Advertising & Marketing Task 3: Representations of gender and sexuality

I will be assessing the Yves Saint Laurent perfume advert which is a women’s product and the L’insoumis men’s perfume advert. They are patriarchal, which is system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it, adverts that are setting aside men and women to be different from each other. 

This print ad is specifically targeted towards women as it advertises for a women’s perfume however this can also be for men as they would want to purchase the product for women.  The image of this advert conveys a sense of female dominance which attracts a female audience and allows them to believe that by having this product it will make you’re more attractive and appealing to men. You can see that in the advert that the man is clearly attracted to the women model that has put on the perfume which is featured in the advert in the corner. The adverts are binary opposite where two ‘mutually exclusive’ things that are paired against each other such as men and women. You can see that women are be objectified which is degrading to the status of a mere object and in these adverts since they want the model to lure men towards themselves. This advert suggests towards the audience that wearing the Yves Saint Laurent perfume will make men draw to you. 

The camera shot of this is medium shot which shows the part of the characters bodies and the way this shot has been taken is in an interesting way because you don’t usually see this of image in adverts. The image has been taken at canted angle where the angle of the shot is tilted, and you can see that the sky is in the left hand side which shows unusual scenery. One of the mise-en-scene elements such as costume plays an important role, because the women’s blouse has been opened and her tie has been undone which is something that the viewers pick up instantly since she is the main focus of the advert. The white blouse kind of goes against what the character is doing, the white blouse symbolises pure and innocence but this is quite ironic because she’s shown to be exposed and revealing. This could be seen as an archetype since the viewers see this attraction from a man they tend to believe in the product because they think that the product actually works to draw attention towards men. Women are shown to be bare and over sexualised because it encourage men’s to purchase products that will entice women and they also encourage women as well because theses adverts display the attention that they want hence why they will have the urge to buy these products. I feel like this advert kind of challenges patriarchy because you see that the women is in charge and allowing the man to succumb to her will, since she displays her appearance of an office/ businesswomen formal wear. However others may say that this can be seen as a stereotype because women are often seen like this all the time, since they are ‘known’ to be weak and allow men to do what they want. And the advert represents women as an object, a materialistic thing which you can do whatever you want to, the fact that she’s revealing herself suggests that she displayed as a sex object since she’s making herself lustful with the male character.

This print ad is specifically targeted towards men as it is advertises for a men’s perfume however this can also be for women as they would want to purchase the product for men.  The image of this advert is quite different then you see usually see in a men’s advert and men usually wear suits in the print ads. This advert conveys that without this product you won’t be as manly and muscular like the character in this advert.

The camera shot of this image is a medium shot that shows part of the characters body, and the image is taken at and eye-level. One of the mise-en-scene element which is the setting, is a key part of the advert, here you see that the character is a forest where is must be cold, this is shown by the why the character is wearing a jumper and has his hands in his pocket. The setting links back to the actual product where on the side you can see the leaf like designs; maybe this is why he advert was shot in the forest. Another mise-en scene element that stands out is the costume, because you can see that the character is quite reserved and poised looking. His character makes him look quite formal in this scene; it almost seems as if he looks effortless to sell the product, unlike the first advert where you can see the male character has to look a certain way to look and help the audience believe that the product will attract women. The text also link well with the image as they conveys the same message, the text says ‘the scent of a free spirit’ which could suggest that this perfume product is specifically tailored of an individual just like the character in the advert. The advert does uphold the patriarchy where men are in control in the society you can see that the advert represents the typical masculine stereotype which conducts the way men should look like in today’s society. The stereotype secludes the norm because it makes an induvial think that this is the new way to be a ‘perfect looking’ norm which causes a controversy between the norm and the new. This advert shows how men should be such as strong and confident genders than the women, because men have the power to be strong. 

The comparisons between the two adverts has to be the representation of men, they are shown as an accessory with the women. yet in the second advert you can see that the advert presents the character in very different way where he is seen as strong induvial, which shows how man can do it all; which shows that still in this day and age we live in a patriarchal society because women get supressed even if women are displayed sexually like the first advert or even powerfully they are still determined as weak women. 

Seeing these adverts I’ve realised that even though that we live this 21^st century men will always be first regardless of how hardly women strive to out beat them. I think that the society we live in has brought many changes after 100 of years because women are doing things that they have never done such as being manging directors in huge companies, they have excelled in many ways  and have tried to outdo what men do. Women have and still are trying to break this gender stereotype. But the world that we live in has sort of made its mind up that women are only women because they can’t change and be like men.  They believe that at the end of the day no matter what they do in their life such as career wise they will end up being housewife’s.