Women and Advertising Ethics

Nike, Adidas and other sports brands portray their women endorsers as strong and fit women.  This has probably evolved from 1980’s and earlier years wherein the sports advertisements are mostly endorsed by men athletes.  As a woman, it is flattering that the market is now less gender-discriminating, and is now recognizing and widely accepting women as sports endorsers.  However, it is also disappointing to know that some advertisers don’t respect the sacredness of women’s body.  Some companies are using women as sex objects, and not as endorsers per se.  There are also instances wherein the use of women as endorsers does not have any connection with the product. 

For instance, women endorsers and alcohol products.  The 2003 World Health Survey (Philippines) showed that 1.7% and 0.5% of the survey population are male and female heavy/hazardous drinkers, respectively; 13.2% and 1.6% are male and female episodic drinkers, respectively; and that out of 41.6% youth drinkers, 61.2% are males, while 23.9% are females (1) .  Given these statistics, men in general, are the target market of alcohol companies.  However, in their advertisements, women are more often used as alcohol endorsers, which they traditionally call as “calendar girls.”   And if you were to assess these women, they don’t like they are heavy drinkers either.   These women are more likely used as sex objects than actual endorsers of their products.  As a mother, I think I would be struggling if my son would ask me why are those sexy women used for calendars.  How would I explain the rationale behind it to a six-year-old boy?  As much as I want to shield my sons from some photos or advertisements that would possibly pollute their minds, it is really inevitable since they always pass by EDSA and C5, crowded with a lot of these materials. 

Aside from using women as sex objects in advertisements, other advertisers excessively manipulate the image of a woman and her body.  In Vatican’s paper on ethics in advertising, the first moral principle mentioned was the “truthfulness in advertising”.  Advertisements, magazines, social media and other publication do a lot of fabrication of women’s images, and most often, an exaggerated one.  As influenced by these advertisements, women tend to be too idealistic, and sometimes lead to lower self-esteem, anxiety, eating disorders, and living beyond their means.  There’s nothing wrong celebrating the beauty of women, but what’s wrong with some advertisements is when they deliberately distort the reality and mislead the audience.  Pope John Paul II noted that advertising can be a tool of the “phenomenon of consumerism” and that “it is not wrong to want to live better; what is wrong is a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed toward “having” rather than “being” (1).   Instead of appreciating God’s natural gift of beauty, some women tend become someone that they are not.  Women, even the young girls, are pressuring themselves to look better and become thinner, as they compare their bodies with the models appearing in advertisements and magazines. It’s good that some organizations are driving some changes in how media portrays its endorsers.  Change.Org for instance, started a campaign to “create positive change for young women by reducing photoshop in magazines.” (2)  According to the organization, the extreme post-production editing of images elevate the problem especially for young women.  Post-production edits portray too ideal bodies, which create high insecurities among women.  In one study for instance, “75% of ‘normal’ weight women think they are overweight and 90% of women overestimate their body size.” (3) Some women resort to excessive weight reduction and worse, health problems.  I do hope Change.Org’s campaign will become more popular, and that more celebrities will be ambassadors for these changes.  One good example was Kate Winslet, the famous “Rose” in the movie Titanic.  Before she turned 40 last year, she posted a make-up free picture in Facebook, urging her followers to “embrace who they are, including their perceived flaws.”(5)  If celebrities were used to influence the public to look flawless, celebrities can also be used to change mindset of the public, on how to perceive the real beauty and embracing their flaws. 

More than the celebrity endorsers, the main responsibility lies with the companies, followed by the advertisers and regulating bodies.  The companies and their contracted advertisers should respect the dignity of the endorsers, their target market, as well as the general public.  The regulating bodies on the other hand, particularly here in the Philippines, should revisit their guidelines when it comes to advertising ethics.  Lastly, the public audience, should take active participation in communicating to the government or regulatory bodies if some advertisements are offensive. 

(1)    Retrieved from http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/en/philippines.pdf

(2)    Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_22021997_ethics-in-ad_en.html

(3)    Retrieved from https://www.change.org/p/reduce-photoshop-in-magazines-to-create-a-better-world-for-girls

(4)    Retrieved from http://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders/articles/eating-disorders-body-image-and-advertising/

(5)    Retrieved from http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/kate-winslet-goes-make-up-6341038