Ad round-up: Advertising as mainstream porn
Jean Kilbourne has had it right for years. She said that “advertisements are America’s real pornographer” and ads have made porn mainstream.
We owe her immense gratitude for shifting the lens on advertising and making advertising a subject of inquiry to take seriously. I’ve been influenced, inspired and indebted to her since I saw Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising’s Image of Women in 2001. I mean, I’d been a feminist for nearly a decade at that point, studying the mass media for approximately 6 years and I knew advertisers weren’t exactly the most noble of folks. Advertisers have always been in existence to sell a product by any means necessary.
But to see ad after ad, reinforcing the same images and themes over and over again was mind blowing. Her film was the final piece of the puzzle. I continued to examine and collect ads in the same way Kilbourne did at the beginning of her inquiry decades before.
Each semester my students collect and deconstruct ads. In my newly created class, Women and Popular Culture (my dream class if you will), Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency created a blog for the students and myself to share our observations, thoughts and create a collective resource base and solidify the community. It is in this incredible virtual space that my students posted 3 ads they chose to deconstruct. Kristin E. caught on to the intensity of these advertising messages after seeing one after the other posted, creating an eerie and pornified collage. She took it upon herself to take many of the images the class had posted and put them together. After all these years, to examine the ads in this way, is still shocking and disturbing.
Take a peek.
NOTE: Edited April 16, 2010 after several people emailed me about the spoof ad in the round-up. I’m glad some people are paying attention and are already familiar with ad spoofs and culture jamming. Can *you* spot the spoof ad? Do you know who created it? Answer below in the comments.
Keep it up assholes, people vote with their dollars. I won’t buy your products for obvious reasons. If I pick up a magazine with your absurd ads, I realize it’s a men’s magazine and has nothing to do with women, period.
Comment by Beepath — April 4, 2010 @ 6:06 am
They are all equally disturbing. The BK 7 incher complete with blow up doll…WTF?!
Comment by Kerith — April 15, 2010 @ 10:34 pm
The spoof ad is the Obsession for Men ad created by AdBusters. https://www.adbusters.org/ You can find more of their spoof ads here: https://www.adbusters.org/gallery/spoofads In addition to checking out their website and the magazine by the same name, pick up Culture Jam by Kalle Lasn.
Comment by Melanie — April 16, 2010 @ 1:43 pm
I was pretty sure that it was the Calvin Klein ad too, but I am actually hoping for *surprise*, they all are…
Comment by Not Guilty — April 16, 2010 @ 2:42 pm
That would be super, wouldn’t it?
Comment by Melanie — April 16, 2010 @ 3:06 pm
[...] to follow only contains 4 women. And take a look at this very disturbing documentation of mainstream advertising porn as [...]
Pingback by Feminist Peace Network » Blog Archive » Delusion By Exclusion–The Damaging Impact Of Global Media Misogyny — April 19, 2010 @ 4:11 am
Thank you for this eye-opener. I haven’t read any mainstream magazines in years so this was even more of a shock to me than perhaps to many women. It makes me wonder if for most women it’s a case of the frog in the slowly heating water, otherwise why aren’t they rioting in the streets? Or at least do what I did over ten years ago: boycott the whole disgusting lot of them.
I have worn makeup exactly once since 1994; on my wedding day. I buy all my clothes (except underpants) at Goodwill or garage sales. I refuse to spend any money on the people who tell women what to wear and what to look like. Now, seeing what you have shown me today I realise that the magazines I’ve been boycotting are not just greedy and manipulative, they are evil. These ads are not just pornographic, they’re sadistic. Boycott all of them!
Comment by margo liebers — April 19, 2010 @ 9:23 am
Margo, like you, I stopped watching television for 12 years and I found that limiting my level of media exposure changed my perspective drastically. We do have the ability to make conscious choices and become critical and conscious (in other words, media literate) citizens that are not programmed to go with the latest trend or get sucked into the media’s constructed images.
