The Eyes of The Beholder

It is quite obvious the role women play in the world of advertising. In some adds they are used as eye candy to get the attention of the typical guy, or even to be admired by other envies women. This is not a problem at all considering that men are used in the same way except they don't bare as much skin. The problem is that women are continually seen as the care taker for men and the family itself. Their only duty is to make sure the family is running like a well oiled machine. While some organizations are fighting to stop the discrimination  in advertising, some cannot even agree to what line for discrimination is or is not. The idea of discrimination can be very debate able. The European Community (EEC) did have this to say, " states that advertise on television must not: A) injure the human dignity; B) be discriminative with respect to race, sex, religion or nationality. Still, no interpretations or definitions of the concept of discrimination have been developed along with the directive. The question therefore is left unanswered as to where the limits in such considerations actually can be drawn, and on what criteria. As a consequence, this lack of criteria may imply that the similarities to the principle of self-regulation are close (Glifjell, 266)." What this means is that what you think is discrimination can be totally different from what someone else things is discrimination. For instance, you may look at an ad and think how in the world can they advertise like that, but it maybe possible that in that country they do not find it discriminating to a woman at all. So whether an advertisement is discriminating a women or not, is not objective but subjective. With this in mind, lets take a look at an ad.

Lets first look at the perspective that this ad is totally discriminating against women. The ad is "putting the women in her place." That is as the person who has to clean, cook and take care of the house. It suggest that the mans job is to bring home the bacon and that women do not belong in the business environment. This is a total low blow to women, because obviously they can and have succeeded where men have not in being the head of the household. On the other hand, someone can look at this ad and believe it is good for women. In the ad you can see that the women is out performing the man in her daily tasks. The ad reads, "So the harder a wife works, the cuter she looks!"Some women may find it flattering for a man to tell them that they look cute while they work. So as you can see ads can be very shady and maybe discrimination, but to some it might just be good humor or flattering. Whatever the case maybe, it is important to realize that it is all in the eyes of the beholder.

The Eye Popping World of Advertising

 I have always wondered what the difference is between two advertisements of the same product were. You look at an advertisement from Coca-Cola and an advertisement of Root Beer and they seem the same. This is an incorrect assumption. These two companies have very different strategies when it comes to visual advertising. So which brand does a better job of advertising? Lets take a lookie.

Lets talk about the first one. This advertisement is reliant on the fact that there is a pretty girl in it. This would suggest that if you drink Coca-Cola that you are joining all the other pretty people who drink Coca-Cola. The second one is more heart warming. The sign here is the baseball with the Coca-Cola. The signifier is that no matter what your doing -whether at a ball game or just hanging out- it would be better with a Coke in your hand. Now lets take a look at Root Beers approach or more specifically Hank's Root Beer.

 As you can see this one is a lot different. The root beer and the car being the sign that draws your eyes to the ad and the signifier being that root beer equals luxury. This ad suggest that you can get something great at a low price. You do not have to go out and buy an expensive car to have luxury. Just get Hank's root beer.

In conclusion, we can see that two similar brands take way different approaches in their techniques. Which one is better? That's for you to decide.

A world without advertising?

What would the world be like without advertising? Would there be less businesses? Would we make our own stuff more often because of the lack of knowledge in brands? Branding is the foundation of all advertising. Brands are your promise (the company) to the customers that you will provide them with the best product possible. Take Nike for example, it has been accused of putting people in sweatshops to make their products. This is a dangerous environment that is harmful to it's employees. How can Nike stay in business with horrible news like this? It's actually a very easy answer, it's brand. Nike is so well know and it's brand is so strong that it can survive these kinds of things. Bottom line, it provides customer satisfaction.
The growth of advertising is because of four key ideas mass produced goods, mass communication, mass distribution, and mass education. The industrial revolution helped optimize production. With printing, magazines, and newspapers people could now see advertising on a more consistent bases. The evolution of railroads really helped advertising get going. You had away to get your advertisement to any demographic that you wanted. This would also be where research advertising was useful. Finding who used what and advertising it to them. In early advertising, people could not read what the advertisement said. It wasn't because of a fancy font or the words were like a 2 font, but because people just didn't know how to read. And so laws that forced kids to go through k-12 were made and it helped advertising in the end.
So the world really does need advertising. Most of the greatest brands on the planet have relied heavily on advertisements to get sells. For example, coca cola is one of the oldest brands in the world and got it's business going from advertising. Advertising is important because it attaches us with our favorite products.
This video summarizes a world without advertising very well.