Thursday, October 24, 2013
Advertisements in Flex and SI for Women- Shaun, Billy, Travis and Nicole
The advertisements in Flex and SI for Women differed fairly drastically. Each magazine focused on their target market and therefore had advertisements that would effectively reach these markets. In SI for Women, the target market would be women in sports. They magazine did a great job of highlighting women playing sports as 69% of the advertisements were of "Athletic Competence". Another aspect of the advertising in SI for Women that I found to be surprising, yet refreshing was that there was zero instances of "Soft Pornography". Clearly, SI for Women was promoting the right sort of ads while still publishing. Flex on the other hand had a very different set of advertisements. Flex focused on huge men showing off their muscles. These advertisements are meant to attract their man readers which are committed body builders. These men wore far less clothing than the women in Sports Illustrated for Women. 44% of the advertisements were of Dietary Supplements, 19% were of Knowledge systems, and 17% were of bodybuilding equipment. In terms of adornment of the body, 15% were of cosmetics.
The messages sent by each magazine were very different. The ads in SI for Women were much more upbeat and encouraging, while Flex had advertisements that told readers that they are not good enough yet. SI for Women showed a wide range of athletes from different sports posing with an array of products. Some advertisements showed athletes stretching and preparing, while others used sentimental value by showing a couple or a family. Flex showed very muscular men advertising supplements or workout equipment. They sent the message that you are not man enough until you look like the guys in the ads.
In selecting the picture of femininity and masculinity from each of the respective advertisements, we found the selection to be very simple. In Flex, the image of masculinity was of a muscular male, playing a game of pool with an attractive woman on each side of him. This conveyed masculinity because he is playing a game with attractive women and he is in great shape. The image of femininity was of a woman in short shorts and a bikini top walking out onto the beach. She seemed like an all american girl with a good smile, body, and very attractive.
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These articles show the differences on how magazines want to portray men and women athletes. I believe in many cases magazines and reports want to sell products with women by either selling their faces or bodies, or sell the product according to the sport in which they play. The same goes for men, who typically in magazines and other advertisements are seen with no shirts and in some way appealing through their looks. Magazines and ads put the attractive people in their works in order to give off the idea that either only people who look a certain way or built a certain way use this product. Consumers see this and are unaware to that aspect and become accustom to this and still go out and buy the products. The only problem for me is that companies never show who really goes out and buys the products but instead in ads sell the people who are in the ads as a way to attract consumers. Yes this technique works and used a lot nowadays, but that makes our society more shallow of who and who cannot be in certain ads and magazines. This is why there is a lot of diverse messages seen in magazines and ads.
ReplyDelete-Eddie Hodges
I agree with Eddie that the way men and women are advertised in magazines today is quite shallow. The class that used to be shown by athletes has become obsolete. This is not necessarily athletes fault, it is the continuous lowering of standard by society that allows sex to sell so well. Athletics are a great place to find fit and beautiful people, but that is simply not what sports are about. It has become an honor, in some respects, to be viewed in an objective way. I say this because athletes usually do not hesitate to be on the cover of magazines. It is the magazines that have changed our standards of class in today’s society.
ReplyDelete-Jay Clark