Again with Unilever and Axe

It is a mixed message that Unilever is sending out. With the Dove campaigns for real beauty trying to focus on protecting the young women of the future, why would Unilever carry such an opposite brand like Axe? It just doesn't seem like a good thing to do. They're aiming at two different ends of the sepctrum with these types of advertising. You've got trying to preserve the minds of young women by telling them it's okay to be who you are, no matter what you look like. Then you've got Axe who perpetuates the stereotype of women as sex objects. I don't know. I've already rambled about the whole Axe thing before. I guess I'm just slightly disturbed by Unilever with this. I didn't know that both brands belonged to Unilever until this class.

It's pretty messed up.

Black or African American

This is actually a very touchy situation. In reading that article, I am suprised to see that black people would prefer to be called black instead of african american. But just because an article says that most if not all people in a certain group says they'd like to be labeled a certain way, it doesn't mean that you can assume this in conversations with them. I've had the conversation several times regarding how to identify black people.

For instance, I have a friend who is a waiter and he told me about a situation that didn't go over so well. He was training a new waiter one day and asked him to take some food item to a table. The person in training said, "Who do you want me to take this to?" My friend responded, "The black guy at that table over there." The person in training acted very offended by that statement and confronted my friend about it. From that point on, he made it a point to be sure to identify a person by their clothing or what they were eating.

Whatever the case is, you simply cannot please an entire group of people. Some are very concerned about their label while others just don't care and would rather just be considered just like everybody else. I personally don't know how to approach this situation. I think I still hear in commercials the term 'african american.' All in all, labels are ridiculous and have only caused problems.

In Response to Axe

It's been tough for me to figure out if I should laugh at or be mad at the new Axe ads that have come out recently. As an advertising major, my instinct is of course to laugh since they've done such a good job creating ridiculous ads (my favorite kind of all). But at the same time, as a female, I can't help but be put off a bit in the way that we're depicted as sense-driven animalistic sex fiends.

It gets a little old seeing women portrayed in the same manner over and over again. Though their "Bom-Chicka Wow Wow" campaign is innovative, it's just the same idea that's been done a thousand times before. Just showing women as sexual objects, even if we're not the ones being objectified. It still focuses on the idea that sex sells, and in this case, it's working. I can only imagine the profits they've earned since they began running these ads.

But no matter what, I'm still an advertising major, and I do find a great deal of humor in these ads.

Homoeroticism in the media

Considering what we've been discussing about in class lately and what we've been reading, I decided to pay attention to homosexuality in commercials and in other forms of media. I definitely notice the depiction of women as lesbians more than I have seen men as homosexuals. I think that homosexuality in the media focuses more on touching on fantasies more than allowing them to express their sexuality in a free and loving way, if that makes sense. That being said, women are more easily accepted as homosexuals because of the fact that it in some sick way is more socially acceptable than gay men. I believe women are more easily transformed into sexual objects, especially as lesbians, because we've been broken down in the media from humans into body parts.

Either way, it's still quite taboo to have homosexuals in the media as much of the public can be seen as homophobic. Even if someone isn't very sensitive to homosexuality in ads, advertisers often take it to an extreme which can make a very open-minded person uncomfortable.

We're still too stuck in the same mindset regarding the media to move forward and accept different sexualities, religions, etc.