I originally planned on picking a television show as the topic of my second essay, but was having trouble picking one. I turned to Google. I typed in "Ad Campaigns", and it auto completed it with "that degrade women". I thought - how fitting! The first thing that came up, was a Dolce and Gabbana advertisement. I'll be honest I don't think I've ever even seen one of their ads until now. The further I looked into their ad campaigns, the more surprised I was. I had no idea that their ads were so controversial, and they have even had legal problems with some of them.
Therefore, I am going to write my second essay on Dolce & Gabbana. Instead of focusing on one single ad campaign, I am going to pick and choose a few from different campaigns. The thing that I find interesting is that D&G does not stick to one form of ads. Their ads explore all angles of sexuality. However they do still degrade both men and women. At first I was appalled, but now I'm curious and excited to learn more about their stance on their ads.
I will need to work on furthering this, but to begin...I believe my thesis to be "Dolce and Gabbana ads challenge heteronormativity and at the same time strengthen the violence that it ensues." Through my analysis of Dolce & Gabbana's ads, I hope to show my audience that although their ads are bold and futuristic, they are still harmful.
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I don't get fashion, so I never got the type of ads companies have for their products. So I feel that this is a great topic to write about.
ReplyDeleteThis is funny, because just the other day in my Womens Gender class we were talking about the Dolce and Gabbana ads and how ridiculous they are. I mean I think their whole scope is to shock their viewers and attract audience by their appauling ads. I actually like Dolce and Gabbana and if I had the money I would spend it on their brand but it's not the ads and commercials that get to me. I think their ads don't relate to anyone, especially not many of us who live in Ohio...I think you should stick to this topic because it's something a lot of people don't understand.
ReplyDeleteHey! I'm hopefully doing my project on a fashion ad campaign as well-so hopefully great minds think alike? Haha, but anyway-I have seen TONS of Dolce ads that would work perfectly for your paper...and I've also discussed them messaging and images of the Dolce ads in my Womens Studies and Media Studies classes. The ways they trivialize sex to sell their product is actually degrading. I love their product-but the violence towards women and constant sexual imaging second guesses my thoughts on the company. I also think your thesis sounds really strong-I completely agree that the ads ensue violence and also send mixed messaging to viewers through the actual text and the strong images of women (and men!)
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really good idea! me and my sisters were recently watching tv and a D&G commercial came on it was absolutely ridiculous, in fact my sister and I looked at each other after watching and were like, "what the heck was the point of that?" (the whole commercial was pretty much a random make-out session) I am interested in reading what your find during your research on their adds! good luck! sounds like it's going to be a fun topic!
ReplyDeleteHeather,
ReplyDeleteThe D&G ads are a great choice to analyze for this paper. Everyone that has posted so far makes great points - the ads definitely demonstrate violence towards both women and men (I just found an ad that features a woman literally bound by the straps of purses), and trivialize sexuality.
In fact, that might be a way into the essay for you: I like your observation that the ads tend to be sexually inclusive, so maybe the angle into the ads is to look at how the ads portray the act of sex? It's definitely present in just about every ad, and the ads all seem to represent sex as violent and/or trivialized. What do you think? ~Megan
I think this is a really great topic to write about. I have always thought that these ad’s have been quite controversial and heteronormative. I feel like ones I have seen in the past usually include men and women in the same ad, suggesting heteronormativity. I’ll be interested to see which ad’s you choose to use for your paper.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed also that the D&G ads are not usually in color; there fore I think the reader’s mind looking closely at each of the details instead of just one detail of the advertisement. This may even cause the ads to be even more detrimental to viewers.