Feminine Hygiene Products Advertising Analysis

Feminine Hygiene Products Advertising Analysis Fulya Felicity Tà ¼rkmen Perceptions on the Idealized Image of Women in TV Ads Revisited:  The Example of Sanitary Napkin Advertisements Introduction and Methods This study has two parts: The first part gave me a perspective and understanding about how to read and evaluate an advertisement. In this way, I could determine some criteria to decode the linguistic and non linguistic components of the sanitary napkin advertisements. I watched 35 sanitary napkin advertisements but I did not choose to make a quantitative analysis since it would be too hard to examine the data manually. Instead of this, I chose the qualitative methods. I made certain groups based on the determining characteristics of the advertisements and I evaluated only one advertisement for each group such as one for blue liquid type and one for mini drama type advertisements. My first thesis was assuming that advertisements are a part of the reproduction of discourses on womanhood by supporting the idealized images of womanhood. But as I go on watching the advertisements I also noticed that they create some stigmas about the taboo on menstruation and feminine hygiene. This is why I also included the part menstruation as embarassment as a component of the perceptions on womanhood. In the presentation I used the expression of hidden messages by referring to the use of lingual and non linguistic components of the advertisements which are telling women something other than the features of the products and promising them things whch are not directly relevant with the product itself at first sight. While doing these, I also tried to track down the transformation of advertisements since it was legally allowed to do advertising on sanitary napkins to see what has changed since the beginning. Advertisements Now and Then Previously, advertisements were less complicated than they are today and there was only one goal to achieve with the simplest ways: to make people buy a certain product by explaining its specific or differentiating features. Thus, production or supply of the products was determined according to the demands of the societies. Today, we see the constant creation of new demands and increasement of the existing ones. In this new order, advertisement has become a tool to create consent for more consumption. In this way, social utility has also become the utility of the capital owners but these are presented as if they still accomodate social benefits. Media a great power of influencing and directing the society. In advertisements, this power manifests itself through the chain of product, production and consumption. In this way, products go beyond the production processes and factories and they become a part of the media culture. Although the basic motivation behind the advertisements is simply selling more products, there is no advertisement which only gives information about product to motivate people for buying it. Beyond this simple aim, each advertisement has a message that would be received by for potential consumers via different canals. Today we observe that the symbols and images take a precedence over the product itself most of the time. In the science of semiotics, it is claimed that signs are open to different interpretations and they can have different meanings in different contexts. Thus, we receive different messages via signs and attribute them to different meaning while we communicate. We receive these signs with our many senses such as audial or visual. Saussure argues that the sign dynamic has two components: A form of the sign and its meaning, respectively, the signifier and the signified. Thus, languages which enable us to communicate through different sounds or written symbols are arbitrary and they are subjected to change in time. They are only as important as their function in the communication rather than their historical importance or features. Therefore, language is in a constant state of change which includes its reconstruction and re-analyze through the changing social relations and discourses. According to Williamson, semiotics is composed of thing and meaning as well. The important thing here is not how a certain word or term is formed but how it is shared and found itself in the daily expressions. Williamson takes the issue of advertisement as a determinant of culture and everyday practices. These practices are mainly there to sell products but at the same time they make properties to mean something for us. They present and promote the idea of being a certain kind of person. The language of this promotion is not a singular one; it rather changes according to different times and cultures. For instance, I observed that many brands use different advertisements for the promotion of sanitary napkins in different countries according to these countries’ cultural norms and values. The portrayal of a certain ideal type is given in the advertisements but at the same time this ideal type is linked to the certain products through messages. For instance, â€Å"delikanlÄ ± kÄ ±zlar molped kullanÄ ±r.† The construction of these linkages occurs over long processes. Thus, connections are made between people and objects are made. So, we should take the sign for w hat it signifies, the thing becomes the symbol of a feeling. â€Å"Material things we need are made to represent the other non- material things we need. The point of exchange between two is where meaning is produced.† (Williamson, 2000) What an advertisement actually does is to show and give audiences an object of desire. When a product is used exclusively by women, female image and female sexuality is packed up with the product and presented to the women again. In our case, the object of desire could be manifested as youth, freedom, happiness, a good career, etc. In the advertisements, what is not shown or expressed, in other words absences are as important as what are present. For instance, advertisements can show what people actually want to be like in this way. According to Crook, there are two main dimensions which reflect the distinction between the linguistic and the non-linguistic components of commercials that should be taken into account. These are the product- claim dimension and reward dimension. (Crook, 2004) When product claim dimension is used, some information or claims of the producers are presented to the consumers in the form of physical outcomes and benefits. For instance, in our case of sanitary