Since the start of advertisement many centuries ago, women have been the victims of being objectified because “sex sells” and catches attention, especially for men.
This original had been advertised for weight loss by Protein World. It caught the attention of many viewers all over the world as a shock and disappointment. The oversexualized representative of how women’s body should look like in order to be beach ready, or just “socially accepted”. In the ad, a blonde woman is represented to have beautiful hair with a tiny waist in a bikini. The unrealistic image of the model showed no abs, which in the case, is not particularly a representation of a “fit” model (with at least a bit of toned muscles on the arms or legs). In addition, her image had been edited with contrasted of shades that focused on her breast and legs.
The product the company is selling protein powder for weight loss which is shown on the bottom right hand of the advertisement. As a matter of fact, the focus of the advertisement is purposely not on the product but on the model instead. Therefore, this draws questions as to whether it’s that easy to achieve that body if you use Protein World’s weight loss product without using other methods, such as exercising?
I feel like the target audience is not necessarily towards females, but to males because once they see that, they might wish that their girlfriend or wife could have a body like that. This falsely representation of a product for weight loss objectifies women in a way that one must look like the model in order to look good and “attract men” at the beach. In this case, women are always portrayed as sexual objects to please the audience or consumer.
ORIGINAL AD
JAMMED AD
The new advertisement that I have deconstructed is a representative of the reality of how the audience sees the advertisement and what the company is trying to portray. In the advertisement, Protein World isn’t really just “trying to sell their products”, as a matter of fact, they are trying to sell their products by using an unrealistic representation of a female body. In other words, the advertisement is objectifying the model.
I have added phone number in the advertisement because realistically speaking, the advertisement at first glance does look like a phone chat advertisement and conveys a message to the audience, who are most likely men to notice the advertisement.
The model herself might already look like that in real life without the editing and contrasts, but for the most part, the advertisement’s focus leads the audience to think that all female body should look like that in order to look attractive and beach ready. The company does not have to overexpose the model’s body especially parts like her bust and legs, instead they could enlarge the actual product they are trying to sell; not the fact that they are “selling the model.”
The purpose of this jammed advertisement is to bring out a new message that women are still being portrayed as sexualized objects in the eyes of the society and may lead to many problems such as creating appearance anxiety and body dissatisfaction among girls and young women.
Original link of image: http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2015/04/29/102629646-ad_2.jpg.530×298.png?v=1430287901