Marc Jacobs is a Mysogynist
What other explanation is there for a company that continues to create ad campaigns that depict women as 1. disposable 2. victims, sometimes disposable victims.
If you saw the ad round-up posted recently, you have seen the patterns, image after image reinforcing narrow and limiting themes of women in advertising. To see the images lined up next to one another takes on a remarkable quality and produces a powerful impact. I know it did for me when I saw all of the ads put together, even after 15 years of conscious and critical analysis.
With that said, I’ve seen scores and scores of ads as a consumer and even more through the lens of a media critic and, unsurprisingly, in that process I have become a bit desensitized. Oh, another super skinny model, another model posed passively, and on it goes. I’ve seen such awful ads that many have become less shocking because there are others that are so much worse.
Marc Jacobs continues to strike me with the blatant devaluing of women and the often brutal or degrading circumstances in which they are depicted. The two below are no expection.
Top: Marc Jacobs ad from the March 2010 issue of Harper’s Bazaar (Kate Moss is on the cover)
Bottom: Marc Jacobs ad from the March 2010 issue of W (Megan Fox on the cover).
They’re both disturbing (and entirely unnecessary to sell whatever they’re trying to sell: the bag? the shoes?) but the bottom is one is what really made me cringe. Do we need to draw on rape scenes of women assaulted in back alleys? It reminds me of the Marc Jacobs ad campaign circa 2005 when shoes were being sold by placing them on models whose feet would be attached to a lifeless body on the ground, legs poking out from behind a bush. Yup, more images of disposabe, victimized women. I’ll be rummaging through my collection of ads to post them if you’re in the least bit skeptical or doubt me.
So, not much has changed in 5 years. In fact, not much has changed in over 30 years. Check out the vintage ad for shoes from 1974 that Ms.Blog posted yesterday. The fact that these images have not changed drastically in several decades solidifies my commitment to remaining vigilant and using my media literacy skills to call out the misogynistic companies that use victimized, brutalized and disposable women as ways to make a profit. Shame on you.
Good points! I never know what he is selling because (a) the ads have no true marketing focus(b) I am always distracted by the bizarre situations/poses the models are always put in.
Comment by Kerith — April 15, 2010 @ 10:19 pm
Those ads are disgusting. It’s like the Duncann Quinn ad — with a woman in lingerie on the hood of a car with a necktie tied around her neck and her head resting in a pool of blood- how and why is that acceptable for companies to use in order to sell expensive clothes? The message is clear and it has nothing to do with clothing.
Comment by Marley — April 15, 2010 @ 11:31 pm
He’s disgusting
Comment by Krista — April 16, 2010 @ 7:17 am
thank you for posting this. his ad campaigns are particularly foul and i think one of the saddest parts of it all is, we as a society have become so accustomed to being inundated with this sort of imagery, we hardly notice anymore. well, some of us notice, but not as many as i would like.
you’re right on all accounts.
Comment by Sarit — April 16, 2010 @ 8:23 am
[...] mindset that, for just one example, continues to believe that employing images of gruesome violence against women is the most effective way to sell clothes, shoes, cars, reality show episodes, and [...]
Pingback by WIMN’s Voices » “Advertising hasn’t changed” since “Mad Men” –Hank Wasiak at #140Conf — April 20, 2010 @ 1:00 pm
Please explain why the above images of women are found in women’s fashion magazines? The consumers of these magazines are predominanatly women
Comment by Paul — October 18, 2010 @ 9:02 pm
Marc Jacobs’s advertisements are very confusing. I can never tell what he is trying to sell or promote in his advertisements. As a society as a whole we have been accustomed to advertisements like this and many others and we never realize what is being shown and stop to really look at whats going on.
Comment by Joshua. S — October 21, 2010 @ 9:33 pm
It is beyond me that these advertisements actually WORK. Why would women buy from these brands while they portray women in such a disposable, degrading manner? Boycott!!
Comment by Jennifer Edgerton — October 24, 2010 @ 12:12 am
I’m a fan of his collections, however, his ads show a completely different side to him. Usually when I see his pieces on the model in the ad, it doesn’t look nice and I don’t have the desire to own it until I see it at the store. His ads have always seemed bizarre to me and after reading this post and looking at the ads again, I’m disgusted.
Comment by Dalal C. — October 26, 2010 @ 12:11 am
This article brings up a lot of good points that I myself wouldn’t have come to a conclusion when flipping through a magazine and seeing these ads. Marc Jacobs and many other well known brands hint subliminal messages that not only degrade women, but make these images and ideas a part of the norms of our society.
Comment by Camellia Shahmoradi — October 29, 2010 @ 12:16 pm
Why anybody thinks these images are a good idea is totally baffling. Their completely morbid and dont even seem to have a purpose other than fulfill some sick fantasy.
Comment by Shawn S — June 1, 2011 @ 11:00 pm
Using serious and severe situations such as rape scene to sell shoes is disturbing and unfathomable for me. More disturbing is the devaluing of women these advertisements depict make it that much harder for women to demand change. Women being disposable? That just crosses the line
Comment by Tiffany Majdipour — November 12, 2011 @ 4:35 pm
Completely agree; these images are completely unnecessary and/or redundant for trying to sell whatever they are selling. In fact, I think the misogynistic images are taking away the purpose of these so-called “ads”, which is to sell. They are instead creating controversial messages about women by objectifying them. There are a million other ways to (successfully) sell a product without the use of misogynistic images.
Comment by Bridget T. — December 6, 2011 @ 10:52 am
Where does this all stop? It seems as if these image campaigns that people are running will only show women as disposable items and as victims. It’s so true you get a greater sense of what these images are all about with they are back to back. No wonder we skip over them when it’s one here and one there. We think nothing of it. I don’t get how they think this is art. You would never see a guy in the same photo doing the same pose. That’s un-heard of. Marc Jacobs is a sick man for sure. I just hope we don’t go another 30 years with this same image of women. I just wish there was a simple way to make this idea of women go away, and for these photographers to stop shooting pictures like this for magazines.
