What The Media Does To Us

Multiple things in this ad strike me as incredibly uncalled for and have nothing to do with a woman's perfume scent. When I look at this picture many thoughts run through my head; Where is the product that is being advertised? Is the product even ever mentioned? And most importantly, why does it look like porn? The woman looks to be an object that the men are grabbing and dominating, and the expression on her face just further supports my statement. She doesn't look happy, the way she is laid out and the way she is being held down is showing that she is the weaker one. She has no control in the situation. I know it's all simulated in a photo shoot but if we can glorify it on ads what stops people from thinking women are inferior in real life? I don't know if while the picture was being taken she was told to portray weakness or it just came out that way. But it does not strike me as an ad made towards women. For a woman's perfume ad there seems to be not a lot of women or female power. The men outnumber her four to one and all seem to be surrounding her in a predatory sort of way. I'm not saying that this is what the advertisers meant to put across but what I am seeing resembles a non-consensual way of touching, or another name for it is rape. The way that unhealthy images are shoved at us is one of the factors that feed into rape culture. We think this picture is somehow normal and that it's just a way of trying to sell the product. But what people don't get is that what we see on a daily basis is what we shape our lives with. A little girl or boy seeing images like this every day will begin to romanticize it and think that is what really happens. Pictures like this are not only incredibly sexist towards women but they also are shaping what the next generations will think is right and wrong.  Am I supposed to infer that the woman is wearing the perfume? Is that why the men are all on top of her? They are portraying that if you buy the perfume and wear it you will be more desired by men, which is crazy in itself. If they wanted to sell the actual product and not the allusion of it giving you some sort of superpower they would have put the perfume name on there. The way things are advertised are done so to make us feel a certain way. They are made to have us buy things that we don't need to fuel our need for acceptance and normality. This assignment has really made me think about all the ways that marketing shapes us into who we are and how we think about certain things.