napkins, this could be dryness. There usually is a superimposed linguistic message and/ or a message which is given by a voiceover, a narrator or a mini drama with one or a few highlighted characters. The use of reward dimension targets the more emotional side of the audiences. The benefits and offers are emotional and more abstract. For instance, in our case, this could be the promise of intimacy or modernity. As it can be deducted from this example, the benefits may not seem such related with the product itself at the first sight. The tools of non-verbal communication such as colors and music are used in these types of advertisements. The Construction of Menstruation as Embarrassment Menstruation is accepted, portrayed and presented as an embarrassing hygienic trouble which needs to stay hidden and covered up in the public realm, specifically from men. It is also seen as an obstruct on the way of achieving to the standardized and ideal womanhood norms as Evans also points outs. Menstruation stood in the way, as a threat to a womans reaching the ideal of beautiful womanhood, (Evans, 1995, p. 25) All of these negative connotations helped the construction of menstruation as embarrassment for females. As an historical inheritance, this problem is limited to the one’s private sphere. Thus, offering solution to this hygienic problem can easily be considered as overruling one’s privacy. Advertisers observed that there might be negative reactions occurring, as viewers evaluate these advices as a violation of their liberties and privacy. In the specific type of commercial that we are trying to explore here, the producers of the advertisements could be accused of taking the liberty of talking about a private issue because these advertisements postulate the existence of a ‘problem’ and describe menstruation as a barrier with discomforting symptoms which put limits on one’s mental and physical actions. Therefore, there is a message of â€Å"You need these hygienic products to hide and relieve your embarrassment and stay pure and clean. Otherwise you would be stained and feel ashamed and dirty.† For instance, Kotex started a series of advertisement which are based on a simple question to women: â€Å"What weird things do you do on your special days?† In the series, a famous actress took part and filmed doing weird things such as carrying a awkwardly huge bag to hide her back, getting extremely angry out of little issues or taking photos of herself to check whether there is any stains caused by her period. The Myth of the Magical Youth and Beauty â€Å"With the rise of the youth culture, advertisers shifted even more from health and safety to youth and beauty. Youth and all things modern have been idealized.† (Del Saz-Rubio and Pennock-Speck, 2009) The advertisements that I watched were proving this statement since all women that took place in these advertisements were at the age of 17-25 or 30 at most. Moreover, the older women were portrayed as role models and advisers in the advertisements and they were not on the focus. Since all women are potential customers until they step into the menopause (age 45-50 on average), there should be another motive behind this choice. As another important point, there is a set of standardized beauty norms in these advertisements. For instance, there was no over weighted woman in any of the sanitary napkin advertisement I watched or analyzed. All of the women were conformed to the widely accepted body norms and standards. So, the modern woman is idealized at being young, free and nor matively beautiful and the message of â€Å"youth knows it better† is given. Although sanitary napkins are started to produce from mid-1980s, its advertisement was not legally and culturally possible until 1920s. First, sanitary napkin advertisements started to take place in women’s magazines such as Vogue in 1920s. Then, in 1970s it became legally possible for sanitary napkin brands to do advertising on television and radio. There were still a lot of written and unwritten rules: For instance, these advertisements are shown during daytime which is considered as ‘women’s TV time’, rather than prime time hours. Moreover, it still stayed as a controversial issue and many opposed to this new situation. We can evaluate this new era as a adoption phase in which ‘blue liquid’ advertisements appeared in the scene. For a long time, blue liquid tests in laboratory environment are used all around the world, as well as in Turkey. The Messages in the Sanitary Napkin Advertisements Although the first advertisements focused on the promotion of the product by comparing the diffferent brands such as Orkid vs. Sanitary Napkin with labaratory experiments, this method has been abandoned by many brands recently or they were started to support by some charachters and mini drama scripts. The technique of placing highly imposed linguistic message has also been abandoned for the purpose of decreasing the sense of intrusion to private life and decisions directly. Instead of that, a mini drama script and some famous actresses that became public figures and whose consumption habits become trends and followed by the consumers are used. When it comes to the spaces which are used in these advertisements are also important as one of the non-linguistic components. As I observed, the place is chosen as ones which are most far away from the main issue. One would expect that bathrooms are used in these advertisements but instead of this, broad and bright spaces are used in interior shootings and crowded and alive urban landscapes for external shootings. The message and intention of this choice is to decrease the possible uneasiness of the viewers with the presupposition that menstruation is a disturbing issue which needs not to be talked or displayed with direct references to it. It should be softened and hidden as much as possible. Another message about the places is the emphasis on the modern and urbanized woman who is a part of the dynamic city life. For instance, Molped and Orkid gave this message and Orkid even conducted a promotion campaign with its ‘à ¶zgà ¼r kÄ ±z’ Nil Karaibrahimgil. This ima ge is created exclusively for the campaign and she is portrayed as a free and strong woman who is capable of having a career and children at the same time. Thus, here we see that products promise modernization, urbanization and freedom to women according to new type of ideal woman. Therefore, we see that advertisement also impose a certain life style on women by using identification techniques.

