essay

Has the feminist movement influenced the portrayal of women in billboard advertising?

The Feminist movement began in the Western world in the late 18^th century and has dealt with different aspects of feminist issues.  Women through the ages have campaigned on various issues such as divorce, the right to vote, the right to work, equal pay and for a seat in parliament to name a few.  There are three waves to the feminist movement, each dealing with different aspects the first wave concerned the suffragettes working conditions and the educational rights for women, the second wave consists of the inequalities of the law and the role of women in society the third wave is a continuation of the second wave and a response to the perceived failures. To this day women are still fighting for rights to changes that they believe will make their life better.

  

Feminism is apparent through the creative industry.  Female artists and designers have brought these issues into their own work.  One such artist I am going to talk about is Barbara Kruger.

Barbara Kruger was born on January 26^th 1945.  She was a graphic designer and worked for famous magazine publishers. Her trademark images are culled from magazines which she then changes and adds text.  The images are in black and white to which she adds  a red banner with white text, which questions the viewer about feminism. She uses a red banner to make the words stand out from the image. She is a strong woman as she is not afraid to speak her mind and does this through her work.

  This montage by the feminist artist Barbara Kruger was originally used in a Washington DC march advocating a pro-choice position and reproductive rights for women. This montage was a way of Kruger voicing her opinion for the rights of women it is to do with power, culture and stereotyping. The image shows a negative and a positive side to show positive and negative points concerning women’s bodies. It causes the viewer to question themselves.  The male gaze is stereotyping in advertising, to men women are seen as an object, buy the product get the girl, they are seen as something that can be bought and sold.  To a woman its buy the product be like the model and get your dream man.

Women’s bodies can be seen as a battleground in more than one way it is seen that the gaze from men is able to gain control over the bodies of women, which creates a force of push-pull battlefield.

Men see women lingerie advertisements as sexy and very revealing and think of the model as the perfect person for them. In my opinion women see the false image and would be quite angry at the fact that they are not using a real woman.  All women are different shapes and sizes and no woman should be made to be perfect.  Men should be seeing inner beauty rather than outer beauty because some women may not be perfect on the outside but they show their beauty from the inside through their personality. 

Billboard advertising is powerful; advertising is all around us and always manages to catch people’s attention. The main purpose of advertising is to draw people in to buy the product.   Advertising the products on a billboard draws attention regardless whether it is good attention or bad. Whilst doing my research on this topic I have found that within billboard advertising there are feminist elements.

I Dreamed Campaign 1976.

  This is one of the Maidenform bra ads for the “ I Dreamed Campaign”. This campaign was one of the first lingerie advertisements.

This image shows a woman going to work wearing just a bra, women wouldn’t actually go to work just wearing a bra they would wear a blouse or shirt over it.

In my opinion this image comes across as false because it has been created to portray to the public the image of a perfect woman. The advertisement portrays a working woman feeling comfortable wearing this bra whilst she is busy at work.

 

To this day the advertisers are still looking for a beautiful and sexy woman to advertise their product, they see this as more important than anything else.

In the 1990s a ground breaking advertisement showing “Marky Mark grabbing his crotch, bare – chested Kate Moss letting us peek at her Calvin Klein waistband, and “Hello boys” wonderbra’s Eva Herzingova chatting with her uplifted breasts”.  (Reichert page 169)This is where lingerie advertising became revealing. 

Instead of illustrative drawings of the bra on a woman the advertisements became real and flesh revealing. If they were revealing in the 1990s why should we take a step back now and hide these types of advertisements. 

In June 2011 the Department for Education published, “Letting Children be Children”. This was an independent report by Reg Bailey looking at the commercialisation and the sexualisation of childhood.  In the report he urges the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) to reduce the amount of outdoor advertising that contains sexualised imagery.  This investigation came about as it had been reported that billboards featuring nearly nude models in poses were used outside schools and nurseries. These advertisements have now been banned within 100 yards of schools and nurseries to protect children, is this a good call.  I feel these adverts shouldn’t be banned as primary school children are not looking at the ads the adverts are there to be seen by the parents. I feel  that people should get in touch with today’s society and accept that things change within today’s modern world, I feel they need to look more into what the image is advertising and not what is actually being displayed in the advertisement.