Because the media is with us from, essentially, the time we are born, these images do not strike most individuals as unusual or surprising. They have become normative and expected, or at least unremarkable. That’s why placing them all together provides an impact that is often lost otherwise. The images that stand out are the ones that deviate from the norm and seem surprising: a curvy woman, a woman without make-up. This is the topic for my new post that will be published today at the Ms. Magazine blog.
Comment by Melanie — April 19, 2010 @ 9:44 am
Advertisements are constantly telling women who they are and who they should be. The first thing that these advertisements are telling women is to be the “ideal woman.” This “ideal woman” is perfect. This woman is beautiful and exquisite. These women are also extremely thin. These advertisements consist of women and ideas of women that do not exist. They paint the picture of the perfect woman. The ideal woman has an extremely thin and toned body; she is gorgeous, and in a nutshell utterly perfect. But for the most part this perfect, ideal woman does not exist.
Comment by Joshua. S — October 21, 2010 @ 9:29 pm
This compilation of images is truly reflective of the advertising industry: empowering for men and degrading for women. The Burger King and Tom Ford ads especially shook me to the core. Is THIS really necessary to sell products? This issue truly reflects what capitalism has done to society’s collective moral conscience.
Comment by Jennifer Edgerton — October 24, 2010 @ 12:04 am
I agree with Jennifer. When I saw the Burger King ad I thought it was a joke because I never thought advertisers could get away with putting out something like that. It’s so ridiculous that ads like the ones above actually exist and there isn’t a bigger commotion about them. I wish that we all were more aware of the ads around us and the messages they send and that more people actually fought to get these kind of ads removed.
Comment by Melody J — October 24, 2010 @ 9:24 pm
Ads have become extremely sexual and they continue to do so and it has become the norm. Such ads are usually seen everywhere and unfortunately little children see them as well which are extremely inappropriate for their age and they tend to lose their innocence faster.
Comment by Dalal C. — October 26, 2010 @ 12:04 am
It is so sad to see that advertisement ads have become so sexual. Sex sells. Sex has become a business. It is so important to explain to our kids, siblings, and family that eventually will be exposed to these advertisements, about how not to let sexual ads/advertisements influence them.
Comment by Orel Farahmandfar — October 28, 2010 @ 12:12 pm
What I think is so interesting is that models actually allow themselves to be put in these situations. And no, these overly sexed pictures are NOT the models fault, but I wonder if I was asked to have my croch shaved in the shape of a Gucci emblem, would I do it? And if I did, would it be for art’s sake, my own sake, or infact the sake of the brand I was trying to sell. Half of these don’t even have the product that is being advertised at the forefront of the ad. The two that I found so offensive were the Docle and Gabbana one where a women model is being held down by one oily shirtless man, and four others watch (um hi, can anyone say date rape!?) and the BMW add where a man is making love to a woman’s body, but the face of a car….really!? That’s just playing dumb. Needless to say, these are infurating and make me want to boycot all of these companies for sheer lack of propriety not to mention common sense.
Comment by Karly R. — October 29, 2010 @ 9:54 am
As i do 100% agree with your post, i also tried to look at the view from the other side. Trying to sell a jacket on a “overweight” man or women wouldn’t sell compared to a “sexy” male or female. I guess the slogan is true, sex does sale, or at least reels in a lot more consumers.
Comment by David Merabi — November 1, 2010 @ 12:17 pm
Why do we have to use sex to sell a jacket?
Comment by Melanie — November 1, 2010 @ 12:24 pm
I have never really examined the extent of sexual vulgarity and such images that are emphasized through our media. This emphases on sex and female vulnerability has been an epidemic problem not only in America but around the world. We need to take action and stop these ads from getting out their in public, that eventually are killing young teens all over.
