Gendered AdvertisingAmerican culture at the beginning of the twenty first century is becoming more and more visually oriented; in fact, in large part due to the Internet, some suggest that we are entering a "post-literate" age where only a privileged few have the literacy skills that were once commonplace. Visual "literacy" is "the ability to interpret and contextualize filmic and still imagesâthus becomes even more critical if images are the main transmitter of cultural messages and norms. "Media literacy" is becoming an important thing to understand and is one of the new buzz words in pedagogy.
Images of gender in advertising are omnipresent in a culture that uses sexuality to sell everything from cars to home insurance to coffee. Often ads provide a narrative snapshot of American life. According to Kilbourne (1999) "The average American is exposed to at least 3,000 ads every day and will spend three years of his or her life watching television commercials." That was over ten years ago. We then need to throw in the Internet as a source of advertising. It is difficult to deny their impact on our understanding of how our world, or how our gender, works. They are, after all, part of our world.
For this extra credit assignment, you will be analyzing the gender messages of print ads. You must formulate a hypothesis using two points of comparison: for instance, you might compare body language in a 1950s ad for cigarettes in Woman's Day and a cigarette ad from a 2003 Vogue. You could test a narrow hypothesis about Ms. Magazine in the 1970s and in 2003: do 2003 ads show women in different professions than in the 1970s? Or how do the ads targeted to men differ form the ads targeted towards women?You must use relevant concepts from our readings as well from Jean Kilbourne. Attach copies or photocopies of your ad or ads. The Gender Ads Project may provide useful information and ads for your analysis but be careful not to repeat the analyses found there; the thesis and analysis must be your own. And there is even a page on How to Read Ads
Here are some general criteria for this 2-5 page essay:
focus your essay narrowly in terms of specific ads and/or a specific feature of an ad or ads
use the information and texts from our class
be dense in your writing, (don't "Miss America" me) and draw conclusions both fully supported and speculative
follow appropriate syntax and grammar conventions. APA format please.
Discuss
|
|
