Specific purpose: To invite the audience into a dialogue about sexual objectification of women in

Transcription

1 Trujillo 1 Megan Trujillo Comm 2100 Fall 2011 Dr. Bell Topic: Is Sex a Good Advertising Technique? General purpose: To Invite Specific purpose: To invite the audience into a dialogue about sexual objectification of women in advertising. Central idea: Many advertisers use sexualized images of women to sell goods and services, but few people actually realize the negative consequences that result from portraying women as sexual objects. INTRODUCTION Attention getter: (Video of Paris Hilton s sexualized advertisement for Hardee s/carl s Jr.) I don t even need to ask if this caught your eye. Guys, you can wipe the drool off of your chin. Girls, you can wipe the disgusted look off of your face. All of you had surprised reactions to this advertisement. But that is exactly the point. It doesn t matter what reaction you had to this advertisement. The advertisers simply intended to catch your attention and bring awareness to their product. And I m sure you will agree with me that that is exactly what they did. Pretty brilliant, right? Some beg to differ. Credibility material: Everyday, you and I are exposed to sexualized advertisements in which women s bodies are used as an advertising ploy. We are all fully aware of this advertising trend because it is literally impossible to live one day without seeing at least one ad in which sex is used to sell a product or service. You cannot open a

2 Trujillo 2 magazine or newspaper without seeing a sexualized advertisement. You cannot drive down the street without seeing a sexualized billboard. And you cannot watch an hour of television without seeing a sexualized commercial. Relevance to audience: Preview of speech: Today, I would like to discuss the sexual objectification of women in advertising. I would like to bring your awareness to the cleverness of this advertising technique and also reveal the consequences of portraying women as sexual objects before inviting you to engage in discussion about this topic. Let s begin by becoming familiar with what sexual objectification is, the prevalence and influence of advertising in America today, and also the techniques that advertisers use to create sexualized advertisements. I. Body A. Sexual objectification occurs when a person s sexual attributes and physical attractiveness are separated from their personality, and are used to promote pleasure in other people. 1. Men are often victims of sexual objectification in advertisements, but according to an experiment conducted by Dr. Tom Reichert, a communication professor at Grady College, women are 3.7 times more likely to be portrayed sexually than were male models (Reichert). 2. This is why today I am solely focusing on the sexual objectification of women.

3 Trujillo 3 B. American advertising is a 100 billion dollar industry (Greening). 1. Researchers estimate that the average American sees approximately 37,000 television commercials a year (Stankiewicz). 2. Author, Jean Kilbourne, states: Advertising is our environment. We swim in it like fish swim in water. We cannot escape it advertising s messages are inside our intimate relationships, our homes, our hearts, our heads (Stankiewicz). Clearly, advertising is a very powerful form of social communication in our modern society. C. Let s also discuss the basic criteria used to identify a sexualized advertisement. 1. A woman is defined as a sex object if her sexuality is being used to sell a product. 2. Also, a woman is identified as a sex object if she has any of the following characteristics: a facial expression that suggests sexual desire, a seated position in which her legs are spread open, a sexually suggestive activity such as caressing another person, sexualized make-up such as bright red lipstick, excessive amounts of exposed skin, or a camera angle that emphasizes a woman s breasts, hips, buttocks, lower abdomen, or inner thighs (Stankiewicz). Next, let s examine the positive effects of sexualized advertisements. II. Body

4 Trujillo 4 A. Sexualized advertisements positively affect our society, especially in the cultural and business realms. 1. They are essentially pictures of reality. a. Sexualized advertisements are merely reflections of gender displays that our society has created through the interactions of people around the world. Advertisers draw upon the repertoires of everyday life to create means for defining and understanding gender relations in our society. b. For example, according to Erving Goffman, author of the book Gender Advertisements, women are often depicted as submissive and inferior in advertisements. For instance, women are often shown barely touching an item, as though they were not in full control of it. Women are also positioned lower than men, such as sitting on the floor, on a bed, or in a chair. Additionally, in advertisements with both a man and a woman, the man is usually shown protecting the woman (Jhally). c. Goffman states: These actions in advertisements seek to give structure and stability to a shared social life, to communicate the system of meaning within which individuals are located and within which they must be viewed (Jhally). Advertisements provide a gauge for what is desirable and what is normal in society. 2. Sexualized advertisements benefit business by increasing revenues.

