Research: I looked at all of the ads in 3 issues of Sports Illustrated I counted the number of males in each ad and the number of females in each ad. Then researched the ad more carefully looking for different stereotypes and things like body image.
My findings: I found from my research that there were 51 males in all of the ads and 18 females in all of the ads.
What I thought: I am amazed by these numbers. I wasn’t really surprised that there were more males than females but I can’t believe how much of a difference there is. One big thing that I noticed was that there were no overweight people in the ads. In the ads the people were all in very good shape and a lot of the ads used professional athletes in them. It wasn’t like all of the ads had these super fit athletes in them but there were no ads with people that were even close to being overweight. I think that this could be problematic because people will see these ads and think that they have to be like these people and if they’re not then there not normal. Another thing that I noticed was celebrity appeal. They use celebrities to sell things, for example Gatorade uses Usaine Bolt. I know for me that this makes me want to buy the drink more. I know that if I drink Gatorade I’m not actually going to be like Usaine Bolt but because it shows that he drinks Gatorade that makes me want to drink it. I also noticed a trend where a lot of the times the ads that had males in them didn’t seem quite as posed as the ads with females. I also noticed that a lot of the times the females were a little bit more exposed. There was one ad that especially caught my eye because there was a man wearing baggy camouflage shorts and a short sleeve flannel shirt but the woman was wearing a ¾ length shirt and a bikini bottom. I found this very interesting. Before I started to analyze the media I didn’t really think about it. I would read the magazine and sometimes look at the ads but I would never try to really figure out what they were trying to say. I was kind of surprised by some of the thing that I found, mainly about body image and also about the difference between how males and females are represented in ads. Now after doing this project I think that I will be more aware of the messages that the media is trying to send to me.
Citations
Sports Illustrated May 17, 2010
Sports Illustrated May 24, 2010
Sports Illustrated May 31, 2010
Your thoughts section had interesting ideas about your findings. It made me want to know more about your thoughts, especially how you think these ads might influence your thoughts about men/women and body image.
ReplyDelete