This is an advertisement banner from BMW’s website, on the BMW lifestyle merchandise page. There is a man and a woman with a BMW car in front of a brick wall during the evening.

First, the man is leading the woman. He is standing in front of her, his stride and stance is much wider than hers, and his facial expression displays a higher level of confidence. There is an imbalance of power and leadership, with the man being favored, and the woman unworthy of challenging his position.

Also, the man is looking forward, while the woman is looking down with a cautious, scared expression. He also looks like he is deep in thought while the woman looks like she is holding on or leaning on him. It gives off the impression that he is more educated and intelligent than her.

Looking into the details, the woman is also showing more skin than him. All his buttons on his shirt are buttoned and his sleeves are down. In contrast, her sleeves are rolled and her shirt is partially unzipped. This ad is on the page that corresponds to BMW’s luxury clothing/merchandise, therefore it must be displaying how the merchandise should be worn. This ad implies that on women, more skin must be shown to maximize the beauty of the item and the person wearing it,but this rule does not apply to men.

Overall, they are both Caucasian with pale skin and tall, slim figures. BMW is a luxury car brand, which implies that their products can only be afforded by consumers who are Caucasian and from North America or Europe. These individuals are both young adults, which also implies that other age groups like seniors or teenagers are not suited for BMW.

In conclusion, I believe that this advertisement displays women in an inferior position to men. As well, it implies that BMW vehicles are exclusive to a certain type of racial group, age group and appearance. This excludes many people who don’t match this profile and produces an incorrect standard of beauty and luxury.

Spoofed Ad:

Since the advertisement emphasizes being Caucasian, slim and tall are the standards of beauty and required for living the BMW lifestyle, I decided to reverse these standards. As well, I’ve reversed the roles of the male and female.

In my new advertisement, there is a very prominent central character who is Asian, a minority racial group in North America and she is significantly larger with a very strong, confident body language. She is opposite to the previous woman because she is looking straight into the audience, conveying strength, intelligence and power. She also doesn’t have thick makeup or clothing that is partially revealing her skin, which are signs of objectifying a woman and placing emphasis on her appearance rather than her intelligence or capability.

As well, I’ve transformed the previous male who was the key focal point and mastermind/leader of the previous narrative into a body guard/driver type role. By his character and his image size, he now plays more of a subordinate to the woman, which is opposite to what the previous advertisement had. Again, the reversal of roles in a caricature, obnoxious sort of style emphasizes the subtle hints of bias in the original ad.

Finally, I have the slogan rewritten on the bottom. BMW’s original slogan is “The Ultimate Driving Experience” on the top right. The new slogan is “An Exclusive Driving Experience”. This is a play on the word exclusive because “exclusive” means luxurious, aristocratic, classy, which could be used to described BMW’s target market. However, being “exclusive” also has the literal meaning to mean excluding a group of people, which was what the original advertisement was doing by limiting their models, who are a representation of the brand to tall, slim, Caucasian models and placing the male in a more dominant, focal role in all their advertisements.

Advertisements in mainstream media tend to display women as weaker than males by using submissive body language and emphasizing their sexuality. Advertisers will place characteristics like intelligence, capability or strength onto male characters. Similar to previous works we’ve analyzed, an overwhelming majority of perspectives of advertisements come from the North American, Caucasian view. Therefore, there is certainly a need to be more conscientious of these biases placed before us in media to ensure that we continue to be inclusive of all diverse groups, including those who differ by race, gender, wealth, sexual orientation and much more.