BRAZILIAN CULTURE

Brazilian Culture and Advertisements

Affects of Advertising Communication on Culture

Introduction

The world in which we live to today claims to be modern and advanced. But, still there are few ideas and notions that should have jettisoned years back are still prevalent in today's society. One such phenomenon is of gender stereotyping. Stereotyping related to the gender roles can still be observed in this contemporary society around us in more than one ways. The people around us and the people of our society claims that the society has moved ahead and adopted the belief of equality of men and women in our society, outdated ideas about the gender related roles still exists in our society. The field of media is also not exempted from this usage of stereotyping the roles of genders specially the field of advertising. By casting male and female models in congruent with the gender of the product, these serotypes are further reinforced. The aim and objective of this paper is to talk about one such perspective of the advertising. This paper aims to talk about the affects of advertising communication in altering the attitude of the females in Brazil.

Background

Research and studies prove repeatedly and convincingly that advertisements have influence on the audience. One of the effects it can have is to foster stereotypes about social topics such as roles of men and women. Content analysis of advertisements has shown that these advertisements portray very stereotypical roles of men and especially women. The images of gender role stereotypes in advertising have been criticized since before the 1970s and the Women's Movement. Women were most often seen in advertisements for cleaning products, drugs, clothing, and home appliances, and men were more often seen in ads for cars, travel, alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, and banks. The stereotypes that traditionally characterize men and women are manifest in distinct psychological and physiological traits, as well as in domains of action. Women are seen as emotional and slender, associated with the household, family, and fashion, while men are seen as muscular and competent, associated with paid work, sports, and technology (Kruckeberg 2004, pp. 191).

Beauty is constantly lived, breathed and incorporated as a social category in southeastern Brazil. The talk of beauty is pervasive in all kinds of media, from television to song lyrics, and it is a daily concern of people of all incomes and backgrounds. Remarking about a person's appearance, therefore, is not only socially permissible; it is equivalent to inquiring about that person's health and showing concern for them. If a person does not look his or her best, then many Brazilians assume that the person must be sick or going through emotional distress (Hall 2000, 54). The most surprising aspect of beauty in Brazil is not how it permeates the public sphere, but how important it has become to the working-class, particularly women, in their effort to gain access to social recognition in Brazil. Along with the economic transformations taking place, there arose new imaginaries of the Brazilian nation that were, ...