Ashley Powers
Sell it
The media has a very influential way of affecting us. Through watching television we are constantly bombarded with ads selling products or persuading you to watch a certain movie or television program. Many are even persuaded enough to believe everything they read when they stream the net, read magazines, or read the newspaper. Or like my grandmother, who constantly listens to the radio, she is hooked on the latest gossip and happenings. Society is manipulated into the attraction of the media, and many do not even realize it. We are addicted to this overwhelming information that is presented to us day to day. In the article “The Culture Industry: Enlighten as Mass Deception, written by Horkheimer and Adorno, Horkheimer and Adorno do a great job summing up how the media shapes our minds and how we think. The media attracts people and changes our perception of things every day. Society is influenced by the culture industry, which uses the media as a way to reach people. The culture industry uses persuasion to convince people they need to buy things they do not need, or watch or listen to programs they really do not need to either.
Women in particular are easily influenced by the media and often times degraded in the media. American culture, as well as other cultures, use women as their selling point. It is apparent, even after watching some of the documentary in class Thursday; Sex sells. For some reason society is bound to fantasy when it comes to sexuality. Like this magazine ad for Lexus, there is this “sexy” blonde woman in a bikini with their product, a car. This ad comes off a bit degrading to me. What does she have to do with the car? Why is it important to have such an image displayed to us? I feel it is a marketing strategy for to sell the car because one will feel “cool” to obtain the product. The appreciation of use value is no longer sold. “This car is dependable, cost efficient, etc.” That’s no longer important. It’s all about the status quo and products that will make you fit in a superior position in society. Sexual images have become what Horkeimer and Adorno describe as the control. This type of control depicts what consumers are to buy. People become like robots in the consumer and producer relationship because even if they do not need the item and they can get something that works the same way if not better for a more cost efficient price people are still attracted to the items and buy them. You see ads like the one I have shown you across the board for selling automobiles. These types of ads use women’s bodies to draw attraction to the product. It has become a homogenous norm that has shaped our minds into believing these types of ads are normative; this is what is needed to sell the item. If this sexual woman was not presented along with the car, the product probably wouldn’t be as easily sold. The use of sexual images has become normative and important in the success of company sales.
Sell it
The media has a very influential way of affecting us. Through watching television we are constantly bombarded with ads selling products or persuading you to watch a certain movie or television program. Many are even persuaded enough to believe everything they read when they stream the net, read magazines, or read the newspaper. Or like my grandmother, who constantly listens to the radio, she is hooked on the latest gossip and happenings. Society is manipulated into the attraction of the media, and many do not even realize it. We are addicted to this overwhelming information that is presented to us day to day. In the article “The Culture Industry: Enlighten as Mass Deception, written by Horkheimer and Adorno, Horkheimer and Adorno do a great job summing up how the media shapes our minds and how we think. The media attracts people and changes our perception of things every day. Society is influenced by the culture industry, which uses the media as a way to reach people. The culture industry uses persuasion to convince people they need to buy things they do not need, or watch or listen to programs they really do not need to either.
Women in particular are easily influenced by the media and often times degraded in the media. American culture, as well as other cultures, use women as their selling point. It is apparent, even after watching some of the documentary in class Thursday; Sex sells. For some reason society is bound to fantasy when it comes to sexuality. Like this magazine ad for Lexus, there is this “sexy” blonde woman in a bikini with their product, a car. This ad comes off a bit degrading to me. What does she have to do with the car? Why is it important to have such an image displayed to us? I feel it is a marketing strategy for to sell the car because one will feel “cool” to obtain the product. The appreciation of use value is no longer sold. “This car is dependable, cost efficient, etc.” That’s no longer important. It’s all about the status quo and products that will make you fit in a superior position in society. Sexual images have become what Horkeimer and Adorno describe as the control. This type of control depicts what consumers are to buy. People become like robots in the consumer and producer relationship because even if they do not need the item and they can get something that works the same way if not better for a more cost efficient price people are still attracted to the items and buy them. You see ads like the one I have shown you across the board for selling automobiles. These types of ads use women’s bodies to draw attraction to the product. It has become a homogenous norm that has shaped our minds into believing these types of ads are normative; this is what is needed to sell the item. If this sexual woman was not presented along with the car, the product probably wouldn’t be as easily sold. The use of sexual images has become normative and important in the success of company sales.
I agree with your points about the media and women in America, when it comes to advertising women are used as an object. Advertisements using women in a derogatory way to sell objects are seen so regularly that society accepts it as the norm. I also think about gender roles as portrayed in the media, especially in advertisements. Specifically I think of the Dr. Pepper Ten. The guy in the commercial is in an action film setting and says that women would probably not enjoy an action film and would rather watch a chick flick. He goes on to do more “manly” things and at the end of the commercial he says, “Dr. Pepper Ten, It’s not for women.” Commercials or advertisements that show specific gender roles that people should have are continuing to be made. Therefore, people who watch these commercials, or see these advertisements, then see them as the norm, or the way that they should act and the cycle continues.
Cynthia Aynilian
Cynthia Aynilian