Image from https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/12/26/redtape-shoes-live-your-fantasy-campaign/
The advertisement I picked is an advertisement of Red Tape Shoes, which is an Indian company according to the company’s about us page. The advertisement consists of two photos. In photo #1, there are four young women presented in a vending machine so that the man can pick from them. However, in photo #1, the man is not wearing a pair of shoes produced by Red Tape. Therefore, his body language was made to be less confident in choosing women. In contrast, in photo #2, the same man from photo #1 walks with determination and confidence because he wears a pair of shoes produced by Red Tape. In the meantime, he also holds a woman’s hand. The woman looks at him with an amazed facial expression.
Based on the text on the advertisement—“live your fantasy”, I think the two advertisement photos directly imply that men who wear Red Tape shoes can realize their fantasy about women. This idea further implies that men who wear Red Tape shoes can be more successful than men who do not wear Red Tape shoes. Through my observation, I found three problems in this original advertisement. First, all of the four women have white as the skin color. That is to say, it carries the meaning that men’s fantasy is more likely to be associated with white women than women with other skin colors. This is an indication of racism. Second, the four women are presented as objects in the advertisements. Like men, women are also human beings with intelligence and emotions. They should never be presented in a vending machine so that men can buy any of them as easy as they buy a bottle of water. Third, all of the four women are in sexy physical postures and they all wear skirts and fancy shoes. The shoes are probably Red Tape shoes. It conveys the message that it is necessary for women to try hard to attract men so that they can be picked by men and they only dress in fancy outfits and shoes to attract men.
As the original advertisement has two photos, I also have two photos for my jammed version. In the jammed version of photo #1, I replaced four appealing women in the vending machine with four pairs of Red Tape men’s shoes in the vending machine. This solves the problem of considering women as objectives and it also has nothing to do with women’s skin colors any more. In the jammed version of photo #1, Red Tape shoes are still advertised in the way that men can get the shoes they fantasize conveniently from a vending machine. Four pairs of shoes are presented to customers with three different kinds of angles through the vending machine to ensure a higher level of customer satisfaction. In the jammed version of photo #2, the same man from photo #1 still walks with determination and confidence because he wears a pair of shoes produced by Red Tape. Nevertheless, he no longer holds a woman’s hand. He did not choose a woman from the vending machine. Instead, he chose a pair of Red Tape shoes that made him feel more confident. Furthermore, the women presented in the wardrobe in the original advertisement photo #2 are also replaced by shoes in the corresponding jammed version to eliminate gender inequality. I think my alternations have centered the focus of the shoe company advertisement to shoes and customers. The jammed version of advertisement stops giving the false sense that it is necessary for women to try hard to attract men and they only dress in fancy outfits and shoes to attract men.