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Introduction of Fashion Advertising: The price of beauty Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience, viewers, readers or even listeners to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common.
Advertising messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed via various traditional media; including mass media such as newspaper, magazines, television commercial, radio advertisement, outdoor advertising or direct mail; or new media such as websites and text messages. The main objective of commercial advertisers is to increase the consumption of their products or services through ‘branding or packaging’ which involves the repetition of an image or product name in an effort to associate certain qualities with the brand in the minds of consumers.
Besides that, non-commercial advertisers who spend money to advertise items other than a consumer product or service include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations, charity organization and governmental agencies. Nonprofit organizations may rely on free modes of persuasion, such as a public service announcement. The rises of mass production develop modern advertising as well in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. Fashion advertising is a branch within the advertising industry which focuses mainly on creating promotions for the fashion industry.
It is very challenging and exciting to work as an advertiser for the fashion industry because fashion industry require a number of unique ideas for the promotion period or newly launch product. There are some of the most famous advertising campaigns in history have been campaigns for major fashion houses. Fashion advertising includes advertisements for garments, purses, shoes, and similar products of fashion houses, along with high end perfumes. The purpose of fashion advertising is to attract potential consumer with the brand, as with other orms of advertising. They can make the consumer have the desire to buy that certain products even though they do not need it as their daily basis. As with other brands, fashion advertisements promote a lifestyle just as much as the product, giving awareness to the consumer to associate with a particular brand with a specific lifestyle and social class. After watching the advertisement, the consumer may have an idea that when they using that product, their lifestyle and social level may goes up as well.
The content of the advertisement may be vary, all depend on which market the company is trying to focus on, ranging from very wealthy individuals to normal office lady with average income Rm 2000 who could still be a valuable customer base. Print advertising of fashion appears in many magazines, newspapers or even newsletter in major fashion markets like New York City and Paris. Fashion advertising can also appear in the form of television commercials, billboards, and so forth.
Many fashion boutiques try to sponsor their product to famous celebrities or even politician to gain free publicity that comes from seeing their products on celebrities and high profile individuals in the news or internet. A designer who gets his or her garments onto movie starlets walking down the red carpet at the Oscars, or even attending certain events for example, will see an obvious rise in demand from people who see the designer’s clothes, shoes, and accessories or even online search that product.
Although the big fashion brands such as Gucci and Yves St. Laurent had already have their popularity, they still need to advertise their products so that consumer aware the specialty and quality of the certain product. In addition, Fashion boutique will always utilize fashion advertising to maximize revenue, gain popularity for the product they sell. Even middle class department stores may also use fashion advertising to try and capture the attention of consumers.
Whether it is high or low end, department stores will always want to present consumers with the images of a specific lifestyle, using advertisements which tell a story to appeal to consumers and encourage them to buy the company’s products. Often, fashion advertising is heavily linked with sexuality. Scantily clad women in suggestive poses commonly appear in advertisements for the fashion industry, whether they are marketing dresses, perfume, or anything else and groupings of models may be utilized in print advertisement or commercials to create suggestive imaginary for adult consumer.
Some advertisement campaigns have crossed the lines in the view of critics, and have generated a great deal of controversy from people who feel that such advertisements are inappropriate, especially when they can be seen by young children. With its beginnings in the late 17th century, the fashion industry is a globalized sector that works to meet the demand for apparel and dictates the trends for what should be worn. This industry consists of five distinct and separate levels. These levels are haute couture, luxury wear, affordable luxury wear, mainstream clothing, and discount clothing.
The production part of the industry, that which takes the concept for a piece of apparel all the way to the hands of those who purchase it, is made up of four basic sectors. These sectors include producers of the goods necessary to make the apparel, those who create the pieces, those who advertise and market the goods, and those who sell the goods. Good fashion advertiser may create an advertisement which can attract a consumer willing to pay that amount of money to purchase. That is what we called, a fashion victim. A fashion victim is a person who does not dress in a way that is flattering to her.
It might be because she follows every fashion trend indiscriminately, without regard to whether the trend is sensible for her lifestyle or even attractive on her. Regardless of the cause, a fashion victim’s attire and appearance are unattractive, inappropriate, or both. A good fashion advertisement may affect a person’s mindset that she could be as graceful as the model in the commercial or print ads. The term originally referred to a person who was slavishly devoted to fashion trends and for someone willing to wear unflattering styles simply because the style was the latest trend.