Comment by Sarah R. — February 1, 2012 @ 8:40 am
I can’t wait for the day when people stop looking at these pictures and referring to them as “art”, and the continue to use that as a justification for its content. It’s an advertisement…for shoes (or a bag? dress? gang rape?) and the content in it is VERY disturbing, and the content is something that affects all of us, because all of us have to be subjected to looking at hundreds upon hundreds of these ads on a daily basis. And it DOES affect the way we think both individually and collectively. And how we think individually and collectively is how we shape our society, and if we start thinking that a dead woman in an alley is just, OK, we are headed (heading) down a dark and twisted rabbit hole.
Comment by Nisha CM — February 1, 2012 @ 8:58 pm
These ads are definitely very disturbing and equally confusing because they don’t have anything to do with the products that they are selling! What does selling a brand name bag or shoe have to do with a woman posing as if shes dead or victimized?!? This is just another example of devaluing women. If they really want to be unique with the ads they are making, they should start making ads that show respect towards women rather than victimizing them or objectifying them with their bodies.
Comment by Rosemary A — February 2, 2012 @ 4:28 pm
These ads are confusing people. I do not know what products they are selling. I did focus on the model and the posture more than the products. In the first picture(Kate Moss), i do not know that they are selling the bag before I read the article. Pretending a dead person is not helping the companies to sell the products. However, they keep doing this for many years.
Comment by Lam Yan Yee — February 3, 2012 @ 7:19 pm
I think a main issue with these ads is that it doesn’t bother most women. I know people who have taken many women’s studies classes and will still walk around with a Marc Jacobs bag even after being shown this ad. The fact is, much like with rap music, unless women stop purchasing the products or wanting them, real change will never happen. You have to show Marc Jacobs that you don’t approve of his advertisements by not buying his products. There are so many other options out there but the fact is, for the most part people don’t care about this sort of thing.
Comment by Rory O — February 4, 2012 @ 3:12 pm
I feel bad about this ad and I don’t know what the point of this ad is and I know this is fashion ads but if I see ad, I don’t want to buy these clothing.
women’s studies 10
Comment by Eun Hee Chung — February 5, 2012 @ 12:30 am
The fact that so many “high fashion” designers are using this type of advertising–objectifying and degrading wimmin by showing them as dead, lifeless, vulnerable, etc.–is really appalling. What they’re doing is glorifying that and making it “high fashion”–ultimately making it “acceptable” and desensitizing the public to the severity of the situations they’re depicting. This spans across the board into many different aspects of the media, music industry, fashion industry, etc. and even in Kanye West’s “Monster”, he goes as far to say “the best wimmin are dead” (and that’s regardless of the ridiculous video). It’s a recurring theme coming at us from every angle that needs to be smashed.
Comment by Breanna K — February 5, 2012 @ 9:10 am
It is sad to think that seeing such images in mass media has become so common that, upon viewing them, you think that it’s nothing out of the ordinary and that you have seen much worse. This sense of being accustomed to images where women appear dead and vulnerable are adequate proof that there is an underlying problem in our culture. The “cultivation,” or building and maintenance of such images, is what makes these images seem normal and not shocking to onlookers. In order to make a real change, we must completely remove these pictures of women models appearing dead and “disposable” to show that it is in fact a big deal.
Comment by Camille Yona — February 5, 2012 @ 1:17 pm
A lot of girls admire Marc Jacob’s designs. It is sad because most women don’t think deeply of how degrading modeling dead women is. If anything, those images bring Marc Jacob more customers. He portrays dead people to look so beautiful by dressing them up nicely and applying make up so perfect. By putting these ads up to advertise, it is essentially making us women look worse and not better.
Comment by Alexandria S — February 5, 2012 @ 10:59 pm
I don’t understand why Marc Jacobs would feel that these images of women would make his products look better. If anything it would make me not want to support him in any kind of way. He should put girls that look beautiful in the product. I have seen it in tv shows and many other ads. However, what is more shocking is that women approve this. They like it and don’t stand up for it. Especially the women used for the ads. This is what disappoints me the most.
Comment by Juliana C. — February 6, 2012 @ 10:50 am
It becomes one thing when you want to catch someones attention by showing a beautiful model brutalized and battered but they have come too far. People don’t see that it’s not just an ad anymore. It’s not the bag we should we worried about if it’s still available in stores. It should be about “This is wrong, look what’s being done to the model just to say this product.” She may of course hadn’t been actually harmed but the people who see has. Not physically but mentally. It becomes more and more accepted into society. The power of media is the source to what we should or shouldn’t believe. I think we all just need a reality check and go over what our morals actually become.
Comment by Crystina K — February 6, 2012 @ 11:08 am
You can’t even tell what they’re trying to sell! It’s just demeaning and degrading. So many have become desensitized to these type of images. They’re just so much, it’s become normal. That’s disturbing. A normal reaction would be to be shocked, but we see so often, we’re not even shocked anymore.
Comment by Jessica K — February 6, 2012 @ 11:09 am
Disgusting, putrid, vile: words that come to my head when I look at these pictures. To liken a woman to human waste waiting to be flushed down the toilet? To portray a rape victim post-rape seemingly at the height of her Lolita-esque beauty? The worth of human life increases but the worth of a woman is decreasing…how does that make sense? A company with this much prestige and influence should not only employ a more socially conscious means of creating advertisements, but should also print retractions for such smut that they’ve had the gall to publish.
Comment by Taja Eddahbi — February 6, 2012 @ 12:59 pm