This is a very infamous advert done by Duncan Quinn, which turns out to be his very first advert, selling men suits. There have been multiple complaints about this and is extremely controversial, because of the style of this advert. The most common ethical issue in advertising is the use of women, either sexualised or making them look weak or objectified. This image is meant to be promoting Duncan Quinn suits, however raises many questions as to how people will understand that this is meant to be promoting suits. An issue with this image is that it shows masculine control/ male domination. I see the woman as a sex slave or under control of the man. The man is presented in a fancy suit, looking smart, business-like, holding a tie which is wrapped around the woman’s neck, who is in lingerie. This shows the man of a better class, better dressed, and more powerful looking. This very much shows the dominance of the man, with him in control of the woman. The tie objectifies the woman as a dog/animal, as it is used as a lead, again showing this control. In many media’s, women are almost always portrayed as the victim, which, in this particular advert, in my opinion, shows the woman as a victim to the man, by the use of the tie.

The Male Gaze Theory, suggests that’s “the male gaze denies women human identity, relegating them to the status of objects to be admired for physical appearance.” [1]

The man’s gaze in this advert is directed at the audience, with a smirk on his face. The smirk directs my attention to what is causing this, which to me, is the woman which he is ‘possessing’. In a way, he seems to be boasting about the fact he has this woman in lingerie in his possession. The woman is portrayed as a object he has won and now owns, relating to the Male Gaze Theory were the woman is seen as a sexy human with no identity to her; her face is not shown in this advert, which furthers her lack/loss of identity.

“Research also found [in advertisement] men are more likely to be shown as leaders…” [2] This does show how men overpower women in mostly all media,  which is clearly seen in this ad. We are constantly bombarded with images like this through advertisement in the street, bus stations, magazines, etc, and people don’t realise what this is actually doing to people and their perception of how others should be seen and treated. “When it comes to creating out ‘regular ‘ads for our ‘regular’ clients, we forget about women.” [3] I agree with this statement as they completely forget about women, and how women will see these ads where other women are sexualised in that way. In advertising, woman are nearly always presented in a exotic, sexualised and/or elegant way, making it extremely hard for ‘regular’ woman to connect with this image. This damages many woman and their self-confidence, trying to ‘be’ one of these women in all these adverts.

In my opinion, I believe that this advert is completely wrong and insensitive to others, especially women, and should have not been able to be published for others to see.

[1] – Loreck, Janice, (2016) The Male Gaze Theory, Available from: Theconversation.com                              [Accessed 28th November 2017]

[2] Gee, Rachel, (2017) The Representation of Women in Advertising Hasn’t Improved in a Decade, Available from: https://www.marketingweek.com/2017/06/21/representation-women-ads/ [Accessed 28th November 2017]

[3] Thompson, J. Walter, (2017) Unpacking Gender Bias In Advertising, Available from: www.jwt.com  [Accessed 28th November 2017]