5 Trujillo 5 a. The Paris Hilton commercial was aired in 2005 in order to promote Hardee s and Carl s Jr. Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger. After airing the commercial, the restaurant reported a 1.7 percent increase in sales (Noe). b. This sales increase is very slight, but the amount of public awareness that the company received compensated for this insignificant percentage. The advertisement generated hundreds of news stories, increased traffic to the company s website for extra footage of Hilton, and also boosted awareness of the restaurant in general. The commercial was replayed on news programs and late night talk shows and got more than 4 million hits on the website SpicyParis.com (Noe). Like I mentioned before, advertisers mainly intend to spark your awareness to their product or service. This Paris Hilton commercial does exactly that. Now, let s take a look at the negative effects of sexualized advertisements. B. Sexualized advertisements foster various different problems such as psychological and health issues in young women and also violence issues. 1. Sexualized advertisements contribute to the negative stereotype of women. a. Women s bodies are emphasized and their personality and emotions are ignored in sexualized ads, communicating the idea

6 Trujillo 6 that women s sole function is to satisfy public voyeuristic tendencies. b. Advertisements with sexualized images of females cause women to experience internalization, which is the acceptance of media images as cultural beauty standards. Through mass media, women come to believe that their bodies and faces need alteration, augmentation and disguise. The internalization of cultural beauty standards promotes body shame, body dissatisfaction, appearance anxiety, and depression. c. According to the American Psychological Association, it takes only 15 minutes of exposure to video clips that objectify women to make female audience members feel more conscious and depressed about their bodies because they cannot meet the idealized standards of beauty (Mwilu). Furthermore, research has shown a connection between the objectification of women in advertisements and the development of eating disorders, low selfesteem, depression and negative feelings regarding sexuality (Stankiewicz). 2. The negative stereotypes of women created by sexualized advertisements encourage male violence towards women. a. According to researchers at the National Violence Against Women Organization, it is estimated that 876,000 rapes and 5.9 million physical assaults are committed against women in the U.S. each

7 Trujillo 7 year ("Violence Against Women in the United States: Statistics"). Women ages are at greatest risk of domestic violence, and also suffer from the highest rates of rape ("Violence Against Women in the United States: Statistics"). This age group of women is also the same age group of women that are most exposed to the types of media that display sexualized advertisements such as magazines. b. Sexualized advertisements encourage men to regard women s bodies as products to be acquired or as objects that they are entitled access to. They also promote the idea in men s minds that women s value rests solely in their physical attributes and sexuality. c. An increase in the male acceptance of violence towards women and an increase in vulnerability to criticism and verbal abuse due to the negative attitude that women have towards their bodies causes an increase in the likelihood of violence against women, whether it be physical, verbal or emotional abuse or assault. Now that I have discussed the two most dominant stances on the objectification of women in advertising, I would like to open the floor to discussion about this topic. CONCLUSION:

8 Trujillo 8 Summary statement: Thank you for your questions and input. As seen throughout this speech, the use of sexualized images of women to sell products is a technique highly favored by advertisers. It is not uncommon to see highly sexualized images of females promoting cars, food, furniture, mobile phones, and special services. Audience response statement: However, this consistent use of women s bodies has become more than a popular marketing tactic; this advertising ploy represents broader societal perceptions of women and allows the sexual objectification of women to become an ordinary part of advertising. It is not ordinary, and it is not acceptable. Sexual objectification of women in advertising fosters serious psychological issues within the minds of our society s young women and encourages unwarranted violence against women. WOW statement: Sex may sell. In fact, sex does sell, as demonstrated by the sales increase that Hardee s and Carl s Jr. experienced after airing the Paris Hilton commercial. But considering the indirect yet invasive consequences of sexualized advertisements that negatively portray women, advertisers should not rely on sex to sell their products and services. Why not rely on other extremely successful techniques, such as humor, to market and advertise?

9 Trujillo 9 References Greening, Kacey D. "The Objectification and Dismemberment of Women in the Media." Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences 5.1 (2006). Web. 20 Nov Jhally, Sut. "Advertising, Gender and Sex: What's Wrong with a Little Objectification?" Media/Cultural Studies: Critical Approach. New York: Peter Lang, Print. Mwilu, Lwanga. "Buy a Burger, Buy Sex: South African Media Representation of Women." Consultancy Africa Intelligence. Consultancy Africa Intelligence, 16 June Web. 20 Nov < view=article&id=438:buy-a-burger-buy-sex-south-african-media-representations-ofwomen&catid=59:gender-issues-discussion-papers&itemid=267>. Noe, Eric. "How Well Does Paris Sell Burgers?" ABC News. ABC News Internet Ventures, 29 June Web. 20 Nov Reichert, Tom. "The Prevalence of Sexual Imagery in Ads Targeted to Young Adults." Journal of Consumer Affairs 37.1 (2003): Communication and Mass Media Complete. Web. 20 Nov Stankiewicz, Julie M., and Francine Rosselli. "Women as Sex Objects and Victims in Print Advertisements." Communication and Mass Media Complete. EBSCO, 15 Jan Web. 20 Nov "Violence Against Women in the United States: Statistics." National Organization for Women. National Organization for Women, Web. 20 Nov <