 

“Hello boys” Wonderbra ad.

A business writer Robin Kamen made the observation in 1994 that “underwear is busting out all over… Corsets for women and skin-tight skivvies for men nearly pushed the clothing off the runways at the latest fashion show in New York. Advertisements for men’s boxer shorts pop out from hundreds of billboards; guys are dropping their trousers on the side of city bus shelters.” (Reichert  page 169)

Underwear advertising came into its own in the 1990s it became more intimate and also became a fashion statement.   If these advertisements were allowed to be shown in the 1990s why should we take a step back and hide these adverts.

Sex has been utilised in advertising for many centuries.  Sex sells and advertisers use sexy imagery in the hope that some of the sexiness rubs off on their brand and the consumers subconsciously take in this information. In advertising they use sex appeal to draw interest to particular products for the purpose of sale. Too much flesh used to try and sell unrelated products does not sell the product to women, it will be seen as offensive.  In certain religious countries women are not allowed to show any parts of their body uncovered, in these countries advertisers will have to be careful where and how to use sex in advertising.  Advertisers also have to be aware of what text they use in their adverts as not all advertisements are approved and allowed to be shown.

 

This image on a bus shelter is quite in your face.  The advertiser has concentrated on the breast area of the body, I find this quite intimidating because I feel the advertisement is being pushed in your face rather than being able to look at it from a distance. If a close up shot is being used maybe they should think of shooting the picture from different angles, a side view would have been less intimidating.  

Would the public’s views be different if it was a larger woman or someone who is of a medium size on the advertisement? However I like the fact that lingerie advertising causes quite a few debates.

Teenage girls see these types of advertisements as being something to look up to, to be the perfect shape, size and to have perfect skin.  Young teenagers feel that they have to be the right size, they study advertisements as how they want to look and act. This puts young girls under pressure as they are still developing into young women, their body shapes are altering al the time.  The pressure young girls face by looking at these advertisements has resulted in some young people to have body-enhancing surgery at a young age.  These advertisements can also cause a range of health issues for example, mental health issues and anorexia.  In my opinion teenagers should be made aware that the images are not true but may have been airbrushed to look perfect.  Education also plays a part in helping these young girls as they should be taught that their bodies develop as they grow older.

The feminist movement in my opinion does affect the portrayal of billboard advertising.  The advertisements always show a perfect woman, this portrays the feminist views from the advertising agencies who design the 48 sheets for the billboards.   These images can make some women angry because they are not showing women as they really are.  When you meet women in real life you see their true personality and whether they are happy with themselves, from looking at the women who look so perfect on the advertisements you cannot see their real personality because the image is fake.  Not all women are happy to look at adverts, which contain women in sexual poses; they can feel intimidated by them.  Some women will be looking at the images and seeing it from a man’s perspective but some women will see through the image and be able to see what the advertisers are trying to sell.

Further studies and research are needed in the area of putting lingerie advertisements in the vicinity of schools and whether they do have an impact on the child.  Will children at this young remember what they are seeing in five minutes time when they are playing in the playground.  If studies came back would it show that children do not take much notice of the advertisements but it is the parents that are offended because they are trying to protect their children from seeing these images. 

Are these images created by women or men? There is no real way of finding out unless you are working in the advertising studio when the advertisement is completed. Women advertisers may get these types of briefs that they are not altogether happy to work on but when you are working for a design studio you cannot pick and choose your briefs, you have to work with what you get. A way to get round this would be to research the positive things surrounding the advertisement and focus on this.

In my opinion Barbara Kruger expresses her feelings in her art work.  Her work at magazine studios would have consisted of air brushing images to make them picture perfect but she has gone against this and used these perfect images to create her own art work of the true nature of the image.