Mashele Kiswahili

Ahead of International Women's Day, The Museum of Brands examines the the evolution of the female role model in advertising. The Museum of Brands is shining a spotlight on the portrayal of women in advertising with a series of talks, an exhibition and a film. 10 from 50: Changing trends of female representation in TV commercials  was produced by Lindsey Clay, the chief executive of Thinkbox. Clay said: "Advertising is a key part of popular culture and a reflection of social norms. The progress that has been made in our advertising of the portrayal of women mirrors how society has developed. "Initiating debate is an excellent way to judge how far we have come from women being glued to the kitchen sink in ad breaks – and how far we still have to go." Karin Kihlberg, museum manager at The Museum of Brands, has identified six stereotypes of women in advertising; which range from the domestic obsessive to sex object  (see below) . She believes that the ...

The sexualising of women in advertising Sexism has always been used to convince consumers to buy a product so we that women can strive to  fulfil the idealised images that advertisers present us with. It Is the norm for advertisements to contain explicit images of the female body. The 1970’s Tipalet campaign and 2011 Lynx campaigning both sexualise women in their ads. Both brands are selling sex. Consumers are buying into the desire to fulfil the image in the ad and have an emotive response to the women in the images. Using explicit images of women in adverts changes societies view of femininity. Young girls and women will deem the content of these adverts the perfect female form. Thus furthering that the sexualising of woman does not always have the desired effect and can have a negative impact rather than empowering. Tipalet ad 1970’s Imagery from the 1970s’ such at the Tipalet cigarette poster saw the increase in seductive photography used to sell products to men. T...