Women in Advertising

Using a variety of print advertisements, this exciting and provocative study explores how the consumer is created by advertisements in terms of: * Sex * Class * Race. It also explores the figure of the citizen and how this identity is produced by contemporary political discourses. Advertising and Consumer Citizenship will be essential reading for all those interested in the study of consumption, citizenship and gender.

Sex in Advertising: Perspectives on the Erotic Appeal is the first book to thoroughly tackle important issues about sex in advertising. What is it? Does it work? How does it affect individuals and society? Well-respected scholars and popular writers answer these questions as they address the following issues associated with sex in today's advertising environment: gender differences and representation, unintended social effects, subliminal embeds, appeals to the homosexual community, and new media. The book contains a blend of perspectives, including original experimental studies, interpretive and historical analyses, and cultural critiques. The definitive source on sex in advertising, this book: *is centralized around a singular theme: Understanding how sex in advertising appeals work and why they are so prevalent; *includes multiple perspectives to capture the richness of sexual appeals; *brings together viewpoints from both well-known scholars and writers; *provides a wealth of ideas and research questions for those interested in the topic; and *contains discussions of sex in advertising from its roots in the 1700s to online advertising today and beyond. The book is must reading for advertising and gender researchers, scholars, and students. Anyone interested in mass media, consumer psychology, and popular culture will find this book an essential resource.

Beginning in 1963 with the publication of Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique and reaching a high pitch ten years later with the televised mega-event of the "Battle of the Sexes" --the tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs--the mass media were intimately involved with both the distribution and the understanding of the feminist message. This mass media promotion of the feminist profile, however, proved to be a double-edged sword, according to Patricia Bradley, author of "Mass Media and the Shaping of American Feminism, 1963-1975. Although millions of women learned about feminism by way of the mass media, detrimental stereotypes emerged overnight. Often the events mounted by feminists to catch the media eye crystalized the negative image. All feminists soon came to be portrayed in the popular culture as "bra burners" and "strident women." Such depictions not only demeaned the achievements of their movement but also limited discussion of feminism to those subjects the media considered worthy, primarily equal pay for equal work. Bradley's book examines the media traditions that served to curtail understandings of feminism. Journalists, following the craft formulas of their trade, equated feminism with the bizarre and the unusual. Even women journalists could not overcome the rules of "What Makes News." By the time Billie Jean King confronted Bobby Riggs on the tennis court, feminism had become a commodity to be shaped to attract audiences. Finally, in mass media's pursuit of the new, counter-feminist messages came to replace feminism on the news agenda and helped set in place the conservative revolution of the 1980s. Bradley offers insight into how mass media constructsimages and why such images have the kind of ongoing strength that discourages young women of today from calling themselves "feminist." The author also asks how public issues are to be raised when those who ask the questions a

Timid and retiring, the Victorian housewife was an "angel in the house," or so says the stereotype. But when this angel picked up a popular magazine--The Lady, for instance--she saw in its advertisements images of Grecian goddesses, women warriors, queens, actresses, adventurers. These arrestingly sexual and surprisingly powerful images are the subject of Consuming Angels, a major examination of how Victorian ads shaped social values. Stylishly written and featuring 73 reproductions, this book shows how ads used the hedonistic aspects of Victorian culture to sell their wares, glorified consumerism, and mythologized the middle-class life. Images of aggressive women, Loeb shows, played well to both men and women. And ultimately, these ads helped usher in the twentieth century with the creation of a new community: the community of consumers.