Original Ad:
Analysis of Original Ad:
I chose my selected advertisement for this assignment because I wanted to target a certain industry that dominates the media, and I chose do to the beverage industry (specifically targeting beer advertisements).
I believe that what we see though the media and what is depicted in advertisements is heavily subliminally influential even if we believe that they aren’t. My thought process for choosing this ad was to find something that is highly sexualized based upon women’s bodies. Due to a majority of advertising in our current society using the female body as a way to sell their product, I had to think deeper into the issues and what we are struggling with in our society. That is when I came up with the idea to address body image.
I searched for a picture that portrayed the female body as highly sexualized and was representative of what the media forecasts as the “perfect figure.” I came across the perfectly edited here we see a female that is the perfect representation of the female image for the German beer Bavaria. Of course the model follows the German blonde hair/ blue eye role, but even if you look closely at the models eyes, they are incredibly photo edited. But basically what we observe is a female who is essentially naked other than the small bathing suit like top. We see she is incredibly sexualized based upon just her chest being in the center of the image itself, and also due to the fact that she is barely wearing clothes.
I could have addressed the sexualization of women but really wanted to focus on body image, because these advertisements are plastered everywhere from the television to billboards. Many females are being exposed to this and I believe that it would have an effect on how an individual would view themselves. Men are seeing that this is how the perfect woman should look and then we have females who are body shaming themselves because they do not look like the girl in the advertisement. I do believe advertisements like this actually contribute to the whole ideal that “women who drink beer are sexy.” I also believe that this way of advertising may also make women consume beer in hopes of being seen just as sexy as the models in the advertisements. Therefore I wanted to deconstruct her body and make her heavier, especially with the recent up rise in plus size models becoming so prominent in our society. I believe that there was a lot I could do with this advertisement concerning gender, but I really wanted to focus on women’s bodies in the public sphere of media.
Jammed Ad:
Jamming Philosophy:
Essentially, what my alteration revealed was a heavier but yet still beautiful women in the advertisement. I added in a double chin and probably 50 pounds to her body, you could say I gave her a beer belly. I wanted to evoke that even with extra weight women can still be deemed as attractive. Now many individuals would think that I should have changed the aspect of the sexualisation. Now, I wanted to be more practical with the changes I made. I believe that women are always going to be the subject of sexualisation within advertisements and will not be changing anytime soon in the future. Therefore I decided to focus on the body image aspect of advertising, especially with seeing more plus size models like Ashley Graham becoming more mainstream and getting more publishing’s with higher companies.
Concerning the photo editing that I did; I wanted still keep her beauty to showcase that individuals with a little bit of extra weight can still be viewed as beautiful and attractive. I wanted to address the concept of body image and show that models for advertisements do not need to be tiny or super athletic. Nor in any way am I body shaming thinner individuals, I just think that the media has formed an ideal body type and made it difficult for women to feel comfortable in their own bodies.
Ultimately, I want to evoke the idea that women can still be considered beautiful and attractive even with extra weight. I added “Looks good, eh?” written on her stomach in order to evoke some thought with the consumer. I placed the writing on her stomach, therefore the attention is drawn to that area and the quote can either be applied to the woman and her body or the beer. It is a statement that makes the consumer think more about the advertisement itself. I believe that is something that is very important to do, part of my jamming philosophy was to evoke personal thought about the issues being addressed, and I used my slogan to raise thought provoking ideas.
I believe it is important to realize that our society is moving forward and trying to steer away from ideas of body shaming and steering away from the “perfect body.” We are never going to get rid of the sexualisation of women any time soon within advertisements but at least we could promote a positive body image, and show that women of any size can be seen as beautiful and sexy.