Adverts

This is an ad which has been found to be quite controversial in the public. It features a well known character known as Kim Kardashian. At first you would think that she is only promoting a salad and what harm can be caused, however a lot of sexual connotations cause for women to become offended yet at the same time men to gain pleasure from viewing these images. The clip starts off with a medium shot of the back of Kim Kardashian. Cleverly her head has been cut out and her ass has been made the vocal point which attracts men instantly. The voice over is also done by Kim Kardashian connoting her dominant role in the advertisement and perhaps even her glamorous stature portrays her dominance. She starts off by saying "I'm such a neat freak" and then a medium shot is shown of her whole body lying on the bed in a pose where her cleavage is shown to an extent. Her legs are also visible as her robe only covers her to her pelvis also revealing sexual connotations. A close up is done on her lips as she places the salad in her mouth, which makes it look as if she is giving oral sex which is a negative representation of women and an example of the factors they found controversial. The voice over continues of her saying “everything’s gotta be clean, crisp and tasty” which could be a phallic symbol of a penis and as she inserts the apple into her mouth a close up of liquid dripping in her mouth connotes a sexual pun of seamen. She also seems to be pulling on the covers also connoting sexual pleasure. She continues to say “and while the best things in life are messy” and more liquid seems to drop from the salad and a close up is done of her breasts which connote how the liquid is destined to be seamen and ending up positioned around her breasts. A close up is then done on her eyes to make it more pleasured for the male audience. She then goes to say “It’s fun to get clean” when only she has just had salad. However the salad is an iconic representation of sex and how after get dirty in the bed, it’s fun to get clean in the shower. Half of her body is then shown in the bath, portraying more sexual connotations and ironically at the same time still eating the salad. This is quite controversial to women as Kim Kardashian is a role model to some and as representing women she has done it negatively. She portrays women as sex objects solely for purposes of pleasuring women, and although her dominance in celebrity is signified, this advertisement shows how she herself is just a sexual object and she uses her body as an advantage in doing so, however also inflicting damage on women’s representations and males views on women.

This ad is more of a positive representation of women. It has been advertised for lingerie

producers Victoria Secrets. It starts off with various women saying “I love my body” and

shows many sizes of women and even races. The voice over continues to talk about Victoria secrets and how they have been designed in many styles and also come in many sizes. This connotes how women don't have to feel threatened or embarrassed about the size of their breasts as they have been designed for any size to fit and be held. It goes on to show the same women saying "this is my body" which states dominance and also confidence in themselves and their body, one women says "this is my favourite body" which shows that she doesn't care about being too fat or too skinny, she's happy the way she is and isn't under any pressure to impress anyone. And again the women say "my body is sexy" which connotes confidence in themselves which portrays women in a positive light. The voice over also re-enforces this by saying "there is a body for everybody" also making women feel quite dominant and confident in themselves. This is quite a positive representation of women as no sexual connotations are used in the advertisement. Men are not shown as only a bunch of vary sized women are shown. The advertisement portrays them to be quite confident in themselves and also confident in the size of their bodies. And although they are in Victoria secrets they are only modelling for the company and the confidence is portrayed throughout and enforced when the voice over says "there is a body for everybody" and "love your body".

Media Guardian 100

What is the Guardian 100 and who are the panellists that create it?
The Guardian 100 is an annual guide to the most powerful people in the industry. Candidates are judged on three categories which are their cultural, economic and political influence in the UK

Lord Waheed Alli
Daisy McAndrew
Jamie Kantrowitz
Richard Park
Sarah Sands
James Scroggs
Janine Gibson
Matt Wells

How many women are in the top 100?
13 women are in the top 100

What companies do these women work for and in what roles?
Co c founder/chief executive and actor
Director of vision
Controller
Chief executive
Controller of film and drama
Editor
Chairman and chief executive
Corporate marketing director and head of marketing
Chairman, Director
Chairman and chief executive
Head of E4
Digital champion
Chief executive

What percentage of the 100 is women?
The percentage of women in the Guardian 100 is roughly 16%

How would you assess the balance of power in this list and why do you think it is this way?
Clearly you can see the balance of power is in favour of men as only 16% of the Guardian 100 are women. You can clearly see that men are dominating over women and the statistics show how women are being subordinated. It can also be seen as a case of Hegemony as the class of men are empowering the class of women in society.