overestimate their bodies sizes in order to look like what they always see in ads. This causes them many serious problems. a) Eating Disorders: Eating disorders is eating more or less than the body needs. It is caused usually by psychological problems like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa which are characterized by a disturbance of eating behavior. The first involves à ¿Ã ½rejection of foodà ¿Ã ½ while the second involves à ¿Ã ½pursingà ¿Ã ½ after eating. Women mostly influenced by these disorders. In fact advertisement has a noticeable role in causing these troubles. After watching TV commercials that standardizes the conception of beauty, women would feel dissatisfied with their bodies shape. According to the researchers Harrison and Canter à ¿Ã ½disordered eating symptomlogy and encompass related variables such as body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, perfection, and ineffectivenessà ¿Ã ½ (Cohen, Sara2006). In advertisements, the portrayal of à ¿Ã ½super-slimà ¿Ã ½ females is considered as more fashionable, desirable and attractive. Many researchers confirm that exposure to ideal-body images could increase eating disorders in two ways. First à ¿Ã ½exposure could lead to internalizing the ideal-body stereotypeà ¿Ã ½ (Harbin Channel,2011), which causes an excessive dieting in order to attain the internalized ideal. Second, exposure to thin-ideal could promote à ¿Ã ½social comparisonà ¿Ã ½, which engenders intense dieting as a means of seeking to meet à ¿Ã ½external standards.à ¿Ã ½ b) Low Self-esteem: After watching super models in advertisements, women tend to compare themselves with models shown in commercials. This comparison makes them dissatisfied with the way they look especially those who already have negative impression about their bodies. à ¿Ã ½Women who already have low opinions of their physical appearance are at an even greater risk for negative effects from media imagesà ¿Ã ½, says Bessonoff a professor in the Psychological Department in the University of Connecticut who has more than 7 years in the fields of social comparison, body image, and women in the media. Moreover, TV commercials show also unrealistic images with many modifications. à ¿Ã ½Viewing television commercials containing images of the unrealistic thin-ideal for women caused adolescent girls to feel less confident, and more dissatisfied with their weight and appearancesà ¿Ã ½(Dittmar Helega,2011). Women evaluate their own attitudes, abilities, and beliefs among others and they are not satisfied with their appearance which is more judged by themselves than by others. à ¿Ã ½Comparisons interested on appearance commonly are upward, which means that a woman compares herself to others who are more attractive and better in order to find out the standard of excellence. This upward comparison is related to à ¿Ã ½body dissatisfaction disordered eating, decreased self-confidence, depression, and anxietyà ¿Ã ½ (Cohen, Sara ,2006). c) The Need to be Perfect: The pressure of exposure in todayà ¿Ã ½s life leads to dangerous effects on womenà ¿Ã ½s body. Exposure, in which the ideal body image is portrayed, will make women unhappy and dissatisfied with their body shape, especially when they watch thin models, who advertise new fashion designs, so they feel the need to be perfect like them. Thin body images of such models and actress have been getting thinner and thinner over the past 40 years. They are wearing very small sizes 1and 0 which make women attempt impossible standards in order to be beautiful and perfect. As a result, cosmetic surgeries are very popular today. Many medical professionals confirm that the rising of cosmetic surgery is due to the rising accessibility to television programs. Thus, women become dissatisfied, worried, and obsessed with their appearance, and they turned to be only concerned about looking for cosmetics and advertised products that promised to offer them solutions. It is clear then why advertisers see k to make women feel unsatisfied and unhappy with their looks. 2.2 Stereotypes Against Women in Tv Advertisement and its Effects on Men: Nowadays, we are excessively exposed to advertisements in every single moment because of the well developed techniques used. Womanà ¿Ã ½s image is always the essential part in TV ads. This has a big influence on the audience. a) The Influence of Sexy Images on Men: Advertisements that contain plenty of sexy bodies may affect the audience and shape their ideas about women. A sexy ad in which a woman wears a bikini gets the attention of men. A research done by Susan Fiske, a professor of psychology at Princeton University, shows that à ¿Ã ½in men ,the brain areas are associated with handling tools and the intention to perform actions light up when viewing images of women in bikinisà ¿Ã ½(Landau,Elizabeth,2010). Another research uses à ¿Ã ½brain scansà ¿Ã ½ to show that when we see images of sexy bodies à ¿Ã ½an activity increased in a part of the brain called the premotor cortex, which is involved in taking actionsà ¿Ã ½ (Lan, 2011). Moreover, these sexy images portrayed