Comment by Delyla M. — November 2, 2010 @ 10:52 am
My reaction to the pictures was “Ha What?” I mean it is pretty direct what the captions in those ads are saying. The unfortunate part of all this is that minors will see this and wonder about it. Needless to say their curiosity could lead to unmoaral behaviour. Porn or any other sex-infused images should be private or at least in the hands of adults. Sex I beleive is something to keep private. But, to attract any customers, companies will do anything to sell. Yes, it is true sex does sell. These ads are reinforcing that idea.
Comment by David Ruano — November 19, 2010 @ 10:23 pm
Looking at these ads I am saddened because men are empowered and women are simply disregarded in our society today. Sex sells and so that is why every advertisement is based on. It is up to us to stop women and men from believing these dumb ads and teaching others to do the same. After all we are the ones who buy these magazines and watch these shows that only help keep these beliefs and views alive so if we stop paying attention to them they will have to go away and disappear, wont they??
Comment by Ariel Kasheri (wmst10scholars) — November 30, 2010 @ 10:30 am
Looking at these pictures I was horrified, and felt very uncomfortable and violated. I right away sent the link to the site to my friends so they can become aware of how disturbing the mass media is.
Comment by Leora Sheily — April 19, 2011 @ 6:19 pm
These ads are disturbing and extremely degrading. What troubles me further is that before I began looking at media through a critical lense, I was completely ignorant regarding advertisers’ propensity to link sex and demeaning women to sell their products. Now that I am more aware of this unfortunate reality, I am more conscious of the desperate measures advertisers will take to sell their products…at any cost. These threatening exploitations have extreme consequences, but it is apparent that these consequences are not a concern for those selling the product. Thank you for bringing this to our attention, I really do appreciate it.
Comment by Jennifer S. — April 26, 2011 @ 10:07 am
Not only do these ads help me become more aware of what this patriarchal society wants us Women to be, but it just reminds me that people need to wake up and step outside of this paradigm that isn’t serving young women well. This is the reason why anyone who has female consciousness that wants
to make an impact of spreading female beauty from within.
Comment by melani dg — May 16, 2011 @ 3:12 pm
All of these ads are downright obscene and the fact they are allowed to run without some sort of censorship is shocking. At least with porn it is sold to people 18 and over, with these ads any child can see them at a very early age and even have their views of sexuality distorted if cultivated enough.
Comment by Shawn S — June 1, 2011 @ 5:35 pm
I am really amazed when I see such vulgar and sexist images. I don’t watch TV, I don’t read fashion magazines; and, if a billboard is in my sight, I immediately analyze and dissect its meaning. When I happen to view these medias, it’s always through a highly critical lens. I always ask myself what the world will come to next? What will advertisements look like ten, fifty, a hundred years from now? Presently, most images degrade women and upgrade men to greater heights of material possession and success. If we keep allowing these images to continue, then what will be next? It’s like we have a choice right now to object and speak up against them before they continue to grossly evolve.
Comment by Nilu V. — November 6, 2011 @ 1:43 pm
These types of overly sexual ads have become normal for society. For this reason, the ads shown above do not surprise me as much as they, in a new light, open my eyes to the problems with such a uncensored display of sex, eliciting sexual emotions from observers and catching consumer attention in the wrong way. Companies are obviously still abiding by the “sex sells” motto.
Comment by Tiffany Majdipour — November 12, 2011 @ 4:30 pm
The ads shown above are not that shocking to me since i have grown up in a society where sex is everywhere. high end fashion houses constantly use overly sexual images for their campaigns, and as a result society will use them to set the standards of beauty.
Comment by Jorge Garcia — November 22, 2011 @ 1:05 pm
All of these advertisements share one thing in common: objectifying women as sexual objects. The women in these ads are portrayed in ways that men feel are hot, attractive, and desirable, as reflected in mainstream media. They reinforce hegemonic masculinity as well as a patriarchal way of thinking in our society. It’s no wonder why people who support patriarchy believe that these notions of the norm.