These people often spent considerable amounts of money to ensure that their wardrobes included all the most recent fashions. However, this creates a lack of personal or signature style. This category of fashion victim also runs the risk of attaching themselves to styles that never catch on, despite a designer’s or the advertiser’s best attempts. The term “fashion victim” is said to have been coined by noted designer Versace quoted that a fashion victim is a woman who changes her look too often based on fashion trends.
It has become a commonly-used term on fashion and style shows to indicate someone in need of a fashion intervention. Expert advice usually focuses on finding the style that is right for the individual, rather than adopting specific fashion trends. Eventually, the term evolved to include anyone who is fashion-challenged. This includes people who do not jump on every new fashion trend, but simply do not know how to choose cuts and colors that flatter their own figures and features. These people may think they are disguising a feature they dislike when they are actually accentuating it.
For example, a woman may wear baggy clothing in an attempt to hide extra weight, but this can actually make her look bigger when a more tailored cut would make her appear slimmer. Besides, fashion ads always uses skinny model for their commercial, this may affect people think that they aren’t good enough or thin enough compared to the models in them, this can lead to eating disorders such as anorexia. Advertising in the fashion industry can be blamed for causing numerous society problems with weight and eating disorders.
Looking up everywhere, in the TV commercial ads, billboard, magazine cover or even posters uses pretty slender models to advertise their product. This will affect a person’s thinking that only thin women are pretty and only muscular man are eye catching. Aggressive advertising campaigns which are waged by fashion companies to portray beautiful skinny models and muscular men, creating the illusion and mindset that this is the perfect body type. There are many individuals in the world who do not have the ideal body type would strive to look exactly like this.
This puts a great deal of stress on people to try and look this way. These types of advertisements have an enormous impact on the youth nowadays as many of them appear in youth magazines. Another very prominent problem which the fashion industry is facing is the extreme body forms of the models are portraying, majority of the catwalk models are terribly skinny. This will give an negative impact for the teenager, from seeing these anorexia-like models, obsess with the idea of wanting to look like them.
The eagerness of trying to be like the models in the fashion advertisement may make them develop some eating disorder. Literature Review Journal no. 1 Advertising in Fashion Industry America today is a free-market society. Money is freedom, control, security, and the ultimate commodity. This society is based around gaining money, and perhaps even more importantly, spending it. The media spreads ideas, ideas that suggest that the most important things in life are appearances. Makes us rely too much on the fashion, and relevance of the person is lost.
Why would the media do such a thing? Money. These advertisements block the minds of youth and confine them to be the person perfectly shaped loosing their identities. Corporate advertising is selling the American public images through TV and magazines and billboards, images that create extremely destructive mindsets in the viewers. One of the best examples of how advertisers palpably abuse power on their audience can be seen in the fashion industry. Fashion is a deeply image oriented industry.
Clothes people wear can determine race, class, gender, socio-economic status, all of these, or the way their bodies are shaped. Social stereotypes are developed, based solely on clothing. A good example of how fashion hypnotizes could be found in the advertisements in any universal “teen” magazine. The teenage market is a highly targeted market from clothing to cosmetics. In a recent survey conducted on 100 random high school students, 50 male and 50 female, students on average spent $98 dollars on clothes per month.
These teen magazines specifically target at young females. Most magazines however, have not one overweight person from front to back but are all over plastered by perpetually skinny women with computer and airbrush-perfected skin. More of the article space in magazines is dedicated to the new fashions for whatever season it happens to be. In these “articles” a set of usually three racially mixed, extremely, thin, and often buxom, young girls pose in the “hottest” new clothing, identified by brand name, and retail chain which carries them. We are thin (attractive)”, the pictures proclaim, “This is what you should be; if you are not like us, you are worthless. ” It has been speculated in the medical profession that 1/3 of America’s population is more obese than is healthy for their height. If this is so, then how many women the constant barrage of “Being thin is the end-all be-all of is beating down attractiveness”? Once the advertisers have clearly established their idea of being in perfect shape and clothes they explain the other benefits of these traits. Finally, after the magazines ave given a riveting reason to buy products and to adhere to virtually unattainable images of beauty, they put in re-enforcers: articles designed to keep teenaged girls on the “straight and narrow”. These articles are horror stories of girls who have in some way broken a cardinal law of beauty or attractiveness. There is a rapid increase in materialisms in America. 80% of dumb teenagers would rather buy two pairs of designer jeans rather than 3 pairs of generic jeans at the same price. First a person must realize for themselves, that there is more to them than a pair of Calvin Klein jeans.
