Project on How Advertising Shaping Up the Society

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In this report we tried to explore the how the advertisement is creating its impacts on the society. In the sake of completion of our case studies we have visited the many advertisement agencies. Like paragon advertising agency, Interflow communications, orient maccan. MCM advertisers, GH Thaver. Synergy Group. By visiting theses companies we find the results that how the advertisement is shaping up the society or just mirror the values of the society. The topic is related with the following topic

Stereotyping that how the stereotyping is helping the society to enhance its values or just mirror up. In our society the major character of that creating the impact being impacted by the others are women, men children’s and the young ones. In our report we discuss this character briefly. That how women are ported in the advertisements and how these ads are crating their impacts on our society. Similarly we also discuss that how the ads creating their negative and the positive impact on society. Me and my group member visited the organization and found that how in the Pakistani society these characters are being performing their roles to build up the society.

Our main question about the advertising to the advertising agencies is following because our total research is dependent on the few questions that we ask from the head or the representative of the organization

What are the harms of the society towards the economic? Political, cultural, moral and religious harms of advertising?

In respects of these questions and few more questions we prepare our report from the material and the data they provide us and few from advertising websites and some from education sites.

with out the advertisement the life color will dull and unisexual because if u don’t see a charming face on the try or any their media u will not able to please itself and can not enjoy the beauty of life.

Advertisement is every things it effect each and ever aspects of life from child to young ones and to young ones to old one .how can the life can be colorful with out advertisement

Consumers feel that advertising is everywhere and that this ubiquity has evolved over time. As such advertising is as much part of the environment as the traffic and the trees. For some, mainly the older respondents, there is perhaps too much advertising, too much pressure to buy but the majority embrace it as part of life. When asked to think about life without advertising the response was that life would be very, very dull. There would be a lack of essential and desirable information. There would be less entertainment. There would be less street colour.

Does advertising reveal our society as it is, as it wants it to be, or does life mirror he images brought to life by advertising? The answer to this question is controversial, but, I believe that advertising and society observe and simultaneously reflect each other depending upon who is looking into the mirror.

Advertising professionals tend to believe that the best they can do is spot trends and develop advertising messages that connect with them. Advertisers believe advertising mirrors values rather than sets them.

Advertising serves to drive competition in the marketplace by stimulating consumer spending and ultimately increasing the amount of money that businesses make. Advertising does not necessitate that business improve its products or service due to competition, but I do believe that competition requires that the advertising produced must match the product benefit

Advertising stabilizes an otherwise dynamic marketplace. As consumers remain cognizant of products through various types of advertising, companies are not as susceptible to changes or shifts in the ebb and flow of business. Each business is also forced to maintain its prices within a reasonable range compared to its competitors. Consumers are not unwilling participants in this system, they consciously and freely participate, and are fully aware, and can also distinguish between facts and false claims from the marketplace.

Advertising creates a want where there was no need. It stimulates purchase and consumption. However, in contradiction to strong effects theorists, I believe that this stimulation is more fleeting and imaginative than harmful.

It creates product images and perceptions for the consumer. Depending upon the advertising message and the type of product advertised, consumers hope to satisfy their needs for self-actualization and self-esteem, their need to belong, and other symbolic meanings gained through the experience of consumer consumption. Advertising’s role is to connect meanings form product to consumer. More on that later... First, how does it work?

If we believe that each individual is a product of his own set of experiences, learned knowledge, and beliefs and expectations about the world, each individual’s understanding of advertising is affected by these same characteristics. Each of us has a mental filter through which each ad permeates. Some of our filters are tightly knit, letting only certain things pass, while others have wide spaces that let everything through. Even then, each individual decides what she will do with the information that gets past the filter.

As advertisement has come to absorb many socializing functions of the family, they have offered us images of the family which would act as touchstones by which we gauge our own daily experiences. Seductively realistic portrayals of family life in the ads, especially on TV screen watched in one’s own living room at home, may be the basis for “our most common and pervasive conceptions and beliefs about what is natural and what is right.”

Nothing is more politically and culturally influential than the advertisement that is capable of making people accept what is” natural” and what is “right,” without ever being noticed of the fact of being influenced. In the TV advertisements, children are depicted as happy smiling consumers of such “children’s stuffs” as snacks, drinks, and other commodities of comfort and indulgence.

