但愿爱你少一点,公输子削竹木以为鹊,近日猪价
广告已成为资本主义社会营销的一个组成部分。随着市场营销学发展如此之快，近年来有关广告图像和语言的谈论有很多。本文将对广告和广告图像在现代资本主义社会中的作用做一个综合研究。
首先，本文会对广告，广告图像和广告性别做一个简单的概述。然后，本文将键入有关广告及广告形象理论。其次，对现代资本主义社会中的营销意义及结果，广告是如何在现代资本主义社会所需的经济，政治，和文化中形成和回应的这样一个辩论分析。最后，本文还将提出对广告图像设计提出相关建议来创造一个没有性别刻板印象的健康社会。
1. Introduction 介绍
Advertising has become an integral part of the capitalist society marketing. Ads images and language have been talked about a lot in recent years as the marketing society subject develops so fast. This essay will present a comprehensive study of the role the advertising and advertising images play in modern capitalist societies.
Firstly, this essay will make a general overview of advertising, advertising images and advertising gender. Following this, the essay will key theories about advertising and advertising images. Subsequently it will provide the critical analysis of the significance and consequences of marketing within modern capitalist society, and how advertising shapes and responds to the economic, political and cultural needs of modern capitalist societies. Finally, it will put forward some recommendation for the ads imaged designing so as to build a healthy society with no gender stereotypes.
2. General overview of advertising, advertising images and gender 对广告，广告形象和性别的总体概述
Advertising is a major tool in modern marketing. It will bring a brand many potential customers and lead the current consumers to return to the brand in order to get something represented by the brand images-grasping, tender, or status or gentle. That’s because advertising images stand for something greater than what products actually and these ads made up of words and images turns products into complex cultural symbols.
In addition, the advertising images can shape the minds of the public so that the people’s concepts, values and views will be changed. This is the inevitable consequence of the advertising. These values will remain in the people’s minds which guide their behaviors including buying behaviors and other ones in their daily life. In people’s daily life, their minds are influenced and shaped by the ads.
In modern capitalist societies, images of women make up the large part of the advertising images and these images place emphasis on women’s emotional, gentle, tender and self–touching characteristics which give rise to the gender stereotype.（McArthur and Eisen，1976)This is bad for feminism and leads to the bias and discriminations held against women. As a consequence, the society moves towards a gender discrimination one which is distorted, unfair and back-forward. Therefore, the ads should assume the responsibility for its consequences. What’s more, the ads designers, responsible for the social healthy development, have to change the ads images and words
3. Key theories about advertising and advertising images广告和广告形象的主要理论
3.1 Advertising as a ‘positive experience’ 广告作为积极经验
According to Falk (1994), images in ads have become more and more independent of the product itself and one experience that will get people out of the unfavorable and negative situation is called the positive experience. In modern capitalist societies, advertising images increasingly bear less relevance to the product itself marketed and has been advocating a positive experience through which the consumer can obtain things they lacks in their relations with others or without which they cannot fit into this capitalist society because Ads concentrate on the point where individuals and society meet. Moreover, ads make the product a cultural symbol representing social status, identify, lifestyle and fashion or fortune. Thus, people are buying an experience, lifestyle and social identity when they buy some product. Buying the product can enable consumers to feel more comfortable, confident and successful in social interactions. That’s why ads focus on the images which can meet people’s social needs and the language of advertising also make up a desirable positive experience that stimulate the consumers to get involved in the experience.
3.2 Female Gender Stereotypes in Advertising 在广告中女性的刻板形象
Gender stereotypes refer to conventional beliefs about sex-linked traits and roles, psychological characteristics and behaviors describing women and men. (Browne, 1998) Sexism means describing women’s capabilities and potential in an inferior way and putting women in the position to play clichéd traditional and decorative roles”. (Plakoyiannaki, 2008)The Stereotypes in advertising show that women are decorative, dependent, emotional or childlike while men are strong and masculine. Goffman (1979) explored the more subtle forms of gender stereotype in his Gender Advertisements which is regarded as the most extensive and detailed studies of print media advertisements.
1. Relative size
Man is taller
Woman is sitting or lying while man is standing
The Height shows men should hold the authority in society.
2. Feminine touch
Women caress or cradle an object
Men grasp or manipulate
Self touching (women)
3. Licensed withdrawal
Women: emotional
Hands over mouth / against cheek
Finger in mouth
Fiddling with hair
Staring into distance
Open mouth
Women experience ‘glee’ more than men
Ritualisation and subordination（as showed below）
These signify that women should be docile and subordinate and emotional should be characteristic of women while men should be strong and play the dominant role in society.
In contrast to the women image, the men in adverting are strong, masculine and standing to show their power and dominance (as showed below).
What is ironic is that although some major brands reduce their use of women body images dinted with gender stereotype in advertising, there are more and more distorted women body images which bear little relevance to the product itself (as showed below)as we enter into the media explosion era when the adverting runs rampant.
Advertising stereotypes and the distorted body images reflect the social reality to some extent but the stereotypes will lead to an unhealthy society in which the gendered ideology will be more influential.
4. Significance and consequences of marketing within modern capitalist society在资本主义社会里营销的意义和结果
Advertising not only can promote product selling and marketing but also shape societal attitudes and values. People will inevitably be influenced by advertising images and language. And the fact is that most of the advertising images of women are negative and unhealthy and women’s bodies are sometimes distorted. It is obvious that as a consequence, the gender stereotypes are reinforced and have taken root deep in the people’s minds. With the unhealthy advertising images of women influencing the public, men become more dominant while women subconsciously become more subordinate. This will result in the men’s control and dominance over women.
4.1 Significance of advertising within modern capitalist society资本主义社会中广告的意义
Advertising serves the marketing functions shapes and responds to the economic, political and cultural needs of modern capitalist societies and mould societal attitudes.
4.1.1 Significant marketing functions based on Saussure’s ‘linguistic sign’ theory基于Saussure语言理论的有意义的营销功能
The product and the culturally constituted world have become in fact one and the same in the minds of the consumers as “advertising is a conduit through which meaning constantly pours from the culturally constituted world to consumer goods”. (McCracken, 1986) The product carries many meanings which stimulate people’s buying desire.
According to Saussure, every ‘linguistic sign’ carries two sides- the signifier and the signified. The signifier refers to the ‘material aspect’ – such as images which include sound image-what you say and iconic image-what you write or draw. The signified means the mental concept which cannot be separated from the sound image or iconic image which carries connotative meanings. For example, Roses represent romantic love and the sight of roses will stimulate the consumers to start the consumption to demonstrate that love.
The above pictures show how the advertising works and stimulates the buying desire or behavior based on the Saussure’s ‘linguistic sign’ theory. Thus, the advertising serves significant marketing functions. |
