BLOG POST #5
For this week’s blog post, research one sample of advertising (any print, video or visal sample not mentioned by the authors) and then apply the concepts and tools of analysis used by at least two authors in this week’s readings (Feb 23: Media and the Body and/or Feb 25: Advertising and Gender) to critique the ad you picked. You will be asked to share your ad and analysis in class, be sure to include a screenshot of the ad or link to the ad video in your blog post.
Write 250 words maximum, excluding reference list in APA format. Graded in/complete.
In 2009, Burger King released an advertisement displaying a blond, young, white woman with her mouth open with a seven-inch burger hovering in front of it. The tagline read: “It’ll blow your mind away. Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled with the New BK Super Seven Incher” (Burger King, 2009). This advertisement stands as one of the prime examples of how to alienate half of your market and use them as sexual objects. It has been branded as being extremely controversial due to its sexual connotations to oral sex. The use of large bold words was not planted in the ad by accident and the word “blow” can be slang and has a reference to oral sex. According to Heiss, S. N. (2011), this falls into the first ideology that frames in response to diversity, which is segregation. It emphasizes differences between dominant groups and marginal cultural groups to maintain separation, where this ad targets male’s sexual arousal at the expense of the female body. On the other hand, this advertisement fits as an argument for the ‘mold’ view of advertising, as discussed by Landreth Grau, S. & Zotos, Y.C. (2016), which suggests that peoples’ perception of social reality is shaped by the media. They incorporate stereotypes presented by the media into their system of values, ideas, and beliefs about the quality of life. According to this viewpoint, advertising campaigns create gender identity, based on their images, the stereotyped iconography of masculinity and femininity.
- Burger King. (2009). Burger King’s Super Seven Incher — It’ll Blow your mind away [Digital image]. Retrieved from http://www.themost10.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Burger-King-It-will-Blow-Your-Mind-Away.jpg?354d8b
- Heiss, S. (n.d.). Locating the bodies of women and disability in definitions of beauty: An analysis of dove’s campaign for real beauty. Retrieved February 25, 2021, from https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/1367/1497
- Gender stereotypes in advertising: A review of current research. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2021, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02650487.2016.1203556