American and Latino cultures Essay

What did I think the differences between American and Latino cultures are? For me personally, I don’t have any kind of experience with Latino people and Latino culture, but I had several thoughts about the Latino culture that I got from the media. About relationships in Latino culture, I always thought that relationships outside marriage are not acceptable especially for women, and of course I thought that any kind of freedom that is related to sexual activities like homosexuality is not acceptable. But in American culture, relashionships outside marriage could be accepted and homosexuality is an accepted fact for many Americans as America is a liberated country. For family in Latino culture, I used to think that Latinos in general are connected with their family members just like any traditional culture. But in American culture it is common that there are no close relationships between family members in general, and there is no high respect for the parents and many times people don’t see their families for a very long time. What I found after reading about differences between the two cultures? After reading, I found that there are many differences between the two cultures about family, relationships and religion. Firstly, the difference between American culture and Latino culture appears most obviously in family relationships. In Latino culture family bond is a very significant fact, and in contrast to the American culture the family in Latino culture is very bonded and includes† all relatives, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and padrinos (godparents)† (Beltran 23). Latinos feel safe in surrounding strong family bonds, Latinos usually return to their families in times of problems and they don’t commonly believe in including other parties to try to solve their problems because Latinos are raised to be committed to the family for life time (Beltran 23). According to what L. Michele Henline says in â€Å"Exploring the Latino Culture†, family has a unique structure in Latino culture because â€Å"Within the extended family, each member has a role. The grandparents have wisdom, the mother has abnegation, the father has responsibility, children should be obedient and godparents are to be resourceful†. But in American culture there is no focusing on strong family bonds, but personal life is what Americans mostly focus on with no big depending on the family role (Beltran 23). Secondly, there is a difference between the image and the rule of men and women in life between both cultures. The role of women in Latino culture is anything that is generally done inside the house like cleaning, cooking food, sweeping and taking care of children (Beltran 24). But the role of men is to earn money for living for their families and they are the highest authorities in their families, no one does anything without consulting the father. But nowadays this side of Latino culture is affected because of the financial problems that they face as well as the fact that women started to become workers (Beltran 24). In Latino culture as L. Michele Henline says in â€Å"Exploring the Latino Culture† men have so much power over women. Latino men have an image of a powerful male; they are the face of their families and they give their families everything they need in life. According to what L. Michele Henline says in â€Å"Exploring the Latino Culture†, in Latino culture it is not a wrong thing for a man to assault his wife physically, and most of times it is not safe for a woman to go to the police and tell them if her husband assaulted her because she† will be punished again by their spouse†. And also L. Michele Henline says in â€Å"Exploring the Latino Culture† that women in Latino culture are leaded by their men; they should be faithful, always obey them and take care of their homes and children. But in American culture there is no much big difference between men and women, taking care of home and earning money for household are jobs that could be done by a man or a woman because in American culture men and women are equal. Thirdly, the difference between the two cultures in social relationships can be seen in the fact that in Latino culture people in general make social connections, through these connections they take care of each other. They have so much respect and commitment to each other, sharing each other’s feelings, preferring others over themselves and they have so much awareness of the special space of the single individual (Beltran 24) Fourthly, there is a big difference between the two cultures when it comes to the religion. Latinos are usually committed to religion as it is a part of their culture and religion for them is a relationship between a person and God (Beltran 25). But in American culture many people don’t involve religion in their lives, and there are even people who don’t have religion and don’t believe in God. And there is even a difference when it comes to religious people as religion in American culture is not just a relationship between a person and God but it is also an â€Å"institutional† relationship (Beltran 25). What’s my reaction to what I’ve read? What I’ve read about Latino culture matches what I thought about them. Despite all the negativities in Latino culture like their violent nature, they have so many positive things that make Latino culture better than American culture in some sides like their high positive spirituals and their connected families. Despite all negativities in different cultures the difference between cultures in the world is not a bad thing, but it represents the variety in everything in this world. Works Cited Henline, Michele L. â€Å"Exploring the Latino Culture. † February 2000. Arizona School of Professional Psychology. 15 April 2008 Irma, Beltran S. THE RELATION OF CULTURE TO DIFFERENCES IN DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AND COPING STRATEGIES: MEXICAN AMERICANS AND EUROPEAN AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS. Texas: U of Texas, 2005.

