A...H...adve

A...H...adve

1. Gender

   • Categories
     • Domesticity
       • ADVERTS
         • Advertisements for domestic products, or products geared at childcare, are primarily aimed at women, and very seldom men.
           • Examples
             • MY Examples
               • Food: Knorr Cook-in Bag, mother cooking it serving son and father
               • Cleaning: Mr. Muscle Advert, shows woman struggling to clean the kitchen, while her child (son) sits at the nook doing homework and laughing. Male (super hero type) with big muscles flies into the kitchen. and explains he has a solution and explains how the product works.
               • Childcare, Vicks Vapo-Rub,, shows a sick child coughing and a mother feeling the child's forehead in a bedroom. Mother eases the child's chest by applying the decongestant. Caption "We make a mother's touch, a touch more soothing".
               • Domestic,: Dulux paint Ad, Luxurious Silk ad, the Women decides to paint the house and does so in a dress and high heel shoes, while the husband sits and works at a desk.
               • THEREFORE: Cooking, Cleaning, ChildCare and Domestic are still seen as a GENDERED Activity
             • General
               • Washing powder adverts, Washing machine Ads, and cleaning agents.
                 • These adverts use women to perpetuate a stereotype and patriarchal tradition that WOMEN belong at HOME caring for the Family!!!
         • Examining an Advert
           • LOOK at ROLES in which men and women are portrayed
         • Are women shown as housewives? Women shown as mothers? Women inside a home? Do they serve the men and boys? Do the men serve the woman? Do the men tell women how a product works? Are women isolated from other women? Women shown mostly preparing food, cleaning, and child care.
           • Further THEME: Women as the Working Mother or "Supermom"
     • Female objectification
       • More often outside, in the city or in nature. Standing up and the whole body with face included. Preparing food, cleaning the house, and being involved with childcare.
     • Male Objectification
       • Presented seated, inside, whether at home or not, and face isn't always included, eating food with the children, explaining how products work, having fun with their children.
         • Lines are more blurred than they were 30 years ago. and stereotypes aren't as definitive. Adverts from past = Coke adverts.

2. RACE

   • In South Africa - attempt to include all races, but sometimes forced.
     • South African context, black and white people are shown in similar adverts and settings. Stereotypical assumptions are STILL made where black males are shown as successful, above average athletes. Tendency to portray the Black male as Fashionable, and aspirational. General - social inequalities are ignored, eg. Black women are never portrayed as domestic workers and black men are seldom portrayed as manual laborers.
       • When this is done, it is usually white males doing the manual labour work, and there is a suggestion that manual labour is not the main source of income.

3. TARGET MARKET, CONTEXT, AND MEDIA TYPE

   • Demographics of the target market, is found in the advert itself and where its advertised.
   • The CONTEXT of the advertisement CAN clearly INFLUENCE its RECEPTION. Eg. Nando's and their subversive way of highlighting current news events. COUNTRY OF ORIGIN IS IMPORTANT!!! South Africa - has a UNIQUE Culture that is not found anywhere else. in the world.
   • Media type plays a role,, since a print advertisement is very different from a television advertisement. The type of info given differs. Eg. MAGAZINE gives more info for viewer to read, where as a BILLBOARD has to make an impact in seconds.