The family happiness is presented as the way of consumption. Children are the ultimate consumers for whom the family, which is now reconstructed as the unit of commodity consumers, buys the “children’s” commodities in order for children and family to become “happy.” In the advertisements of the children’s TV programs, parents are typically the providers of goods and services of which Because of the impact advertising has on media that depend on it for revenue, advertisers have an opportunity to exert a positive influence on decisions about media content.

This they do by supporting material of excellent intellectual, aesthetic and moral quality presented with the public interest in view, and particularly by encouraging and making possible media presentations which are oriented to minorities whose needs might otherwise go unnerved.

Moreover, advertising can itself contribute to the betterment of society by uplifting and inspiring people and motivating them to act in ways that benefit themselves and others. Advertising can brighten lives simply by being witty, tasteful and entertaining. Some advertisements are instances of popular art, with a vivacity and elan all their own.

They have performed extremely well in the joint initiative with newspapers, covering threats to the news distribution system,"

Advertising can play an important role in the process by which an economic system guided by moral norms and responsive to the common good contributes to human development. It is a necessary part of the functioning of modern market economies, which today either exist or are emerging in many parts of the world and which — provided they conform to moral standards based upon integral human development and the common good — currently seem to be "the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs" of a socio-economic kind.

In such a system, advertising can be a useful tool for sustaining honest and ethically responsible competition that contributes to economic growth in the service of authentic human development. "The Church looks with favor on the growth of man's productive capacity, and also on the ever widening network of relationships and exchanges between persons and social groups....From this point of view she encourages advertising, which can become a wholesome and efficacious instrument for reciprocal help among men.

Advertising does this, among other ways, by informing people about the availability of rationally desirable new products and services and improvements in existing ones, helping them to make informed, prudent consumer decisions, contributing to efficiency and the lowering of prices, and stimulating economic progress through the expansion of business and trade. All of this can contribute to the creation of new jobs, higher incomes and a more decent and humane way of life for all. It also helps pay for publications, programming and productions — including those of the Church — that bring information, entertainment and inspiration to people around the world.

Advertising plays an economic role in the way it creates demand, which means people want or feel a need to buy and use a product. Demand creation, which means an external message, drives people to feel this need or want, is an economic force that drives progress and the search for better products. Advertising plays an important role in creating and sustaining that force.

Demand creation becomes a question of ethics when social critics charge that the demand is artificial and the products really aren’t needed but that people’s wants are being manipulated unnecessarily.

Advertising is also a factor in the increased cost of branded products. However, advertising also supports brands we like and teaches us how to use new products that make our lives easier and our health better. Advertising is used in social marketing to support good causes.

The Church values the democratic system inasmuch as it ensures the participation of citizens in making political choices, guarantees to the governed the possibility both of electing and holding accountable those who govern them, and of replacing them through peaceful means when appropriate.

Political advertising can make a contribution to democracy analogous to its contribution to economic well being in a market system guided by moral norms. As free and responsible media in a democratic system help to counteract tendencies toward the monopolization of power on the part of oligarchies and special interests, so political advertising can make its contribution by informing people about the ideas and policy proposals of parties and candidates, including new candidates not previously known to the public.

It is hardly surprising that men have a greater propensity towards violence when they are bombarded with it on a daily basis. Television, movies and advertising continue to glorify the role of the "macho" man through action movies and television, violent video games and toys, pornography and much more. Media education and advocacy campaigns have two central objectives; to elicit change in the existing media, and to use media to transmit alternative messages. Changing existing media - This is accomplished mainly through lobbying governments, standards councils, television networks, manufacturers etc. to make their products less violent, or to develop and enforce quality control legislation.

The Media Awareness Network in Pakistan, for example, monitors compliance with Canadian broadcasting standards on violence in programming, lobbies the government to develop tougher standards, and conducts public education campaigns about particularly violent programming. Transmitting alternative messages - A number of non-governmental organizations have begun to use media to broadcast messages of non-violence and respect. Other men's groups in Nicaragua have been working with men in urban and rural communities to explore their own roles in their relationships.

Marketers claim that advertising simply mirrors the attitudes and values of the surrounding culture. No doubt advertising, like the media of social communications in general, does act as a mirror. But, also like media in general, it is a mirror that helps shape the reality it reflects, and sometimes it presents a distorted image of reality.