The Deaf Leader of North Korea and His Reign of Terror

Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, both â€Å"suryongs†Ã¢â‚¬â€the leaders, mainly utilized terror to maintain their sovereignty in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Kim Il Sung was a communist dictator of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from 1948 to 1994. He was born on April 15th, 1912 near Pyongyang and received military and political training Soviet Union. Kim Il Sung also formed the provisional government in North Korea after Japanese’s surrender in World War II, through which he obtained authority in his political party—Korean Workers’ Party—and eventually became â€Å"The Great Leader†. (Higgins, Kim Il-Sung) Kim Il Sung also invented â€Å"Cult of Personality†, which was an organized effort to persuade North Koreans to worship him and to accept his†¦show more content†¦Kim Jung Il saw Jang Song Taek as a potential rival and immediately discharged him from his position. Again, these frequent similarly repeated purges left the citizens to think both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jung Il are extremely powerful as they are able to dismiss and even execute anyone they want in the country. This amplified the effect of nationalism and Cult of Personality and allowed Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il to earn more control. Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il’s terror of their own citizens extended with the invention of Stalin’s Gulag-style slave labor camps in North Korea. Another method both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jung Il utilized terror was through slave labor camps, also known as Kwan-li-sos or Kyo-hwa-sos. Kwan-li-sos were forced-labour camps for political prisoners and kyo-hwa-sos were mostly for those serving out sentences as common criminals. However, in either camp, there was usually no release. (Rikflin, The Gulag behind the Goose-steps) The major camps are spread around the nation but far way from Pyongyang, like kwan-li-so 22 at Heoryong, in extreme northeastern North Korea and kyo-hwa-so 12 in Chongo-ri, 10 to 20 kilometers south of Hoeryong. (Joshua and Bielefeld, North Korea’s Largest Concentration Camps) Any person suspected of disloyalty to the â€Å"suryong†, one convicted of a common crime, or political offenders were all punished with an imprisonment in one of the 12 slave labor camps. By 2012, it was thought to be about 200,000Show MoreRelatedMarketing Mistakes and Successes175322 Words   |  702 Pageshe taught at the University of Minnesota and George Washington University. His MBA and Ph.D. are from the University of Minnesota, with a BBA from Drake University. Before coming into academia, he spent thirteen years in retailing with the predecessor of Kmart (S. S. Kresge), JCPenney, and Dayton-Hudson and its Target subsidiary. He held positions in store management, central buying, and merchandise management. His first textbook, Marketing: Management and Social Change, was published in 1972

Example of Normal Approximation of a Binomial Distribution

The binomial distribution involves a discrete random variable. Probabilities in a binomial setting can be calculated in a straightforward way by using the formula for a binomial coefficient. While in theory, this is an easy calculation, in practice it can become quite tedious or even computationally impossible to calculate binomial probabilities. These issues can be sidestepped by instead using a normal distribution to approximate a binomial distribution.  We will see how to do this by going through the steps of a calculation. Steps to Using the Normal Approximation First, we must determine if it is appropriate to use the normal approximation. Not every binomial distribution is the same. Some exhibit enough skewness that we cannot use a normal approximation. To check to see if the normal approximation should be used, we need to look at the value of p, which is the probability of success, and n, which is the number of observations of our binomial variable. In order to use the normal approximation, we consider both np and n( 1 - p ). If both of these numbers are greater than or equal to 10, then we are justified in using the normal approximation. This is a general rule of thumb, and typically the larger the values of np and n( 1 - p ), the better is the approximation. Comparison Between Binomial and Normal We will compare an exact binomial probability with that obtained by a normal approximation. We consider the tossing of 20 coins and want to know the probability that five coins or less were heads. If X is the number of heads, then we want to find the value: P(X 0) P(X 1) P(X 2) P(X 3) P(X 4) P(X 5). The use of the binomial formula for each of these six probabilities shows us that the probability is 2.0695%. We will now see how close our normal approximation will be to this value. Checking the conditions, we see that both np and np(1 - p) are equal to 10. This shows that we can use the normal approximation in this case. We will utilize a normal distribution with mean of np 20(0.5) 10 and a standard deviation of (20(0.5)(0.5))0.5 2.236. To determine the probability that X is less than or equal to 5 we need to find the z-score for 5 in the normal distribution that we are using. Thus z (5 – 10)/2.236 -2.236. By consulting a table of z-scores we see that the probability that z is less than or equal to -2.236 is 1.267%. This differs from the actual probability but is within 0.8%. Continuity Correction Factor To improve our estimate, it is appropriate to introduce a continuity correction factor. This is used because a normal distribution is continuous whereas the binomial distribution is discrete. For a binomial random variable, a probability histogram for X 5 will include a bar that goes from 4.5 to 5.5 and is centered at 5. This means that for the above example, the probability that X is less than or equal to 5 for a binomial variable should be estimated by the probability that X is less than or equal to 5.5 for a continuous normal variable. Thus z (5.5 – 10)/2.236 -2.013. The probability that z