Research Paper On Advertising In Media

Advertising main aim is to create a platform for consumer persuasion (Shimp 151). Advertisers want to attract potential clients to buy their product or service by making it attractive to their target market. The main purpose of an advertisement is to pass a message on the topic of sexualization of women in the burger king ad. Advertising sexism negatively impacts on women, and it limits women’s achievements and aspirations. Women are made to believe that the only thing they are good at is pleasing men; therefore, limiting their self-esteem (Cortese 147). Women find it difficult to stand against men with such advertisements stereotyping them as shown in the burger king ad (Cortese 147). More so this kind of advertisements damages the girl child since they are made to believe the only thing they can do is look good for men. There are different ways used in advertising; television and radio advertising, infomercials and press advertising, and the focus of this research is press advertising.
Press advertising is advertising using print mediums, and these include things such as newspapers, magazines, and trade or professional journals. People still read even with the vast development of the internet. Advertising on print ensures one reaches the targeted audience, and this process is in regards to magazines. Using newspapers ensure that advertisers reach a large number of people at once, and it greatly reduces cost used in advertising (Shimp 151). Print advertising has evolved into a complex process. One cannot post a plain advertisement and expect responses. An individual has to employ certain techniques in their advertisements so that it stands out from the competition. One needs to create a brand, which potential clients can associate. Some of the various ways of doing this is by using images, catchy words, and testimonials, promotions, creating a mood, celebrity association and using claims.
The images are supposed to attract the reader. Images full of color will raise interest; hence, a picture that will stick in their minds will instantly associate it with the brand. The catchy words will make the reader interested in continuing to read. Companies have an option of creating a unique slogan for their brand or a particular product. The slogan makes it easy for clients to remember the product or service being promoted. In addition, it is a summary of the benefit and uniqueness of the product being sold; hence, acts an important aspect of advertisement for any company trying to market their products. In addition, Advertisers use celebrities to advertise their products. People will naturally want to associate themselves with celebrities and this is shown by the products and services they use and the type of style attracts the followers of the celebrity. There are those advertisements, which appeal to lifestyle. The advertisements create an environment around the product associated with different types of people. Luxury items, most of the times will attract the rich, and the advertisers will tend to create a lavish relaxing environment around the product.
Advertisers create a mood that a potential client seeks to fulfill. Consumers often search for emotional arousal while buying products since a product can create a calming fun mood and attracts clients interested in adventure and relaxation at the same time. Therefore, advertisements should bring out the mood in relation to the product or service being marketed to the clients. People will associate with the product or service because it is affecting them in one way or another (Montonen 12). In the advertisement in question, the advertisers have deployed a variety of styles such as the use of images, claims and mood setting. The images used in the advertisements include the woman, sandwich, fries and the Coca Cola. All these images capture the interest of readers and make them want to see what the advertisement is markets. The catchy words used are “it will blow your mind away” and “it just tastes better,” and it can also be treated as claims. There is a promise of a benefit that the sandwich tastes good, and that will blow your mind away. The “it will blow your mind is seen as an expression that the sandwich will amaze.
A critical analysis of the advertisement will term it as sexually discriminating. The advertisement is sexually demeaning women and it represents them as sexual subjective objects. The language used “the seven incher” and the woman slightly opening her mouth depicts oral sex. One may say their target market is men, and that is why they sexually painted the woman. However, it does not make it right. Gone are the days when women were seen only as sexual objects and the advertisements that stereotypes women are termed as sexism advertisements (Montonen 93). According to research, women are more critical when analyzing advertisements since the advertisement may be said to have been created for men, but they may not notice the sexual part of the advertisement (Cortese 147). On the other hand, women will be adversely impacted with such an advertisement since they respond positively to those advertisements that paint them as empowered rather than those that demean them. Posting such as advertisements will mean that Burger King loosed a considerable percentage of their women clients.
The model used in the particular advertisement was not asked for permission before her picture was used. This further violates her rights not only as a woman, but as a human being. Her opinion and authority as to how her picture is used should be respected. She claims that she had not taken the picture for that particular advertisement. The picture was taken from a series she had taken, and this particular one was supposed to show emotion. By using her picture, Burger King humiliates her in front of her family, friends, employer and potential employers and business partners. It is assumed that she willingly accepted her picture to be used in such a manner since it creates economic, emotional and social damages. Other potential clients will not want to have their products associated with her face; thus she suffers economically. Socially friends and relatives may become biased towards her due to the advertisement, and these consequentially lead to her suffering emotionally due to her being alienated. Though Burger King later excluded themselves from the advertisement saying it was posted by an independent franchisee in Singapore. It brings out an aspect of negligence on their part, and as a franchisor, it is their responsibility to market themselves, and they should have inspected the advertisement as impacts on their image.
In conclusion, companies should critically inspect their advertisements. They do not want to post advertisements that either sexually discriminates men or women. It is bound to cost them their client base, and there is also the risk of potential lawsuits. More so these kinds of advertisement do a lot of damage to the women population, who are the most consumers of products.

Works Cited

Cortese, Anthony J. P. Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008. Print.
Montonen, Marjatta. Alcohol and the Media. Copenhagen: World Health Organization, Regional Off. For Europe, 1996. Print.
Shimp, Terence A. Advertising, Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.