Usernames: “Goldilocks", "Meryle Girl", "Regina Filanji" "The Veiled Interpreter", "-tm- blogger"
Jennifer Roth
WOME 2113
November 15, 2011
Romance in Household Product Advertisements
Household product advertisements commonly use romance as a sales technique to promote their products to women. Through this use of romance, many advertisements reinforce stereotypical ideologies of women and strengthen the socially constructed idea that women belong in a home environment. Advertising companies embed romance in their ads to remind women of 'their place' in terms of sexuality, race, age, ability, and gender.
Our group has analyzed several ads and it has become obvious that many advertising companies use sexuality to remind women how to act in the home. They have used romance as a technique to let women know they need to act a certain way when doing her domestic chores. Looking at our example of the whirlpool washing machine ad, we see a woman being portrayed as sexy and having a romantic relationship with the machine (created through use of close ups, lighting, and body language). The whirlpool advertisement makes the woman a sexual object and we watch her create a sort of 'sexual attraction' to the washing machine. She gracefully runs over to the machine like it s her partner. Thanks to these companies, women are expected to live up to these socially constructed standards and act the same way in their home.
Jennifer Roth
WOME 2113
November 15, 2011
Romance in Household Product Advertisements
Household product advertisements commonly use romance as a sales technique to promote their products to women. Through this use of romance, many advertisements reinforce stereotypical ideologies of women and strengthen the socially constructed idea that women belong in a home environment. Advertising companies embed romance in their ads to remind women of 'their place' in terms of sexuality, race, age, ability, and gender.
Our group has analyzed several ads and it has become obvious that many advertising companies use sexuality to remind women how to act in the home. They have used romance as a technique to let women know they need to act a certain way when doing her domestic chores. Looking at our example of the whirlpool washing machine ad, we see a woman being portrayed as sexy and having a romantic relationship with the machine (created through use of close ups, lighting, and body language). The whirlpool advertisement makes the woman a sexual object and we watch her create a sort of 'sexual attraction' to the washing machine. She gracefully runs over to the machine like it s her partner. Thanks to these companies, women are expected to live up to these socially constructed standards and act the same way in their home.
http://jimmymingshum.blogspot.com/
Sexuality is also obvious in the Canon camera ad, where there is a woman lying down on the bed looking sexually into the camera while a man touches her. This romance technique tells women several things. First that they belong in the home, second that they will not be as happy unless they remain in charge of the house, and third that they must look beautiful and sexy while working in the home. Commercials convey this often by having the women wear revealing clothes or making sexy facial expressions while doing the house work. Women are expected to please the men in their lives because romance has taught women they need to be the perfect housewife (good looking, sexual, and put together) in order to be happy. Companies use this to their advantage and remind women they need to buy these products to buy their fantasy life. The use of romance in household product advertisements reminds women of their "rightful place" in the home and that they need to incorporate sexuality into their daily chores to be that 'perfect women'.
The image of women that is promoted through these household product advertisements is an image that will increase sales for the producers of the products. It's part of the social location that these advertisers are thrying to achieve, by putting up a typical and ideal social location so that consumers will buy into it. Race is included in this construction because the type of women these advertisers tend to use. Women that you see in ads are usually ones that fit the western mould (UNPAC). Light skinned women are usually the ones that you will see because they are trying to target and reach out to other light skinned women. These moulds that are uses are stereotypical and are also usually racist (UNPAC)- by seeing women not being able to do anything more then just housework and taking care of their families. Seeing women doing these tasks and not being paid or recognized belittles the value of their place in society (UNPAC). Romance is placed onto this by showing the ideal family where white female mothers are the perfect housewife and takes care of the family- two beautiful children and her white husband who always comes home from work to a clean house. You rarely see this family structure with other racial backgrounds. Race also goes along with other features, and types that are included in the ideal image that is portrayed through advertisments.
Advertisements also use ‘age’ as another strategic technique to target women. In the majority of these household good ads, they portray women who are young, anywhere from their mid twenties to early thirties: the “housewife” age. The idea behind this strategy being that young women are an easy demographic to attack; they become familiar and comfortable with the concept of being in charge of the domestic sphere at a very early age. It is through the use of romantic tropes in the media that these women are introduced or ‘mislead’ rather into the significant oppression present within patriarchal society. It can be viewed as almost a "brainwashing" attempt to establish young women in their place, and keep them there.Through the variety of video/advertisement posts on our blog the use of romance continuously puts women in their place in terms of ability in the home. These advertisements embed the idea that women are only good for household duties such as cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, etc. They do all of these tasks with a smile on their face and sense of accomplishment especially after finding the “perfect” product. Almost all of these women in the advertisements we found are portrayed as the perfect housewife, with such an extreme attachment to their cleaning products. In the post “A difficult Marriage”, we can see that the Swiffer commercial uses this ideology of romance to reinforce this idea of woman and cleaning product that they portray the relationship between the two as that of a marriage. Women are seen by corporate consumer culture as the superhero of cleaning up messes, removing stains, dusting, and other everyday cleaning rituals, as long as they have the ideal product to accomplish these tasks to the best of their “only” ability.