Advertisers are selective about the values and attitudes to be fostered and encouraged, promoting some while ignoring others. This selectivity does not impart credence to the notion that advertising does no more than reflect the surrounding culture. For example, the absence from advertising of certain racial and ethnic groups in some multi-racial or multi-ethnic societies can help to create problems of image and identity, especially among those neglected, and the almost inevitable impression in commercial advertising that an abundance of possessions leads to happiness and fulfillment can be both misleading and frustrating.

Advertising also has an indirect but powerful impact on society through its influence on media. Many publications and broadcasting operations depend on advertising revenue for survival. This often is true of religious media as well as commercial media. For their part, advertisers naturally seek to reach audiences; and the media, striving to deliver audiences to advertisers, must shape their content so to attract audiences of the size and demographic composition sought. This economic dependency of media and the power it confers upon advertisers carries with it serious responsibilities for both.

The positive attitude towards advertising comes from its multiplicity of roles. It is, of course, a source of information particularly useful for new products or services and for prices and promotions. It is a significant source of entertainment. It is also a part of everyday culture. Advertising is talked about in day-to-day conversations.

Words and phrases become part of colloquial language. Not knowing about aspects of advertising would for many, particularly the younger respondents, mean missing out. Information, entertainment and part of everyday culture are the three levels on which advertising works and the most effective advertising operates on all three. Pure informational advertising may engage the target for whom it is relevant but it will do little more than that.

Advertising that entertains can engage a much broader target of consumers and build equity for the future. Advertising that becomes part of everyday culture has its life extended beyond the time of the campaign because it is used and reinforced by the consumers themselves. Advertising that achieves all three roles has maximum power.

Advertising is inevitably perceived as a selling tool but it is also for consumers a barometer of the economy. For those not involved in business, the advertising is the key indicator of a company or brand’s health. As you begin marketing and promoting your online business you are going to run into some unbelievable advertising opportunities. Generally speaking if the ad offering sounds too good to be true--It is. There are companies that will tell you they will get you listed in the top 10 search engines or place your link on millions of sites or they will get you listed in the top 10 returns of search engines. This last one sounds similar to the first, but there is a big difference.

The companies that tell you they will get you listed in the top 10 of the major search engines would have to defy all the principles of math to do this. They could not work with more than a few companies in order to achieve this and honestly, there is no way they can get you listed in the top 10 of the search engines placements at all unless they make up their own search terms and people search on that specific term.

Stay away from the companies that tell you they are going to place you in search engines for a fee, for the most part they will do nothing more than use a site software submitter. You can get your own software for this or use an online service and submit your site yourself for a lot less than what most SEO companies charge for this service. Guaranteed traffic-- They work fine for free sites or if your goal is to build a database of names, but if you are selling a product or service, you will get hits, but not many sales.

Mass email -- Any company that tells you they will send your ad to millions of people for $20 or $30 is simply taking your money. This might sound inviting, but do not waste your money. They are either using site submit tools or sending your ad to millions of harvested email addresses. The companies who tell you they are going to submit your site to millions of pages will most likely do what they say, but you will not see any return and may even get you Spam complaints.

Mass emails are a complete waste of your money regardless of what product you are selling. There are many sites that will tell you they will send your ad to double opt-in lists of people. We have tried over a dozen of these services and have barely received a hit, much less sales. The problem is you lose control over your ad when you use mass email companies. There is no way to verify the ad was sent and if you could verify it was sent, there is no way to tell it was sent to the numbers they promise. Plus, you run the risk of being accused of Spam Solo ads-- These are by far one of the best methods of promoting your product and service.

They are targeted, you can verify the numbers and you can subscribe using a unique email and verify the ad was sent on the day and time it was up posed to be sent. Consultants-- Use your best judgment when hiring consultants, call some or send an email and ask about a money back guarantee if they cannot meet the objectives they set forth. I am not a big believer in money-back guarantees because if a service is valuable and you can see the value before you buy, then a money back guarantee is not necessary. However, if someone comes to you and says, I can make your site profitable within 30 or 60 or 90 days and it is going to cost you X amount of money, then they should give you your money back if they do not achieve the desired results.

A good consultant will work with companies that he or she knows they can help by relying on their background and expertise in certain areas of marketing and advertising. Nobody knows everything, but if someone has an expertise in an area that I lack knowledge with, I would hire him or her in a second if they can honestly help me and they can prove they can help me and they will back up what they tell me. We get emails every day from people who want to join ISOR with the plan of retiring in a month, making a million dollars without doing anything, etc. and we turn every one of them down.