That they are worth something, that they are important, without Tommy Hillfiger and Nike. That they can be just as attractive if they are overweight and wearing shorts from K-mart, as they can being thin and wearing clothes from American Eagle, Limited, and Express. The advertising companies breed a sense of worthlessness in consumers; a sense that there is something missing, something, which will make your life better than it, is now. They can offer you something that will assure you a better life, more popularity, or that can take you closer to the image of beauty that they set forth.
At least until next month’s line comes out, then you are painfully behind the image of beauty again. And all the while the cash registers ring, and ring, and ring. Conclusion: From my point of view fashion industry has mesmerize teenagers, men and women, through media. They are slaves to what media is conveying them, may it be good or bad for them. Summary : The society nowadays is emphasizing people around to gain money, or even more important is to spending it. Media spread ideas that suggest the most important things in life are appearance.
Fashion advertisement brainwash the mind of the teenagers making them rely on fashion . Fashion advertisement were everywhere that create extremely destructive mindsets in the viewers. Fashion is a deeply image oriented industry. Clothes people wear can determine their socio-economic status and class in the society. Fashion ads are always to be found in the “teen” magazine. Most magazines do not have even one overweight person in the cover. Only with skinny women with perfect skin and posing with the latest trend new clothing, identified by brand name.
Seeing the picture make people think that if you could not be like them, you are worthless. There is research shows that 80% American Teenagers would rather buy 2pairs of branded jeans rather than 3pairs of generic jeans. This show that in their mindset, wearing brands and looking thin is something that makes them looks more attractive. The Advertising companies breed a sense of worthlessness in consumer; make them feel the importance of buying that product that seem can make your life better.
In conclusion, the main purpose of the fashion industry is to maximize their profit, that is why they uses attractive advertisement to tempt and hypnotize the people, blindfolded them to a sense that they feel it is compulsory for them to look thin and wear branded goods. Journal no. 2 Female Identity and Fashion Advertising The average American woman is confronted with images of ideal femininity on a daily basis. Various forms of media introduce the desired look, attitude, and role a woman should possess in modern society.
One of the most influential media for the modern woman is the printed fashion advertisement. Fashion advertising has the power to define desired gender roles, female identity, and characteristics of upcoming generations of young girls. This advertising poses some harm to women as it reinforces stereotypical female roles of domesticity while associating self identity with consumerism. If the American woman is more aware of fashion advertisements’ inherent attempts to influence her, then she can be better able to make more informed choices when it comes to personal identity.
The very essence of advertising is to send the viewer a message. At the surface an advertisement may simply be sending the message to buy a product, but often more complex societal implications can be found in an ad. One major concern with advertising messages is the depiction of women and then what this depiction implies. Alice E. Courtney and Thomas W. Whipple report in research findings that advertising portrays the majority of female figures as passive, insubordinate wives and mothers who never leave the domestic sphere.
They also include the results of research by Venkatesan and Losco, who found that over a three decade period, women in advertising were portrayed as sexual object, as physically beautiful, or as dependent on man. Depicting women in the role of domestic servant sends the message that idealistic women should desire domestic perfection that can only be achieved with the help of the product in question. Fashion advertisements may have women in sexual or degrading roles, but they remain pleasurable to women and inspire them to consume.
In her essay “Women Recovering Our Clothes”, Iris Marion Young argues that women find pleasure in fashion advertising because it encourages the possibility of male approval and fantasy. Young sees female pleasure in the fantasy of a male gaze but also the narcissistic female gaze as a woman looks upon herself and sees perfection. She states that women take pleasure in looking at clothes, because they encourage fantasies of transport and transformation. An ad displaying a woman in a dress may satisfy a sense of fantasy that the average woman cannot find when she looks in the mirror.
