Representation Analysis

One of the most significant effects that media has is the ability to represent the reality in which we live in. The ways in which particular groups, communities, and cultures are portrayed in the media atmosphere is known as representation. As time progresses, the need for accurate representation has been continuously called for and numerous attempts have been both accepted and criticized. A few examples of groups that are often misrepresented are women, LGBTQ+, people of color, elderly, and adolescents.

One such attempt was H&M's "close the loop" advertisements. The ad was a part of a recycling clothes campaign by featuring a diverse group of people from different genders, social class, ages, races, sexualities, and sizes. The voice over brings up fashion stereotypical fashion rules to follow but also contradicting ideas.  By selecting a pantheon of different subjects and ways in which to wear the fashion as a form of personal expression for the ad, it seems to want to create a sense of relatedness with the audience; to make everyone watching identify with some aspect of the project to make them feel included. By having this level of appeal, the company is able to relay the message of recycling clothes more to a large demographic. However, the use of diversity does not seem as something inclusive, but rather as a tool to bring people's attention. I find this to be the case as there is a heavy use of race and gender stereotypes and exaggerated representations of the roles of each in our society.

Furthermore, men's company AXE has recently been found using stereotypical gender representation in a 2006 advertisements. The commercial, which is for the company's body spray, depicts a stampede of bikini-clad women running toward a single man who is applying the product to his body. The ad is constructed in such a way that the women are portrayed is animalistic as they are all mindlessly running in the same bikini towards the man like a wild animal towards its prey. This portrayal of gender roles plays with the stereotypical paternal setting; a masculine man (masculine by using the body spray) attracting the woman (servant).