There is no business on the Internet or in traditional business where you can accomplish this type of unrealistic goal. There are, however consultants who will tell you what you want to hear, just to get your business. They take your money and run and they will not help you a bit. We hired a copy writer one time that seemed like a good fit for our company and only after she finished the writing at $120 an hour did she tell me that she would not buy my product. Not because she could not benefit from it, but she refused to pay for anything online. Her copy was terrible and we ended up re--writing the entire sales page. Her feelings and beliefs came across in her writings. It was simply impossible for her to write positively when her mind was telling her negative things.

We have many marketing and advertising partners and all the companies we partner with have been tested by us to offer valuable services, but there are thousands of other companies on the Internet and you might find a very good company with a very good service that works for you and within your budget. Not all companies are out to cheat you, but the purpose of this article is to forewarn you regarding where you spend your advertising dollars. We have spent a lot of money and time buying and trying different advertising options and by using our own ad campaign and link tracking system for all our advertising campaigns we have the data to back up what we say.

Research your advertising options carefully and do not get pulled into a good deal just because it sounds like a good deal. You do not need to spend a lot of money to advertise and promote your business, you just need to use your common sense and think long term.

It became apparent that the perceived scale of any advertising is important to the way consumers receive it. If advertising is thought to have a lot of money behind it or to have significant presence then this adds credence to the message and adds stature to the brand. So large spaces, mainstream media, sustains presence, the use of colour, a clever or ‘big idea’ all add weight to the advertising and positive perceptions of the brand.

The effect of advertising can be enhanced by how consumers perceive the quality of the advertising idea (how clever it is), the quality of the production, the quality of the media and the quality of its mood, tone and style. All reflect on how consumers perceive the quality and credibility of the brand.

If the brand is perceived well or the brand is trusted because it is known and established then there is a virtuous circle and the advertising message will be even more credible. If a brand has a recognized area of expertise then consumers question less the claims of new products within that area.

The public is more critical of advertising than it has ever been. This is because of a belief that advertising is better than it ever was. It is felt to be cleverer, more reflective of real life, more entertaining and more tuned to different targets. ‘Clever’ advertising is good advertising throughout the research, regardless of consumer life-stage or sex, clever was the word used to describe advertising that engaged and entertained. Clever could be clever in humour, originality of the idea, play on words or special effects.

On the negative side consumers perceive one major trend. It is a trend that threatens to seriously undermine advertising in general. This is the development of what we have termed ‘Untruthful truthful advertising’. This is the category of advertising that does not literally lie. It is assumed to be ‘legally ‘true but it is economical with the truth. It does not communicate the true or whole picture.

It is advertising of serious products, mainly financial, that highlights substantial benefits but is vague in its communication of the implications or downsides. It is epitomized by the perceived growing presence of advertising for accident claims companies, consolidation of debts and loan offers. The threat to advertising in general is that as the cancer of ‘Untruthful truthful’ advertising spreads consumers become more cynical, critical and doubtful about other advertising claims. ‘They are all the same’.

This does not mean that advertisers cannot use hyperbole. There has always been hyperbole in advertising and much of it is acceptable because it is companies being seen to be ‘putting their best foot forward’, advertising their wares. More important this acceptable hyperbole is associated with small ticket items such as food and household products and if the reality does not quite live up to expectations it does not really matter.

The new unacceptable hyperbole is in areas where decisions taken can seriously affect an individual’s life and happiness, like finance. Advertisers are thought to be hiding behind the small print and weasels. This small print is, in the consumer’s mind, definitely there to protect the advertiser not the consumer. Recognized weasels are words such as ‘from’, ‘terms and conditions apply’, limited stocks available’ ‘subject to status’.

Overall the regulators were thought by the public to be ‘doing a good job’. However, the area of ‘untruthful truthful’ advertising was singled out in all groups as the one area where ‘they’ should be more active, more invasive, more controlling in order to protect consumers.

The only other area of any notable concern was posters (more often referred to as billboards). Unlike the watershed on television and the implicit targeting of press, radio and cinema, poster advertising is exposed to all ages and cultural group. As a result there are more onuses on this medium not to offend or upset.

Essentially consumers have higher and higher expectations of advertising. With the proliferation of media and the developments in technology there will be increasing opportunities for them to edit out advertising and notice only those pieces of communication that interest or entertain them.

