Charlie Walker (xxxxx) Claremont Fan Court School 64680 June 2015
B321 Individual Media Studies Portfolio: Comparative
Assignment
A comparison of how women are represented in fragrance
advertisements from 1930s, 1960s and 2010s
Vega (1936, launched in USA)
Unlike other adverts who make women seem
defenceless and powerless yet pretty and seductive, an advert almost 100 years
old can prove that you can make a feminine figure who also seems powerful and
authoritative. She can appear this powerful figure whilst also keeping little
touches of femininity, like the red lipstick.
She's positioned highly, dominating the
entire image with her presence. She has her hair tied back, looking as if she
is in control of herself and not loose or careless; she appears a taut woman.
The colour red is a strong, vibrant colour, and is often used to emphasis a
symbol of importance and/or power, see the Red Army, the Red Cross, the Chinese
flag, and the main colour pallet for 1984. It's a powerful colour, and here
it's used to empower the subject of the image: the woman. She's not flimsy or
objectified, she has power and dominance. She's not just dominant over the
image, she's dominant over herself. She doesn't succumb to societal pressure to
be 'pretty' or 'hot', she's her own woman. She is independent. She has power.
I elaborated upon the idea that she is a powerful woman, but she is not an entirely masculine figure, as she still keeps touches of femininity, like her lipstick. This shows that a woman can be powerful and headstrong, but she can also be a woman, as power isn't synonymous with masculinity either. This is breaking the historical societal code that 'Men are men and women are women', in which men are the labourers, the founders and the pioneers, and women were merely an object to them, like a trophy or an achievement. This shows that a woman can possess all of the aforementioned traits, yet still be beautiful and seductive and all the other traits of the average woman. Yes, it is possible to be both, yet most advertisement, film and video games think combining these two characteristics is impossible.
The use of contrasting colours in
important. There's contrast in the colours in the crown behind her head (black
and white), but there's also the duality in the colours on her face. It could
symbolise the contradiction in her character; she possesses traditional female
qualities (the red lipstick and the plucked eyebrows) whilst being the
aforementioned powerful figure. The colours and shades are sharp and precise, which
could mirror the characters mannerisms.
As I said as the start, this isn’t like
other adverts at the time, as the represents the woman in an independent and .
The best a woman could be was ‘a beautiful little fool’, but the 20s saw a
prevalence in female independence. There were suffragettes over in England that
got the right to vote; thusly women were becoming the free-thinking human
beings that they should be. This advert supports female independence, as there
was a searing lack of it just a decade prior.
Centaur (launched 1967)
The representation of the woman in Centaur is highly sexualized; by evoking Roman mythology it works counter to feminist values of its time. Where the 60's was a decade of liberal progression and feminism, Centaur counters this with traditional values and history, for better or worse.
Sexuality is a strong theme in
this advert, and how sexual attraction can be manipulated by a product. I don’t
want to be mean-spirited or shallow, but this man is conventionally unattractive. The woman is conventionally attractive. Mainstream society follows these
conventions, and perfume adverts are geared toward mainstream society. The man
is a blank slate on which middle-class men onto which can project themselves. By contrast, the
woman is represented as a sexual object. It is not because she is being pressured into being scantily dressed, which is usually the case, but it is because they wore togas in that culture, and that's just how women looked. Its historical and cultural context is more of a 'Get out of Jail Free' card to do whatever they want, rather than for effect.
The woman is scantily-dressed represented as frivolous. In the advertisement, she has no other desire than to serve the man. Today, this would have been viewed as incredibly sexist, which it is, but it can be exempt from all of these criticisms due to its cultural context. However, it is important to note that historical context of the scantily dressed female doesn't justify sexism, it just explains it. I am rather sure that those who were in charge of producing this advert would name it sexist on reflection, because it is overtly and aggressively sexist. Centaur is representing this woman as if her only purpose is to serve the man, physically and emotionally. She is physically serving the male by applying the massage oil, and is emotionally satisfying the male my dressing provocatively, which we can safely assume is what the male prefers. Intelligent human beings will tell you that the woman's place isn't to serve men, but Centaur disagrees; it's almost as if Centaur is being wilfully ignorant in order to sell.
