ADS

In the film Kate and Leopold (2001) starring Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman, Meg Ryan’s character sums up advertising by saying “When he says the lines you think that if you eat his margarine, maybe your hips will shrink.” In advertising you are not just selling a product, you are selling a lifestyle. The issue I find in the images we looked at in class is that the lifestyle they are selling is one that perpetrates the idea that “real men” follow their primal instincts and need to dominant by force. Personally, I believe this sentiment to be insulting to both men and women, but at the same time I understand why it works. In our capitalistic society we spend half the day sleeping and a third or more of the day forced to play a cog in someone else wheel. There is little to no outlet for individuality when the assembly line is the most effective form of business. Then these downtrodden see ads and films where a man is getting respect and envy from his peers and obsessive attention from his conquests. It natural to then attempt to emulate the qualities that made that man stand out. What the advertising communities need to do is show the man who is at the center of attention as considerate.