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广告已成为资本主义社会营销的一个组成部分。随着市场营销学发展如此之快，近年来有关广告图像和语言的谈论有很多。本文将对广告和广告图像在现代资本主义社会中的作用做一个综合研究。
首先，本文会对广告，广告图像和广告性别做一个简单的概述。然后，本文将键入有关广告及广告形象理论。其次，对现代资本主义社会中的营销意义及结果，广告是如何在现代资本主义社会所需的经济，政治，和文化中形成和回应的这样一个辩论分析。最后，本文还将提出对广告图像设计提出相关建议来创造一个没有性别刻板印象的健康社会。
1. Introduction 介绍
Advertising has become an integral part of the capitalist society marketing. Ads images and language have been talked about a lot in recent years as the marketing society subject develops so fast. This essay will present a comprehensive study of the role the advertising and advertising images play in modern capitalist societies.
Firstly, this essay will make a general overview of advertising, advertising images and advertising gender. Following this, the essay will key theories about advertising and advertising images. Subsequently it will provide the critical analysis of the significance and consequences of marketing within modern capitalist society, and how advertising shapes and responds to the economic, political and cultural needs of modern capitalist societies. Finally, it will put forward some recommendation for the ads imaged designing so as to build a healthy society with no gender stereotypes.
2. General overview of advertising, advertising images and gender 对广告，广告形象和性别的总体概述
Advertising is a major tool in modern marketing. It will bring a brand many potential customers and lead the current consumers to return to the brand in order to get something represented by the brand images-grasping, tender, or status or gentle. That’s because advertising images stand for something greater than what products actually and these ads made up of words and images turns products into complex cultural symbols.
In addition, the advertising images can shape the minds of the public so that the people’s concepts, values and views will be changed. This is the inevitable consequence of the advertising. These values will remain in the people’s minds which guide their behaviors including buying behaviors and other ones in their daily life. In people’s daily life, their minds are influenced and shaped by the ads.
In modern capitalist societies, images of women make up the large part of the advertising images and these images place emphasis on women’s emotional, gentle, tender and self–touching characteristics which give rise to the gender stereotype.（McArthur and Eisen，1976)This is bad for feminism and leads to the bias and discriminations held against women. As a consequence, the society moves towards a gender discrimination one which is distorted, unfair and back-forward. Therefore, the ads should assume the responsibility for its consequences. What’s more, the ads designers, responsible for the social healthy development, have to change the ads images and words
3. Key theories about advertising and advertising images广告和广告形象的主要理论
3.1 Advertising as a ‘positive experience’ 广告作为积极经验
According to Falk (1994), images in ads have become more and more independent of the product itself and one experience that will get people out of the unfavorable and negative situation is called the positive experience. In modern capitalist societies, advertising images increasingly bear less relevance to the product itself marketed and has been advocating a positive experience through which the consumer can obtain things they lacks in their relations with others or without which they cannot fit into this capitalist society because Ads concentrate on the point where individuals and society meet. Moreover, ads make the product a cultural symbol representing social status, identify, lifestyle and fashion or fortune. Thus, people are buying an experience, lifestyle and social identity when they buy some product. Buying the product can enable consumers to feel more comfortable, confident and successful in social interactions. That’s why ads focus on the images which can meet people’s social needs and the language of advertising also make up a desirable positive experience that stimulate the consumers to get involved in the experience.
3.2 Female Gender Stereotypes in Advertising 在广告中女性的刻板形象
Gender stereotypes refer to conventional beliefs about sex-linked traits and roles, psychological characteristics and behaviors describing women and men. (Browne, 1998) Sexism means describing women’s capabilities and potential in an inferior way and putting women in the position to play clichéd traditional and decorative roles”. (Plakoyiannaki, 2008)The Stereotypes in advertising show that women are decorative, dependent, emotional or childlike while men are strong and masculine. Goffman (1979) explored the more subtle forms of gender stereotype in his Gender Advertisements which is regarded as the most extensive and detailed studies of print media advertisements.
