Reading Ads Socially by Robert Goldman

Author:Robert Goldman [Goldman, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Education, Politics & IR, Sociology & Social Policy
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2005-07-24T18:30:00+00:00

by a learning process whereby readers came to accept the part as standing for the whole. This L’Oréal ad addresses the reader, and asks the reader to position herself as the image of self shown on the page. The ad invites the reader to abstract from the model’s likeness to their own possible likeness when mediated by use of the cosmetic. Simultaneously, the reader is encouraged to envy herself as she might become (the abstracted visual image on the page). But here envy and desire get mixed up in the wake of gender relations. Viewers may internalize the male gaze and accept the premise that if these lips attract the male, such lips may be worthy of envy. But female viewers could also read the lips as an object of desire to be had not as a means to males but as an end in itself.

Being envied is a solitary form of reassurance. It depends precisely upon not sharing your experience with those who envy you. You are observed with interest but you do not observe with interest—if you do, you will become less enviable…. It is this which explains the absent, unfocused look of so many glamour images. They look out over the looks of envy which sustain them.

(Berger, 1972:133)

Now we can expand our explanation of why the eyes of this woman are shielded. It not only permits the viewer to read herself in, it also sustains the power of her glamour, for she does not observe with interest. The ad reinforces this by removing the woman as lips from direct interaction via her placement as a painting. This impersonality, as Berger suggests, preserves the illusion of power.

An Ultra Sense pantyhose ad (Figure 5.4) appeared in Glamour in April 1984. Against a blue background stands a pair of legs from just above the knee down. Shown from the back and occupying the entire length of the page, these legs are free of hair and wear a pair of pantyhose and red and black high heel shoes. Along the right edge of the page a male hand is shown pulling—between thumb and forefinger—the pantyhose away from the leg. A female hand is positioned immediately above the male hand and parallel to the right calf. The female hand is encoded as a gentle, ‘feminine’ touch, with the tip of the female forefinger barely touching the male forefinger. What does this image mean?

Running across the page and over her legs is the framing headline: ‘With Ultra Sense You’ve Got Pull!’ Beneath this in the space between the female ankles is an additional subtext in smaller print that explains: ‘Beautifully sheer like some department store pantyhose, but even better. Because Ultra Sense won’t pull out of shape. Fabulous look! Fabulous fit!’ Beneath this is a small image of the product package. And below this is still another textual comment, this time in bolder type than the passage above, but less bold than the main headline: ‘When fashion sense makes good sense… that’s No Nonsense.

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