Pantene Advertising Analysis

Decent Essays
Converging our focus back on the commercial itself, Pantene is a hair-care product company which targets women as their primary customer. Strangely, there is not one scene in the commercial that shows a bottle of shampoo. It does, however, depicted the double standards that occur in current working life. While it conveyed the message that women are being oppressed on a daily basis, it subtly emphasized on the distorted idea of beauty. Advertising sells more than just a product, it sells gender identity. Commercials like these project the ways we presume men and women conduct themselves and not the way they actually behave (Goffman 1976 qtd. in Cortese 52). Besides, advertising indoctrinate consumers the cultural theory that men are dominant …show more content…
They had hour glass figures and flawless skin, contradicting the image of a “real women” because not all women are exactly as beautiful as the models in the commercial. Pantene utilizes the perfect provocateur (Cortese 54), that is an ideal image of a woman to promote its product. They emphasized a false idea of beauty that is smooth white skin, skinny figure and amazing hair. In relating beauty and gender stereotypes, Alexandra Petri made a sarcastic claim saying “Buy Pantene! Make sure you look your best while they are judging your workplace performance by unreasonable standards!” (Petri, www.thewashingtonpost.com). Petri’s statement made a point that Pantene is not really helping in eradicating gender stereotypes. According to Cortese, ads are meant to grab our attention and if it stimulates a desire, in this particular case, to look beautiful, it will be registered onto our subconscious and theoretically, will instigate us to purchase the product (27). Contrary to women’s beliefs on beauty, metrosexuality and muscular builds became beauty standards for men in advertisements (60). Men were illustrated in the commercial to have broad shoulders, a thick muscular neck, and a narrow waist defining the classic “V” shape that conveys the image of a protector (21). In addition, they were all clean-cut and some were seen in suits. However, women in the commercial were still viewed adversely despite being …show more content…
Pantene went against the quest to eliminate gender stereotypes by giving out words describing the actions of men and women. The next time somebody sees a woman looking at her reflection in the mirror, he or she might associate the woman with the word ‘vain’. Habits of labelling will be cultivated into people’s minds and gender stereotypes will again, perpetuate. Plus, the tagline “Be strong and shine” did not serve as a plausible method in overcoming this adversity as being confident alone shall not grant women emancipation from double standards. Ultimately, this commercial did not plan to assist in abolishing gender stereotypes but instead hoping to sell the shampoo itself as its focal

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