Gender and Advertising

Semiotic Analysis of Ads Semiotics: interprets messages in terms of their signs and patterns of symbolism Sign: a word, sound, or visual image. consists of two components--the signifier (the sound, image, or word) and the signified, which is the concept the signifier represents, or the meaning. (Saussure) relation between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary and conventional (Berger) signs can mean anything we agree that they mean, and they can mean different things to different people. Sandra Moriarty, 'Visual Semiotics and the Production of Meaning in Advertising' (1995)

Meanings of signs are iconic, symbolic and indexical Iconic: sign looks like what it represents Symbolic: meaning is determined by convention – it is based upon agreement and learned through experience Indexical: meaning is connotative; sign is a clue that links or connects things in nature. Smoke, for example, is a sign of fire; icicles mean cold. Most signs operate on several levels--iconic as well as symbolic and/or indexical Sandra Moriarty, 'Visual Semiotics and the Production of Meaning in Advertising' (1995)

Erving Goffman, Gender Advertisments (1979) 1. Relative Size. Social weight (e.g., power, authority, rank, office, renown) is echoed expressively in social situations is through relative size, especially height. 2. Feminine Touch. Women, more than men, are pictured using their fingers and hands to trace the outlines of an object or to cradle it or to caress its surface or to effect a "just barely touching." This ritualistic touching is to be distinguished from the utilitarian kind that grasps, manipulates, or holds. 3. Function Ranking. When a man and a woman collaborate in an undertaking, the man is likely to perform the executive role. This hierarchy of functions is pictured either within an occupational frame or outside of occupational specializations. 4. Ritualization of Subordination. A classic stereotype of deference is that of lowering oneself physically in some form or other of prostration. Correspondingly, holding the body erect and the head high is stereotypically a mark of unashamedness, superiority, and disdain. The configurations of canting postures can be read as an acceptance of subordination, an expression of ingratiation, submissiveness, and appeasement. 5. Licensed Withdrawal. Women more than men are pictured engaged in involvements which remove them psychologically from the social situation at large, leaving them unoriented in it and to it, and dependent on the protectiveness of others who are present. Turning one's gaze away from another's can be seen as having the consequence of withdrawing from the current thrust of communication (p. 62). The individual also can withdraw his/her gaze from the scene at large, and be psychologically "away" from the scene. Maintaining a telephone conversation is another sign of licensed withdrawal.

Relative size

Ritualization of subordination

Feminine touch

Function Ranking

Scott A. Lucas, “How to Read Ads,” The Gender Ads Project

Kilbourne, "The More You Subtract, the More You Add: Cutting Girls Down to Size" As Erving Goffman pointed out in Gender Advertisements, we learn a great deal about the disparate power of males and fmales simply through the body language and poses of advertising. (265)

Girls try to make sense of the contradictory expectations of themselves in a culture dominated by advertising. Advertising is one of the most potent messengers in a culture that can be toxic for girls’ self-esteem. Indeed, if we looked only at advertising images, this would be bleak world for females. (259) Girls of all ages get the message that they must be flawlessly beautiful and, above all these days, they must be thin. (260)

Watch clips from The Ad and the Ego featuring Kilbourne

Pat Kirkham and Alex Weller, "Cosmetics: A Clinique Case Study" Within the worlds of advertising and marketing, the appearance and presentation of a product is at least as important as the product itself. Advertising conventions encourage the consumer to equate the quality of the advertising with the quality of the product itself. (268) The differences between advertisements for male toiletries and those for female toiletries are marked and, to a certain degree, conform to certain binary oppositions which are generally accepted to relate to men and women. (269)

Look at images at

Lee and Joo, “The Portrayal of Asian Americans in Mainstream Magazine Ads” …Asian women have been frequently portrayed as passive, exotic, and humble, or at the other extreme, as oversexualized, treacherous, and evil. Asian women have been extreme, as oversexualized, treacherous, and evil. Asian men, on the other hand, are often portrayed as incompetent, asexual, and supremely wise, or as martial arts experts. (654)

Lee and Joo discuss two theoretical approaches to studying advertising and race: Cultivation theory: “audience perceptions toward a group are influenced by how the group is portrayed in the media. If Asian Americans are stereotypically portrayed in a consistent manner in magazine ads, readers should depvelop perceptions of Asian Americans that mirror the way they are depicted. (655)

Experience-violation theory: when an individual’s characteristics violate stereotype-based expectations, judgments then to become more extreme in the direction of the violated expectation. (655) Advertising is an influential social agent in the development of our understanding of social reality, and in particular, perceptions of ethnic groups, both by group members and by others. (656)