Gender In Advertising

931 Words4 Pages
“Stereotypes can be thought of as theories that people carry around in their heads about how members of a particular group think, look, and behave, and how these attributes are linked,” (Crawford, 2011). Stereotypes are used by advertising agencies to sell products for men and women, children and adults, Caucasians and African Americans. When using this strategy, the marketing companies are choosing specific stereotypes (gender, race, age, ethnicity, etc.) to target. This paper will examine gender stereotyping in advertising. The examples I have found of gender stereotypes in advertising are perfume ads for Vera Wang and Giorgio Armani. As defined in the book, Transformations, “gender stereotypes are networks of related beliefs that reflect the ‘common wisdom’ about men and women,” (Crawford, 2011). The contrast between the two ads is drastic when examined closely. When glancing at the ads from a distance they would seem similar with the exception of which gender they are intended to target. The Vera Wang ad is for a new women’s fragrance and the Giorgio Armani ad is for a new men’s cologne. The colors used in these ads are vastly different. The Vera Wang ad uses the stereotypical “girl” colors, pinks and purples and has a lighter tone. The Giorgio Armani ad uses dark shades of blue. Both ads depict romantic scenes. But, the Vera Wang ad is a more classic, fairytale scene with the man bringing flowers to the woman’s balcony. The Giorgio Armani ad is a more sexual scene with both the man and woman appearing to be naked in the sheets on an outside balcony. These elements feed into gender stereotypes in the sense that females usually imagine a fairytale type romance whereas, males tend to imagine a more physical romance. There is one element that I have found very interesting when comparing these two ads. This element being that in the Vera Wang ad it
Open Document