Dove...

After reading the article "Dove Viral Draws Heat From Critics" I went onto youtube and watched the "Onslaught" for myself. The ad is definitely interesting, it does pull you in, and the message it inevitably sends is an important one. But here's the thing, why is the message important? Is it because Dove the brand stands for self esteem, it supports the "real" woman, and hopes that one day we can all live in a world without worrying about our weight or appearance and just be satisfied with ourselves? Or is it simply important because Dove (or at least Viral) doesn't really mean what they advertise? Its hard to imagine that the same company which produces Axe cologne could have a completely separate division which cares for all women in any and every shape or size. Axe spray is anything but a self esteem booster for females, at least in my opinion, because the way they depict women in their ads is the exact opposite of what Dove tells females they need to be like. (Thin, gorgeous, and sexually promiscuous.) Sounds to me like they are trying to have their cake and eat it to.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 is about using sex to to sell movies. It discusses the power of movie trailers and how entertainment companies use the idea of sex to draw in cinema crowds. Movie trailers are all about competition, they only have a limited amount of time to catch a viewers eye, and in most cases a way to catch someones attention is through the ideal of sex. Studies have been preformed to find sexaulized content in movie previews categorized by their sexuality, mpaa ratings and genres, and demographic characteristics of characters. The study showed that slightly half of of the previews had a sexual scene, men and women both were featured characters, and the majority of films were R rated. This study shows that sexuality is obviously a large part of a movie trailer, and it will continue to be because it draws in viewers, which draws in money for movie companies.

Final Project Ideas

For the final project we will be focusing on women in music videos. In my group we have divided up 5 different music video channel outlets. MTV, VH1, FUSE, BET, and CMT, to monitor the top 10 videos for one week. Basically we are looking to see is there a difference in each media channels depiction of women. Is there a difference ....in the way women are dressed? Or how the females are portrayed in the video? Or the leading ladies race and role in the music video? Also what is the genre of music and does that play a role in how the women are portrayed? Both the dress and the role of the females will have categories and definitions.

Chapter 16 & 18

Chapter 16 discusses race and gender in advertising. Advertising aims to raise awareness about a brand, capture attention, and encourage a purchase. One main advertising technique is the use of sex, using attractive individuals in order to seduce the consumer. The use of this technique tends to vary however by the racial and ethnic minority. Minorities tend to be represented differently in advertising. Whites, Asian Americans, African Americans, and Latinos are each represented in a different way, including the men. Whether represented as a more sexual being, or a more stereotypical way each race seems unfairly misrepresented.

Chapter 18 discusses homo eroticism in advertising. The gay audience has become a key factor in advertising. Advertisers target outlets which specifically reach out to the homosexual crowds, such as Out,The Advocate, and Instinct. The chapter describes homo eroticism androgyny, and eroticism. Advertisers uses androgynous models frequently, because it Leeds to interpretation. Main stream media has also attempted to attract the gay crowd, with hit shows with gay characters, reality shows with gay participants, etc. The gay audience is increasing and advertisers has taken notice.

Chapter 10 & 12

Chapter 10 discusses beer advertising. The advertising of beer products doesn't involve using logic, instead it centers around shaping a products image to attract consumers. This image the advertisers generally create relies heavily on sexuality and sexual innuendo. Not only do they use sex but also humor. The chapter states that "sex and the marketing of beer are virtually inseparable. "

Chapter 12 discusses the pornographic aspects in fashion advertising. The chapter states that advertisements in Elle, Vogue, and W show women not only as desirable objects for males, but also objects of pornography. Pornography signifies a particular content with the intention to produce a particular kind of effect. Fashion advertising usually focuses on only certain parts of the female body instead of a full figure, objectification. As well as the use of submissive expressions. This can cause confusion in the line drawn between high art and pornography.

chapter 5 & 6

Chapter 5 discusses the sex market in magazines. Maxim magazine states that"celebrity plus sex equals more readers."Big Magazines, like Rolling Stone, have even changed from the original magazine concepts in order to sell more magazines by adopting the concept stated above. A study was done to show these changes, the study analyzes the images of all men and women, how they are dressed, their pose, and their sexual tones, in the attempt to find out if these magazines have followed Maxims formula. The study found that there were significant relationships between how the models were portrayed in regards to their body pose, clothing worn, and their sexual tone. Women were found to appear on magazines more often than men, their body was shown more than men's, they did wear less clothing, and also were portrayed more sexually then man as well.

Chapter 6 discusses the role of sexual commodification of female sportscasters . Women sports casters are not very common nor are they considered hard core journalists, but were instead introduced in an effort to capitalize on the incorporation of female sex appeal. Female sportscasters are used in an effort to capture the attention of male viewers. Introducing women into sports news has received a large amount of criticism because as a result sports news has changed from a more traditional news coverage to an entertainment outlet.

chapter 3 & 4

Chapter 3 discusses the use of sex and its appeal in music videos. The chapter states that "physical attractiveness and the ability to convey sex appeal have proven the making of many artists." The reason why this is so important is that sex acts as a way to draw in media and audience attention. This is why many female artists will originally start out portraying a look of innocent and girl next door appeal, into a sexually mature individual. The chapter gives an example of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilara. This transformation is referred to as a metamorphosis. Race is also a key component in music videos, studies have shown that videos express a more male oriented story line. Males also appear more often in music videos than females. As music videos have become more mainstream and more marketable artists use the videos to further extend their audience base and establish their image.

Chapter 4 discusses the use of sex and gender in video games. Video games have become enormously popular, especially with young men and boys. With a large percentage of children, teens, and young men spending a significant amount of time playing video games, their perceptions tend to change from reality to what the game presents as reality. In multiple studies woman in video games were presented as props or victims, if women were in the video game usually they were dressed in provocative clothing, had large breasts and small waists. Males are shown as physical aggressors and outnumbered women 4 to 1. However there has not been extensive research done on sexual content in the video games.