Why is the use of a woman doing something sexual almost always gets consumers interested in a product? Take for example this Burger King Ad, and the position of the woman. She is facing the long burger with her mouth wide open and her red lips standing out compare to her pale white skin. Her eyes wide open as if saying “this is a HUGE burger!” At first you see nothing wrong until you read the wording that Burger King decides to market, “IT’LL BLOW YOUR MIND AWAY”, in a huge font size. Your mind can’t help but to analyze this Ad as perverted. This indexical sign has a different meaning today then what it meant back then. You notice that her mouth is ready not just for a bite, but to stimulate the consumers mind about oral sex and the substitution of the long “SUPER SEVEN INCHER” burger for a male penis. It is almost hard to wrap your head around the idea that BK will even advertise this, but in this generation, this is what attracts consumers. I believe that this Ad is made for a younger audience. When I look at this Ad my mind paints the picture of a few high school guys eating at BK after school talking about how “crunk” they think this Ad is and wanting to purchase the burger for it, as if purchasing it will show their support for oral sex.
We all hear the terms such as “sex sells” when used to market products, but I never thought I will see it advertised in this manner. It is difficult to believe today that the role of a woman can be manipulated for multiple reasons, even sexual in Corporate America. I will hate for my children to think that the role of a women has only changed from being a housewife to a sex icon. Unfortunately I do not believe that advertisements for products such as these will ever stop sending perverted messages for profit. As long as there are people/consumers willing to buy these products, they will continue to support these kind of messages.
This post is incomplete--I'm assuming a technical difficulty. Repost please.
ReplyDeleteI too have seen many sexist advertisements such as these and it is hard to believe that this is what it has come down to, sexist marketing. From a gentleman's perspective, I will hate to even look at an ad such as this one. It's hard not to look at it though but easy for me not to support it. It just shocks me how Burger Kind can use the sexual acts such as this to sell a product. I hope that others too can see how much it demeans a woman's identity and decide not to support any ads, such as these, for that matter.
ReplyDeleteThis ad is very disturbing because I feel like it could be shown in a magazine that a child could get a hold of. It is terrible that Burger King would create something like this. "It'll Blow Your Mind Away" and "Super Seven Incher" is so perverted. This ad resembles my ad in the way that they both us the idea of blow jobs as a marketing scheme. This just portrays women as sexual objects and demeans us. I assume that Burger King was trying to market this sandwich to men by drawing them in with the underlying sexual aspects of the ad, but they should have really let this one go back to the drawing board.
ReplyDeleteGood explanation of the sandwich standing in for the penis.
ReplyDeleteTo fully explore the ad look at the way the woman is represented--the look on her face, for example. Also consider more deeply what this portrayal of the woman and the sandwich implies about women--stereotypes like women's being passive and required to perform certain sexual acts.