The thing about Centaur is that it borrows from Greek Mythology. A Centaur was a mythological creature which has a half-man, half-horse anatomy. Centaurs were ruthless, merciless beings, so is this advertisement enforcing that? Is this advert encouraging the target audience to become so brutish you become beyond human? Well, maybe not that extreme, but the advert certainly is implying the gain of alpha male characteristics after application of Centaur.
The One (Dolce and Gabbana, launched 2011)
The video (above) is more about what she says and less about what is
presented on screen. There are no extravagant and expensive set-pieces, it's
all about the likeability and relatability of the main woman of this advert. The representation of Scarlett Johansson is not of glamour of extravagance, but of relatability and down-to-earthiness.
In front of her face is a light meter, there to improve the white balance of the photo. It's there to improve her appearance on
screen in some way or another. What's notable is her complete lack of interest
in such things. They can throw whatever volume of make-up they want on her
and it would still make little difference to who she really is. She can still
talk and be charming and humanly, but she doesn't need any of this technical
nonsense to do so. She's still the same person, even without looking like a polished
mannequin.
In this still image, the lighting is set up so she looks like a superior
being; one that sticks her head above the crowd with confidence. She's framed
as a beautiful woman, obviously, but this is after she's given a witty
monologue and been incredibly down-to-earth, considering how big a celebrity
she is. This screenshot is Scarlett Johansson in celebrity form: beautiful,
posing and well-lit. In real-life, you can't be posing and well-lit all the
time, and we've seen her be a normal person without such things. It jarringly
transitions from relatable, likeable and normal Scarlett Johansson, to
beautiful, elegant and model Scarlett Johansson within seconds. She can pull off
the high-wire act of being both simultaneously. But how?
Of course, with Dolce and Gabbana's anti-bacteria-smelling fluid in a
fancy glass, you can become as fantastic and perfect as Scarlett Johansson within seconds. Right before this, she says 'I'm not looking for a million
things, just that one perfect thing: love', and just as she says 'love', she
puts the perfume on the table. Is this also implying that the aforementioned
anti-bacteria-smelling fluid in a fancy glass will bring you love as well? Is
the anti-bacteria-smelling fluid in a fancy glass the 'one perfect thing' or
will it bring you that 'one perfect thing' somehow? The truth is, Scarlett Johansson was a good actress years before this perfume came out, so has this
perfume increased her ability to do anything in whatever regard? I'm going to
say no on this one, but you have the right to spend your money on whatever you
like, be it coloured wax in a fancy tube, petrolatum and lanolin in a fancy
container, or of course, anti-bacteria-smelling fluid in a fancy glass.
To quote Jean Kilbourne, 'Ads sell more than products. They sell values, they sell images, they sell concepts of love and sexuality, of success and perhaps most important – normalcy. To a great extent they tell us who we are and who we should be.' Vega says that women can be beautiful and powerful, Centaur says that woman only live to serve men, and The One says that you can, nay, you should be impossibly-beautiful but also intelligent and emotionally stable. By understanding more about advertising we understand more about society, culture, the people that surround us, but most importantly, ourselves. By analysing these three adverts, we can learn about how women are treated and represented by the mainstream media, which, sufficed to say, isn't positive in the slightest.
To quote Jean Kilbourne, 'Ads sell more than products. They sell values, they sell images, they sell concepts of love and sexuality, of success and perhaps most important – normalcy. To a great extent they tell us who we are and who we should be.' Vega says that women can be beautiful and powerful, Centaur says that woman only live to serve men, and The One says that you can, nay, you should be impossibly-beautiful but also intelligent and emotionally stable. By understanding more about advertising we understand more about society, culture, the people that surround us, but most importantly, ourselves. By analysing these three adverts, we can learn about how women are treated and represented by the mainstream media, which, sufficed to say, isn't positive in the slightest.
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