Media Analysis essay

Media Analysis essay

Introduction

The advertisement is about a beer brand that aims to popularize its products. The company decided to use two white people, a woman and a man for the advertisement. This means the target consumers were the white people at that time. The lady is skimpily dressed as she exposes her breasts partially while the man is fully clothed and is seen staring at the lady keenly. The lady in the advert looks neat and beautiful. Both people have a glass of beer each. The advertisement brings a new idea that women also can drink, and the company increases its sales by encouraging more women to venture into beverage use. The caption is also suggestive as it reads, “I never even thought of burning my bra until I discovered Smirnoff.” This suggests that when women get into drinking, it makes them not wear the bra’s, which is demonstrated by the woman in the advertisement not wearing one. Its intended meaning is that women can do without bras and show off their bodies. The lower caption reads, “Anything is possible when you learn how to handle Smirnoff.” This caption encourages people to drink the beer, and once they are in control of it, nothing will be impossible to work out. There are several bottles of beer on the table. The target consumers are middle-aged people who can afford these drinks. The consumers will have the mentality of getting pretty women after they purchase the products, and that they will be able to control things if they can make the beer their ally. In this essay, I will argue that mainstream media, through advertisements, constructs, normalizes, and commodifies identities through representation.

The advertisement is a social construct that encourages women to drink beer. It is an idea to increase the sales of the company to a broader market. In this advertisement, gender identity has been achieved to reach out to both men and women. This has become part of the modern-day lifestyle as both men and women need pleasure, therefore, allowing women to take beer(Jhally and O’Barr 329). Gender identity has, consequently, been used as a commodity to justify women to venture into alcohol taking. This has come with numerous effects on them, such as miscarriages, rape in the clubs, and also addiction leading to disorderliness.

Sexuality has been achieved in the advertisement whereby the woman exposes her body and therefore arouses the opposite sex. The art of partially exposing a person’s body has been normalized in the adverts through the act of linking people and products(Jhally and O’Barr 329). Women like gifts, and in the advertisement, a woman is seen drinking the Smirnoff beer, meaning that that is what she is attracted to. When one gets the goods, women will be attracted to you. Sexuality has been commodified in advertisements by letting women take up leadership positions as they also have large followings owing to the inequality that has been practiced against them in the past. The incorporation of sexuality in the advertisement has effects since it promotes immorality amongst people. This is whereby women are linked to material things and are treated as sexual objects.

Body politics is also an identity that is clear in the advertisement. The company used a beautiful woman from her skin and her body shape. This is an idea of how a beautiful person should look like. This has been normalized even in the media stations, whereby the staff is beautiful and slim people. This has been linked with many opportunities, especially to women(Jhally and O’Barr 330). The belief that a good body comes with great opportunities; thus, many people have been in pursuit of beauty (Jhally and O’Barr 329). This is evident from how women risk their lives attempting breast surgery in an attempt to restore their beauty and other forms of plastic surgeries. In the 19^th century, beauty was believed to arise from internal qualities that have changed presently(Gill, 434). Women are described by their physical attributes, which has been accepted as the norm and motivates more women to pursue beauty. Body politics has been commodified and incorporated into the advertising field, as evident in the advertisement. The effects of this representation are that it may bring about discrimination as women without specific physical attributes may be left out, leading to depression.

Age has been used as an identity whereby both persons seem to be young adults with the man being older than the woman from the visual appearance. This creates a picture of who the target group is. It communicates about the age of people who should be allowed to take a beer. It has become the norm when one attains the legal age they can do what pleases with their lives. They have freedom, and that is where many girls prefer the easier way out. Young girls are seen hanging out with older men to receive gifts and other favors. The use of the age identity favors the sale of the commodities as the advertisers will draw the attention of the consumers who will, in turn, but the products.

Conclusion

Mainstream media has been used to spread identities all over the world. The advertisements target a specific consumer group and may be received with mixed reactions by the public, especially by feminists. This is because the media has found a way of linking people with objects and thus may exploit one sex in terms of marketing its products.

Works Cited

Gill, Rosalind. “Postfeminist media culture.” European Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 10, no. 2, 2007.

Jhally, Sut, and William M. O’Barr. “Interview with Sut Jhally.” Advertising & Society Review, vol. 3, no. 2, 2002.

Rice, Carla. “CHAPTER 5. Between Body and Culture: Beauty, Ability, and Growing Up Female.” Gender, Race, and Nation, 2002.