2. Contents
• Research Question
• Advertisement Marketing
• Objectification
• Objectification – Then & Now
• Skyy Vodka
• Analysis
• Impacts on the Society
• Conclusion
• Discussion
3. Research Question
How is objectification of people as a
marketing strategy impacting the
society?
4. Advertisement Marketing
• Advertisement is an important form of mass media
with its main objective of selling products by being
universally present.
• Along with products it also sells values, images,
concepts of love, sexuality, romance, success and most
importantly normalcy influencing who we are and who
we should be.
• Increase from 20 billion USD industry in 1979 to180
billion in 1999.
• An average American is exposed to 3000 ads per day
spending approx. 3 years watching just the TV
commercials.
5. Objectification
• Objectification is the act of treating a person
merely as an instrument of desire.
• It broadly means treating a person as
a commodity or an object, without regard to their
personality or dignity leading to dehumanization.
• It occurs when a human’s body parts are singled
out or the models are subjected to violence.
• Objectification is most commonly examined at the
level of a society, but can also refer to the
behavior of individuals.
7. So how has it evolved to be now –
Some of the brands actively using objectivistic marketing are
• American Apprael
• Go Daddy
• Skyy vodka
• Dolce & Gabbana
• Tom Ford
• Mercedes Benz
• Kraft
• Renault
• Rebook EasyTone shoes
• Marketing Strategy of a Japanese PR Firm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OO5Ug_hbeg
8.
9. Skyy Vodka
Few examples of Skyy Vodka ads
•Use of racy pictures
•Portrays a high class lifestyle
•Evokes gender discrimination
WHY?
“SEX – SELLS!”
10. Analysis
• Advertisers often find ways to turn any movement for radical
change into just another way to push a product.
• Sexual images in advertisements are not intended to sell us on
sex. They’re designed to promote shopping and consumerism.
• Not only are people objectified in ads, but also products are
sexualized.
• Dramatic change in objectifying men making them bigger,
stronger, and more powerful than women often linking
masculinity with violence.
• The most dangerous image is one that eroticizes violence.
Many ads feature women in bondage, battered, or even
murdered.
11. Impacts
The image of ideal beauty dictated by the
mass-media transforming cultural
differences is everywhere.
• Self-objectivism.
• Gender discrimination.
• Internalization of stereotypes
• Leads to violence, child abuse.
• Co-occurrence of depression,
disordered eating, substance abuse
and low self esteem.
• Proves to be disastrous to inter-
personal relationships where it
manipulates people to worship things
and utilize people.
12. Conclusion
• It is not so simple that an ad directly causes violence,
but turning a human being into a thing leads to
justification of violence against that person. If person
is dehumanized and violence then becomes
inevitable.
• A lot of citizen activism, education, discussion, and
media literacy, is required to change norms and
attitudes towards objectification in the mass-media.
13. Discussion
• What are your views on the Japanese thigh
commercials?
• How far do you think that this kind of objectified
marketing is necessary or effective?
• What is advertising’s basic role in a capitalist
society? What’s its function in relation to the
system as a whole? How does this relationship
affect the way people, and human values, are
constructed in ads?
14. References
• Near, Kara D, De-humanization of Women in Skyy Vodka Ads. Shepherd
University.
http://webpages.shepherd.edu/KNEAR01/THE%20DEHUMANIZATION%20OF
%20WOMEN%20IN%20SKYY%20VODKA%20ADVERTISEMENTS%20%20%2
0%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%201.pdf
• Carr, Erika R, Dept of Psychology, University of Tennessee
http://www.apa.org/education/ce/sexual-objectification.pdf
• Hodgson, Kendra - Killing us Softly - Advertising’s Image of Women
http://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/241/studyguide_241.pdf
• Sedeno, Alex -2006 – Viewing Guide for Killing us Softly 3
http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/documentary/comm3325.viewing.guide.ale
xandra.sedeno.pdf
• Kilbourne, Jean 1979,Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women
(1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTlmho_RovY
