Role of Men in Commercials Past and Present Essay

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Men in Commercials

The characters of males in advertising has changed over time. In the earlier days of print and television advertising, as well as on the radio, males were the alpha and usually domineering over the subdued and submissive housewife. This has changed in the modern time and males are now on equal footing or are dominating by females

Evidence:

Marlboro Man as embodiment of physical masculinity

Evidence:

Male as physically dominating over female.

Evidence:

Male as submissive to female. Physical strength is marginalized by strength of mind.

Males in advertising from as recently as thirty or forty years ago shows that he dominates over females. This has changed along with the present cultures gender psychology.

The purpose of advertising is to get people who see it to buy products. The ad is designed to convince the viewer that their life will be in some way improved only through the acquisition of said product. To do so, the creators must appeal to the viewing audience in the language of the potential consumers. One way this is accomplished is by utilizing the psychology of the current climate and appealing to the stereotypes of the era. The most obvious stereotypes that are applied to in advertising are gendered.

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Products are introduced to a given gender and the advertisement is slanted to appeal to one gender over the other. Over time, the depictions of males in advertising has changed to mirror the perspectives of the current cultural climate, from a gender that is strong and masculinized into a more balanced gender who is on par with their female counterparts.

Figure one below shows the world-famous Marlboro Man. This was the mascot of the Marlboro cigarette company for decades. In all his depictions, he is strong and earthy. This is a man in the most masculinized sense of the world. He is strong. His features are chiseled and he is dressed in traditional cowboy attire. All the aspects of masculinity that a male person could hope to be are exemplified in this photograph. There is absolutely nothing "sissy" about this man, nor his interests. The subliminal message that is informed to the viewer of the ad is that a man who chooses the Marlboro brand cigarette will also be manly and masculine like this cowboy.

The second figure shows a man who has a woman, presumably his wife, over his knee and has his….....

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