Representation and Identity in Advertisements
In “Killing Us Softly”, the documentary focused on advertising’s image of women and how they portray the ideal “impossible beauty” leading to mental health issues including lower self-esteem, eating disorder which increase demand for plastic surgeries and treatments. Advertisement objectify and sexualise women and as well as men to sell their products. We also realised the power of advertisements and how they can affect us subconsciously.
An example of an advertisement that objectifies and sexualises woman is Chlorodant advertisement:
We have also explored various visual language techniques and tried to apply them to advertisement that we have studied:
For example, an advertisement of Mini uses closeups to focus on her facial expression. It has a eye-level angle which allows the audience to identify with the character – in this case ‘relate’ to the surprise/fear of driving. It uses a Freedom VS Isolation structure to reflect the idea of how the woman is stuck inside the car and she is the only one who is in control.
Parallel Universe
We have also explored Eli Rezkallah’s work, “In a Parallel Universe”, which is a parody of real sexist advertisements in the 1940s to 1960s. The “parallel universe” is produced through the reversal of gender roles and norms which creates satirical humour through the incongruous and exaggerated portrayal of the gender roles. Just like the original advertisements, his work is also objectifying and sexualising people to present unrealistic expectations and also makes us question about modern-day sexism.
An example of his work we studied is a parody of Hardee’s advertisement. As you can see above, his work uses both very similar and different elements and style as the original advertisements. The position of which the family members are very similar with the one in the kitchen lifting their leg which we believe it showcases his/her “silly” flirtatiousness. The one outside wears dark formal clothing representing their high social status and the fact that he/she is lifting up the daughter perhaps indicate masculinity and strength. The parody copies the same text as the original one but with reversed gender. The use second person and utilises synthetic personalisation which makes the text sound like they know you. The main difference in his parody is the colour. The original advertisement follows a more warm colour scheme whereas Eli Rezkallah’s advertisement is mostly pink colour which reflects the idea of femininity as well as the exaggerated view of reality.
October 18, 2019 at 5:58 am
Nice ideas Ami!
Why have a heightened sense of reality? What satirical point might Rezkallah be making? Also, why do you think the girl is wearing pink?
October 25, 2019 at 10:52 am
Eli Rezkallah’s work may have a heightened sense of reality to reflect the harsh gender norms and expectations both past and modern society has created. The “dollhouse”-like hyperrealistic environment might be mocking the original sexist advertisement as Eli Rezkallah’s work is emphasizing how conditional and unrealistic their relationship is, creating a satirical sense of humor.
Interestingly, the girl is wearing pink which does not follow the “parallel universe” as we would expect her to wear dark-colored clothing like the mother. This symbolizes how she is ‘away’ from the parallel universe which could be suggesting how children who are raised in the confined world with specific gender roles can have opposite roles when they are adults like in the parallel universe.