1. Relative size
Man is taller
Woman is sitting or lying while man is standing
The Height shows men should hold the authority in society.
2. Feminine touch
Women caress or cradle an object
Men grasp or manipulate
Self touching (women)
3. Licensed withdrawal
Women: emotional
Hands over mouth / against cheek
Finger in mouth
Fiddling with hair
Staring into distance
Open mouth
Women experience ‘glee’ more than men
Ritualisation and subordination（as showed below）
These signify that women should be docile and subordinate and emotional should be characteristic of women while men should be strong and play the dominant role in society.
In contrast to the women image, the men in adverting are strong, masculine and standing to show their power and dominance (as showed below).
What is ironic is that although some major brands reduce their use of women body images dinted with gender stereotype in advertising, there are more and more distorted women body images which bear little relevance to the product itself (as showed below)as we enter into the media explosion era when the adverting runs rampant.
Advertising stereotypes and the distorted body images reflect the social reality to some extent but the stereotypes will lead to an unhealthy society in which the gendered ideology will be more influential.
4. Significance and consequences of marketing within modern capitalist society在资本主义社会里营销的意义和结果
Advertising not only can promote product selling and marketing but also shape societal attitudes and values. People will inevitably be influenced by advertising images and language. And the fact is that most of the advertising images of women are negative and unhealthy and women’s bodies are sometimes distorted. It is obvious that as a consequence, the gender stereotypes are reinforced and have taken root deep in the people’s minds. With the unhealthy advertising images of women influencing the public, men become more dominant while women subconsciously become more subordinate. This will result in the men’s control and dominance over women.
4.1 Significance of advertising within modern capitalist society资本主义社会中广告的意义
Advertising serves the marketing functions shapes and responds to the economic, political and cultural needs of modern capitalist societies and mould societal attitudes.
4.1.1 Significant marketing functions based on Saussure’s ‘linguistic sign’ theory基于Saussure语言理论的有意义的营销功能
The product and the culturally constituted world have become in fact one and the same in the minds of the consumers as “advertising is a conduit through which meaning constantly pours from the culturally constituted world to consumer goods”. (McCracken, 1986) The product carries many meanings which stimulate people’s buying desire.
According to Saussure, every ‘linguistic sign’ carries two sides- the signifier and the signified. The signifier refers to the ‘material aspect’ – such as images which include sound image-what you say and iconic image-what you write or draw. The signified means the mental concept which cannot be separated from the sound image or iconic image which carries connotative meanings. For example, Roses represent romantic love and the sight of roses will stimulate the consumers to start the consumption to demonstrate that love.
The above pictures show how the advertising works and stimulates the buying desire or behavior based on the Saussure’s ‘linguistic sign’ theory. Thus, the advertising serves significant marketing functions.
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4.1.2 Advertising both shapes and responds to the economic and cultural needs of modern capitalist societies资本主义社会经济和文化所塑造和反应的广告
Advertising shapes people’s needs while responding to the economic and cultural needs of modern capitalist societies. Advertising shapes the needs while responding to the economic, political and cultural needs of modern capitalist societies. In The Starbucks omnipresent in global culture by PhD Pamela Morris (2011), he puts “the coffee culture has become quite fashionable with the locals. As one your Korean auto manufacture’s executive told me, “I go to Starbucks every morning. It makes me feel modern, western and liberal”. The Chain’s popularity will slowly change culture.” This embodies the power of advertising in shaping the cultural needs of modern capitalist societies. But as a matter of fact, people seek for fashion, modern, free and liberal as we move into the modern capitalist societies. It is obvious that people have the cultural needs of modern, liberal and western and the advertising of the coffee culture just responds to the cultural needs of modern capitalist societies.
4.2 Consequences of advertising广告成果
Except for the above significance, the advertising can produce the following consequences with the use of advertising images of women.
