Advertising: Boon or Curse for Women

Today everyone needs to advertise their products to inform the customers about the product, increase the sales, acquire market share, and attain top position in their respective industry. Every business spends lot of money for advertising their products but the money spent will lead to success only when the best techniques of advertising are used for the product. In recent years, advertising has witnessed a significant transformation in attracting customer to buy/use their products/services. The need for advertisements has risen to great levels in print and visual media. One among the transformation is the way women are depicted in advertising, with changing times, reflecting the transformation taking place in society. Advertising is one of the major media that affect our daily life consciously and unconsciously and are responsible to play a significant role in shaping the society in a much broader perspective. Women today are no longer consolidated behind kitchen walls. Their aspiration for stepping out in the world made society to think differently. Marketer wisely utilized this transformation process to launch their product and advertisement strategically. This paper is a part of research work and the report will seek to define the portrayal of women in advertisements and its effect on cultural values. Survey research method is used for the analysis on the basis of gender and age. The literature review indicates that the women are portrayed mainly as an object of attraction. The results argue that the portrayal in advertising is changing the concept of respect about women, spreading uncultured values and also indicate women's physical beauty as an instrument to induce the products demands.

The status of women undergoing change in educated societies, more than feminism, advertisements promote concept of women in a media age. The power of commercial advertisements not only influence younger generation, but also evens the gender role education. The advertisement factor more than diffusing attitude, invariably contributes in transforming social and economic fabrics of traditional societies. Besides biological, even cultural status and role defines the concept of women in society. Moreover, changing concept of women has a role to play in social and economic development. This paper aims at analyzing how advertisements contribute to changing concept of women and how that influence socioeconomic prospects developing societies. The secondary research methods glean into research papers and Meta-analyze the subject to understand the strategy of advertisements to reinforce the gender empowerment. As noted by American writer John gray, Men are motivated and empowered when they feel needed. Women are motivated and empowered when they feel cherished.

2014

A number of factors influence the cultural values, lifestyles, and behaviour of a society, the prevalence of mass media has lead to the conclusion that advertising plays a major role in influencing and transmitting social values. The portrayal of women in advertising is an issue that has received a great deal of attention through the years. It is said that advertising contributes to the role of stereotyping of women and ethnic minorities. Advertisements reflect the stereotype that women do not do important things, are dependent on men, lack individuality are regarded by men primarily as sex objects ,are preoccupied with beauty and motherhood and should be in home .Advertisements reflect and shape our values .Therefore what is portrayed must be accurate and true representation of the women community. Advertisers should portray women in diverse roles and not just be sensitive to them in order to influence the purchase behaviour. As per law also no advertisement is permitted which in i...

— The primary purpose of this paper is to understand people's perception about overt sexuality and objectification of women in advertisements through the ages. Substantiating the content with both-current trending advertisements and previous studies that have been conducted, the research paper analyses the difference in perception of advertisements among generations and brings to light the intentional shift in focus by brands from the features of the brand to the models in the ad. Women are particularly vulnerable to an advertiser's use of representation of people as symbols and are relatively powerless because of male dominance in today's society. Index Terms: Overt sexuality, objectification of women, advertising depictions and subordination of women

Media International Australia, 1984

Journal for Educators,Teachers and Trainers, 2023

The study qualitatively explores several past and recent advertisements that have evolved, conflicting and defeating women's roles in society. The study further discusses how advertisements have accelerated the concept of 'emphasized femininity' (Patterson et al., 2009) through the inevitable maledominated population discussed by Brule (2020). It contributes to an ever-expanding challenge of gender disparity, stereotyping women and docile responsibilities, thereby propagating inequalities through the digital and printed advertising world. The objective of the research is to purposely select regular advertisements and their symbolic representation that might have promoted women's engagement, their struggle, either responsible for identity stagnation or an expansive identity. The paper has strategically reviewed popular content that uncovers to transform societal myth and women objectification in restoring their equal natural existence. The study concludes the usage and abuses of advertisement concordant to inter-disciplinary inquiry into the laws, policies, and sociopolitical activities within a democratic state.

nowadays all forms of media including advertisements are a powerful tool for influencing public opinion which can be used for positive changes in the society or abused to maintain the status quo of injustice and inequality. It is very clear from the commercials that are going on in Pakistani electronic media that women are defined in their relation to men, while men are defined in relation to their work or their creativity. These advertisements show very stereotypical role of women and so are largely responsible for stereotyping women in the society. The focus of this study is going to be the advertisements in Pakistani electronic media because advertisements are a form of persuasive discourse that has a great impact on the social perceptions of the masses. This research aims to discuss the portrayal of women in the commercials of Pakistani TV channels. The data of ,,,,,,,TV commercials is collected and then analyzed through content analysis. The research uses the framework of Kabira Masinjilla to analyze the gender depiction in the advertisements. The result indicates that women are portrayed as submissive and are defined in relation to women, in Pakistani TV commercials.

Journal of English Language and Literature, 2018

By promulgating the principle of equal status for the women, the movement of feminism has questioned, criticized, and protested against the conventional images of woman. By re-defining the existence of woman it compelled both men and women of the society to comprehend the identity of the woman from a different, hitherto neglected perspective. However, with the rampant socio-cultural changes due to the globalization, feminism has been trapped in new trauma. In this post-capital, post-post-modern world, all the revolutionary ideas are swiped away. Amidst this, several rejected values are re-nurturing their roots. This revival has made many revolutionary movements and thoughts dead. By watching the media that is the complete product of globalization and especially the advertisements that are the effective means of communication and manifesting tools of the contemporary culture one is sure to ask whether like all other disciplines there is the death of feminism. The presen...

Saudi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Commercial advertisements play a significant role to introduce or define a product, its quality and its uniqueness to a purchaser. The roles of advertisers are thus very crucial in the modern day cut throat competition. The present study has examined how advertisements have depicted women in popular commercials from different points of view. It is found from the study that women have been projected as mothers, sisters and friends as per the situational demand. In case of older women, nurture and care are depicted and it is shown how they play a pivotal role in their families and thereby maintain social balance. In case of middle-aged women, their love and care for their children remain the central point of focus; whereas in the case of young women, their charm and relationships are the point of focus. However, some advertisements focus on erotic side and depict women in such a manner which hurts the culture and balance of the society.