Demonstrable Demographics

Through my classmate’s blogs, I found a variety of advertisements targeting my (or safely, our) demographic – our age. The majority agreed that these advertisements generalized a certain population under a stereotype. At the same time, they agreed that the generalizations are most often not true or applicable, but perhaps inflated forms of what is truthful about the demographic.

In her post, Kendra Samis discussed how Coca Cola produced an ad targeting women, especially adolescent girls. The ad is meant to show that their product was now available with a lower calorie count, since (stereotypically) women are always concerned about their weight and teenage girls are always trying to get in a better (usually slimmer) shape: “Due to the simplistic message of the ad it can be believed by many…that if you consume Diet Coke you will start to see changes in your body and wieghtloss [sic]” (http://kendrasamis.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/what-the-hail/).

This advertisement was created specifically targeting my demographic – women. Women suffer largely from constant criticism from companies telling women how to look better. As a result, self-esteem levels hit rock bottom, especially at my age. Although I’m no physician, I do know that Coca Cola products are not produced for health benefits. In their ad, they depicted an idea that since their product is now healthiER, it is healthy in general, but this is untrue. They successfully, however, chose a demographic that this would attract – people constantly worried about their physical appearance. Whether or not it represents the demographic correctly (I, for one, am not concerned with whether or not I drink Diet) is debatable and applies differently to all members of the demographic.

Ty Keca chose an advertisement by Dove that went viral. Dove has now popularized itself as an advocate of natural beauty. In their ad, they show what process a model undergoes before being presented to the general public in an attempt to shame large companies for creating such unrealistic expectations. “Dove has been using these techniques in their commercials to attract to the reality of beauty rather than this fake beauty portrayed in the picture…” (http://tykeca.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/what-the-hail/). As put by Ty, Dove is advocating natural beauty in this advertisement, and since they associate themselves with that cause, they are promoting themselves as a company. For me, I think Dove has successfully targeted my demographic better than Coca Cola – although they both target the same demographic, Dove exposes the corruption in other companies, which gives women a sense of empowerment. Rather than telling women how to look better, they teach them how to see the beauty in themselves, which is an accurate representation of what that audience needs.

I have never been a fan of Maybelline and Deanna Quait chose an ad that backs up my opinion. Maybelline produced an ad that connects a woman wearing their mascara to her success in completely irrelevant aspects of her life: “At the end of the commercial the woman beats the men at the [card] game and in turn gets to walk away with their clothes and leave them at the table to sit naked. The fact that she beat them in cards and got their clothes has nothing to do with mascara at all and gives girls the idea that if they wear this mascara, they can beat men at card games and get their clothing” (http://deannaquait.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/what-the-hail/). Here, Maybelline targets teenage girls obsessed with being attractive and the idea of being loved. They connect the use of their product to popularity among men. This hits two stereotypes in one – they are telling girls how to look better, and at the same time how looking better will make men attracted to them. Of course, this is completely inaccurate (I’m sure men look for more than just mascara on women), but it sells as a result of girls’ despair for those two things. Even if it wasn’t there to begin with, these ads help create a generalization of a certain group. When people want to fit in with what these companies depict as normal, they buy the product, which does normalize it, and eventually represents the demographic.