An analysis of male characters in contemporary advertising reveals a glaring issue: the portrayals of “normal” men are missing. Whether working on a construction site, presenting in a boardroom, or performing in a Broadway play, typical men no longer exist in the media. The all-too-common contemporary portrayal of men in today’s world is that of an inept simpleton, an effeminate hero, or an alpha-male gladiator.
William Sea argues in his essay “Advertising Sets Double Standard for the Male Gender” that the current standards for masculinity set forth by the media set a double-standard for men, and that the metrosexual revolution portrayed in and by the media will, in the end, cause a backlash by the male population. Sea makes a number of excellent points about the current trends in advertising regarding the portrayal of men, and gives fitting examples to back up his argument. I believe that there has been a recent response to the metrosexual advertising trends in its antithesis, the retrosexual comeback.
To review the metrosexual trend, which primarily instructs men how to dress and how to adjust their appearance, I studied only current high circulation magazines for the most recent months. Most notable in ESPN the Magazine was a man with perfectly styled hair, glowing teeth, and lips covered in glitter smiling over a box of shoes he just bought online from Zappos. com (6).
The Term Paper on Male Images In Media
82 full pages of the April 2001 Redbook magazine are devoted to selling products ranging from shoes to shampoo. The entire magazine only has only 210 pages. Approximately 6-8 min of every half hour television show is produced by ad agencies. Americans are bombarded with advertisements. We see them everyday in many different forms and through different mediums. Advertisers study America's ...
Playboy Magazine’s August 2008 issue contains a special fashion section showing men how to “Cowboy Up”, stating “a sports coat over jeans is a classic winner’s choice” (96-97).
The two-page spread shows two men looking decidedly un-cowboy-like, with one wearing a nearly $4,000 jacket with a blue silk pocket square and a silver bracelet. Both men in the ads would have been hanged in the Old West if they had walked into a saloon liking like urban cowboys. The November 2005 issue of Playboy’s special fashion section shows many of these metrosexual gentlemen playing outdoors, going so far as to show them hunting, shotgun in hand, in $5,000 designer coats and $700 fashion boots.
The only masculine qualities that seem to be displayed in the section this month is facial stubble. Browsing through more issues of the fashion section in Playboy, which is a column I had never paid much attention to previously, now sticks out like a sore thumb: business ‘men’ in colored suits with sweaters underneath, bright purple ties, designer belts, and $500 shoes. These type of fashion ads only add to the adoption of the metrosexual lifestyle, making certain that these portrayals will continue.
The men portrayed in these ads and fashion segments are as far from the days of Frank Sinatra and John Wayne, men who portrayed the most masculine of men, and acted like men were supposed to act during that time period according to social norms, which have drastically changed in the last 60 years. Another term used in the marketing industry to describe a certain demographic of males, as noted by Mermelstein and Fielding, is ‘ubersexual’, which is described as a position between the metrosexual and the retrosexual male.
The ubersexual males are more well-groomed than the typical masculine stereotype, but less effeminate than their less masculine counterparts (6).
Retrosexual is the term coined for those who rebel against the metrosexual trend, and advertisers are now started to sell products appealing to that specific demographic. One primary example given in Sea’s essay includes the “Milwaukee’s Best Light” beer commercials where the giant aluminum beer can drops from the heavens on the one man in the group who is acting distinctly effeminate, or displaying qualities that are unbecoming of the masculine gender.
The Term Paper on Fashion and Surrealism
Fashion and Surrealism: Why Not? Imagining a world where your dreams and subconscious co-exist with the general happenings of life is surreal however extremely alluring. Surrealist artists and fashion designers have a steady belief in this fantasy and have attempted to achieve this through the work of art and fashion. Throughout this essay, the bewildering topic of fashion and Surrealism will be ...
I’m also reminded of a specific commercial advertisement for the Dodge Caliber car. The ad begins with pixies flying around the city, turning dingy trains into colorful Christmas-spirited locomotives, and skyscrapers into giant gingerbread houses. The fairy turns her wand on the car, which only causes her spell to bounce off the car and back into her, slamming her into a wall. A man walking by with his Rottweiler laughs and points stating “Silly little fairy”.
The fairy, frustrated, magically turns him into an obviously gay male with four Pomeranians, which is Dodge’s way of saying that the Caliber is more of a man’s car. While the Miller and Dodge ads may go farther than some of us would desire (the Dodge ads were pulled off the air after consumer complaints) they are the start of the retrosexual backlash against the metrosexual movement. The commercials in question are the start of the response by the some media outlets to appeal to those who find the ads such as those for male facial softening cream insulting.
To address the backlash, there are some ad agencies that are willing to push back against the current trend of demeaning men in advertisements, opting to show more rugged masculine types. In the same issue of Playboy that contained the “urban cowboy” fashion segment, an advertisement for Copenhagen chewing tobacco shows a rugged chap climbing a steel I-beam with a cityscape background, presenting the masculinity that would generally appeal to those buying chewing tobacco (27).
The ad says little, but speaks volumes by being displayed in a magazine with far more than a slightly liberal display of modern men. Searching through years of Playboy has shown me ads displaying masculine men are few and far between, finding only an average of 0. 7 advertisements per month that portrayed men in a masculine way. Overall, I firmly believe that though male gender stereotypes are generally set to the extremes in advertising, the tides are turning when it comes to advertising to men today.
The Essay on Health Care Museum 6
John Q. recently moved to a rural community. He works full-time, but qualifies for Medicaid because of his low income. John has high blood pressure and his father recently had a heart attack. Thus, he decided to call to find out which providers nearby accept Medicaid. While there are local doctors, he discovered that the closest primary care physician who accepts Medicaid is a 40-minute drive and ...
