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The Representation of Women and Ethnic Minorities in Advertisements

The Representation of Women and Ethnic Minorities in Advertisements
Author: Patricia Motoko
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Abstract: The research assesses and examines the issue of imagery and representation in tourism, in particular representations of women and ethnic minorities. Specific attention is paid to the way in which women are used and exploited as objects to endorse products, in most ways carrying sexual allure to entice buyers, and how stereotypical images place white upper-middle class individuals as the main consumers of travel accompanied by the repetitive use of heterosexual couples as a means of representations of the nuclear family. The research is thus founded on an objective centred on tackling the issue of two somewhat ignored segments of travel advertising, whilst understanding how destinations choose to market towards certain groups. The focus of this paper is on portrayals of gender, and race in advertisements, involving a holistic view pertaining to an analysis of the media. Part of the purpose of this paper is to investigate how women are advertised and the impacts of this on women accompanied by the nature of representation in advertising for minority groups particularly blacks and the inequalities and barriers of accessing travel accompanied by the production and reproduction of images that influence perceptions of the world but fail to represent a wider audience are explored. The research undertaken assesses in detail worldwide case studies of media and advertising.


Keywords: Race, Brochures, Racial equality, Gender representation, Advertising


Discussion: Advertising is a fundamental component of marketing for every business. Millions of pounds are generated from selling campaigns yearly and constructing new concepts within advertising companies. Extensive hours are put in to producing the perfect advertising campaign or advert, whether that be through magazines, television advertisements or billboards. Those working in these creative fields attempt to convey impactful and meaningful messages that will resonate with their viewers in order to relate to these ads, consequently leading them to make a purchase of the product the company aims to sell. The use of athletes, celebrities or famous politicians are popularly used in advertisements to increase attractiveness (Cuneen et all, 2007). In recent years there has been a lack of women and ethnic minorities being represented in advertising, although there has been a slight positive shift in the portrayal of women in advertisements yet conveying a stereotypical story of being weak, domestic or playing a damsel in distress type character in which a man is required to save her. Studies reveal that women in their 60’s have a lower chance of appearing in adverts than younger women in their 20s, additionally women who do appear in advertisements have a youthful glow and young “fresh” face, setting the standards and foundations for accepted roles of genders in advertising (Stern 2004). Ethnic minorities are the least documented in advertising and still remain a underdeveloped research area within the remit of tourism studies with fewer literature for this topic.

Studies have shown that travel and tourism advertising in its many forms can exploit and distort the images of women, producing a view of women as being sexual objects for the sexual pleasure and gratification of men and to a degree supporting the work of young women and children in poorer less economically developed countries that actively roam the streets working as prostitutes, escorts or illegally being sex trafficked targeting male tourists, as the erotised images advertise of women from destinations such as Malaysian, Kenya, and Eastern Europe encourage male travellers to seek out such destinations for the experience of sex. An emphasis on women wearing little to no clothing whilst men are always fully dressed is consistent with the point that women are portrayed as sexual beings more than anything else i.e. bikinis, short dresses.

Therefore, as the topic of representation stands the depiction of blacks in travel advertising is necessary to investigate. In particular research offered by Burton and Klemm (2011) into whiteness theory as an approach to analysing ethnic images in advertising plays a prominent role in reflection of self for black people. Whiteness theory focuses on analysing power, privilege and rewards of whiteness (Burton. D, Klemm. M, 2011: 680) and that the ideology of whiteness constitutes racism, however not in the form of hatred per say but the form of preferential treatments for Whites. Only a small number of brochures have focused on the pictures of people specifically in travel, the tourism industry instead employs stereotypical images of middle-class consumer narratives that encourage personal fulfilment and cultural experiences, similar characteristics can be seen in the segment of backpackers. However, people in tourist brochures showed only 60% of images being tourists enjoying themselves and the opportunity for escapism (Burton. D, Klemm. M, 2011: 682a). so far the tourism industry acts as being a crucial player of determining ethnicity in advertising, however studies of ethnicity and tourism reveals that marketing ethnicity to tourists in a destination may make tourists more self-conscious and reflexive about the culture within a destination which they potentially may have taken for granted, merely because this is produced through the demands of tourist advertising and marketing of representing and defining the ethnic product (Wood. R, 1998: 225) in competition with others.

References:

Belkaoui, A., & Belkaoui, J. M. A comparative analysis of the roles portrayed by women in print advertisements: 1958, 1970, and 1972. Journal of Marketing Research, 1976, 13, 168-172.

Kang, M. (1997) The Portrayal of Women’s Images in Magazine Advertisements: Goffman’s Gender Analysis Revisited. Sex Roles, 37 (11) 979-996

Klem, M & Burton, D (2011) “Whiteness, ethnic minorities and advertising in travel brochures” The Service Industries Journal, Vol.31, No. 5, April 2011, 679-693