Advertising and the control of mass media

It might be obvious that advertisements’ purpose is to sell a certain image or idea, but viewers more often than not overlook the major influence advertisements have on what content is published in magazines and newspapers, or what can be shown in television programs. “Advertising is the foundation and economic lifeblood of the mass media. The primary purpose of the mass media is to deliver an audience to advertisers,” (Kilbourne, 121). So not only do advertisements sell an inaccurate portrayal of women, race and sexuality, they also force the media to give false portrayals as well. This causes enormous harm to the public and creates the ideas of what should be accepted in popular culture.

Women are displayed as sex symbols in almost every advertisement being sold, while men are powerful and dominant, with muscular bodies, in all their advertisements. This extreme separation of the types of people being portrayed in ads for men and women creates a sharp line of distinction for gender. It can be argued that gender does not exist without the body recognition by society and its cultural influence on the body. As Judith Butler explained “the body is figured as a mere instrument or medium for which a set of cultural meanings are only externally related. But “the body” is itself a construction, as are the myriad “bodies” that constitute the domain of gendered subjects. Bodies cannot be said to have a signifiable existence prior to the mark of their gender; the question then emerges: To what extent does the body come into being in and through the mark(s) of gender?” (Butler, 12). Advertisements are the educationalmaterials that teach society about gender and what makes a man, a man, and whatmakes a woman, a woman. “Mass communication has made possible a kind of national peer pressure that erodes private and individual values and standards, as well as community values and standards. As Margaret Mead once said, today our children are not brought up by parents, they are brought up by the mass media,” (Kilbourne, 129). Unfortunately, the mass media is not telling the entire story, and, therefore, miseducating the public.

While ads promoted women to work,
it was still promoting the idea that
they were doing "men's"work, falling
into gender stereotypes.

These advertisements are selling ideas and feelings to consumers, creating anxiety that they are not good enough and need these products. “The magazines and the ads deliberately create and intensify anxiety about weight because it is so profitable. On a deeper level, however, they reflect cultural concerns and conflicts about women’s power,” (Kilbourne, 136). A perfect example is the persuasion of advertisements during World War II. When all the men went off to fight, hundreds of thousands of jobs were open and needed workers. So advertisers directed all their efforts towards bringing women into the workforce and telling them this is the right thing to do. It is what made Rosie the Riveter a recognizable character to this day. During the war, these women now working enjoyed their efforts towards society and wanted to continue working. But after the war, when the men returned, society feared that men would no longer be the breadwinners and the ones in charge. And so, advertisers had to change their campaigns to one of consumerism and telling women their place was at home doing domestic work. All those years of advancement went down the drain in no time because of the power of advertising. “This is the real tragedy, that many women internalize these stereotypes and learn their “limitations,” thus establishing a self-fulfilling prophecy. If one accepts these mythical and degrading images, to some extent one actualizes them,” (Kilbourne, 125).

All the progress for women during WWII
disappeared in less than a decade with the
introduction of consumerism in the 1950s.

But advertising power does not stop at selling products or ideas, they also have a major influence on publications, due to the fact that they are the reason magazines and newspapers are still alive. In “Sex, Lies and Advertising,” Gloria Steinem gives various examples of how advertising agencies have control over what magazines publish, and if they do not like it, then advertisers will just not pay to put in their ads—a huge detriment to any publication. So, more often than not, many publications conform to the ideas and values of advertisers so they can make more money, but with the loss of reporting real hard-hitting stories and the truth, especially in women’s magazines. One example Steinem gave was the award-winning story in Ms. on the Soviet women who escaped, and they were featured on the front page of the magazine. But not everyone approved of this decision, especially the advertisers. “Nonetheless, this journalistic coup undoes years of efforts to get an ad schedule from Revlon. Why? Because the Soviet women on our cover are not wearing makeup,” (Steinem, 117).

While some people might not see the disapproval from advertisers towards publications as detrimental towards women, they are seeing the effects. Women are stuck in this one gendered stereotype and are seen as being powerless. They are not moving up in the work ladder as much as men, and are not in as many leadership roles. Some might argue, but how can you blame this on advertising and mass media? Well, “they represent something very important: women’s mass culture. A woman’s magazine is not just a magazine…Women are deeply affected by what their magazines tell them (or what they believe they tell them) because they are all most women have as a window on their own mass sensibility,” (Wolf, 70).

Revlon refused to place ads in this issue of Ms. because the women featured
on the cover were not wearing makeup, showing the power advertisers have on
the success of publications, even when the content promotes important issues.

So now the question becomes, how do we fix this? One of the first actions people should do is to be more aware of these advertisements and what they’re selling, and to not just simply be okay with it. “If enough people think studying the media is a waste of time, then the media themselves can seem less influential than they really are. Then they get off the hook for doing what they do best: promoting a white, upper-middle-class, male view of the world that urges the rest of us to sit passively on our sofas and fantasize about consumer goods while they handle the important stuff, like the economy, the environment, or child care” (Douglas, 11). There have already been several campaigns by companies, such as Aerie and Dove and the UN, but it is only the beginning. These types of advertising campaigns need to be seen as normal, and not something completely new and bold for its time. Douglas Kellner recommends, ““At the very least television advertising could be taxed as could print advertising for cigarettes, alcohol, and other socially undesirable products. The question of advertising also raises the question of the effects of advertising on our media system and whether a commercial media system really provides the best model,” (Kellner, 131). Some magazines and newspapers, such as Ms., have taken the risk and have decided to become nonprofits, so that they can get the messages across to educate and inform the public in an accurate way. But the most important part is this activism is the public. Each person has the right to approve or disprove of these ads by boycotting magazines or television shows. We can show advertisers we do not approve of their message and it needs to change. We will teach gender and sexuality in a way without any inaccuracies or monetary motivation. We are the ones in control of our lives and we need to remind each other of it, and show the mass media that they do not control us.

Works Cited

Butler, Judith. "1." Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990. 1-46. Print

Douglas, Susan J. Where the Girls Are: Growing up Female with the Mass Media. New York: Times, 1994. Print.

Kellner, Douglas. "Reading Images Critically: Toward a Postmodern Pedagogy."Journal of Education 170.3 (1988). Print.

Kilbourne, Jean. Beauty and the Beast of Advertising. Print.

Kilbourne, Jean. "The More You Subtract The More You Add," Cutting Girls Down to Size. Print.

Steinem, Gloria. "Ms. Magazine: Sex, Lies and Advertising."  Arlington: Ms. Magazine, 1990. 112-120.

Wolf, Naomi. "Culture." The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used against Women. New York: W. Morrow, 1991. Print.