4.2.1 Body image ideals rendered valid and acceptable by advertising广告所接受的的身体形象的有效理想呈现
Advertising as a cultural form focuses on gender. Gender stereotypes state how men and women should behave. Advertising has contained many distorted body images. As the public are exposed to the distorted body images, they gradually and subconsciously regard the distorted body image ideals valid and acceptable. People will hold distorted attitudes towards women so that the prejudices and discriminations against women will be reinforced in modern capitalist societies.
4.2.2 Turning women’s bodies into objects will inevitably lead to violence将女性作为目标将无法避免地导致暴力
In her Killing Us softly 4, Advertising’s Images of Women, Dr. Jean Kilbourne (2012) said that since the advertising fixes its focus on women’s bodies, women’s bodies are showed as objects or things. Women are subordinate and gentle in advertising while men show dominance and control. The dehumanization inevitably leads to violence because we are exposed to more than 3 thousand images every year and many studies suggest that every person feels personally exempt from the influence of advertising. And the influence is quick, cumulative and subconscious so that people’s minds and values of women and men will be moulded and shaped. The public will require women to behave just as those women in advertising do in their subconscious minds. As contrasted, men have authority and power to control everything. But the reality is that women in modern times do not behave that way and they have fought against male chauvinism. From this arise Family violence and social violence inevitably which will lead to the breaking of families and social instability.
Recommendations for advertising designing 对广告设计的相关建议
Based on the above discussion, here it is recommended that the ads designing should take the responsibility for its consequence and make some changes in order to adapt to the social trends and build a society which will move forward in a healthy manner. Here are some recommendations for the advertisers:
Should balance the frequency of use of women images and men images.
Should not design the distorted women images like a tangle of body parts on floor.
Should use more iconic images related to the product itself.
Should make sure women should assume the same or similar gestures with men.
And as part of the society, consumers should also assume the responsibility for changing how women are portrayed in the adverting. We can make suggestions to the advertisers via letter. In addition, it is of great importance to buy products which depict women and girls in a healthy manner. Thirdly, talking about this problem at major conferences like NMRC is an effective way to form some written or unwritten regulations for the advertising designing. Finally, some regulations should be made in adverting designing.
5.0 Conclusions 总结
In conclusion, advertising plays a vital role in responding to the cultural, economic and political needs and shaping the minds of the public within the capitalist societies. Advertising images stimulate people’s buying desire while creating a new concept, value or belief in the minds of the public. The healthy images can help promote the selling. These kinds of advertising images will show women and men that they are equal and help the society move toward a gender-free one in which gender is only an ecological concept and people are not labelled with certain gender stereotypes or characteristics. The positive images are good for the shaping of social values and beliefs while the distorted women images bring societies a lot of problems such as reinforced gender stereotypes, domestic violence and prejudices against women. And recommended changes in ads designing will contribute a lot to the healthy development of capitalist societies.
Reference参考文献
Browne, B.A. (1998) Gender stereotypes in advertising on children's television in the 1990s: a cross-national analysis. Journal of Advertising,pp56-57
Dr. J. Kilbourne (2012).Killing Us softly 4, Advertising’s Images of Women, pp67-68
Falk, P. (1994), The Consumer Body, Sage, London.
Ferdinand de Saussure, Linguistic Semiotics，pp123
Goffman, Erring (1976), Gender Advertisements, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.pp345-346.
Klassen, Michael L., Cynthia M. Jasper, and Anne M. Schwartz (1993), "Men and Women: Images of Their Relationships in Magazine Advertisements," Journal of Advertising Research, 22 (March/April), pp30-39.
McCracken, Grant (1986), "Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meshing of Consumer Goods," Journal of Consumer Research, 13 (June), pp 79
McArthur, L. Z. and S. V. Eisen (1976), "Television and Sex Role Stereotyping," Journal of Applied Psychology, 60 (4), pp329-351.
Morris, P. (2011).Starbucks omnipresent in global culture.pp36
Plakoyiannaki, E.（2008）, Images of Women in Online Advertisements of Global Products: Does sexism Exist？Journal of Business Ethics, 83:101-112.
TL Saaty, J. (2008). “Decision making with the analytic hierarchy process”. pp20.
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