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Like a Girl?

2/14/2015

 
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One of the most popular commercials of Super Bowl XLIX was Always’ “Like a Girl,” which noted the negative impact that gender stereotypes have on our society.  The ad adeptly identified specific misconceptions about women, particularly ones involving athletic ability.

Two weeks later, another popular promotional piece has hit newsstands: Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue.  As it does each February, the curator of all-things-athletic has taken leave of sports in order to feature women in bikinis, on beaches.

So, why doesn’t SI have a similar bathing suit issue featuring men?  Maybe males are less skilled at modeling, i.e., they model “like a boy”?

Of course, the reason is that the magazine’s readership is about 77% male and many of those men aren’t interested in bathing suits for themselves; rather they like to leer at women wearing bathing suits, especially women in very small suits and in very suggestive poses.  SI is simply meeting its target market’s wants and needs.

Unfortunately this need satisfaction flies in the face of everything Always is trying to accomplish with its “Like a Girl” ad.  How much impact can the message that “women are athletically adept” have when one of the loudest voices in sports sends a strong countervailing message—that women are just a collection of provocative body parts whose purpose is others’ sensual satisfaction?

One can’t help but think of the young women in the Always ad and wonder how their lives and those of all women might be different without the hypersexualization promoted in much of our media.

The fact that SI continues to publish its annual swimsuit issue means that the publication attracts advertisers and sells magazines, i.e., it’s effective marketing that creates stakeholder value.  The societal impact of this product choice, however, is likely harmful, which makes SI’s bikinis on beaches a case of “Single-Minded Marketing.”


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Emily Buckwalter
3/3/2015 12:08:11 pm

One of the greatest difficulties with hyper-sexualized advertising is its undeniable success rate. The point is, whether or not the marketing is single-minded, it is selling well. I do not expect to see any sudden burst of moral repentance from groups like SI as long as that is the case. Business runs on supply and demand. American society is consuming sexual content ravenously, so companies gladly continue to feed it to us. Marketing reflects the mindset of the culture is lies within.Only when we stop asking for it will it stop being put in front of us, so the change needs to happen at an internal level. Individuals must consciously decide to replace lust with integrity. Then we will open our eyes to deeper contributions we each can offer one another, beyond the shallow objectification that plagues our media.

Rachel Kidwell
3/4/2015 02:39:50 pm

I personally agree that the SI swimsuit issue is based on Single-minded marketing. However, it is important that critics keep in mind the main goal behind this particular campaign: making a profit. Most of the SI staff would probably object to the notion that women are sexual items for men to use for their own pleasure. Nonetheless, this magazine issue will probably not be taken off the shelves any time soon, if ever, simply for the fact that sex sells. Like Emily mentioned, companies gear their marketing goals toward material that consumers will respond to. In this case, they use images of attractive women in revealing swimsuits to meet the demands of the main audience (middle aged men.) SI is not the only magazine that uses this approach to gain readers. Many magazines geared toward teenage girls implement the same strategy by placing pictures of attractive male models (often shirtless) on the covers. It could be argued that these men are being objectified as well, but the magazines continue to implement the strategy to meet the demands of the readers. Sadly, this type of single-minded marketing is extremely difficult to change unless the society being served develops a completely new mentality. The majority of society may agree that sexually objectifying people is wrong, but as long as people continue to respond to this type of advertising, that is what companies will produce.

Alicia Sims
3/5/2015 03:20:03 am

One of the statements in this article points out that the SI issue "flies in the face of everything Always is trying to accomplish" with its objectified portrayal of women. From my perspective, however, the Always ad exists mainly because of negative portrayals of women in marketing pieces such as this SI issue. Sports Illustrated has been running this swimsuit issue for years, just as people have been describing actions as "like a girl" for years. Always is boldly challenging these societal norms with its ad, providing a much needed, fresh perspective in popular media. While the portrayal of women in media has historically been stereotypical and often serves a single-minded marketing purpose, it is for these very reasons that the Always ad is so important. My hope is that this Always ad will inspire other organizations to break the mold and move away from the widespread use of gender stereotypes in marketing. Perhaps down the road even SI will change its ways, but in the meantime we can be thankful that Always took a step in the right direction.

Cristina Cunningham
3/30/2015 03:16:17 pm

I agree that this type of marketing technique for SI is single-minded, but it is just sad. The way they are portraying women is objectifying. They are showing women as objects for men to use for their pleasure, and it is disappointing to see that our society thinks this is okay. Society holds so much influence on the way people view different things, and even women, as you can see in the Always campaign, view themselves as inadequate. But, it's not only SI using this strategy. Many magazines are using women in this type of light to meet the demands from the target audience of middle-aged men. Always has provided our society with a campaign that needs to be seen to uphold women to a new standard and stop the term "like a girl" from being used with a negative connotation. I hope that this inspires many girls and women in this world to continue doing what they do with confidence.

Jessica Randhawa
3/30/2015 07:28:11 pm

Unfortunately, society's majority view is definitely in agreeance with Sports Illustrated. So, commercials such as "Like a Girl" by Always is definitely refreshing and communicates a seemingly foreign message to viewers. Because of society's placement of women in the men's minds as, like you suggest, "just a collection of provocative body parts whose purpose is others' sensual satisfaction," SI's February bikini edition does create immense stockholder value while demolishing societal values. Until, other firms and organizations choose to step up and counter these sexual, objectifying portrayals of women, these kinds of products and marketing techniques that do not hold up societal values will continue to create stockholder value. This is atrocious and calls for more of what Always did with the "Like a Girl" ad. As women, we get excited and inspired by commercials as such, but this is soon stomped on by a commercial like Carls Jr. that follows shortly after.

Nicole Barnes
4/2/2015 10:24:51 am

I definitely agree that Sport's Illustrated has a single minded marketing campaign with their swimsuit issue. They advertise this issue of the magazine mainly to men who desire to gawk at women wearing close to nothing. To other readers of the magazine, female readers for example, this issue can be awkward and maybe even offensive. Always Like A Girl" campaign was very touching and gave viewers a different prospective on how we stereotype women, which I would have to say is mindful marketing. These two advertisements going head to head just shows how strong societies opinion is. As much as we want to see females treated and respected as equals, men dominate society and most men are attracted to sensual pleasures. Both companies are competing for different views of women, but sadly, both companies are creating the most efficient campaign for their viewers.


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