How Has the Portrayal of Men and Women in the Media Changed Over the Past 30 Years - Article Example

The People Portrayal – 30 Years of Difference Whether we choose to recognize it or not, the media playsa large role in how we define ourselves as men and women, whether we are active or inactive, happy, sad, successful, attractive or a dozen other questions regarding who and what we are. These definitions come from the images we are presented with in combination with subtle clues that both reflect and define the social culture of a given time period. Whether it is in the movies we watch, the TV programs that air nightly, the magazine stories or the advertisements that break up the spaces in between, we cannot avoid these images and cultural definitions. Because advertisers are trying to gain the attention of their target consumer group, they work hard to depict the ideals of the society. If young and slim is attractive, they will work that into their presentation in as many ways as they can. If macho and hard is the current fashion, this, too, will be reflected in the way a product is marketed. At the same time, by changing the way they combine different types of visual clues, these same media outlets can help to redefine a culture, to make it more tolerant of ecological issues, for example, or to change the way a society views gender roles. A look back into the print advertisements of a long-successful, large company such as Coca-Cola reveals how advertising has both reflected and influenced the changing ideals concerning the definition of male and female during the past 30 years. The Coca-Cola ads of the 1970s reflected the country’s political instability with an almost overwhelming emphasis on reasserting the American ideals of the typical white middle-class suburban lifestyle. In its “Look Up America” campaign, the company portrayed these solid ideals in the choice of artistic styles as well as their choices in images displayed. A calendar widely distributed during this campaign utilized an artistic style that simplified the images to a basic color scheme with very little in the way of extraneous detail. The design features a realistic-seeming large bottle of Coca Cola centered on the page with the rest of the images remaining stylized. The calendar itself is tucked neatly down in the very lower left corner while an inspiring poem balances it out on the right corner. The bottle seems to rest on this solid text area while it is surrounded with a variety of images that serve to celebrate the ideal American lifestyle. We see a man and a woman out with their bikes, the Golden Gate Bridge, the rolling hills, the snow covered peaks, the mighty river, the soaring eagle, a pair of hikers enjoying the splendor and a group of people at a community picnic. “The ad tried to show Coke as the perfect accompaniment to food, fun, leisure. This campaign highlighted the soft drink’s role in many situations common to consumers around the globe” (“How Did Coca-Cola”, 2004). Through the use of these images, the advertisement is seen to epitomize all the things that are great about America, including its wide open spaces and its sense of family and community harmony. However, these advertisements also reveal much about the way in which gender roles were defined during this time period. The most prominent person in the advertisement is the male hiker wearing yellow pants standing at the peak of a steep climb and positioned close to the mouth of the bottle. He is triumphant in taking in the amazing view around him and pauses as he takes it in. That he is the king of the world is indicated in his positioning on the page, being topped only by the soaring eagle overhead. All other individuals pictured in the posted are looking down in deference to his upward-tilted supremacy. He is followed on the trail by a barely seen female companion. She has not been able to quite keep up with his strong, manly pace and remains in the background, trudging carefully up the hillside, looking down and so remains unaware of the glory around her. The other woman in the picture is the second half of the biking couple. She stands in front of the man, but looks back and up at him in a manner of feminine interest as he stands above her with an air of protection and ownership. While the images could be seen to portray the healthy lifestyles of a middle-class society, the positioning of the characters involved serves to reinforce the ideals of their relative social positioning. By the 1980s, the country’s ideas regarding gender roles had so changed that the company was no longer featuring people in its advertisements as much as focusing on just the product itself. Coke’s 1982 ad campaign focused on the product’s qualities of taste and refreshment with advertisements that featured the bottle of Coke resting on a bed of chopped ice. Although the smooth forms of the bottle rest against the white ice in much the same sort of pose often taken up by slim supermodels lying on fur rugs, the hard lines involved in both bottle and ice denied this similarity, reducing the obvious nature of the gender overtones that might be still be understood on a subconscious level. However, in the world of the new liberated woman as she headed out to work in the morning, the company made efforts to reduce any sexual overtones that might negatively influence this rising demographic. In 1985, the company had introduced a new flavor to their original drink and the advertisements took on a new focus as the company worked to get the country to accept this change to their cultural icon. To emphasize its take on the new, the company adopted the slogan ‘Catch the Wave’ and played upon the swooping calligraphic stroke of its classic text. Again, the advertising emphasis remained on the product’s qualities, this time it was the connection to the past and its movement to the future that the company tried to portray. “According to a survey at that time seventy-five percent of respondents said they considered Coca-Cola classic a symbol of America” (“How Did Coca-Cola”, 2004). The big advertisement image for this campaign included the image of a can of Coca-Cola weaving its way around the large skyscrapers of San Francisco, trailing its swooping calligraphic stroke symbol along after it as the sky is filled with a fantastic red swirling sunset to the top and a serene blue sky beneath. The symbolism in this advertisement operates on many levels. The chaotic sky above contrasted with the serene blue sky below sends a message that with the new wave of Coca-Cola, everything is perfect. The golden glow of the nighttime buildings helps indicate that this is the choice of the