Project 3

Skechers Shape ups Ad Commercial Featuring Kim Kardashian

Synopsis:

In 2011 Skechers had advertised their shoe product in a commercial ad featuring Kim Kardashian. The commercial took place in a gym with a man and a woman in it. In the start of the video the woman has her arms wrapped around the man's head and you can hear her moaning in the start of the video. This could easily be a representation of a man preying on woman as he objectifies her. After that the cameras were placed at different angles in their scene together, and as the video continues to go on the camera are now focused on the man shirtless body and the women body that's in a sports bra. The cameras would only be focused on them closely together if the scene seemed sexual or if they were put in a sexual position. This ad commercial video would be a perfect example of the problems that Jean Kilbourne talked about in her story “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”.

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Sexaul Innuendos:

In the very first scene in the video it shows a woman's arms wrapped around a man's head and you can hear her moan. This simplify implies to sex in advertising and Kilbourne had explained “sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women, and because it fetishes products, imbues them with erotic charge” (Kilbourne, pg. 489 Para 2). This can be seen as dehumanization for the man and woman in this ad commercial, because it makes you feel as if they are puppets on a string and they are being commanded on what to do. Also in the video can clearly see that the man and woman are being objectified in the video as if they are not a living thing by the way the camera angles are set up for you to look at them. They don’t want you to focus on the product, they want you to focus on the man and woman bodies in the video.

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Male Dominance

In a different scene at a different angle it shows the women laying submissively on her back and a male is over her while is on her back. This scene simply shows male dominance over the woman and implies that the male is the alpha over the woman ( the dominant ) Kilbourne also explains “ male violence is subtly encouraged by ads that encourage men to be forceful and dominant” (Kilbourne, pg. 489 para 3). This scene simply implies for men to take what they want even if they say no and just objectifies women even more. Because Kilbourne explains “ Men are also encouraged to never take no for an answer, Ad after ad implies that girls and women don’t really mean “no” when they say it, that women are only teasing when they resist men’s advances” (Kilbourne, pg. 492 para 1).434

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Hidden Message

In this ad commercial you can clearly see the hidden messages behind the scene. For example the scenes in the video and sound makes it seem as if it's a porn scene. Everything from the man being on top of the woman, her moaning, the close up on their bodies, and the different angel positions in this ad commercial. This tactic is clearly to get the attention of the viewers so they can be drawn to the scenes either of the attractive woman or the shirtless man. Kilbourne explains “ The poses and postures of advertising are often borrowed from pornography” (Kilbourne, pg. 576) Also with Kilbourne mentioning this you can clearly see the poses as if it this was a porn scene. Another hidden message in this ad commercial is the danger of objectifying of men and women (mostly women). The objectifying of women causes them to be at risk since they are portrayed to simply be objects and nothing more. For example Kilbourne explains “ there is a world of difference between the objectification of men and that of a woman. The most important difference is that there is no danger for most men, whereas objectified women are always at risk” (Kilbourne, pg. 500 and 501)

Conclusion

This commercial was used to simply objectify women and men just so the product of the business can get sold. In other words they were used as pawns just so the business can profit off them. If that's by objectifying them, showing male dominance, sexual innuendos etc. This shows you that businesses will do anything just to get people to view their product and make money. Also by using sexual tactics in their video the viewers would be driven to buy the product that is being advertised because of sexual desires.

References

Kilbourne, Jean "Three Ways a Women Can Get Hurt" Rereading America. Eds. Colombo, Cullen, Lisle. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's P. 2013
Kim Kardashian Skechers Commercial 2011- Youtube uploaded by Innocence , Jan 8 2016 https://youtu.be/ietqaglpu_s

Picture Reference:

Screenshots "from Kim Kardashian Skechers Commercial" Youtube, uploaded by Innocence, Jan 8 2016

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