Looking at feminism in future Advertising.
Nick Abbotson - u1112739
Throughout this essay I will be briefly explaining feminism
in the past, present and mainly future within advertising. I will be explaining
why women shampoo adverts have become less sexualised and more feminist and why
this will be increasing in the future.
Feminism
is ultimately an ideology/movement defending equal rights for women, socially,
politically, culturally and economically. In the past sexism has caused a major
issue for women who do not have equal rights to men. As time has progressed women have become more equal
to men, rightfully. It is clear to see that
there are some progress being made as, Hilary Clinton was running for president
in America, which is a serious step politically in seeking gender equality.
Feminism these days is something thought of as ‘cool’ and ‘trendy’. There are many celebrities who are proud to
say they are feminists, which is good as they are in the public eye and role
models for many. Big names in modern fame such as Beyoncé, Cameron Diaz and Angelina
Jolie have all openly admitted that they are feminists. A feminist supports the
rights of equality for women. The feminist theory is to figure the nature of
gender inequality and roles of women in everyday life, past, present and
future.
Previously, woman’s rights were very different to how they
are today. Comparing the use of women in advertising today to the past it has
extremely changed and come along way. Women were previously seen as ‘objects’
‘housewives’, and stereotypically often found in adverts that were to do with
cooking. It has developed since then and will continue to develop in the future.
Today we hear of many feminist, it is not hidden away like
before. It is almost becoming a trend where women look up to other women within
the media who will openly admit that they are a feminist. Women today see rights that allow them to have
powerful jobs like men, and not a ‘stay at home housewife’.
Now in the ‘Third Wave’ of feminism, a response to the
apparent failures of the movement called the ‘Second Wave’ of feminism that
started in the wake of the war until the 1990’s, that was named by Rebecca
Walker, a bisexual African-American woman that felt the second wave of feminism
failed to voice the women that were young, homosexual, and of other ethnicity.
Advertising stereotypically used to portray a nuclear
family, where the man was the breadwinner and the women was a stay at home
wife. Therefore women would be shown in food adverts, or products aiming at men
as they were the buyers in the products being sold. Companies would then target
men in their advertising with the assumption that ‘sex sells’. Today’s
advertising also has the approach of ‘sex sells’. Adverts have the use of good
looking women to sell something well, either for the male audience who have the
use of women being sexually appealing to the male audience. For the female
audience like a shampoo advert again they use attractive women to sell a
product making women rather envious. Today this is constantly changing and
adapting as most women today are unhappy with the idea of women in advertising
being ‘stick thin’ and really good looking making it unrealistic to real life
and for most women. The feminist movement has allowed women to go out and work
and make money which has changed everything in advertising. Women now have a
say in the adverts. For example, Marks and Spencer (like most other retailers)
would use beautiful stick think models in their adverts, whereas now they have
gone for powerful, influential female figures to advertise their products,
whatever size age or look they bring. 
Here you can see the
likes of Annie Lennox, Baroness Lawrence, not necessarily stand out beautiful
women, but powerful women that are well known and very successful. Due to
feminism becoming more of the ‘norm’ today, women are having a say about the
former ideas on how the perfect women should look like, and would often rebel
against products being adverts with unrealistic good looking women. Today
advertising is taking the route of more
influential, powerful figures rather than, stick think beautiful women not
wearing a lot, women don’t want to see that, and they have a lot more say in
this now, which is great.
Here you can see the
likes of Annie Lennox, Baroness Lawrence, not necessarily stand out beautiful
women, but powerful women that are well known and very successful. Due to
feminism becoming more of the ‘norm’ today, women are having a say about the
former ideas on how the perfect women should look like, and would often rebel
against products being adverts with unrealistic good looking women. Today
advertising is taking the route of more
influential, powerful figures rather than, stick think beautiful women not
wearing a lot, women don’t want to see that, and they have a lot more say in
this now, which is great.
Feminism has a positive impact on advertising these days which
is only going to grow. This is down to a number of things, equality in race,
age, gender and sexuality which is getting better and it shows in adverts.
Women economically are getting stronger, earning more money, getting better jobs
and therefore able to do their own thing more, growing as individuals, not so
heavily reliant on men making money for them and their family. In looking at
shampoo adverts to support this, I have picked out a Pantene advert that
diverts away the sexuality you would usually expect in such an advert. The
advert shows two business people, man and woman, both got different attributes,
but both as good as each other, both as strong. However it also shows that when
a woman does do what a man does, it is shown and seen in a different light, a
very powerful advert really showing feminist ideas. The advert ends with “Don’t let labels hold you back. Be strong and shine.”
This is saying to women, don’t let the label of not working and not doing what
a man can do hold you back, because its rubbish and doesn’t apply anymore, be
who you want, don’t hold back.
Herbal Essences
advert has a sexual undertone. The advert portrays a woman having an orgasmic
experience with a shampoo. This meaning the shampoo can make you feel as good
as an orgasm does. Due to using attractive, naked women, making sexual sounds,
this will allow viewers to remember this advert, this then meaning remembering
their product and would appeal to both the female and male audience. I have
picked this particular advert out because it highlights an anti-feminist
advert. Women could definitely find this offensive to look at rather than
appealing. ‘A totally organic experience’, I like how they emphasise the word
organic, very similar to orgasmic, this again has a sexual undertone. As well
as ‘Also turns H2O into H2OHHH’. This herbal essences adverts shouts out
anti-feminism purely because of how much they base it around sex and the
serious lack of clothes on the woman, representing women purely as a ‘piece of
meat’, why not make this a male in the shower? 
In
comparison however, more recently Herbal Essences have moved away from this and
moves onto making the adverts based around well-known big celebrity figures, like
Nicole Scherzinger for their ‘new reinvented herbal essences’ quoted from their
most recent advert. This recent quote shows they are not just talking about the
product but everything around it, the whole advert has reinvented itself. This
new version shows not a lot of nakedness, they make it more about the product,
and a lot less about the sex. Visuals and colours have been used more which
again highlights colours of the ingredients in the product. It is all a lot
more advertising the product by showing the product, rather than a woman pretty
much naked having an orgasm over a shampoo, which is completely assuming that
sex sells. This advert has a lot more about it, a lot more class and more eye
catching. They have moved away from the naked model screaming and concentrated
more on how amazing the product is for your hair. The fact that they use Nichol
Scherzinger for their advert, they still use a beautiful woman, but a well-known,
popular and powerful woman, which attracts all audiences, not just men!
In conclusion, it is clear to
see how far we have come since the era where women were only seen as sex
symbols and stay at home wives, to the less sexual adverts of shampooing and
over to celebrities being the face of an advert instead, but what does this
mean for the future? I briefly showed how feminism was non-existent in old
advertising, just sexist. Also how that has moved on and developed into a more
feminist life, where women are more equal these days and highlighting that in
some examples of advertising. Today adverts on the whole are getting better,
and after my findings I still agree with what I first thought, that feminism is
being portrayed more in adverts and will do even more in future adverts.
Feminism is having a huge impact on adverts today and this will continue to
grow. In the future I see adverts promoting women, women appearing stronger and
having more of a say and adverts which are not based around sexual undertones.
Women are rightfully having more of a say and getting more power, economically,
socially, politically and culturally and because of this, adverts will develop
more and more around a feministic approach in the future. As feminism is becoming more known, and more
people are proud to talk about feminism on a whole this will increase within
time and will be heavily shown through advertising. Women will start to appreciate adverts like
shampoo adverts which will no longer offend women but promote women and leave
the female population warming towards what they witness instead of left feeling
insecure and inadequate to men.
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