Comment by Bridget T. — December 6, 2011 @ 10:39 am
The advertisements are pornographic. They leave absolutely nothing to the imagination and sexualize women. I find all of these ads disgusting, there seems to be no limits to what the media can produce and its sickening. Not mention I found it really disturbing how women are being dominated sexually in these ads and depicted on their knees , subordinate to the men in the ads.
Comment by Chloe Shenassa (women studies 10 scholars) — December 6, 2011 @ 6:42 pm
While I had been familiar with how, far, the media was beginning to push it with their ads, seeing a collage like this one really puts everything into perspective. Sex might sell, but this is taking things to whole different level. People talk in this country about a so called moralistic high ground, but ads like this continue to gloss page after page, because the cats at the top keep raking in the green.
Comment by Nisha CM — January 22, 2012 @ 10:50 pm
Pretty gross! It’s sad that advertisements have gone this far and are this desperate that they are not just selling sex, but using it as mainstream porn. Really though now young men will have this vision/standard of a women to perform like these models and to look like them. It’s IMPOSSIBLE. can anyone say “Fake”. This mainstream media is pushing it to the limit, and they are not going to stop. These ads are now teaching girls from a very young age to look like this, be sexual like this in order to fix the norm, and to be popluar with the boys. The bosses letting all this go down, they dont care. It’s all about the money to them.
Comment by Sarah R. — January 24, 2012 @ 9:51 am
WOW!! Not to single out Tom Ford because every one of these images shocked my senses but in my mind Tom Ford not only promotes the objectification and degradation of women but also pedophilia … Indeed the model is being intimate with another object and appears to be childlike given her complete lack of pubic hair. I’m left wondering why they didn’t go ahead and insert the bottle directly into the model’s vagina (there I said it) with a byline that says “the very essence of a woman but made for a man.” Those are certainly the thoughts and images these ads are meant to provoke so why leave the interpretation up to the idiotic and salacious public as that is certainly what they must think of their target audience or they wouldn’t place such derogatory and condescending ads in the first place.
Comment by willemina v. — January 26, 2012 @ 2:11 pm
Does anyone remember the movie “The Stepford Wives”? Perhaps it was made before most of you were born. It was released in 1975, but has since been re-made. The original movie is the one you need see, if you haven’t already. It will blow you away and scare the wholly daylights out of you. The movie was based on a novel written by Ira Levin in 1972. The title comes from the fictional town of “Stepford”, Connecticut, and revolves around the wives who live there. The main character is a talented photographer who moves to Stepford from New York City with her husband and children. As time goes on, she becomes increasingly frightened by the zombie-like, submissive Stepford wives, especially when she sees her once independent-minded woman friend, also a new arrival to Stepford, turn into a mindless, docile housewife overnight. Her husband, who spends a great deal of time at the local men’s club, makes fun of her fears. But she becomes convinced that the wives of Stepford are being poisoned or brainwashed into submission by the men’s club. She visits the library and reads up on the past lives of the Stepford’s wives, finding out some of these women were once feminist activists and very successful professionals. Whereas, the leader of the men’s club is a former Disney engineer and others are artists and scientists, capable of creating life-like robots. Her friend helps her investigate, going so far as to write to the EPA to inquire about possible environmental toxins in Stepford. And then, overnight, her friend loses all interest and becomes robot-like. That is when she decides to flee Stepford.
These days, the label “Stepford wife” is usually applied to a woman who seems to conform blindly to an old-fashioned subservient role in relationship to her husband, compared to other, more independent women. Anyway the point I’m trying to make is that we are all being systematically brainwashed with these pornographic advertisements, not just women, but men as well, and most importantly, our children. Remember that old saying, ‘Monkey see, Monkey do!’ Well, children mimic their environment. Over time, people begin to believe this is normal behavior and become indifferent. Additionally, these ads are becoming more and more frequent and brazen, with each one trying to top the one before it. However, seeing all these photos together is a real awakening, has opened my eyes and hit me hard – what are we doing to ourselves? We need to snap out of this insanity before it’s too late and we all become “Stepfordicated”!
