In modern society, advertisements, such as commercials and posters, have a great influence on our culture. We tend to agree with whatever the advertisements say is the “best item on the market”. For example, Apple comes out with a new iPhone every year, and every year they call it “the next best thing”. This makes us believe that our existing iPhone is now inadequate and therefore we upgrade to the new one. Therefore advertisements have a great influence on what we do.
The poster above is from Reebok, the athletic wear company. It is encouraging men to cheat on their girlfriends. While most people might not take it to heart and actually do what the poster says, it is very unethical that they would promote their product that way. They are saying that cheating on girlfriends is okay and that people should do it. Also, the poster is demeaning to women by comparing girlfriends to workouts. Clearly, they are not the same thing.
In the advertisement above, Dolce & Gabbana are advocating for male power over females, like the Reebok poster. Like before, the general public probably won’t actually follow along with the actions in the posters, but what we are getting from these companies is that this kind of behaviour is okay and acceptable.
Nevertheless, I do agree that these types of advertisements get the most attention and succeed in what they are meant to do. However, this proves how society hasn’t changed from the historical period when women weren’t able to vote. We are still being undermined and portrayed as inferior in these advertisements.
So the next time we look at a poster and laugh at how its funny, we should think about what the poster is really saying.