Demonstrable Demographics

After looking at a lot of ads and a lot of student’s thoughts and feelings on ads, I was able to come to the conclusion that our demographic is well represented. Maybe “well represented” isn’t the best choice of words because when you look at how they target women, they play on our insecurities but we are represented accurately. When I read the blogs, most people said that the ads they chose were successful at getting the message across and hailing our demographic. I think this is true because of social media. It’s a lot easier to see how each demographic thinks and what our interests are by just going on Facebook and Twitter. They can see everything and are able to go straight to the source instead of conducting a survey and doing research. They are good at hailing our demographic because they know that teen women are insecure about their body image because it’s something that the majority of us go through, so they use that to their advantage.

One of the blogs I looked at (karabalsdon.wordpress.com) caught my attention because she used one of the same quotes from the text book that I did about individuality in the media and because her ad was horrible. This blog was also the only blog that I read that said her ad was unsuccessful at getting the message across and hailing us.  Her ad was for Proactiv and this ad used body image and women’s insecurities to persuade us to buy the product but Kara said this was unsuccessful because it just makes girls with acne feel terrible about themselves and want to hide. I agree because I think they took it too far but this ad could be successful because it could generate a lot of attention because of how horrible it is.

 Three of the ads that some students picked all had a lot in common; they dealt with girl’s images. The ad about the Skinny Girl Cocktail that was used on lostirling.wordpress.com makes women become conscious about their bodies by saying that you should drink Skinny Girl so that you don’t overload on calories and end up gaining weight. The ad for Proactiv makes girls think that if you have a lot of acne, guys won’t want to date you, so you need their product if you want a boyfriend. The Covergirl ad on bernacayabyab.wordpress.com shows us that we can look better if we buy their makeup. After seeing these ads, we could see ourselves differently and start worrying about our image. “These symbolic systems, whether its media, images or language contribute to the making of our identities and subjectivities- the way an individual sees the world in their own way”. These ads do contribute to the way we see ourselves and the world. They can take something and perceive it any way they want to and whichever way they choose is how we could end up perceiving it too. Once we start to worry, we buy these products so that we can feel better. “This is where companies find great success if they are looking to target a specific gender because they will tailor their advertisements exactly to the stereotypes and “norms” of each respective gender.” This is a good quote because it is true. They think the “norms” of the female gender are that we are superficial and mainly care about our looks, so that is how they tailor ads to us. They usually focus on our image. The media is successful at hailing women and interpellating our demographic because they cater to our insecurities. They know that women at this age care a lot about their looks, so this is how they sell products to us.

“The media makes us believe there are certain roles different individuals play. Advertisements are aimed at certain people to get them to buy their product”. Ads single out each demographic and stereotype so that they can tailor everything in the ad to target a certain demographic. That way everyone wants to buy the product because they see it in a different way.

Basically, my demographic of teenage women is represented as superficial, insecure and ready to do anything to change their appearance. This is how companies see us and even though it is a horrible way to look at us, it is accurate. The majority of us do have self esteem and body image issues and we all go out and buy the latest beauty or diet products to make ourselves seem more attractive.

karabalsdon.wordpress,com
razanalkayed.wordpress.com
bernacayabyab.wordpress.com
lostirling.wordpress.com