Comment by Suzy D — January 27, 2012 @ 3:47 pm
I do agree that ads has made mainstream porn. but we cannot deny that many people are interested in that kind of porn ads. In the ads, people would like to use women as their models. and many of them are nude. People love to see women with no clothes. and women were degraded in the ads.
Comment by Lam Yan Yee — January 30, 2012 @ 11:21 pm
I really think that the oversexualization of advertising today has gotten out of hand. Some of those ads were downright graphic and at best were highly suggestive. We all know what is going on when a women is covering herself in white paint, or has her mouth wide open around a phallic object. This is objectification at its worst and it is so widespread and prevalent in the mainstream media that I’m not to sure how it can be stopped. I think that the only way is if we as consumers band together and speak with our wallets. We must not purchase anything from these companies and ones like it that only use sex to sell. We must only support companies that advertise without sex or in a way that is not objectifying to women.
Comment by Rory O — February 4, 2012 @ 3:23 pm
At this time, these sexual ads are nothing and have become normal for society. But I am still shameful and shocking because frequently, I can’t see these kinds of ads in my country so I am not comfortable these ads.
Comment by Eun Hee Chung — February 4, 2012 @ 6:58 pm
These types of advertisements are so common today, that the audience of these ads and readers of these magazines are surprised when they don’t see something like this. It shows women in these sex crazed poses and positions to catch both the male and female audiences. Honestly as a man, it catches my attention and I can also say I like it. But, once I look into it, its not right what the women in these photo’s are put into and what message it sends to the kids that end up with these ads.
Comment by Gabriel Y. — February 5, 2012 @ 9:35 am
I have become so use to seeing these types of ads that to me its normal. But at the same time looking through some of these pics i can see that they also promote violence. Not only that most ads now a days have become more sexual that its not really noticeable unless u actually pay attention to them. I usually tend to ignore ads unless one or two grab my attention but i dont really give most ads attention. Women are just shown as pleasure to men and nothing else in these ads.
Comment by Guadalupe Y — February 5, 2012 @ 11:17 am
I look at magazines frequently and I am constantly exposed to advertisements, and it never really dawned on me that almost everything is about sex. Seeing this, I now naturally see it all coming out when I did not really notice it before as a kid. They are doing way too much now. Like the picture with the lady and the hamburger , and the lady using the bottle of alcohol to cover uo her vagina is way to extreme. Since I know they wont ever stop, they atleast need to tone it down a little bit. It is obvious now that they are associating sex with ads. Especially with the hamburger, it says it will blow your mind, its so obivious that they are representing oral sex which is not cool to be showing kids when they are going to burger king to get a happy meal. It is so obvious now, someone does not have to surf the internet to look at naked women, they can just look at these ads and fulfill their satisfaction. Very inappropriate.
Comment by Payne T — February 5, 2012 @ 2:36 pm
This is pretty disturbing and sad to see that women are the ones being more exposed then the guys. It sucks to see that the female body is seen as a sexual item. The guys are only shirtless and also portrayed as the dominant sex that have all the control over women. The models are the ones doing all these suxual things with their mouth and body, seen with very little clothes of not nude, and are being portrayed as the weak sex. Also, considering the younger viewers it might be very gross to them, therefore it is obvious that all these ads main purpose it to sell what ever it is that they are advertising by exposing sexually the item that are advertising.
Comment by Yesenia O — February 5, 2012 @ 5:09 pm
Let’s face it: Sex sells. We know this, but does that make it right? no not at all. After looking at this collage of ads my thoughts were “Did these woman not respect themselves?” I mean to each there own. But the ad with the woman with the magazine with the car on the pages and man on top…How and and why would woman want to be degraded like that? There are plenty of other ways to sell a product and I really don’t think we as women need to dumb our selves down or put our bodies up for anybody to use however they like just to get some attention or there 15 minutes of fame.
