The media artifact I chose to analyze is the following “Dos Equis” beer advertisement featured on The Gender Ads Project.
As Stuart Hall notes, “the media’s main sphere of operations is the production and transformation of ideologies” (81). In this case, this overtly racist and sexist ad sends clear messages about gender and race in a way that conforms to and perpetuates the dominant patriarchal and racist ideologies about gender and race.
Firstly, like all advertisements, this ad was produced in a political economy of capitalism and consumerism. As Kellner says, the “system of production often determines what sort of artifacts will be produced” (10). Because this ad was created to sell a product in a world of capitalism, it shamelessly uses dominant ideologies about gender and race to appeal to peoples’ racist and sexist stereotypes and therefore get them to buy their product. Furthermore, the political economy also determines “what sort of audience effects the text may generate” (Kellner 10). In this case, the capitalist and consumerist need to sell products led the producers of this ad to include the feeling of the “old boys’ network” within the ad using the term “my friends” at the bottom. This tactic is meant to generate feelings of unity among white men in that it is “us” (white men) versus “them” (women and people of colour). This audience effect on white men is subsequently meant to generate more sales among that demographic.
Next, a textual analysis of this advertisement makes it clear that the ad perpetuates sexist and racist stereotypes. Firstly, the text of the ad equates women to “wild animals,” perpetuating the stereotype that women are aggressive, unpredictable, difficult, and that men must proceed with “caution” and a “soothing voice” around them as women cannot control themselves. Furthermore, in including that text along with a picture featuring people of colour, the ad is insinuating that people of colour are the “wild animals” that women are compared to. In this way, this ad displays overt racism and perpetuation of what Hall deems “the native” stereotype (84). Hall describes “the native” stereotype as a portrayal of racialized individuals as “savage and restless” and “likely to appear at any moment out of the darkness” to cause harm (84), conditions one could equate to “wild animals.” Furthermore, “the native” stereotype includes “the isolated white figure, alone ‘out there,’ confronting his Destiny or shouldering his Burden in the ‘heart of darkness,’ displaying coolness under fire and an unshakeable authority” (Hall 84). The ad shows this exact phenomenon as one white man, appearing calm and authoritative, is showcased alongside the men of colour. This image “demonstrate[s] who has power and who is powerless” (Kellner 7) in society and perpetuates the societal power dynamics where white men hold power over both women and people of colour. The ad reinforces the dominant ideology about gender and race that posits that white men are superior to others, are on the top of the social hierarchy, and approach women and racialized individuals from a position of power, having to deal with their “primitive,” “wild animal” natures.
This leads to the audience’s reception of this advertisement. Media artifacts “dramatize and legitimate the power of the forces that be and show the powerless that they must stay in their places or be oppressed” (Kellner 7). In this way, this ad legitimates the idea that white men do and should have power in society. It also encourages the audience to conclude that women and people of colour are subordinate and should remain powerless in their “place” below white men, a common patriarchal idea. Speaking of patriarchy, this ad is an example of how it is “easy to slip into patriarchal complicity without intending to or even realizing the implications of one’s feelings and actions” (Enloe 23). Not only did this advertisement comply with patriarchal ideas but audiences also receive and accept the underlying patriarchal messages, often complacently and without realizing or intending to. Likewise, the racist ideas and stereotypes reproduced in this advertisement affect the audience’s perceptions of people of colour and justifies, and even encourages, racist stereotypes.
All media is powerful in how it affects and influences audiences as Kellner says, “products of media culture provide materials out of which we forge our very identities; our sense of selfhood; our notion of what it means to be male or female; our sense of class, of ethnicity and race, of nationality, of sexuality; and of “us” and “them” (7). Advertising is an especially powerful site of influence as it is used to perpetuate the capitalist and consumerist culture and thus, without thought to how it affects audiences, will use whatever means necessary, even harmful stereotypes, to sell their products. For example, Jean Kilbourn explores the power of advertising as she studies the way advertisements use and abuse women and subsequently enforce the dominant patriarchal ideology. The following video is a Ted Talk by Jean Kilbourne in which she demonstrates the power of ads and how they affect societal ideas about women and normalize a sexist portrayal of women.
Overall, this advertisement depicts the intersections of oppressions between women and racialized individuals, using harmful stereotypes and conforming to patriarchal and racist ideologies to sell their product. Since I look at this advertisement critically and resist the underlying messages it assumes, my reading would be oppositional. This advertisement is an excellent example of why critical media literacy is important, especially when looking at advertisements and resisting the harmful tactics they use to uphold our capitalist and consumerist society.
Works Cited
Enloe, Cynthia. “Pink Pussy Hats vs. the Patriarchy.” The Big Push. U of C Press, 2017, pp. 1-23.
Hall, Stuart. “The Whites of their Eyes.” Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader (3rd ed.). Eds. Gail Dines and Jean McMahon Humez. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2011, pp. 81-84.
Kellner, Douglas. “Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture.” Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader (3rd ed.). Eds. Gail Dines and Jean McMahon Humez. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2011, pp. 7-18
Attributions
Advertisement Image: The Gender Ads Project: http://www.genderads.com/styled-14/photos-71/
YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/Uy8yLaoWybk