Duncan Quinn: 2008 ad campaign.

I decided to explore the Duncan Quinn 2008 ad campaign because it evoked a lot of opinions. I feel I can give a less bias view point because I am male and I can understand the desire to feel strong. However, I feel this image has taken that desire far beyond acceptable limits.

Duncan Quinn is a suit brand for men which attempts to appeal to their target audience by including signifiers to create signified ideas that appeal to men, such as women signifying sex and cars signifying fun. However, after reading a blog from freelance writer Sandra Winn, my consensus is that using these signifiers in a disturbing way does little to achieve the desired effect of appealing to a target audience. furthermore, it evokes strong, negative emotions and various interpretations which all criticise this image. this includes a post on Buzz Feed titled “The Five Most Sexist/Misogynistic Print Ads from The Last Five Years”, which shares my opinion that this image is misogynistic and ethically incorrect.

The ethical issues raised by this image include repressing the idea of the modern woman. For example, this image contradicts modern ideas about the ascribed roles of women in today’s society as women are told to be strong and to not rely on men to provide for them. However, this image portrays outdated ideas about patriarchy, dominants and sex as the man in the image is well dressed and smirking whilst the women lays there with the man towering over her half naked bloody body, which suggest his dominance and authority because the women is vulnerable to the mans will.

However, this ad raises not only ethical issues regarding violence against women but also the ethical issues surrounding the representation of male fashion and patriarchal ideology, as men don’t often fit this ideology. I whilst reading the book Fashion as Communication by Malcom Barnard I found shor paragraph that helps to explain my point. “Fashion and clothing are instrumental in the process of socialisation into sexual and gender roles; they help shape people’s ideas of how men and women should look. It is not the case that fashion and clothing simply reflect an already existing sex and gender identity, but they are part of the process by which attitudes to and images of both men and women are both created and reproduced”(Barnard: 1996). meaning it’s the clothes that make the man and we choose how to represent ourselves. So why does a man wearing men’s clothing need to assert his dominance by degrading someone else? The more I read into this image I feel it oddly showcases weakness in the man because he has to degrade someone weaker than himself in order to feel strong. To me a “real” man may portray a masculine image with his fashion choices, but does not feel the need to assert dominance with violence. Overall the image has outdated values and has no place in the industry as in my opinion it does not represent a “real” man.

Bibliography

Winn .S (2008) Duncan Quinn Suit Campaign Depicts Strangled Women. Available from: https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/duncan-quinn-suit-ad-depicting-strangled-woman [Accessed 25/11/2017]

BuzzFeed Staff (2012) The Five Most Sexist/Misogynistic Print Ads The Last Five Years. Available from: https://www.buzzfeed.com/copyranter/the-five-most-sexistmisogynistic-print-ads-from-t?utm_term=.amJ6LR5Vv#.edZpER0o2 [Accessed 25/11/2017]

Turner .S (2012) When did it become ok to degrade women in the name of fashion. Available from:http://www.turnerink.co.uk/marketing/degrade-women-fashion/ [Accessed 25/11/2017]