This ad gives me mixed feelings. After looking at it for longer than the average second or two it makes me a little angry. The feeling that I get goes past the obviouse sexism you can see in the ad. It makes me feel angry because some people get this idea that these ads manipulate people more than they do. Its one thing to say that ads created our idea of beauty, advertising comes from culture and influences culture so I am not ashamed to say that advertising may manipulate my idea of beauty. I have never met someone in this day and age that isnt a senior citizen that actually thinks in the way that ads like this premote.
The design doesnt really evoke any emotions although I can see how it helps to objectify by focusing on the breasts but it is a bra ad so what do you want them to do. The message makes me feel kind of angry but it is kind of funny too. I kind of see it as a joke myself but Im not sure that, thats what the add writers were going for. I would hope that they don't seriously view women in this way. The ad seems to say that if a woman is attractive, she doesn't necessarily need to know how to do other things too.
From a rhetorical and visual design point of view, it uses the qualities described in the William's piece. There is proximity in that the words of the ad are placed right above the focal point and the place where your eyes start, the woman's breasts. The lighting makes the woman the main focus of the ad. The contrast of the white type against the woman and the burgundy background make it stand apart, just as the brightness of the woman makes her stand out. The main alignment is in the symmetry of thewoman's body, further exaggerated by the lines that the bra creates. Also, the lines and the black bra against the woman's body also draw your attention to the breasts. There isn't much repetition because the ad is so simple.
1 comment:
I agree with you on the idea that ads today do not affect our perception of beauty, but our perception of beauty has already been molded and formed to fit what our culture today has defined as beautiful. On the other side of this argument, when are people most influenced into the way that they are taught to think? When they are little. I’m 100% sure that there are little kids running around in the world looking at these ads and have this ideas engraved into their head of, “if I’m ‘beautiful’ I don’t need to be able to do anything” and that is where the problem lies. These ads come from culture yes, but every year the ads push the boundaries a little further of what they can show which pushes the younger generations to think that it is ok. When they grow up who designs the ads? The same people that were looking at them when they were in 2nd and 3rd grade. So yeah, the ads do come from our own culture but that culture is run from the giant cycle of seeing images and thinking that they are appropriate.
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