In the 1970’s, many feminists critiqued beauty practices that were dubbed pervasive and shallow. However, these concerns have not borne fruit as the society, and the media have continued to perpetuate the concept of the idealized beauty. Many women are engaging in negative and somewhat brutal beauty practices to appease the society or fit in the conceptualized image of beauty. This has been extended to the corporate world where advertisements have continuously been designed to tap into misogyny. It is prudent to note that ads are effective as they appeal to the sub-conscience of an individual. This means that a person absorbs information without actually processing what an ad is selling (Lips, 2010). This has led to the problem of inherent sexism when it comes to ads that are embraced as sexist by trying to distort the concept of feminine beauty. Many corporates have also tapped into this negative energy by seeking to link their products to enhancing beauty. This perspective has continuously grown to be held by even corporations that are not in the beauty and cosmetic industry. A good example is the Bacardi Breezer beer advertisement dubbed “Wanna Look Amazing This Summer?” The advertisement is ideally tailored for impressionable women beer consumers. It uses the aspect of beauty to commercialize the product.
The Bacardi Breezer advertisement uses the image of an overweight female to promote the alcoholic drink ( Hartmann, 2009) . The advert seems to insinuate that just like Bacardi Breezer, ugly and overweight female friends come in all varieties and are effective at promoting your attractiveness to the rest of the public. Bacardi as a company seems to have understood that physical attractiveness is a fundamental issue for women and the society at large . The gender stereotypes have been pursued to depict women as only interested in looking better than peers than intelligent enough to appreciate a product for its qualities. The advertisement by Bacardi seems to show that fat shaming is a positive thing to many impressionable women. Being aesthetically challenged thus is used to indicate that an individual only fits to be at the center point of a social circle if she has the looks.
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The “Wanna Look Amazing This Summer?” parallels other advertisements that use the summer context . Many of these advertisements promote the ideal summer look and body shape. The ideal summer body has to be slender, tanned and toned with a perky bosom. This idealized image is encouraged by the media as something that all women ought to aspire to during the summer. In many advertisements, the bystanders or other complementing characters are not well endowed aesthetically. In th is particular advert, however, the perceived “less glamorous individuals” are used to promote the brand as the complementary aspect to a more attractive female that is supposedly the consumer of the liquor.
The objectification of women is significantly enhanced in this advertisement as evidence d by the use of an overweight woman as the pawn of the grand scheme of highlighting how alcohol makes you attractive as compared to the objectified image of the overweight woman. It is a disrespectful trend, but it has already taken root in the advertisement narrative since time immemorial . The corporates have taken the unethical stand of shaming women by their looks rather than their internal qualities , which if capitalized on actually can be a selling point (Lips, 2010). This continues to justify the anger directed to companies that continue to objectify women to sell utterly unrelated products such as alcohol.
The advertisement, on the other hand, rides on the liberalization of women. In the patriarchal society, a woman was seen as a homemaker and conservative. The Bacardi Breezer advertisement, however, tramples on these beliefs depicting the mentality of liberal women who a spire to outgrow the gender stereotypes on partaking alcohol during summer. This is retrogressive as a liberal stance as it negatively impacts on other sections of the female populace. It is a subjugation of women to certain untold depths that will take a toll on those that may not be appealing as per the standards set by the media and the society in general (Lips, 2010). It also tries to capture the common myths associated with women and their composition of their friends when it comes to dating as well as other social interaction platforms. There is an age-old belief which centers on the advantage of having a less glamorous friend that aids in making one enjoy the benefits of a charming comparison ( Hartmann, 2009) . However , this should not be used as an excuse by corporations such as Bacardi to generate profits. The toxicity of these advertisements seems to send a message that it is fine to judge or shame women based on their appearance.
Anderson (2014) continues to show that consumerism is continuously gendered to promote products through dubious depictions of women. The Bacardi Breezer advertisement is an ideal example of corporate neoliberalis m and its perceived support of women empowerment through pushing products that were formerly tailored for men. The commercial has an indirect harm to women who despite making strides socio-politically have to put up with the toxicity linked to the unrealistic expectations bestowed on them with respect to physical appearance. Men do not have to contend with such advertisements when it comes to alcohol brands. This is because m ost alcohol brands tailor their ads to target the male consumers by emphasi zing on manly characteristics rather than looks.
References
Anderson, K. J. (2014). Modern misogyny: Anti-feminism in a post-feminist era . Oxford University Press.
Hartmann, M. (2009 June 19). Bacardi ad uses misogyny to sell alcohol to women. Jezebel Retrieved from http://jezebel.com/5296935/bacardi-ad-uses-misogyny-to-sell-alcohol-to-women
Lips, H. M. (2010). New psychology of women: Gender, culture, and ethnicity (4th ed.). Waveland Pr Inc.
