What happens when advertisers push the limits

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What happens when advertisers push the limits?

• Sexuality In The Media
• The pornography debate

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So what is pornography?

• The explicit depiction or exhibition of sexual
  activity in literature, films or photography that
  is intended to stimulate erotic rather than
  aesthetic or emotional feelings

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Canadian Advertising Foundation's Guidelines
Relating to Pornography

• The following are excerpts from the Canadian
  Advertising Foundation Gender Portrayal
  Guidelines relating to pornography.
• Sexuality
• Advertising should avoid the inappropriate use
  or exploitation of sexuality of both women and
  men.
• Advertising must avoid the exploitation of
  nudity and the irrelevant segmentation of body
  parts.
• Boys and girls under 16 must not be portrayed as
  displaying adult sexual characteristics.
• Adult women must not be portrayed as girls or
  with childlike characteristics while maintaining
  adult sexual characteristics.Social and sexual
  interactions must portray women and men as equals
  and must not reinforce stereotypes, such as male
  dominant/female submissive.

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Contd

• Using or displaying a woman's sexuality in order
  to sell a product that has no relation to
  sexuality is, by definition, sexually
  exploitative.
• Advertising must not portray sexual harassment
  as acceptable or normal, and should avoid
  representing women as prey or objects of
  uncontrolled desire.
• Violence
• Neither gender should be portrayed as exerting
  domination over the other by means of overt or
  implied threats, or actual force.

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Given the previous definitions, can these
advertisements be labeled pornographic? You be
the judge
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Skyy Vodka

• In this ad, there is a clear indication of male
  dominance.
• one message could be that the man is going to get
  the female drunk and take advantage of the
  situation

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• How could you not understand the blatant
  sexuality behind these explicit images!?!? Is
  this pornographic?

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Mercedes Benz even this lucrative corporation
used sexual imagery in their ads

• Why do they feel that they need to use sex to
  sell their cars?

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Sometimes in ads women will be grouped into
categories

• This ad can be an example of the woman as
  stripper category. Many times women are shown
  half naked or undressing for the camera. This
  can send the message that most women enjoy
  performing for others in a sexual manner. Notice
  the body of the model the average female would
  not possess this body (check out her rib cage!).

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Men are also shown as sexual objects in many ads
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This highlights the woman as male fantasy
object category. Again, note her unattainable
body type.
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Who is in control is these images?
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Woman as highly sexual
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Abercrombie and Fitch 2003 Controversy yet
still relevant to todays advertising!

• Abercrombie is no stranger to selling sexy images
  to schoolchildren. In 2003, it promoted thong
  underwear in girl's sizes with the words "eye
  candy" printed on them. There were many campaigns
  to stop the company's sexually explicit marketing
  tactics. Dads Daughters, a non-profit group
  based in Minnesota, launched an e-mail drive to
  shame Abercrombie's directors into opposing the
  company's ad strategy.
• Abercrombie did not back down despite negative
  publicity. When Christian groups launched a
  protest against the "eye candy" thong, the
  company refused to pull the product. Abercrombie
  spokesman Hampton Carney insists the thong was
  "totally appropriate" for children.

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This is a photo from the AF Christmas guide that
they removed from circulation due to its sexual
nature. In the catalogue there was no black band
covering the breasts of the girls, they were
naked.
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• Though AF eventually pulled the 2003 Christmas
  Field Guide from its stores, concerns linger
  regarding the sensibilities of such marketing
  campaigns. Clearly, the images from the
  Abercrombie Fitch catalog illustrate the
  pressing issues confronting the negativity of
  popular culture. One important lesson is that
  advertisers are now objectifying and dehumanizing
  both men and women (and boys and girls) in their
  campaigns.

What message does this send to young teenagers?
That it is ok to dominate a female? Notice where
the guys hands are in the first adhe is grabbing
her hair and pulling her head backand she shown
to be enjoying it!
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Some more ads..

• When men dominate, the result is both natural and
  sexy
• Women enjoy being dominated by men
• Women are subordinate to men they are in control

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Calvin Klein (mens underwear)

• Does this ad appeal to men buying underwear???
• Clearly, men are used as sexual objects in ads

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• Historically, the trend in advertising has been
  to eroticize women more often than men. However,
  in recent years we have begun to see men
  portrayed in a similar manner, though you are
  still more likely to see women as the sexual
  objects.
• In this ad, the female is clearly dominating the
  male

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Look at the following ads for the same company
and product (the bag!) . Note the differences
between the portrayal of men versus women
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Again, the ad for mens jeans
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And the ad for womens jeans

• This ad shows the woman in a much more sexual
  manner that way she is posing, her lack of
  clothing (her shirt is pulled up to her chest),
  and the setting of the picture (the imagery of
  the back seat of a car in a field). Message?????
  Gee, I wonder

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MILK

• Two very different impressions of the same
  product! The woman be sexualized in order to
  sell/promote milkclearly, milk is now sexy?!?!