The advertisement which I have chosen to analyse is the suit campaign advert for Duncan Quinn. I have chosen to look further into this advert as I find it the most disturbing and degrading out of the two images.

Unlike in the American Apparel advert, where the lady had control of herself and her actions, in this Duncan Quinn advert the female looks inferior and submissive under the control of a man. The advert shows a well dressed and smug looking man, pulling a lady in sexy lingerie across the bonnet of his car by the head. The way he is controlling her reminds me of a way you would control your dog when it is on a lead. He is very much in control as she is in a vulnerable state. The way the ladies hand looks limp and the shadowing around her head could suggest that the lady has been killed by the man in the image. His smug look on his face shows his enjoyment and pleasure of the power he is holding over lady. A stylish expensive suit, a posh American style vintage car and the pride on his face all indicate that he is a wealthy and important man. Her submissive pose and lack of clothing shows that she is unimportant. As this is an advert for a male suit campaign it makes it worse for me. Duncan Quinn is portraying to his audience that you can be this man if you wear one of my suits. As if he is proud to say that is ok to control women if you are wealthy and powerful enough to own a Duncan Quinn suit.

The woman being in her underwear gives the impression of a sex slave. Someone who is raped and forced to be submissive to the superior male. The way in which the photograph has been shot also gives a more sinister feeling to the whole image. The whole focus is on the lady, the car and the male. Around them is incredibly dark and mysterious. You don’t know where they are or who else is there. It gives off the impression they could be in a garage or parked outside in a more rural area at night. Adding the black and white filter to the image takes away all happiness and life from the photo. Instead it is dark, cruel and uninviting.

‘Research has shown that violence against women is a serious public health and human rights concern (World Health Organization 2000) and that the simultaneous presentation of women as sex objects and victims in various forms of media increases acceptance of violence against women (Malamuth et al. 2000)’  This quote from the article  ‘Women as Sex Objects and Victims in Print Advertisements’ has made me think about the impact which media has on the world. After seeing this advert men may feel that is has become more acceptable to treat women in this way. The power of this man could be tempting to the male audience due to his wealth and appearance. I believe that this advert should have been banned as there are so many different ways which it could be interpreted badly. There are many other adverts which have been banned from certain countries which I feel are far less graphic and discriminating. For example the Marc Jacobs ‘Lola’ perfume advert was banned from the US for complaints about ‘sexualising children’ after using actress Dakota Fanning in a girly/ childlike dress.