Rhetorical Ad Analysis: Linguistic Sexism Paper Example

Introduction

Many ads 1900s are a clear indication of how we have progressed through the massive changes in the Industrial and technological revolution. Advertising is one of the tactics that we can thank for the expansion that has been received in the world. It's true that some ads today objectify women but companies could not get with that as they did it half-century ago. Advertising history can be traced in the ancient civilizations where many ads, for example, the 1920s were based on believing that human instincts could be targeted and harnessed into to the desire that man wanted. Some ads especially those that focused on women can be considered to have a questionable and problematic subject. For example ads like "The Harder A Wife Works, The Cuter She Looks", "The Palmolive ad from the 1920s that makes out that appearance is more important than intelligence for women", and "Is it always illegal to kill a Woman? Ad

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The Harder A wife Works, The Cuter she looks

This was a 1938 Ad by the Kellogg's Company. The advertisement features a husband and a wife depicted in a photograph where the woman is dressed in traditional housewife attire and the husband in an official look as if he just got from work. The husband as he embraces the wife exclaims that "So the harder a wife works, the cuter she looks!". It is an advertisement that shows how during the 1900s how things looked difficult especially for women. This is because as a wedded woman you were not supposed to be working for example in an office because it would be taking the men's jobs. Even if a woman was single, she was only supposed to get a small job and a low paying one. It was an era that was very gender role based where females were supposed to make and take care of homes and perform duties such as cleaning and cooking while men were supposed to be the bread winners of the family (Okin, 1999). This is precisely how this ad can be perceived. The man seems to be encouraging the woman who is the wife by telling her that if she continues to work harder, she will look cuter. Comparing to the cereal that the company was trying to advertise on this ad is that if you eat the cereal, you would be enriched with vitamins that could boost energy especially to the women by giving them energy to work harder in the household chores which will lead them to being even cuter. The ad is directing the product (Cereal) to the women by embellishing them in a manner that society in the 1930s accepted them.Most men ask "Is she pretty?" not "Is she clever?"

This is another ad by Palmolive that was printed in 1924 focusing on the 1900s woman. The advertisement targeted women who did not use Palmolive so consumers of facial soup would purchase this brand in particular. Also, the ad features a beautiful female model so women could see what their skin could possibly look like if they used Palmolive facial soap. The ad is trying to show its readers and audience that a lady is all about how pretty she looks or besides that how clever she is. It is the reason as to why the ad says all ladies should use Palmolive soap because most men ask 'Is she pretty?' and not 'Is she clever?', and that has been going on since the times of the ancient civilization. It tries to make out that appearance is more important than intelligence for women. It is one of the vintage advertisements that enable us to step back into history. The ad represents an era that was based that was based on gender role where women were supposed to take the roles of cooking. This shows on how women were viewed and considered especially at this time that can be considered to be of the great depression. I would consider this to be such a difficult time especially for the women because those women who were no pretty and at the same time were not clever could not be chosen by men or worth being given any consideration by the men (Montell 2003). It is with this reason that the Palmolive soap company decided to take on the advantage of targeting the ladies by telling them to use the product so that it could turn them to be pretty if not clever. From the ad, we can today ask on those who agree with the ad and its honesty, and what men nowadays ask for either the outside beauty or prettiness or how clever a woman is. In most cases, men are not attracted to how clever a woman is unless first, they are good looking. Research has shown that men will easily fancy on a pretty looking woman than one who is considered clever. Therefore, having considered that, women in the 1900s were not supposed to do any work other than the women chores and always look beautiful for their husbands.

Is it always illegal to kill A WOMAN?

The ad features gender stereotypes where men fail at households' tasks while women clean up. In the printing, you can see an illustration of a frustrated dishevelled man who is trying to explain something to a beautiful, redhead woman. The woman is standing in such a position as if she does not want to listen to what the man is saying. Next to where they are standing is a machine and it's like the man is trying to convince the woman something about the machine. From the ads pics, the audience can perceive that the woman is acting as if everything that is being explained is difficult to understand but later after the woman understands the machine she loves it. She says she loves it because it is so efficient that it gives her time to gossip with the other ladies. The picture and the title show that the woman is very difficult and annoying that people may want to kill her. She was pretty and helped work but complained, but the man wanted to help but she made it hard.

The advert was trying to perceive that at that particular period and era, women were better in the household chores and taking care of their homes while the men who are their husbands could go out there and work. This is because when women are allowed out of the homes and to work in the offices, they will forget about their main duties and responsibilities and on the other side leading to frustrating the men at the workplace. For example, in the ad, the message is about a frustrated businessman who is trying to introduce an incredibly helpful item to the women working in the office. In such duties and responsibilities that only should belong and allowed to men, only women are frustrating and ungrateful even to the point of wanting to kill them. It is with this reason we can perceive from the ad that women should only be allowed to work and get involved in the household chores such as washing the utensils and cooking for their husbands who go out to work. It is an Ad that relies mainly on the sexist campaign (Pauwels 2003), and the company of the machine is trying to send the message of how the girls can be annoying in the workplace and the only thing other than taking them back home to take on their household duties, it would be also important to buy them a machine like the postmaster that would make them happy. It is also a good ad to say that not only guys can run a business worthy though women may be stubborn while joining a man's dominated industry and work.

Works Cited

Montell, Gabriela. "Do good looks equal good evaluations." The Chronicle of Higher Education Career Network. Retrieved October 16 (2003): 2003.

Okin, Susan Moller. Is multiculturalism bad for women?. Princeton University Press, 1999.

Pauwels, Anne. "24 Linguistic Sexism and Feminist Linguistic Activism." The handbook of language and gender (2003): 550.https://www.bulbapp.com/u/bad-ad-is-it-always-illegal-to-kill-womenhttp://englishkc.blogspot.com/2015/03/analysis-essay.html