What is the most common go to
method advertisement companies use to sell their products? Beautiful men and
women wearing very little clothing, or at least what we have been conditioned
to believe is “beautiful”. It is not a secret that our society values what they can
enjoy visually, it seems as though superficiality consumes us. From the article "Sex DOES sell: Attractive men and women in ads affects our capacity for rational thought" it mentions that half dressed men
and women are said to convince people to buy a product more effectively then advertising
logical facts and information about it. In fact, “researchers found seeing an attractive
man or woman in an advert excites the areas of the brain that make us buy on
impulse, bypassing the sections which control rational thought”(Daily Mail
Reporter, 3). The importance of image has literally been embedded in our
brains, and because of that the old saying “sex sells” is more valid then ever.
Can our rational thought overcome this learned behavior?
I can’t help but wonder what
problems this brings forth. First of which came to mind is the simple fact that
this type of marketing is objectifying human beings. These men and women are
being portrayed as objects. This leads to problems especially with women. This
type of presentation only allows the public to view women as superficial
objects to admire with no further substance. Another problem with this type of
advertisement is people compare themselves to unrealistic photo shopped images
of what is considered perfect. This can affect men and women negatively by
adding unnecessary pressure to measure up to the people in the advertisements. As
consumers we tend to forget that these advertisers will do whatever it takes to
sell their product.
I completely agree with your viewpoint regarding the idea that "sex sells" and the objectification of women in the media. There are many parts of this idea of using attractive people to sell products that are in my opinion a shallow and greedy way to obtain customers and a large fan base for one's product and/or company. What makes this advertising scam even more infuriating, are the few women that allow themselves to be objectified for money and give the rest of the population a false image of what a person "should" look like. What are we teaching our nations youth by embodying the practices of using attractive people to sell products? Not only are we adding extra pressure to look a certain way like Berta commented on, but we are also promoting the idea that is it ok for a company to do whatever they can just to earn a larger profit. If anything this example shows that money is top priority now more than ever and companies will stop at nothing to sell, sell, sell.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post and the article! Negative standards of body image are a longstanding issue that is becoming somewhat of a mental pandemic; western culture’s perception of what the female body (and the male body) should be is entirely skewed. Advertisements feature men and women with what has been deemed as ideal physiques. Not only do these ads objectify bodies and set unsustainable expectations of what bodies should look like, but (according to this article you presented) they also make people unable to think clearly. Sometimes when viewing advertisements, it seems like the companies are trying to sell the product or their standard of beauty. Manifesta “The Dinner Party” offered many prevalent issues that were discussed at their dinner party, but I think that society needs to pay more attention towards body image and how it is presented; this would be a discussion I would have. With the media producing molds of what the female body should be and advertisements reinforcing these standards, mainstream culture perceives beauty in an unhealthy way; we are told that sexualizing the body to get what we want is okay. This is not to say that being skinny is unhealthy—for some people it is natural—it is to say that those who are not built in the commercialized definition of the perfect body try to get there in unhealthy ways.
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