Well, GUESS, the clothing line, apparently. I remember reading an issue of Teen Vogue maybe two years ago (come on, who hasn't read that once?) and seeing the below advertisement of this woman with her breasts popping out of her shirt and a seductive facial expression painted in makeup. How could such an objectifying advertisement find its way into the pages of a teen magazine? I thought. Well, now I can see how little marketers care about children's well being. After viewing Consuming Kids, marketing companies' goal is to get children hooked on fashion as young as possible. The kids will become loyal to the company's brand for life if they are exposed to the products earlier and earlier. In this case, Guess tells the reader (for example, the well-meaning parent who wants his or her child to be happy and accepted) that "GUESS kids introduces cutting edge styles that will make your little ones look and feel like the coolest kid on the playground." Naturally, this statement implies that looking good is the key to feeling good. Feeling like the coolest kid might be what children value for the rest of their lives if they continuously depend on wearing labels all of their lives. And interestingly, these children already have the haute-couture, stoned faces characteristic of ads in Vogue. No innocent laughs or smiles.
And as they get older, GUESS has the next stage in life already set out for them: Looking sexy. The image of the girl on the right is bad enough, but the left image of the woman straddling the man's leg (with her rear in the foreground of the image) takes it to an extreme level. Not only does it imply sex to young readers, but it also objectifies the woman by dividing her up into parts: it is not the whole woman that matters anymore, just her butt which is not too small, not too big, and by society's standards, "perfect". And what about the peace sign on the pocket? Does she also care about world peace? Haha. Fat chance.
Pictures from: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_b4R3ho4gtQY/Sh8hbg_gfnI/AAAAAAAACRA/NQTPHSm3NuM/s400/Irina_Sheik_%26_Jon_Kortajarena-Guess_SS2009-001.jpg and http://content.guess.com/marciano/Emails/September2010/09.20/091510_KidsLaunchNEW_02.jpg
That first advertisement on children's haircuts is so out of place. Like you said, there's no innocence and smiling in the the ad. They have this look of attitude, which puts into the context the whole "growing up too fast" idea.
ReplyDeleteAnd the last 2 ads are 100% degrading!