The successful advertiser will seize the opportunity to make an ad more fantastic to satisfy both the viewer and the clothing company if the viewer buys the product. Every woman is searching for identity and advertising is quick to offer the average woman means to achieve identity through consumerism. Consumerism, and Feminism that the female identity in advertising simultaneously projects two messages: “One accords with the meanings that the dominant culture assigns to the feminine body, while the other is read by the implied readers of fashion magazines as freeing their body from that position”.
Since advertisers are aware of changing cultural movements for women (like the Feminist Movement), they must appear to be current while still keeping the ability to influence women to buy the desired product. The dual messages Rabine describes inevitably come in conflict since the contemporary woman of fashion is expected to become a self-reflecting subject, but reflective about her own status as object, the more she is portrayed as independent, the more she is portrayed as an object of the male look.
Such a conflicting message is nearly impossible to achieve, and can only result in disappointment and frustration. Madonna has become a powerful female icon of popular culture. She is also an example of advertising’s message of the ability to change identity with a change in physical appearance and fashion. Author Douglas Kellner states that Madonna’s image and reception highlight the social contructedness of identity, fashion and sexuality. She had the ability to remain a popular singer and after nearly twenty-five years she is still attracts attention like before.
As her identity changed, so has her entire appearance, ultimately sending a message that real identity is linked with fashion. Madonna has also had the power to influence the appearances of her fans as they purchased Madonna clothing, makeup kits, and whatever products required to match her current style (Kellner, “Madonna, Fashion, and Identity”, 166). Fashion advertising may include some degrading or superficial messages of female identity, but that does not mean they are so harmful that society should rid itself of them.
What is most important is for the consumer to be better informed on just what an advertisement is attempting to do. The informed woman can be aware that what an advertisement tells her is fashionable may not be the best choice for her. The real danger of advertising lies in the possibility of a woman allowing advertising to make all of her identity choices for her. If women could be better informed about advertising tactics, they could make better choices as they consume and perhaps even change the stereotypes portrayed in many current advertisements. Summary:
The most influential media for the modern women is the printed fashion advertisement. Fashion advertising has the power to define roles, female identity and characteristic of the teenagers. The main purpose of an advertisement is to send viewer a message. However the major concern with the advertising messages is the depiction of women and then what this depiction implies. In advertisement women were always portrayed as sexual object, physically beautiful and dependent on man. Besides woman were also portrayed as sexual creatures with a lust for material satisfaction.
This shows that using that advertised product may make the women more feminine. The effect of sexualized imaginary may encourage the product’s purchases, however displays a degrading view of female identity. Fashion advertisements may have women in degrading roles, but they remain pleasurable to women and inspire them to consume. The contemporary woman of fashion is expected to become a self-reflecting subject, Advertises now are trying to change the cultural movement for women, to portray women’s independent side and while still keeping the ability to influence women to buy the desire product.
In a nutshell, fashion advertising may include some degrading messages of female identity, but that does not mean that it is harmful till the society need to get rid of them. It is important for the consumer to be well informed on what message the advertisement is trying to give out. A wise consumer should be aware that what an advertisement tells her may not be the best choice for her. Follow the trend blindly which is called fashion victim may not look even gorgeous.
However, everybody loves to gain attention and look as attractive as the model on the TV commercial or magazine cover, at the end, women were still deceived by the tactic of advertisement, If women consumer understand about the advertising tactics, they could have make better choices when they purchase and perhaps they can even change the stereotypes portrayed in many current advertisement. Journal no. 3 The Damaging Effects of the Fashion Industry The fashion industry demands a lot from women and many times we mindlessly follow into what is expected.
The fashion industry has had many negative consequences regarding women’s health and self-esteem. Whether we realize it or not, the fashion industry is everywhere! We are constantly bombarded with images of women that are already very attractive being perfectly retouched. Women are being incessantly reminded of what society declares as “beauty,” when it is impossible to look like the women in the photos without an entourage, and expensive computer software. We see these images on billboards, commercials, magazine ads, store posters, and even buses. These images are that constant reminder. Take one of Revlon’s mascara commercials.
