Women in advertising. We see it everyday but do we actually see it for what it is? Jean Kilbourne challenges us in her video, Killing us Softly III, to take a deeper look into the world of women centered advertisements. I can admit that I am definitely not what one would consider a feminist. I am a woman and I am an advocate for women’s rights. However, before watching this video, I was completely ignorant to the fact that companies were using advertisements that dehumanized, sexualized, and even stereotyped women in order to promote their products. Sure, I saw women being put in peculiar scenarios however, I typically chose to laugh at them rather than realize how that effects women as a population. The examples that were shown in this video were appalling. I was completely offended and couldn’t believe that I didn’t recognize that this was happening sooner. I would like to think that times have changed, however, this video makes me wonder. While I know that the dehumanization of women has been an issue in the past, I didn’t realize it was still a huge issue today.

Unfortunately, finding advertisements that use questionable marketing tactics wasn’t a difficult task. The first photo (top left), is an advertisement for milk. Obviously, the milk isn’t the problem. It’s the phrase used to promote it. The ad states “I’m sorry for the thing, or things, I did or didn’t do”. At the bottom the ad suggests that “milk can help reduce the symptoms of PMS”. Is that true? I honestly don’t know if milk can help reduce the symptoms of PMS, nor do I care. What I care about is that they are using something like PMS to promote milk. The second photo is an ad for pop chips. The model can be immediately recognized as Katy Perry. Honestly, I feel as though the advertisement would gain attention simply because she is included in it. However, our attention is drawn to the bags of chips placed strategically at her chest with the statement “nothing fake about ’em”. This ad sexualizes a woman for the sole purpose of attracting attention to promote their product. It just so happens that the next two photos do the exact same thing. One is using the woman’s body to promote a Samsung computer while the other is used to promote cologne for men. Finally, the last photo is an advertisement for Mr. Clean with the statement “This Mother’s Day, get back to the job that really matters”. I’m not completely sure what year this ad was created but I can guarantee that it is extremely outdated. This ad is a prime example of how companies stereotype women by making it seem that it is in fact their “job” to clean the house.

I can say that I am better off after viewing Jean Kilbourne’s “Killing us Softly III”. I can only hope that companies recognize the issues with using women in this way to manipulate people to buy their products. The only way I see that happening is if people take this knowledge and speak out against it. Only then will change happen.