Advertising and Gender

Advertising and Gender

Jordache Jeans Commercial

Advertisement and gender refer to the pictures and images in advertising that depict stereotypical roles display and roles according to gender. Displays on gender are highly used in the advertisement to demonstrate the roles of one gender, male in relation to the other, female, and it is argued that advertising companies are obsessed with gender (Zotos & Grau, 2016). Since people define themselves by their gender, advertising companies focus on gender relations because gender makes communication at a glance. This enables advertisers to efficiently use the theme of gender in their activities. The impact of advertisements on body images has been researched by different scholars from a variety of fields such as psychologists and market professionals (Bartholomew, 2018). Due to their contribution, today, we understand the relationship between media and body images is a mutual one. Specifically, the body image-related advertising portrays affects our image too. What media does has a significant effect on the people. The reason being most pf the advertisements bring messages of beauty and physical attractiveness. Examples include cosmetics, a commercial for clothes, physical fitness, etc. This brings in the Jordache Jeans Commercial, which can be described as ‘commercial for clothes,’ a fashion company that manufactures jeans and other outwear into the view. In this paper, I will critically analyze how advertising, gender, and lifestyle are produced, packaged, and sold in relation to Jordache Jeans Commercial.

Advertisement is an essential agent of socialization in our modern societies, and there is used as an instrument to maintain particular social constructions such as gender (Matthes et al., 2016). In Jordache Jeans Commercial, women and men are depicted as having different behavior, social status, and attitudes.  These differing is what classifies sexes into different genders. Advertisement gives the people a view into a world laden with constructed and socially defined gender displays, relation, and roles. Many of these images are edited, or photoshopped to mimic real life, and many viewers mistake the fantasy concept and reality with regards to advertising. Goffman Ervin called it “commercial realism,” whereby advertising companies attempt to present the advertisement world in forms to make it look real.

Jordache Jeans advertisements are made in such a way as to teach people about social cues and make an impact on the population. Many gender relations can be learned from these advertisements. Among the gender roles learned are masculinity and femininity. Males and Females are presented in advertising according to constructed masculinity and femininity (Zawisza, 2019). There is a tiny room for reversal or variation of roles since it is believed to be a man is to be masculine and vice versa.

Masculinity in Jordache Jeans Commercial portrays men in different ways. One is that men are presented as alert and conscious of their surroundings. This gives the traditional culture of being in control over their surroundings. They grip things tightly in their hands, express a mean face and seriousness. This gives the impression that man is power as it has been perceived for a long time. Their bodies are physically fit and active; they stand upright, and sometimes their hands are pocketed with eyes open and focused. This depicts them as being in command over their surroundings. These traits portrayed by the advertisement are in line with what a man is believed to be, at least, by the cultural society. A man should be brave, adventurous, being able to think critically, robust, active, and effective in his activities. Another media images to support this behavior, just to mention, is “silent Marlboro man and military ads telling young men to be all they can be” by Femiano and Nickerson (2011). Jordache Jeans commercial is attempting to suggest that men should endorse traditional and cultural masculinity in their real lives.

This idea of embracing traditional masculinity has seen many men become customers of the Jordache Jeans and other products from the firm. The reason is that the advertisements make them envy or want to be like the men wearing jeans in the advert. The traits and the personalities portrayed in the advertising images, though most of them are edited, make men think that they can possess similar characteristics. This makes them want to be associated with the brand that values these traits, thus becoming loyal customers to Jordache Jeans company products. The way the company advertises and packs their products determines the number of items they sell and enable them to remain relevant to the public.

Jordache Jeans commercial has also portrayed femininity in advertising. This has dramatically improved its sale on feminine products. Contrary to how masculinity was portrayed, women are presented with closed eyes, sexy and seductive. Sometimes they are sitting on a chair, bed, or lying on the floor caressing an object or touching self. In some instances, they look fragile and are holding on to a man for support. These traits which the Jordache Jeans commercial portray have driven many ladies crazy in pursuance of them. Every lady wants to be sexy and seductive, like the body images they see in the company’s advertisement. The company’s sale of feminine products has enormously increased in the recent past (Bartholomew, 2016). This can be attributed to the company’s effort to give the ladies an impression of what a perfect lady should be like – like the body images in the advertisement.

The positions above, as depicted by Jordache Jeans commercial, show powerlessness and submissiveness of the ladies. This can be seen clearly in the instances when a lady is holding a man for support, showing that ladies depend on men for support. Females are urged to focus on sex appeal and beauty as their male counterparts are perceived to focus on the significant roles. The body, and mostly the female body, is inevitably controlled by norms, social norms. This is further emphasized by the commodification of the body by firms such as fashion, like the Jordache Jeans, and beauty that exhibit femininity. The construction of these female body images on the advertisements is openly ‘prepared for consumption’ by men. This reveals the inescapable gender-power relation about the body and strengthens the cultural ambivalence concerning sexualized body image and display management. According to Malson and Swann (1987), it both denigrates and idealizes people’s explicitly worked effort to portray and produce bodies that conform to ideals of the society.

Erving Goffman, in his book, ‘Gender Advertising,’ he states that “If gender is defined as the culturally established correlates of sex (whether in consequence of biology or learning), then gender display refers to conventionalized portrayals of those correlates.” Displays on gender on gender can also be defined as rituals of gender behavior and are used in the interpretation of social reality. This is what Jordache Jeans commercial and other advertisement borrow and the reason why adverts are not strange looking to the public.

The effects of the advertisements, such as Jordache Jeans commercial has made beauty to be mainly defined as a perception. Beauty is a group of social norms, interpreting a specific form of body appearance that is valued (Zotos & Grau, 2016). Men and women have attempted to attain this beauty, which gives them the influence to shape and make an alteration to their appearance to align with those norms. The norms are mostly gotten from the media portrayal of models through advertising of commodities and magazine covers. The society today is filled with these adverts displayed with the product in social media.

In society today, it is a common phenomenon to see young men and women compare themselves to models in advertisements, the attractiveness. This body size and appearance of models in advertisements seen by viewers are edited using programs like Photoshop to achieve the desired perfect look, which is impossible in real life. The editing creates a false beauty for women and men to aspire to (Zawisza, 2019). The idea of perfect body appearance has been taken as being psychologically detrimental to the self-image of young men and women. This is what has been stolen by companies like Jordache Jeans in their advertisements. The young men and women flock to their stores to get a product that can bring them closer to the perfect model from the advertisement.

In conclusion, advertising and gender are two intertwined terms that are inseparable. For an advert to be appealing to viewers, the gender roles must be played in accordance with the societal and cultural requirements.

References

Bartholomew, M. (2018). The law of advertising outrage. Advertising & Society Quarterly, 19(3).

Matthes, J., Prieler, M., & Adam, K. (2016). Gender-role portrayals in television advertising across the globe. Sex Roles, 75(7-8), 314-327.

Zawisza-Riley, M. (2019). Advertising, Gender, and Society: A Psychological Perspective. Routledge.

Zotos, Y. C. & Grau, S. L. (2016). Gender stereotypes in advertising: exploring new directions. International Journal of Advertising, 35(5), 759-760.