Advertising companies have socially constructed gender roles for women through household product ads. They have reinforced the ideal that 'women belong in the home' and they must be 'the perfect housewife'. When your born a 'girl' our patriarchal society has predetermined your place in life; the home. When critically analyzing the 'tide on gender' video and blog, we see that society is not comfortable with little girls 'dressing and playing like little boys'. The mother in the advertisement is rather embarrassed and ashamed that her little girl is not taking on the romantic fantasy that is encouraged in our society. Romance is a tool used to remind women that in order to be happy and make others proud you must buy the products that will allow you to achieve the romantic fantasy that is taught at an early age. According to corporate consumer culture, being a women means your destined to do the laundry and other domestic chores. Companies will direct their ads at women because they know women are supposed to go after the 'fantasy life' created by romantic fiction. With the reinforcement from both the fiction genres and the advertisements, women find it hard to imagine themselves playing a different role (for example 'the breadwinner').
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUpZmXPYjZw
When taking into account all of the factors, it can be seen as completely understandable why women are essentially caught and trapped by these romantic advertisements. Not only do advertising companies cleverly target women by age, race and so forth, but they also use romance in order to specifically target the female psyche (also the male but we will focus on the female). As Hollows points out, romance is seen as an "escape" element for many women; women seek romance to fulfill "their psychological needs, needs which are produced by patriarchy but aren't satisfied within patriarchal institutions" (Hollows 81). Romance serves as a fantasy that some women need in order to be released from the oppression they feel existing within a patriarchal world. Therefore the ideal romance offers a woman the opportunity to feel nurtured, and to allow for the integration of her inner self. Advertising companies feed off these understandings in order to sell products directly to women.
When taking into account all of the factors, it can be seen as completely understandable why women are essentially caught and trapped by these romantic advertisements. Not only do advertising companies cleverly target women by age, race and so forth, but they also use romance in order to specifically target the female psyche (also the male but we will focus on the female). As Hollows points out, romance is seen as an "escape" element for many women; women seek romance to fulfill "their psychological needs, needs which are produced by patriarchy but aren't satisfied within patriarchal institutions" (Hollows 81). Romance serves as a fantasy that some women need in order to be released from the oppression they feel existing within a patriarchal world. Therefore the ideal romance offers a woman the opportunity to feel nurtured, and to allow for the integration of her inner self. Advertising companies feed off these understandings in order to sell products directly to women.
http://wheresmyjetpack.blogspot.com/2008/02/furnture-ad-stimulates-lingerie-sales.html
Take into account this furniture advertisement above that showcases a young white woman gracefully resting on a couch. One can see how the media creates a fairytale-like idea that women can be relieved from patriarchal oppression by finding a loving and nurturing ‘man’; or in this case the perfect piece of furniture. Romance sells the idea that women will not be complete unless they are united with mass amounts of consumer items that will fulfill their lives. However this "relief from patriarchy" does not necessarily exist in reality itself, thus women are exploited through tropes of romance, and continually oppressed. It can be understood that romance itself is a tool for patriarchal domination.
The fantasy of 'romance' plays a huge role in women's lives. Throughout time, corporate consumer culture has taught women to believe in a specific happy ending. It comes from fulfilling the fantasy of pleasing a man by taking the role of a domestic housewife. Chick flicks, soap operas and romance novels all contribute to the up-keep of this role or fantasy. Women have been pressured to fulfill this ideology and if it is unachieved they are "less of a women". Advertising companies are aware that women want to attain this fantasy and know women are easy targets. Companies purposely embed romance in their advertisements to remind women of their place in the home and that they must purchase the products that supposedly make their "ideal romantic fantasies" easier to attain. The technique of using romance to put women 'in their place' is incorporated in the ads in terms of sexuality, race, age, ability, and gender, and has successfully created an ideal woman in a patriarchal society for all women to uphold to.
Works Cited
Hollows, Joanne. Feminism, femininity and popular culture. Manchester: Manchester University
Press, 2000. Print.
Jimmy Ming Shum: "New York Canon Camera Advertistment". Blogger.com. 16 Sept 2010.
Web. 8 Nov 2011. <http://jimmymingshum.blogspot.com/>. Web.
"My Tide Detergent TV Commercial - Hoodies & Cargo Shorts (Long Version)." YouTube.com.
YouTube, 7 Sept 2011. Web. 7 Nov 2011.
"Spot Lavadora Whirpool." YouTube.com. YouTube, 19 Jan 2009. Web. 2 Nov 2011.
“Stephanie Steams Swiffer Commercial”. YouTube.com YouTube.com, 1 Aprial 2007. Web. Nov 2011.
UNPAC. "Women & The Economy." March 2003. Women & The Economy: A Project of UNPAC. 13 November 2011 <http://www.unpac.ca/economy/consumers.html>. Web.
Where's My Jetpack?: "Furniture Ad Stimulates Lingerie Sales". Blogger.com. 12 Feb 2008.
Web. 11 Nov 2011. http://wheresmyjetpack.blogspot.com/2008/02/furnture-ad-stimulates-lingerie-sales.html
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