Primary Sources

Source 1

The first source that I found interesting was Love Your Body: Offensive Adds. This web site was an online petition about ads that were offensive to women. Setting judgment aside, I could understand how some of the advertisements shown could indeed be offensive to women. The first picture shown was from Dolce and Gabbana. The scene depicts five men and one woman in various poses. As the other mostly clothed men look, one of the men and the only woman in the advertisement seem to be in a compromising position. The man is only wearing pants and seemingly pinning the woman to the ground. The woman’s dress seems to be riding up as she arches her body. The sites description of the advertisement says “This ad is beyond offensive, with a scene evoking a gang rape and reeking of violence against women.” I don’t see that the situation is conclusively rape. My first thought on the situation was that there was some sort of group activity happening, but I didn’t see a look of panic or anger on the woman’s face. This add is somewhat compromising, but being offensive may be a bit of a stretch.

The second advertisement from that site was made my Mitchum. The quotation from the advertisement states “If you convinced her that the photos are for your private collection, you’re a Mitchum man. If you delete the unflattering ones you’re a “sensitive” Mitchum man.” If a woman were to read this, they would probably be offended for the fact that it is talking about secret pictures being taken, but for the reasons they say it is offensive I think they are wrong. They said that” There's nothing "sensitive" about a man who dupes his girlfriend into posing for his camera.” This advertisement doesn’t state that the man duped the girl into taking pictures. How many women consent to taking pictures for their boyfriends? On that note, how many men take pictures for their girlfriends? This advertisement is clearly targeted at men, and I have seen many of their advertisements. Stating this fact, I don’t think many women would ever see this in a page of their magazines. I see these ads in Maxim and many other men’s magazines.

Throughout the rest of the petition they dissect fifteen other advertisements that they say are offensive to women. Some of them seem to be, and others I would have to disagree. People get offended by many things that other people don’t find offensive, and this page was obviously compiled by someone who was offended by certain ads. It is unfortunate that they were, and I’m sure they won’t be buying some of the products that were shown in the advertisements. Though I can see that some of the advertisements may be offensive to certain groups of people because of the sexual content I don’t think that many of the offended group would have ever seen the ad in its intended magazine. The intended viewing audience probably didn’t give it a second look and see the ads as offensive.

Source 2

The second source which I found interesting was Top Eight Love Slogans That Lie. This site chooses many slogans by many well-known companies and breaks them down into their basic meaning which they were probably taken from. Many of the ideas the site takes from the slogans make sense and I agree with the majority of the opinions which they express.

One of the most well-known slogans that they dissect was an advertisement from Kay Jewelers. The slogan “Every kiss begins with Kay” has been heard by many people around the country. I have personally heard it from many different commercials on the television and radio. The site says that the true meaning which Kay is trying to suggest is “Jewelry buys affection.” I have to say that I have to agree completely with what they think about Kay’s commercials. Kay, in many of their commercials tries to portray jewelry as one of the best gifts for women. The stigma attached to these types of gifts is that if you were to give a woman a diamond necklace of something of considerable value, you will get lucky or at least out of any kind of trouble

The second slogan that many have heard was originally made by DeBeers. Their slogan “A diamond is forever” in its basic sense is true. The diamond is going to be there forever, but when you look at it from a love perspective, it’s trying to say that if you buy a woman a diamond she will love you forever. This advertisement is clearly marketed towards men, but will also perk women’s interest. The men will feel that they have to buy the woman a diamond for affection, and the women will feel that the men have to buy them diamonds. The site says “Divorcees? Speak now, or forever hold your peace. While a diamond may indeed last forever (or at least over four billion years), commitments may not always last as long.” Although they were trying to open the quote with some humor, it makes a good point. Many marriages end in divorce these days, and DeBeers advertisement tries to make you feel that if you buy your lady a diamond she won’t ever leave you.

The heading for the web page suggest that many love slogans lie. Many of them do, and I agree with most of the slogans that they use as evidence for this fact. Though I agree with most of them, not all love slogans are negative. Some of them do point out good aspects sometimes. The companies make these slogans to be imprinted on our minds to sell products, and many of these are probably repeated by many of us from time to time.