Advertising and Its Use in the Shaping of Consumer Gender Identities

Advertising is the activity of promoting a product, service or idea to a particular target audience. The cosmetic industry, which will be the focus of the author, relies heavily on advertisement. The advertiser talks to the intended audience through “mass media”: television, radio, billboards, newspaper and magazines ( Aaker, Batra, Myers, 1992). The most immediate form of advertisement is visual, consisting of colourful images with catch slogans that are design to stay in the reader’s mind for as long as possible.

In the advert there is usually a reference to the ideal consumer of the advertised object. Frequently, the consumer’s imageis featured in the advert with the product so that the targeted product or brand audience quickly recognise that the message is aimed at them. How the consumer’s gender image is presented in visual advertisement is of critical importance in influencing the advert audience. Sex is a prominent symbolic element in ads, especially in magazines.

In the advertising process there are, according to Aaker et al, four main institutions: “ the advertiser, the advertising, the media and the research

The cosmetic brands that are going to be examined by this dissertation have clear gender messages that are repeatedly sent to the public in their ads. Their brand personality is very strong as it going to be proved in the examination of selected magazine ads. Brand personality like that of a human is not static, but constantly dynamic in parallel with its social environment. It is up to the brand managers to keep updating the brand’s image and to keep adjusting its personality in order to ensure success. In brief, the brand must remain trendy. Cosmetic brands are the most heavily advertised to stay in tandem with constant socio-economic evolution. There is a gaping difference between the consumers of cosmetics of thirty years ago and those of today. In fact, the picture of cosmetic consumption has become complex. Men traditionally thought, in western society, to be uninterested in their aesthetic appearance, are ever more involved in transforming their look. Unhappiness with body is not anymore confined to a feminine preoccupation because it exists among the male too. Such change in social attitudes cause responses within the cosmetic industry.

Some topics in this essay:
Printer’s Ad, Brand Managers, Hoyer MacInnis, CONCEPT PERSPECTIVES, Sturrock Pioch, Batra Myers, Whereas Modernism, ADVERTISING Advertising, Indeed Aaker, et al, aaker et al, aaker et, brand personality, gender identities, sturrock pioch, gender images, gender identity, physical beauty, male grooming, ads brand personality, cosmetic brands,