Advertising is everywhere. Advertisements follow us at every location and manipulate our minds to believe the product is reliable, trustworthy, irresistible, and sensual. In recent decades advertisements have progressively become erotic and have appealed to our natural desires for relationships than to the need for the product itself. It is not uncommon to see a perfume advertisement with a naked woman holding her breasts, a denim commercial with a man and woman making love, or a fast food ad with young women prancing around in small bikinis. Despite this outward media on sex, society runs into the contradiction of sexual repression. With the increase of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases among teens, numerous people are quick to
…show more content…
According to Jean Kilbourne, advertisements are so compelling that everyone feels personally exempt from advertising since they influence our subconscious minds (468). In fact, only eight percent of advertisements are processed through the conscious mind while the remaining information is processed through the subconscious (Kilbourne 469). Advertisements have the power to influence our values, choices, wants, and needs. An individual ad can be entertaining, absurd, and quirky, but if we observe advertisements as an undivided unit they clearly dominate how the population functions. It is like we are under an inescapable mind control. Advertisements are unique in the way that they appeal to our very real and human desires such as sex and relationships. Kilbourne uses the example in her essay “Jesus is a Brand of Jeans” of a car ad that features a young woman and a man under a sheet, presumably making love, with a magazine draped over the woman’s face. The man was gazing into the magazine at a picture of a car while he continued to make love to the woman. Obviously this ad isn’t mean to be taken literally. A typical man is generally not going to fantasize about a car while having sex with a woman, but the advertisement still staples the idea into the mind that a car can fulfill the persons basic human wants (467). Sexually charged advertising can be damaging to teenagers, and especially females. Women in advertisements …show more content…
The sexual revolution was a movement where people became open-minded about sex, contraceptives, and homosexuality. The advertisements had escalated from hotdog ads with sexual innuendos in the 1950’s to full blown half-dressed women during the sexual revolution. For instance, an advertisement for Mickey’s Malt liquors new “big mouth opening” displayed a half dressed woman from the neck down. The slogan stated, “The first thing I noticed was her big mouth.” The advertisement was referring to the big mouth of the can, but the half dressed woman gave the advertisement another meaning. That type of advertising is fairly modest compared to the advertisements presented
According to Jean Kilbourne, advertisements are so compelling that everyone feels personally exempt from advertising since they influence our subconscious minds (468). In fact, only eight percent of advertisements are processed through the conscious mind while the remaining information is processed through the subconscious (Kilbourne 469). Advertisements have the power to influence our values, choices, wants, and needs. An individual ad can be entertaining, absurd, and quirky, but if we observe advertisements as an undivided unit they clearly dominate how the population functions. It is like we are under an inescapable mind control. Advertisements are unique in the way that they appeal to our very real and human desires such as sex and relationships. Kilbourne uses the example in her essay “Jesus is a Brand of Jeans” of a car ad that features a young woman and a man under a sheet, presumably making love, with a magazine draped over the woman’s face. The man was gazing into the magazine at a picture of a car while he continued to make love to the woman. Obviously this ad isn’t mean to be taken literally. A typical man is generally not going to fantasize about a car while having sex with a woman, but the advertisement still staples the idea into the mind that a car can fulfill the persons basic human wants (467). Sexually charged advertising can be damaging to teenagers, and especially females. Women in advertisements …show more content…
The sexual revolution was a movement where people became open-minded about sex, contraceptives, and homosexuality. The advertisements had escalated from hotdog ads with sexual innuendos in the 1950’s to full blown half-dressed women during the sexual revolution. For instance, an advertisement for Mickey’s Malt liquors new “big mouth opening” displayed a half dressed woman from the neck down. The slogan stated, “The first thing I noticed was her big mouth.” The advertisement was referring to the big mouth of the can, but the half dressed woman gave the advertisement another meaning. That type of advertising is fairly modest compared to the advertisements presented