AD age :women Representation in advertising /published : september 15, 2003

In 1975, a new agency, Advertising to Women, was founded. Its intent was to reach the contemporary, confident, career-oriented woman who was not inhibited by her sexuality. Market research conducted by the agency showed that women were responsible for most household purchases, 60% of all vacation destination choices and nearly 30% of new car selections.

Plan for essay


FIRST PART   
- Write about the representation of Women as a whole and perhaps the common portrayal of women in the media. As well as explaining the concept of representation.
- Go in to more depth and find the common representations of women in advertisements and perhaps link some theories/theorists in this part.
-introduce my main texts and some background information on them i.e. dates,critical reviews ,what they present etc...


MAIN PART OF THE ESSAY    
-Begin the main analysis of my two texts explaining my decision to look at them in detail
-Use the sources i have collected i.e. the 'Gender trouble' book by Judith Butler as well as look into online articles ,including parts of these sources to emphasise certain points i make.
-Explore in depth what is happening in the texts so looking at the way they have been filmed, camera angles, audio codes , visual codes etc...i will be analysing closely the language in the texts and marking the differences and similarities between the conversations within them and perhaps specific lexical choices made.
-Throughout this main part of my essay , each difference/similarity i come across i will relate it back to my question 'In what ways has the representation of women changed since the 1960's'.
-explore the response given towards each text and see why they received either positive/negative feedback from the general public.
- look at the how representation has changed since the 1960's..specific campaigns /movements that were taken as time progressed.

CONCLUSION  
-For the last part of the essay i will explain whether or not i proved my original thesis /what i found out in my investigation.
- Write a summary of my findings and hopefully be able to give an answer to my question and why.

Judith Butler (1990). Gender Trouble. Michigan: Routledge. p9-33. 

'One point of "Gender Trouble" was 'not to prescribe a new gendered way of life, but to open of the field of possibility for gender.'

DRAFT

 My area of study is Gender representation in advertisements. I will mainly be looking at how women are constructed within them and see if they portray any sexist views , for example in the sixties once married the rules for women were simply to quit their job and have babies since the men did not like the idea of women earning money. I  will be comparing and contrasting a coffee advert from the 60's with a more modern coffee advert. I will be researching from books such as 'Feminist Media studies ' by Liesbet Van Zoonen and 'Gender trouble' by Judith Butler . I am hoping to prove from this investigation that the style of adverts has changed in the sense of there now being a more positive representation of women in the media.


Representation is the way in which the media presents certain images,stories etc and despite their realistic nature they are always  a construction meaning  what is presented to us on tv,newspapers,magazines,online etc.. is never fully the truth. Throughout time there has been quite a narrow representation of women in the media whether thats being depicted as a housewife or simply having a passive role in i.e. a film or tv show. They have also often been shown as sexualised objects merely there for the entertainment of the male audience. i.e. the male gaze which is the depiction of women from a masculine point of view . The introduction of this concept can  be traced back to Laura mulvey who suggested that in film women were typically the objects rather than the possessors of the gaze via the control of the camera. With advertising it is only since the mid 20th century that women have been chosen to portray more elaborate roles other than the purchaser of domestic products. However it has been quite a common thing to have an object be marketed or advertised via the sexualising of a female protagonist i.e. the sketchers advert in 2011 featuring Kim Kardashian or the Soda stream commercial of 2014 where the product  is supposedly enhanced or made to go viral via the sexual appeal of the protagonist Scarlett Johanson

The first text i am analysing is one of Folgers coffee advertisements in which we see the common housewife making a coffee for her husband who is displeased with the coffee leaving the wife upset and as a result spend all her day finding a solution in order to satisfy her husband. This is a very common representation of women in that era depicting how their life was mainly at home as well as showing this constant need to gain affirmation from their spouse. However almost 50 years ago this was the strategic device used in america : guilting women into buying the products form this specific brand in order to please their husbands and is a strategy that worked.  The ideology behind this ad is one where today would be beyond inappropriate due to the sexism involved but during this time there were a large number of ads with similar themes. The second text i am analysing is a Maxwell house coffee commercial form 2015 in which it displays a teacher in her classroom doing a variety of tasks all whilst drinking the coffee. The commercial itself initiates with her stating ' i had a mission' this solely shows a contrast with the folders ad as it portrays a goal an aim which in the folders ad is to please her husband but here is to accomplish a full days work at her school. The lexical choice 'mission' also strikes out as its quite a powerful word with connotations of battle even which is something that was very unconventional for women to be associated with.

Liesbet van Zoonen (1994). Feminist Media Studies. Amsterdam: Sage publications. p1-2.
(change page numbers)

'Feminists have long recognized the significance of the media as a site for the expression of - or challenges to - existing constructions of gender. In this broad-ranging analysis, Liesbet van Zoonen explores the ways in which feminist theory and research contribute to the fuller understanding of the multiple roles of the media in the construction of gender in contemporary societies.'

David Gauntlet (2002). Media,Gender and Identity. 2nd ed. London: Routledge. p46-98.

• Chapter on Representation of Gender in the past
• Chapter of representation of gender today

In what ways has the representation of women in TV advertisements changed since the 1960's ?