After taking this woman’s studies class I know pay close attention to all the ads in these mainstream magazines and how these ads constantly degrade woman to sell a product. Hopefully there will be change in the future.
Comment by Lori H — February 5, 2012 @ 5:28 pm
If there is one thing that I would share with anyone I’m holding a conversation with it would be Jean Kilbourne’s movie and what she shared that I have never ever actually thought about. These images that I’ve been seeing that been subconsciously harming me in ways that I wouldn’t notice and happen to only show very subtly. I noticed that as I was watching the movie I was becoming more and more aware of the little things that seemed to bug me but I really didn’t know the right things to say. I just knew it bothered me. Little did I know that it was pointing directly at what I am. Women. Heterosexual. Teen. They’ve been training me to have this idea of what I’m supposed to be and how I’m supposed to fulfill that. I thought the place we live in is about having freedom and having our own power in terms of our future. There’s an invisible shield formed around us to believe that we have opportunities and choices, but really we’re bound into a circle of chosen paths. In order to breakthrough is to be aware. First I was beginning to realize things that I have never even gave a second to think about. I now know the weak points to being a young heterosexual teen. The more I’m aware of the types of images that have been cultivated the more I’m able to have a sense of self identity. I can’t lose to the media. I just cant.
Comment by Crystina K — February 6, 2012 @ 10:53 am
I am literally lost for words. Seeing this made me really understand the hidden agenda of society. It hurts to know that in this society I have to receive the short hand of the stick by being a woman. It that even fair? I didn’t get to choose to be born a female nor did I choose to be targeted on by media. Just thinking about how much it offends me now I wonder even the harder things the women in the previous generations had to face. To me thses things may seem like it’s the worst thing that can possibly happen, but there is way more. Not only is it a problem because media is affecting me this way, but also knowing that my future kids and younger generations to come will have to one day just accept that if they are born female it will be perfectly alright to say “It’s okay it’s not actually hurting me physically.” What will I tell the younger ones when they say that? I would feel so hopeless into thinking how will I ever educate them to understand the implicit meanings of the society. It’s tricky yet so simple to understand. I cant even fathom what the process of that might even turn out to be like…
Comment by Jessica K — February 6, 2012 @ 11:58 am
This shouldn’t be an eye-opener for people in this generation. This is something that we have been around for most of our lives. “Sex” sells. Though people don’t agree with the way that companies post ads, do people still buy their products? Yes! All of these ads are geared directly towards men. Why would women let themselves be portrayed that way? The answer is most women will not let themselves be portrayed in such a manner. It’s that select few who allow themselves to be for some type of fame. The reason why there are ads like that is because women are willing to do so and advertisers are quick to pull the trigger. If this were to change, it starts from the bottom by people saying no.
Comment by Eleazar Capuz — February 6, 2012 @ 5:58 pm
Ads like above fill more than 50% of ads in a fashion magazine that college students read. We, women, accept the “sexy” images as beautiful and sophisticated because they are ads of high-end clothing, products, food, etc. When I look around people’s Facebook, I can see pictures posted that imitate the poses of the ads and comments complimenting how nice they look in the picture. It seems they don’t realize that such pornographic ads are degrading and condescending. This signifies how much we are saturated with pornographic images every day and everywhere,thus being desensitized to them, and how much we are ignorant of the media and messages they communicate. In addition, it is poignant to notice that people glorify big name designer goods and believe anything related to the name is worth idealization and recognition. So the ads and subliminal messages of Tom Ford, Dolce and Gabbana, Duncan Quinn, and Gucci are considered fashionable and trendy otherwise disgusting, pornographic, distasteful.
Comment by Jin Min — February 7, 2012 @ 1:25 am