Death
Background: The forms of violence and misogyny are very prolific in popular culture. In pornographic genres, it is common to find women the subjects of assault, violence and death, often in sexualized contexts such as in snuff films. One might assume that such representations would be confined to hardcore pornography, but in fact one finds numerous representations of death in mainstream advertising. As the ads below might suggest—both in their numbers and themes—everyone should be worried about advertising. The Ads: This set of ads might be the most disturbing ads. Consider the basic idea at work here—advertisers and corporations are saying that death can be used to sell products. This alone should make us stop being consumers! In addition to the many corpse ads (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 26, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37), we see ads depicting shark attacks (11), burning (5, 25), being hit by a train (9), hanging (10, 15), being ground up (14), being a drunk driver (17), being shot (23, 24, 27), falling out of a window (38), and being brutalized (28, 29, 30). Images 48 and 49 are from a recent Italian campaigning associating caskets with objectified models. Resources: This feature on a recent death and models shoot in the show America's Next Top Model is worth a look. Discussion Questions: (1) If you asked someone about the ads below, he or she might say, "It's just advertising and it's meant to shock people?" How would you respond to this claim? (2) What are some of the political, social, sexual or psychological reasons why death seems so common in ads? (3) Why are more women represented in situations of death than men? (4) How can everyday citizens convince advertisers to not use themes such as death in their ads?
