People are absorbing information through mass media now more than ever before. Countless hours are spent each day browsing through social media or watching the news or seeing advertisements, and while explicitly, we may be seeking entertainment or learning about current events, implicitly, mass media has a larger impact on our everyday lives than we might have anticipated. Within mass media, advertisements are extremely influential to consumers outside of just marketing their products to them. Marketing teams create advertisements that appeal to us and, in doing so, quietly alter the way we view the world around us. While the main purpose of advertisements is to persuade consumers to buy something, the methods marketing teams use in these advertisements indirectly affect how we view society. We live in a world where advertisements are still controversial, and despite social media backlash, some of these controversial ads, namely those relying on the “sex sells” idea, continue to implicitly promote physically and emotionally unhealthy standards for women, and they objectify women.

Carl’s Jr’s 2015 Super Bowl commercial cost them $5 million for a 30-second commercial, and the creators of the ad chose to spend a majority of their time showing the model Charlotte McKinney rather than their actual burgers, which perpetuates men objectifying women and unhealthy standards of beauty for women. The writers of the ad clearly relied on McKinney’s sex appeal since she in a bikini is unrelated to Carl’s Jr’s burgers. Not even the CEO, Andrew Puzder, will deny that McKinney was objectified to appeal to men as he was quoted in response to the ad, “complaints aren’t necessarily bad for us. What you look at is, you look at sales. And, our sales go up.” When McKinney was hired for this commercial, she was not interviewed or anything, rather she was selected by the marketing team based on her looks alone. Furthermore, many people who saw the Super Bowl ad spoke out on social media, yet Puzder was right: their sales still increased significantly. We know that this advertisement is demeaning and goes against feminist thinking, but as consumers, we bought into this message, unintentionally affirming that sex still sells and objectifying women.

The idea the sex sells does not just cause men to objectify women in our society but also causes some women to feel less secure about their own bodies since sex appeal is usually advertised with a very distinct type of body. An Aston Martin Pre-Owned advertisement found in a magazine, displays a white, thin model with long legs and blonde hair without pants on, similar to the first ad in being unrelated to the actual product it sells. Aside from the obvious objectification of the woman, including how her face is not even shown and how the tagline reads, “You know you’re not the first, but do you really care,” this ad reinforces the ideal standard of beauty in the US. It serves as a reminder that white, long legs, blonde hair, and an hourglass figure is beautiful, and that those who want to be beautiful should strive to be like the model in this ad. Very few women will ever have her physical traits, yet many still feel pressured to mold themselves in her image, which may cause physical problems like eating disorders or emotional problems like lack of self-confidence.

Advertisements change our perspective on products, but they also change the way men perceive women and the way women perceives themselves. Some controversial ads are blatantly sexist in objectifying women, yet they also contribute to our societal perception of beauty of women. The controversy these ads generate unfortunately prove to be beneficial to companies, so they continue to create sexist ads, generating more revenue. In doing so, these ads further perpetuate a view on women by men that can be dangerous in the form of sexual violence to women and a view on women by themselves that is dangerous in the form of eating disorders or plastic surgery. Jean Kilbourne is famous for her work on exposing advertising agencies as the cause for several public health concerns, and she speaks briefly about the influence of advertisement on consumers wherein Can’t Buy My Love, she mentions how “the media know that television and radio programs are simply fillers for the space between commercials.”  In most recent times, there are still advertisements quietly spreading sexist messages, but companies are slowly beginning to shift from “sex sells” to promoting feminism. Audi’s new commercial #DriveProgress is finally a step in the right direction.

Ultimately a fake ad, yet it doesn’t seem too unreasonable today.

Audi’s #DriveProgress 2017 Super Bowl Commercial