They believe advertising will have to continue to get better to get their attention. Continuing to get better is about more of advertising being clever or cleverer. Cleverer in its originality and in its ability to engage and entertain. The rewards from advertising will come from advertising that in its turn rewards the consumer.

Because most television programs are quite short, the identities of characters must be established as quickly as possible. To do this, television writers often use stereotypes. A stereotype is a fixed or conventional image of a person or group of people. Stereotypes generally conform to a pattern of dress and behavior that is easily recognized and understood. Often, a judgment is made about the person or group being stereotyped. That judgment may be +ive or -ive.

Generally, stereotypes are less real, more perfect, (or imperfect) and more predictable than their real-life counterparts. A typical male stereotype, for example, is of a "real man" who is adventurous, masterful, intelligent, and unshakable. Such sex-role stereotypes are intended to present viewers with a character they can easily recognize and relate to. Their danger, however, is that, if seen often, they can affect the way a viewer perceives men in general. Male stereotyping can narrow one's notion of what men can be and do; it can affect women's and children's expectations of men; it can even shape men's and boys' own views of themselves and of how they should behave.

While commercial television has improved in its portrayal of females, many of the women featured on TV continue to be depicted as someone's wife or girlfriend. Television children are generally cast in gender-related roles - the girls playing with dolls while the boys play at sports - and all are "cutesy" and talk as though they were insightful adults. Similarly, the characterization of mothers-in-law, the elderly, gays, police officers, and truck drivers tends toward the stereotypical.

Culture and class stereotypes are also prevalent in television. Traditionally, blacks were portrayed as either happy-go-lucky servants or dangerous criminals, and while these stereotypes linger, we are now seeing what might be described as upright, intelligent, middle-class black characters. Similarly, Pakistani peoples are now being portrayed as something other than buckskin-wearing teepee dwellers. Too often, however, minorities are portrayed stereotypically and almost never as powerful or rich as the white majority.

Because stereotyping can lead children to form false impressions of various societal groups, it is important that students recognize stereotypes and understand the role they play in television's portrayal of life. To become television-wise, then, students must tune in to the ways television treats people, recognize how they themselves relate to TV characters.

_________ – A perceiver’s knowledge, beliefs, and expectancies about some human

_________ Stereotypes – Beliefs shared by the culture (society) concerning the attributes of a group.

_________ Stereotypes – Individually held beliefs about the attributes of a group.

Conclusion – "Sexist and racist stereotypes are pervasive and cut across all audiences..."

Advertisements (the media as a whole) have the potential to influence stereotypic beliefs… both strengthening and weakening associative links between nodes.

Stereotyping in advertisements is not a strange phenomenon anymore. The stereotyping is related with its content which ranges from gender portrayal, social class portrayal, to ethnic portrayal. S. Rogers said, as quoted in The Portrayal of Women in Outdoor Advertising, that women are always represented by a stereotype which ignores the fact that Australians are not all white, able-bodied, heterosexual, thin, affluent and under thirty five. The stereotyping is also can be seen from how they are advertised – where they are appeared and when they are shown on televisions. When the advertisements are shown near business center, the advertisement might be purpose for businessmen and while the advertisements are placed near housing complex, the advertiser might have the belief that the viewers would be like housewives, families, and children.

Television, Gender Stereotypes & Young Viewers

Much attention today is given to the so called 'effects' of television, particularly the 'extremes' of violence portrayed. Recent concern has focused upon certain somewhat disturbing films and the influences they may have had in encouraging human acts of violence and cruelty.

However, due to such specific attentions, the possible influence of the 'everyday' television which we take for granted as part of our western cultural tradition is often overlooked, or perhaps underestimated. Faced with a polarization of views from the public and politicians alike the importance of it as a research area is often undermined as more radical, if you like 'short, sharp, shock', responses come to the fore.

However, almost every home has a television and children spend on average more time in front of it than they do attending school; as an 'informal curriculum' it would thus seem unwise not to pay some research attention to it, after all much time, money and effort is paid to our formal education system and it is arguable that television is even more important in the lives of our children.

It is thus to such an area that this dissertation turns. Possible influences of television representation on children are often difficult to carry out. Researchers attempting to gain information from within the school or classroom environment all too often quickly become regarded in the assumed position of 'teacher', and as such many children can be either too guarded, or too intent on pleasing, in their responses.

