Visual Rhetoric Assignment

Katie Parks
Ember Smith
English 103
22 February 2009
Visual Rhetoric Assignment
To a clothing or beauty advertising company, teenage girls can be a major target. Teenage girls are some of the most easily influenced people, and advertisers are sure to know how to take advantage of that. The ads found in commercials, magazines, and stores place a big emphasis on teenage girls, but it is not the right kind of emphasis for these young ladies. The commercials and ads for this specific group are leading these girls down a wrong path. The models being used, and the acts displayed in these ads are not the right role models girls should be looking up to. And although not all of the companies’ endorsements are damaging to young girls, the majority of them do not support healthy lifestyles.
A major company that intends to market to teenage girls is the clothing company Abercrombie and Fitch; a nation-wide store that sells to millions of the teenage girls every year. Girls usually start buying Abercrombie and Fitch clothing during middle school, where the average student is thirteen years old. There are many posters that hang all over Abercrombie and Fitch stores displaying their models and sometimes their clothing. The majority of these posters feature men not wearing shirts, and women with some article of clothing or sometimes nothing at all. The first picture above is one of the posters that can be found in one of the Abercrombie and Fitch stores. Even though the picture is not an emotional or sad photo, the poster is using pathos as it relates more to the sexual side of one’s emotions. Although it is very appealing, the models are displaying a sexual act which should not be seen or thought of as normal by girls of this age group. The sexual reference shown in the picture should not be used by a clothing company to promote their clothing to young girls. Not only does the picture barely exhibit any of the actual clothing Abercrombie and Fitch is trying to sell, but the promiscuity of the poster is far more pronounced than the small Abercrombie and Fitch logo seen on the back of the man’s jeans.
Abercrombie and Fitch is only one of the leading clothing companies that have been using nudity and sexuality in their ads to boost their profit. As seen in the second picture above Versace, a highly expense couture brand has gotten in on the action as well. This ad could be found in any women’s magazine, such as Elle, Glamour, or Allure. These magazines are mostly likely seen by many teenage girls. The sexual references once again are not healthy to be seen by these young women. Despite the fact that the woman is completely nude, even her body position can be seen as too sexual for viewers in their early and even late teens. This ad is also using pathos to appeal to its viewer. Also, once again the lack of clothing, in a clothing company shows that this ad is based purely on the sexual aspect of it rather than the product the supplier is trying to sell.
The sexuality in the ads produced by clothing and beauty companies are directly influencing America’s youth. The young women seeing these ads are placing in their minds that the acts displayed in these ads are normal and acceptable, even for their age group. This could be sparking the increase in sexual activity, as well as the not so conservative clothing that teenage girls are wearing. While girls are in their early teens, nudity should not be displayed so freely and frequently. This is creating a youth that has lowered their morals to “fit in” to what they see through ads, commercials, and posters.
Along with the revealing ads of clothing and beauty companies, many of the models used in these ads are not a proper role model for teenage girls. The women selected to model these clothing companies’ clothing are not at a weight that young women should be looking at as normal. The average woman in the United States is 5’4” and weighs 152 pounds, states by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, while the average model is 5’10” and weighs 115 pounds. (Holladay,2008) These figures are obviously largely contrasting, and only support that young women and even women in general should not view models as ideal body figures, because to most women that height and weight will never be obtainable. The third picture above is a young female model in a runway show in New York City. As clearly seen, this international model is too thin, even for the average model. Her figure has no longer any shape, and looks like she is has a problem of malnutrition. Other countries are recognizing the influence these overly thin models have the rest of the female population, and the health of the models as well. The same model displayed in the picture above was turned away at a fashion show in Madrid for being underweight, only days after her last show in New York. If other countries are realizing the harm these models are doing to themselves and the women that look up to them, why has the United States, one of the most modernized nations not stepped in as well? Overly skinny women as models could be one of the causes that anorexia has been growing among young women in the last decade or two. Teenage girls should not see these models and think that that is how their bodies should look.
There are some companies that are stepping up to the plate and showing the rest of the world that not all women should look like these starved models. Dove commercials have started to display ads on television and magazines with models of all figures. Their campaign is revealing to the world that not all women will be 5’10” and weigh 115 pounds, but that women can be accepted and beautiful for all shapes and sizes. The last ad above is a Dove ad displaying women of all figures being comfortable with themselves and able to reveal their not “perfect” bodies. More companies should be following Dove’s lead and displaying more women with average bodies in their ads.
The women’s clothing and beauty companies should realize the effect their ads have on teenage girls, and change the way their ads display women. If all of the women’s clothing and beauty companies displayed women in more conservative manner, as well as using models with bodies that fit more to the average women, I believe that it would boost the confidence of many teenage girls and decrease the number of eating disorders found in young women around the U.S. The clothing and beauty companies should tune in to what is happening with the youth of America and seek out what is right to keep the morals and standards of the upcoming generations. There should a greater emphasis placed on more wholesome ads convincing teens to wear less revealing clothing, not participate in inappropriate acts at such a young age, and be comfortable and confident in their own skin and bodies, rather than the ideals that advertisements are displaying today.