False+Consciousness+and+Advertising

We briefly discussed the connection between false consciousness and advertisement in class, so I thought I’d post a few specific examples here. They don’t always refer directly to socioeconomic class—there are rarely depictions of a “poor person” and a “rich person”—but they tend to marginalize specific minority groups. Here, I’m defining a “minority group” as an oppressed group, and not necessarily as a group of people who are the minority in a numerical sense.

Here’s a commercial for the Toyota Highlander that is pretty blatantly about socioeconomic class. There’s no rich/poor language used at all: the kid just calls one type of car “lame/dorky/geeky” and the other, “classy”. But the message is clear: if you can’t afford a new car like this, you suck. media type="youtube" key="80pNUxIczig" height="390" width="480"

Objectification and stereotyping of women; 1. Roger Federer and Anna Kournikova in Sports Illustrated



They’re both tennis players, so why isn’t Kournikova playing tennis on the cover? While I realise that this is mostly a tactic to attract more subscribers because the majority of Sports Illustrated readers are heterosexual and male, it sends a pretty powerful message to female athletes: you can be one of the greatest athletes in the world, but you are still going to be objectified and sexualized. Don’t get me wrong; this happens to male athletes too. But they’re usually sexualized in the context of their sport—shirtless and running, half naked and swimming, posing in front of their corresponding sport arena, etc. I’ve just never seen a male athlete posed in sleepwear on a bed on the cover of a sports magazine. 2. Gift giving Seriously. What. Is. This. Nobody would live to tell the tale of giving me a clothesline for Christmas…

Slightly more subtle, but notice that the girl in the foreground is wearing princess garb (pink, tiara, tutu, etc.) and //marrying Optimus Prime and Barbie.// This is either intentional female stereotyping or a very very sad reflection on the priorities and goals that our society teaches children. 3. Misc. ads media type="youtube" key="mfEMW0sXwiw" height="390" width="480" Laundry is so exciting!

And this one is pretty obviously of questionable taste.

Advertising in Asia: I happen to be familiar with the modeling industry in Japan, and it’s interesting to note that half-Japanese models are in very high demand because they look Japanese enough to be relatable to their consumer demographic, but have “desirable” features atypical of Eastern Asians. Some of these features include things that are near-undetectable. For example: - Eyelids. Apparently having “double lids” (which is the characteristic of having a crease between the top of the eye and the skin above the eye) is better than having a “mono lid” (which is the characteristic of having smooth skin between the eye and the eyebrow). Here’s an example of a double lid: . Here’s an example of a monolid: . It’s a bit harder to tell, here, because the make-up is designed to give her a double-lid look. Because the double-lid is “better”, there are many surgical procedures and eyelid glues designed to give naturally mono-lidded people double-lids.

- Whiter skin. I remember being about eight or nine years old when a neighbor (in Japan) commented on how “white” I was. I was offended because, here, everybody seems to want to be tan, but she meant it as a compliment. There are a lot of skin-whiteners available, and some of them are targeted toward ridiculously specific parts of the body. For example, here’s a box of something that is supposed to make one’s areolas pinker:

- More prominent nose. East Asian rhinoplasty is unbelievably common. There are a lot of unconfirmed rumours about this but judging from childhood and adulthood pictures of a //lot// of East Asian celebrities, I’d say the majority have had some kind of work done on their nose. The existence of a bridge is apparently important.

All of these things, and more, contribute to the end result of most East Asian models looking like this: . (This is Japanese model Leah Dizon, who, incidentally, isn’t Japanese at all, but rather French, Filipino, and Chinese.) Feel free to add more examples!