in TV ads tend to increase the sexual appetite of men. According to the authors Bram Van den Bergh, Siegfried Dewitt, and Luk Warlop, à ¿Ã ½the desire for immediate rewards increased in men who touched bras, looked at pictures of beautiful women, or watched video cl ips of young women in bikinis running through a parkà ¿Ã ½ ( Science Daily,2008). b) The Influence of Models on Menà ¿Ã ½s Desire and Want towards Their Wives: As models are portrayed in different and frequent ads in their stereotyped manner, men are influenced by their bodiesà ¿Ã ½ attractiveness and they want their wives to become like these models. Men are attracted by young women with à ¿Ã ½small lower part of face with full lips, high cheek bones and long neck, large eyes and small noseà ¿Ã ½ (Men know what they want, 2011). c) Maleà ¿Ã ½s gaze: According to Jonathan Schroeder, à ¿Ã ½to gaze implies more than to look at-it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gazeà ¿Ã ½ (Chandler, Daniel,2011). The maleà ¿Ã ½s gaze is the way how a man considers a woman. As TV ads are plenty of sexy women employed by advertisers to sell products à ¿Ã ½the idea being that if you buy what they are selling you will get the girlà ¿Ã ½ (Abgond, 2011). In this picture of Channel advertisement, Nicole Kidman appears in such a way à ¿Ã ½looking straightly into the eyes of the viewerà ¿Ã ½ (Lowen Linda, 2010). This advertisement is directed to men, Mulvey explains à ¿Ã ½males may believe that buying this product as a gift for a woman might make her look like the model in the advertisement à ¿Ã ½, also using this perfume could change the way people look at youà ¿Ã ½Ã ¿Ã ½ (Lowen Linda, 2010). Figure 6: An American actress in Channel ad 2.3 Stereotypes against Women in TV Advertisement and its Effects on Children: Television continues to represent women in highly stereotyped manner in order to influence viewers and specifically children who are easily affected. a) Stereotyping: In TV ads, women are portrayed in different ways. These images have an influence on childrenà ¿Ã ½s attitudes and beliefs. Children who watch female characters as à ¿Ã ½passive, indecisive, and subordinate to men, and who see this reinforced by their environment, will likely believe that this is the appropriate way for females to behaveà ¿Ã ½ (Witt, 2011). Furthermore, children after viewing female characters in advertisements, have difficulties to distinguish fantasy from reality à ¿Ã ½Television characters are often exaggerated stereotypes that can distort childrenà ¿Ã ½s expectations of people in day-to-day lifeà ¿Ã ½ (Raizada,Parul, 2009). Moreover, women have a sex-role in TV ads and it leads to a harmful effect on childrenà ¿Ã ½s minds as they keep thinking about these sexual ads, young girls may feel inferior compared to this artificial beauty which may result in depression and underestimation of themselves. b) Violence against Women in Ads Influences Children Behavior: After watching TV ads involving violence against women, children may have aggressive thoughts which leads them to use violence against their sisters and even against their mothers. According to the psychologists Craig Anderson and Brad Bushman à ¿Ã ½violent cognition may start a process that reinforces kidà ¿Ã ½s aggressive knowledge and makes them more likely to engage in aggressive actsà ¿Ã ½ (Science Daily, 2008). Moreover, when kids watch aggressive actions in TV ads, this may raise the risk and the aggressive tendencies children haveà ¿Ã ½. The two psychologists confirm that when you let your children watch violent ads à ¿Ã ½you are allowing your kids to have higher potential to engage in this activity and it puts them at a higher risk because they become desensitized to violenceà ¿Ã ½. Due to the presence of violence used by males against women in TV advertisements, children are primarily influenced by these sights and that males are always superior to females. Cons equently, very terrible images are built in childrenà ¿Ã ½s memories which are based on gender inequity and violence. c) Womenà ¿Ã ½s Tobacco Ads and its Impact on Children Behavior: Women are present in many tobacco advertisement which has a psychological effects on children. Tobacco advertisers use different techniques when advertising cigarettes. Their convincing tools influence many children and push them to consume tobacco products. In fact, celebrities shown in tobacco ads are a very important mean to convince children that tobacco is a sign of luxury and sophistication. Many famous tobacco companies tend to use this technique such as Winston, Virginia Slims, Salem and Marlboro. This picture shows a well known American singer with a tall cigarettes. Figure 7: An American singer in tobacco ad We all know that young people are more influenced by stars behavior .This is a deliberate message for children and adolescent to buy cigarette. Indeed, advertisers do not care about how harmful their product is, they only tend to enlarge their consumer base. * Questionnaire A: * Question 1: -How old are you? The sample analyzed
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