“Guess” Advertisement
April 18, 2010
I have seen this advertisement by Guess in several magazines such as Vogue, the Cosmo etc. Guess is a brand for clothing; however, most of their advertisements show everything but clothes. It usually involves a single person with barely any clothes on or in this case a male and a female holding each other with a lot of skin showing. The targeting audience for these advertisements are teens, mainly young women. However, would parents really want their 12-16 year old kids to look at magazines filled with images this sexual? Doubtful.
The fact that this is a clothing advertisement and the male in this image is half naked holding the girl makes it look like he is in control. His eyes are closed and his facial expressions represent acting tough and invulnerable. The female is wearing a shirt that reveals her stomach and her bra; she is also leaning back as if she is not sure if she wants this. The look on her face and the fact that she is looking straight into the camera makes it almost look like she is asking for help.
The gender roles are portrayed by showing that he is controlling her in a sexual way representing the idea that women are sexual objects and that her purpose is to please the male whether she likes it or not. It also seems that because both male and female are attractive young people they are giving teens the idea that you have to look a certain way in order to be noticed by one another. As discussed in class it is about “the power of being looked at” which can change very quickly. Do girls really need to wear as little clothes as possible to get noticed by guys? Because many of the Guess ads are advertising this image making girls who are looking at those adds insecure about themselves.
As I said before the female is looking into the camera as she is asking for help making her look almost like a victim as the male is holding her tightly with his eyes closed; he is in control and has all the power over her. She however, does let him get away with it giving young teenagers the wrong idea of gender roles. This image gives teenagers the idea of what society expects from them; a perfect body with the thought of men always being in control of the women.
Unfortunately a lot of girls (and boys) really do believe that society expects them to have the perfect body in order to “fit in” whether this includes working out daily to get this body or use plastic surgery. Ads like this give them the wrong idea of gender and their purpose in society. And again, the fact that this image is a clothing advertisement is nowhere to be recognized.
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