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Carl's Jr. Philly Cheese steak Burger Commercial
Way back in 2014 Carl's Jr. released a commercial advertising their new "Philly Cheese Steak Burger". In doing so they also offended a lot of people. In this commercial, it showcases many offensive stereotypes and objectifies women. Several times in this commercial you see women in bikinis. This is a perfect example of how Carl Jr's would use the women's body to advertise to their male audiences. This is a problem because it reduces the women to a sex object and plays into misogynistic ideals. The common use of attractive men and women in commercials also gives a false sense of style to a younger audience. If our media is full of attractive men and women we will begin to think that, that is the only preferred way to look. Not just that, but this commercial also displays large amounts of patriarchy with the women surrounding Terrell Owens at a pool party and taking care of him, even though he is a full grown adult and can do it himself.
Sexualizing Women
In many commercials around this time you will often see women with very little clothing. Businesses and advertisements do this on purpose to sell their products because they know "sex sells". Although this may be true for some dumb gross men, it still does not make it okay. Advertisements will use pretty women to appeal to their audiences and draw them in to hopefully sell their products. These advertisements are more closely related to pornography rather then commercials that should be aired for everyone to see. In the article "Three Ways Women Can Get Hurt" Kilbourne writes "The poses and postures of advertising are often borrowed from pornography as are many of the themes"(489). In example one, you can see a lady drenched in water while wearing a bikini. this is just one out of many examples that you see of women being objectified in this commercials.
Example one. This women just came up for air after just swimming then tosses the football to Terrell Owens.
Example two showing the woman on the left wiping sauce from off Terrell Owens Face because he cannot do it himself for some reason.
Patriarchy
In this commercial you also see a stereotypical hierarchy between Terrell Owens and the women surrounding him. Advertisements will often use suggestive body language to make it seem like women are underneath men in society. Kilbourne states that "sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women, and because it fetishes products, imbues them with an erotic charge"(489). In this example specifically you can see a woman wiping off the sauce from Terrell Owens face. This is incredibly dehumanizing to the woman because it makes it seem like she is only there to serve Terrell Owens.
In conclusion this advertisement is incredibly offensive in more ways then just one. Not only does it put a false sense of the ideal body for, not just women but men too, it also objectifies women and their bodies while also implying that women are less than men in society and are only there to serve men. Commercials like these were on television everywhere back at this time. Businesses would take advantage of the human brain and put whatever they needed on television for them to sell their products with no regard of how it may offend people.
Works Cited
Kilbourne, Jean "Three Ways a Women Can Get Hurt." Rereading America. Eds. Colombo, Cullen, Lisle. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's P. 2013.
Here is the link to the advertisement https://youtu.be/qLs5A2Zyfys
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