The narrator clearly states in a sexy voice “So not sexy” when another narrator is talking about regular lashes without the product! This makes women feel sub par and feel like they will not be as striking unless they had the proper volume of eyelashes. We should not feel bad about our bodies because women in the media are typically extraordinarily small; we should not feel bad about putting on clothes because we feel like the model who wore it looked so much better; we should not look at ourselves in these clothes and base how we feel about our bodies on comparisons we make to celebrities and models.
Day-to-Day, through the television and magazines, images of skinny celebrities dressed in the latest fashion are everywhere. You can’t help but like what they are wearing and how they look in their designer clothes. Women, on average, who try to emulate these outfits and the way these celebrities look often have a difficult time doing it. They never feel as beautiful in these clothes because they compare themselves to certain celebrities who have NO meat on their bodies. How can we change this? How can we change America’s perception of what a good healthy attractive body size should be?
How can we make each other, and ourselves, comfortable and happy with our bodies the way they are, and were intended to be? How can we stop from thinking that we will never look as beautiful as the skinniest model the media can find? These questions need to be answered and we need to find ways to gear our society away from these negative thoughts about body image and start to feel happy and satisfied with what we have! Some women can get overboard and feel they need to keep changing themselves; an excellent example would be Jocelyn Wildenstein.
Many women think that if they could get a tummy tuck or a breast augmentation, they would finally be happy. Truth is, if you are undergoing procedures to fulfill someone else or society; you will not get the happiness you desire. By all means, if you are unhappy about something, go and change it, and as long as you truly feel that this change is to mainly benefit you. It is just sad for women to think that if only they had something done to their bodies, they will finally be happy. An important book “Plastic Surgery Victimizes Women” written by Shelia Jeffreys argues about the damaging effects of plastic surgery.
Her argument is that plastic surgery is only making women gratify men’s sexual fantasies; that it is done because of the pressure to be what is considered attractive. Women believe that they will only feel beautiful if they are thin, and have larger breasts. In 1996 there were 87,704 breast augmentations performs; in 2006, the number skyrockets to 329,000 Our society needs to take the time to transform the fashion and beauty industries from having a negative impact on women’s lives to a more positive and beneficial one.
Efforts are beginning to be made to make changes in this industry, but our society needs to find a way to reach more people. We need to educate our audience and acknowledge that the fashion industry effects so many people’s lives. Women are vulnerable to this industry and in order to make it positive for women the idea of thinness being perfection needs to be the first thing to change- the norm is not what is shown through the fashion industry- the majority of women do not look like these models, and this needs to be reinforced to the public.
This industry has to be aware of how they are impacting American women, and other women around the world, and help them educate themselves about the reality of this situation. Eating disorders and poor body image are far too prevalent around the world and this industry needs to recognize that many of that comes from these stick-thin models and the consumers that they are influencing. Women need to be made aware of these issues and aware that many other people in this world feel the same way about their bodies, and that a healthy body is a beautiful body not one with 0% body fat.
The fashion industry NEEDS to work on these main issues and with their help, and the help of our society, women can feel comfortable in their bodies again! Summary : Fashion had a very dramatic effect on women’s weight. In the fashion industry, a perfect body is expected to be no extra pounds, and no extra fat. It is pretty obvious when we watch television, flip through the magazine or newspapers or even attend the public events, the idea of looking skinny is constantly represented though the entertainment and fashion industry.
The advertisement of Victoria’s Secret for women gave a very negative portrayal of how women should look in clothes. This is because the models they hire are all skinny, tall, beautiful and exotic. So this is why women continue to battle with this issue because the media is relentless about associating beauty and desirable fashion with stick skinny women. People should not feel bad about their bodies because it was all gifted. However people are mostly brainwashed by the media and make comparison of ourselves with celebrities and models. Women will never feel beautiful on these clothes because they have a few pounds extra.
The society need to take time to transform the fashion and beauty industries from having a negative impact on women’s lives to a more positive and beneficial one. The fashion industry needs to aware that how many women they were influencing throughout the world and educate themselves about the reality of this situation. Conclusion is the fashion industry is a business that only survives if it can manage to lower women’s self-esteems. There is no other way for them to get women to buy their products unless women aware about the tactic of the advertisement.
This pushes women to all extremes to look pretty or beautiful for as long as they can. Ultimately, it is up to all the women out there to educate themselves and be aware of the tricks to the trade. It seems that no matter how aware women become, fashion trends still manipulate them. There are far too many other things more important in life as cliche as that sounds. Women should spend as much time beautifying not only “outside”, they should as well upgrade themselves. Methodology I use content analysis to complete my research.
