Women’s underwear print advertisements are complex. Hanes underwear advertisements stress the importance of comfort above all else, even if the advertisements aren’t explicitly saying that. Victoria’s Secret advertisements are rife with sexiness but at the expense of practicality and without the reality of having adequate skin coverage.
Who wants to fish out constant wedgies? No one. The underwear worn by a Victoria’s Secret model is visually appealing, but it isn’t necessarily a woman’s go-to undergarment for the main reason being that it isn’t functional, it just looks nice. For the Victoria’s Secret models, the underwear may be fashionable because some of the pieces are trendy and also comfortable because the underwear fits adequately on their small frames, but this isn’t consistent for consumers that wear Victoria’s Secret underwear who may find that the underwear isn’t as shapely and doesn’t fit in the same way. |
Source: http://weezbo.com/candice-svanepoel-
in-victorias-secret-underwear.html
in-victorias-secret-underwear.html
With Hanes underwear advertisements the focus is on the underwear and less so on the wearer’s body. In most cases, the woman is wearing a tank top paired with her underwear, yet when the woman is wearing a bra with her underwear, the bra is not flashy and is not being worn to attract attention to the woman’s chest area. The women in the Hanes advertisements are not seen pouting at the camera, nor are they posing in a sexualized manner with their hands suggestively touching their hair or their arm. When it comes to Hanes underwear, the company has the underwear speak for itself, in that it doesn’t need to be sexualized or skimpy in its appearance in order to appeal to consumers. When a person looks at a Hanes ad, that person doesn’t see a risqué advertisement because the ad is showing the realness and the happiness of the wearer that is donning a more practical form of underwear.
Source: http://www.gopixpic.com/hanes-3-womens/
Showing and Telling
Roland Barthes idea of connotation and denotation are strongly apparent in the Victoria’s Secret and Hanes underwear ads. When a consumer looks at a Victoria’s Secret advertisement the denoted sign is a young, thin woman, in her late teens or early twenties that has a significant amount of makeup on and bouffant hair wearing small minimum-coverage underwear that is made at least in part out of lace. Having such a young model wearing the Victoria’s Secret brand in one way appeals to a younger audience that may in some way be able to relate to the model by inferring that their ages and sizes are similar and therefore inspire the consumer to want to buy the product. On the other hand, based on my observations from having walked past and also through Victoria’s Secret stores, middle-aged women also seek out this brand of underwear because the clothing can empower the woman to feel more positively about her appearance and in that way be more akin to the model.
The Hanes advertisement without a doubt shows empowered women that are both comfortable and confident while wearing their underwear. These women are more natural looking: their body shapes more realistic to what society has come to resemble, their makeup is minimal but their smiles are true. I don’t think that the Hanes underwear advertisement avoids objectification because when you look at their ads, the makeup the models are wearing to contour their bodies is purposeful and with the intention of drawing male and female attention toward the woman’s body. At the same time I think that the objectification is stronger in the Victoria’s Secret advertisements where the women’s bodies are quite clearly on display for men and women, further perpetuating what Pozner interpreted as men “think[ing] it's acceptable to demand that women be displayed only in the hyper-objectifying images they feel is somehow their due.” The Hanes ad but more specifically for the Victoria’s Secret advertisements empowerment is evident because the ads are showing that the women are powerful in their nakedness- they aren’t shying away or hiding their bodies in shame, they are boldly displaying them.
Source: http://www.magxone.com/photo-shoots/candice-swanepoel-victorias-secret-underwear-photo-shoot/attachment/candice-swanepoel-victorias-secret-underwear-30/
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The Victoria’s Secret ads have a target audience of females in high school to mid thirty year olds, but the sexualization of the women also targets men that may purchase the underwear for a significant other. The male target audience is incredibly broad in terms of age range because of the appeal that young models present to men of all ages in terms of paedophilic undertones. The connoted sign is sex appeal and sexual imagery which is conveyed by the various poses the models are in, including ones in which their backsides are facing the camera and they are seductively looking over their shoulder into the lens. In some of the underwear ads for Victoria’s Secret, the models aren’t even wearing a bra or top of any sort, and instead have their arms placed in a strategic way to conceal their chests, in a show of what Goffman calls “gender displays.” In ads of this nature undeniably the consumer looks at the underwear because it’s the only fabric the model is wearing, but the consumer also notices the absence of fabric where we as a society have grown to expect fabric in advertisements that are viewable to the public eye. The connoted sign is sultry, sexually suggested poses of young women that could be in the throes of sex.
For the Hanes advertisement, the denoted sign displayed in the ad involves women facing and staring directly forward, while wearing more substantial white or green cotton underwear that covers a greater surface area on their bodies. The women are wearing more natural makeup, they aren’t posing in suggestive ways but instead are holding a firm, powerful stance and looking into the lens of the camera. The target audience is middle aged women because they are able to see themselves reflected back in the ad. The connoted sign from the Hanes advertisement is comfort as is evident by the relaxed, content expressions and boy language of the female models coupled with the realization that their relaxed poses are because they are physically comfortable, and that is because of the underwear they are wearing. |
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Hanes-
Womens-Classic-Panties-CW40/dp/B000LOAOOC
Womens-Classic-Panties-CW40/dp/B000LOAOOC
The Hanes advertisement without a doubt shows empowered women that are both comfortable and confident while wearing their underwear. These women are more natural looking: their body shapes more realistic to what society has come to resemble, their makeup is minimal but their smiles are true. I don’t think that the Hanes underwear advertisement avoids objectification because when you look at their ads, the makeup the models are wearing to contour their bodies is purposeful and with the intention of drawing male and female attention toward the woman’s body. At the same time I think that the objectification is stronger in the Victoria’s Secret advertisements where the women’s bodies are quite clearly on display for men and women, further perpetuating what Pozner interpreted as men “think[ing] it's acceptable to demand that women be displayed only in the hyper-objectifying images they feel is somehow their due.” The Hanes ad but more specifically for the Victoria’s Secret advertisements empowerment is evident because the ads are showing that the women are powerful in their nakedness- they aren’t shying away or hiding their bodies in shame, they are boldly displaying them.
Empowerment or Objectification?
Source: http://www.tias.com/3943/PictPage/1922839078.html
![Picture](/uploads/4/0/1/5/40152141/6912986.jpg?208)
The Hanes advertisement without a doubt shows empowered women that are both comfortable and confident while wearing their underwear. These women are more natural looking: their body shapes more realistic to what society has come to resemble, their makeup is minimal but their smiles are true. I don’t think that the Hanes underwear advertisement avoids objectification because when you look at their ads, the makeup the models are wearing to contour their bodies is purposeful and with the intention of drawing male and female attention toward the woman’s body. At the same time I think that the objectification is stronger in the Victoria’s Secret advertisements where the women’s bodies are quite clearly on display for men and women, further perpetuating what Pozner interpreted as men “think[ing] it's acceptable to demand that women be displayed only in the hyper-objectifying images they feel is somehow their due.” Most striking and inspiring is the empowerment that is evident for both brands because their ads are showing that the women are powerful in their nakedness- they aren’t shying away or hiding their bodies in shame, they are boldly displaying themselves, and that is more beautiful than any pair of underwear could ever be.