A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF MALE & FEMALE REPRESENTATION IN ADVERTISEMENTS

Abstract

The study analyses the representation of men and women in advertisements along with its connection with our society's prevailing social conditions. A sum of ten advertisements from various parts of the world are used throughout the study to identify the gender representation, and sexual biases present in the advertisements. The advertisements are for popular brands from various sectors such as cosmetics, Food & Beverage, Clothing & Accessories, households, Electronics, and automobiles.Two advertisements from each sector have been used for the study. This includes the brands such as Kiehl’s Skincare, and Nivea from Cosmetics, Frooti, and Slice from Food and Beverage, Warner, and Weyenberg Massagic shoes from Clothing & Accessories, Mr. Clean, and Dettol from the Household sector, and Sony Vita from Electronics, and Ford Figo from Automobile.All the advertisements chosen are of different periods including both vintage, and recent considering the continuity of hyper objectification, and sexualization in the advertisements. This includes a period from the 1970s to 2017 and journals, articles, and reports from recent years. Many advertisements use sensual content to grab the audience’s attention, thereby selling the products. Along with the Critical Discourse Analysis, this study also follows Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional Model, Media Representation, and the theory by Laura Mulvey.