Content analysis is a methodology in the social sciences for studying the content of communication. It is a method for summarizing any form of content by counting various aspects of the content. This enables a more objective evaluation. Besides content analysis is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain concepts within text. It is summarising, quantitative analysis of messages that relies on the scientific method and is not limited as to the types of variables that may be measured or the context in which the messages are created or presented.
Researchers will verify and analyse the content then make inferences about characteristics of a communication. Content analysis is used to determine the presence of certain words, concepts, themes, phrases, characters, or sentences within texts or sets of texts and to quantify this presence in an objective manner. Texts can be defined broadly as books, book chapters, essays, interviews, discussions, newspaper headlines and articles, historical documents, speeches, conversations, advertising, theater, informal conversation, or really any occurrence of communicative language.
Due to the fact that it can be applied to examine any piece of writing ,content analysis is used in large number of fields, from marketing and media studies, to literature and rhetoric, ethnography and cultural studies, gender and age issues, sociology and political science, psychology and cognitive science, as well as other fields of inquiry. Additionally, content analysis reflects a close relationship with socio- and psycholinguistics, and is playing an integral role in the development of artificial intelligence. Print ads [pic]
This advertisement is a very positive ad, which they chooses a few races of women with healthy body shapes to present that women can look good no matter what shape they are. This encourage that women should feel comfortable with their size, races, skin, but not following the trend blindly. [pic] Victoria’s secret is a well- known brand in United States. They have a wide range of product line which is only for women, however they emphasize on are lingeries more. Another thing Victoria’s Secret famous of , is their ambassadors which are called “The angels” . The targeted market of Victoria’s secret is for ladies from age between 15-25.
The image above shown that the angels were showing the latest collection of lingeries. Every girl was brain washed by the image set on this brand. This gave a very negative portrayal of how women should look in clothes. Women all over the United States relate Victoria’s secret clothes, bras, and fashion sense with skinny, tall, beautiful, and exotic women. This fashion advertisement may influence the teenager dying to go on diet because the definition of beauty for them is 5’11” tall and average 117 pounds. [pic] H & M is a Swedish retail-clothing company, known for its fast-fashion clothing offerings for women, men, teenagers and children.
This company had a big retail chain which consist over 2,300 stores in 41 countries and as of 2011 employed around 87,000 people. H&M invited Gisele Bunchen, which is a famous Brazilian model as their 2011 ambassador. Gisele was one of the Victoria’s Secret model from 2000-2006. The advertiser chose her because she is well known in the fashion industry. However not everyone does have a nice body line like her. To be like her some people may try diet pills or maybe try some torturing diet plans which is harmful to our body. [pic]
The advertisement on top shows that a French model, Isabelle Caro from Marseille, France, who became well-known after appearing in a controversial ad campaign “No Anorexia” which showed Caro with vertebrae and facial bones showing under her skin. She dreamt to become a model since she was little. However she was too exaggerate that makes her got sick. The purpose of this billboard advertisement is to discourage the young models from being obsess for being too skinny and also giving awareness to the younger generation . [pic] Mia Amber Davus was a fashion model for plus-size apparel.
Nowadays even big brands like Jean-Paul Gaultier and John Galliano uses plus-size model to emphasize the idea of fashion is not only for skinny women. Celebrities who wear clothing larger than a standard U. S. size 8 have increasingly been attracting endorsement contracts as advertisers seek to extend size-acceptance into the film, TV and music industries, and or make use of their family or other connections. Please note that women who have lost weight, dropping below a U. S. size 8, since gaining popularity do not form part of this entry, nor do women unrepresented by model agents. [pic]
Kumiko Funayama is a Japanese famous teen magazine Popteen model which is only 19 years old. She gained large popularity within Japan and even some other Asia countries. The clothing that she wore were mainly for the teenage girls. However, they tried unhealthy diet to get into shape, this is a very bad reference for the youngster. Video Advertisement [pic] This advertisement shows that the anorexic girl is having problem with her mental because even she’s extremely thin, she feels fat all the time. This is the effect that the young girls now just want to be thin and they thought they look more attractive