Maile Danilchik
10/21/17
IB Language and Literature
Blog Post #4
Two GAP Advertisements:
Advertising uses a variety of tools and strategies to persuade the viewer to buy a product or to promote the name of a company. Marketing teams utilize images and text as their medium. Many of the print advertisements seen in magazines are predominantly image based with some minimalistic text, this technique allows for the viewer to be drawn in by the image and then read the information about the company. Furthermore, our brains are wired to respond to images more than words on a fundamental level which means that images will spike interest in the audience more than a body of text. In addition, the subject of the image is an important factor of the message, tone, and ultimately the success of the advertisement. Often times the stylistic choices of advertisements follow certain trends or themes that can be positive or controversial. One of these is how genders are portrayed in advertising. Take, for instance, two GAP ads respectively depicting a young boy who is called a “The Little Scholar” wearing an blue Albert Einstein shirt and a young girl who is labeled as “The Social Butterfly” wearing a shirt with the GAP logo in pink. Separately, they may seem innocuous but together they show a clear categorization of the children into “smart” and “social”. This gender divide is clear with the use of traditionally feminine colors with the girl and masculine colors with the boy. Furthermore, GAP is associating traits that one would related to a scholar such as diligent and intelligent with the boy but not with the girl. When analyzing this further the stereotype that men are more physically and mentally capable than women seems to be an underlying theme. Even if GAP’s intentions were not to promote this belief, their use of it in their advertisement could be a reflection of society and how these controversial stereotypes are normalized.
Advertising uses a variety of tools and strategies to persuade the viewer to buy a product or to promote the name of a company. Marketing teams utilize images and text as their medium. Many of the print advertisements seen in magazines are predominantly image based with some minimalistic text, this technique allows for the viewer to be drawn in by the image and then read the information about the company. Furthermore, our brains are wired to respond to images more than words on a fundamental level which means that images will spike interest in the audience more than a body of text. In addition, the subject of the image is an important factor of the message, tone, and ultimately the success of the advertisement. Often times the stylistic choices of advertisements follow certain trends or themes that can be positive or controversial. One of these is how genders are portrayed in advertising. Take, for instance, two GAP ads respectively depicting a young boy who is called a “The Little Scholar” wearing an blue Albert Einstein shirt and a young girl who is labeled as “The Social Butterfly” wearing a shirt with the GAP logo in pink. Separately, they may seem innocuous but together they show a clear categorization of the children into “smart” and “social”. This gender divide is clear with the use of traditionally feminine colors with the girl and masculine colors with the boy. Furthermore, GAP is associating traits that one would related to a scholar such as diligent and intelligent with the boy but not with the girl. When analyzing this further the stereotype that men are more physically and mentally capable than women seems to be an underlying theme. Even if GAP’s intentions were not to promote this belief, their use of it in their advertisement could be a reflection of society and how these controversial stereotypes are normalized.
From this analysis I learned that it is important to take advertisements in context with the company, year, as well as social developments at the time. Through this we can see how advertisements in a series, such as GAP’s, tell a larger story. I also learned that every stylistic device used in advertising is essentially text, which can reveal a theme within an advertisement as well as supplementing the context of the theme. For instance, in the GAP advertisement the pink palette as well as the text indicate, “A girl is a social butterfly, she likes to talk with friends”. Finally, I learned that there is often a deeper or subliminal message underneath the literal message of an advertisement. When analyzing this message we can see how a company creates a tone in an ad and how this can affect the overall reception of the promotion. It is important to not only analyze what is said, but also what is left out. Gender in advertising is a reflection of our societal beliefs but at the same time it can shape society. If we can use advertising that depicts strong, successful, or non-stereotypical women perhaps we could change our societal view that begs the question, “Can we use advertising to change society?”.
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