elite while the use of the San Franciscan skyline helps instill the idea of the forward-thinking west rather than the culturally historic east. Again, there are no people featured in the advertisement, but gender emphasis can still be found in the swerving curves of the logo swoop as it weaves its way around the solid structure of the skyscrapers. Although there is a hint of the female versus the male in this image, this is the first time the advertising provides the curvy, more feminine image the power of movement and choice among the solid male symbols of the buildings. By the 1990s, Coke had turned to the adolescent and pop markets, no longer focusing on gender types at all, but instead working to portray a healthy, balanced yet completely in tune and alive product that radiated energy. An advertisement in the mid-1990s displayed a chalk drawing with several renderings of the circular Coca-Cola logo against a multi-hued background reminiscent of the 60s hippie styles. This even goes as far as to insert psychedelic-type paint styles and the insertion of the word “Always” in various ways that both serve to highlight the use of the product always, reinforce its place in the iconography of American culture (along with the use of the hippie artistic style) and associates itself with a new and energized pop culture that remains focused on the young. The bottle that becomes the focal point of this image does not have any of the detail that had been placed on previous advertisements, even going so far as to leave the label off, featuring nothing more than a brown bottle shape. As has been shown, simply taking the people out of the advertisement was not sufficient to take the gender roles out of the message. However, these new advertisements work to focus rather on the artistic style and the image of fresh, new and hip even while making a bid for the product’s place in American hearts. The only gender indication of any kind visible in this type of ad can only be found in the shape of the bottle itself, originally designed to remind people of the pleasing curves of a woman’s body and keeping its shape thanks to the comfort in the hand and the classic look that appeals to traditionalists. Even the bold use of color is done in such a way as to not indicate masculine or feminine overtones, allowing all colors to stand out boldly, yet remaining balanced against each other. In the related television advertisements, the company uses other gender-neutral characters to portray the action. In one, roughly triangular pieces of red clay interact in a positive message of connection. It opens with a storm cloud following a smaller shape character and the chance meeting with a larger shape. The larger shape expresses concern for the smaller shape and quickly reshapes itself into the form of a ladder, enabling the smaller character to climb above the cloud. The smaller one rests there for a moment while the larger character snaps back to its original configuration. Then the cloud disappears, bringing the two shapes together in the shape of a coke bottle. The distinction of shape is the only difference between these two characters, but they are not created in such a way that this size difference denotes either gender. By reducing the imagery down to this tri-tone simple claymation, Coca-Cola is able to reduce its message to only two basic ideas. The first encourages people to reach out and help one another. The second indicates that sharing a Coke is the best way to do this. Coca-Cola also introduced its Polar Bear campaign in the 1990s. Once again having to contend with the issues of gender as the polar bears interacted with each other and made their way through the arctic landscape, Coca-Cola has been careful to imbue its characters with as gender neutral characteristics as possible. In many instances, it is impossible to tell whether the baby polar bears involved in the scene are boys or girls. They interact with each other as equals: equally caring, equally contentious, equally mischievous and equally adorable. At the same time, it is often difficult to decide whether the larger polar bear watching over the small ones is the female or the male parent. In many cases, it could be either. In those instances when the gender of the adult bear is made known, it is often somehow surprising. The mother, acting in the masculine role of protector, catches her cub just before he falls down a hill. The father, with a mother’s compassionate smile of understanding, instantly forgives the troublesome cub as they share another bottle of Coke. Although they continue portraying the American ideal of a loving, happy family, usually consisting of mother, father and two cubs, gender roles are blurred and shared as the cubs become quintessential children and as the parents become mutually caring, mutually responsible, equally capable elders. Although the primary concern for the Coca-Cola Company in growing through the past 30 years has been in successfully marketing its product to the general public, it has inadvertently presented a visual timeline of the changing attitudes and expectations of the genders. Thirty years ago, the woman’s place was firmly behind her husband, continuously following him, looking to him for direction and supporting him in his success. By remaining in her allotted role, the woman was thus doing her part to support this great country of rolling hills, soaring eagles, roaring rivers and snow-capped mountains. During times of great changes, such as that happening in the late 1970s and 1980s, the company removed itself somewhat from the gender language inherent in advertising, removing itself from the obvious gender-specific ideals, yet allowing the symbolism to continue representing the traditional attitudes. With the advent of the 1990s and into the 2000s, the company is now reflecting the idea that men and women are equally capable of supporting the family, whether through bringing home the family income or working around the house, the gender of the parent involved in the work no longer matters. Although this isn’t necessarily completely true yet, that this is the attitude shown in the advertising indicates the forward-thinking attitude the company is trying to portray regarding its product, establishing itself with the 1990s generations. Works Cited “Coca-Cola Advertising.” Press Center. 2006. Coca-Cola Company. April 11, 2006 “How Did Coca-Cola Company Organize a World-Famous Company?” March 25, 2004. University Scientiarum. April 11, 2006 The Library of Congress. “Fifty Years of Coca-Cola Television Advertisements.” American Memory. November 29, 2000. The Library of Congress. April 11, 2006 Read More