Advertisements: How Do They Affect Us? Jean Kilbourne, an expert in the effects of advertising, insists, “advertising does a great deal more than simply reflect cultural attitudes…[it] is an effective and pervasive medium of influence and persuasion, and its influence is cumulative, often subtle, and primarily unconscious”(96). In other words, Kilbourne believes that advertising affects viewers by discretely instilling ideas and values into their subconscious minds. Of course, ads are just made to sell a product, but they often sell much more that that. The thousands of advertisements we encounter every day deliver implicit messages that influence the way we think. The 2005 Liquid Plumr ad follows this trend. Found in the Redbook magazine,
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Consider the stereotype of men the ad presents: strong, handsome, and flirty, and ready to come to the rescue of any damsel in distress suffering from clogged drains. Not all men are ripped, not all men are extraordinarily good-looking, and not all men are valiant heroes, and that’s perfectly fine! The man displayed in this ad portrays an unrealistic standard for men. Since this ad seems to be directed towards women, men may not be affected directly by its message. However, it does create an unreachable definition of the type of man a woman should have. Depictions like this may even the grounds for failing relationships and marriages across the country. Women are exposed to these images time after time and begin to expect these qualities in their own man, only to discover that he falls short every time. And who wouldn’t? No average man could meet expectations like those! Yet, the Liquid Plumr ad and many others like it continue to set these standards into the subconscious minds of women. As a result, when women see their own man with all his flaws, conflict arises because the women have these presumptions of what a man should look and behave like etched into her
Consider the stereotype of men the ad presents: strong, handsome, and flirty, and ready to come to the rescue of any damsel in distress suffering from clogged drains. Not all men are ripped, not all men are extraordinarily good-looking, and not all men are valiant heroes, and that’s perfectly fine! The man displayed in this ad portrays an unrealistic standard for men. Since this ad seems to be directed towards women, men may not be affected directly by its message. However, it does create an unreachable definition of the type of man a woman should have. Depictions like this may even the grounds for failing relationships and marriages across the country. Women are exposed to these images time after time and begin to expect these qualities in their own man, only to discover that he falls short every time. And who wouldn’t? No average man could meet expectations like those! Yet, the Liquid Plumr ad and many others like it continue to set these standards into the subconscious minds of women. As a result, when women see their own man with all his flaws, conflict arises because the women have these presumptions of what a man should look and behave like etched into her