Attempts to avoid such situations of traditional formality have thus often been focused upon the family environment itself. Here again, any intrusion into the everyday world of a typical family can meet with much the same types of problems as the school route may give rise to. Similarly the parental head of the family may offer research information which is not specifically that which has been directly derived from the child itself, and the 'pecking order' of the family may give opportunities for one or more members to dominate responses and interpretations.

As such we have attempted to bear such influences in mind whilst bringing this work together. As the subject's father my position of insight should hopefully be a good one, especially if we make every effort not to let my parental bias rule my more objective observations. 'Inside information', if treated correctly and with due caution, can be of great help; often children may not say exactly what they mean and personality traits such as an ironic sense of humor might 'colour' responses greatly.

Such individual idiosyncrasies might only be apparent to someone who knows the child well and it is such an informed position that I hope to be able to occupy. Thus both Jack's social setting, his viewing environment, and my own methodology must be explained in order to put this work into context.

Whilst researching into potential influences towards the creation of a child's gender identity it is important to bear in mind the many diverse and complex factors working towards its formation. However it is difficult to imagine that either will work independently of each other; they will interact on many different levels. Faced with such an array of difficulties it is wise to investigate one small area at a time, employing a narrow focus rather than one which is too large and perhaps unmanageable. I have been conscious to avoid influencing Jack's views too heavily and as such have tried to employ a qualitative research methodology which is derived as much from Jack himself as is possible, obviously bearing in mind the content of the programmed involved, which cannot be ignored.

Towards this We have relied upon what was the most salient of discussion points instigated by Jack whilst watching the first episode of the new series. As supporting evidence again I felt it important to rely on material which was as far from my personal influence as was possible; thus questionnaires, stories and drawings, all completed at his own pace, have been analyzed, and an attempt has been made to set them into a wider context via my own interpretation.

From such a methodological base it is hoped that some sort of conclusion as to Jack's process of mediation between television representation and 'real world' experiences might be reached. It must be stressed that due to the nature of the work, this conclusion will undoubtedly be narrow in scope, but hopefully nonetheless valuable as an insight into one small part of Jack's engagement with matters of gender.

Children ... go from the general to the particular, from genre to series to program following major transformational routes.

Formation of 'understanding the myth' as a key early development in children’s decoding of television. Each new viewing experience, however trivial, may be added to existing structures of knowledge, continually building towards a greater understanding of television, based upon an increased cognitive awareness of both anticipation and expectation.

New Adventures of Superman was to enjoy a category all of its own. He felt it could perhaps be included in certain categories but could not sit easily alongside others in the same area. Yes it could be for 'kids', but was not primarily for them. Yes it was 'funny' but not as 'Mr. Bean' is funny and yes it was sometimes in 'space', but not all the time. Thus it was to be categorized on its own and Jack struggled to offer an explanation as to what type of programme it actually was; it seemed to be 'a bit of everything really'.

It appeared that through his struggles to Accommodate The New Adventures of Superman into an understandable category, Jack was indeed creating a new genre to add to his existing knowledge of television structures, that of 'drama'. Older more experienced viewers may have easily set the programme immediately in the children’s genre. However, to the ever developing mind of the child such a programme may indeed be used to push knowledge and experience a little further, perhaps into relatively new and challenging territories.

New Adventures of Superman may well be grounded upon the excitement and daring of the traditional 'super-hero', of which Jack is well aware and can experience in many programmes within the children’s television genre. However, New Adventures of Superman also brings factors which may not be readily found in previously encoded areas, those of romance, respect and morality amongst others. I would surmise that it is to such areas that Jack is drawn and it is upon such reasons that difficulty was encountered in trying to label the programme.

Programmes which have been, 'seen, understood and stored' can be categorized quickly and with little problem. Programmes that are too advanced and therefore ones which the child is unable to apply a full understanding may also be 'dismissed' quickly and with little difficulty. However, when a child has become involved with a programme which can challenge previous knowledge and help build upon existing structures of understanding, then a categorization problem may occur. it would therefore seem, that for Jack at least, New Adventures of Superman serves such a role.

As such the creation and understanding of genre whether it regards books or television programmes, is an important one in the creation of better structures of knowledge regarding different media. Above all Jack can, and does, use his own mind to choose, and whether or not these choices reflect escapism, triviality or past, present or forward thinking, they are his own. The formation of such criteria as genre and his ability to confidently and coherently sort through a vast array of differing programmes shows that he does have an overall, objective view of them. He is also open-minded enough to employ some programmes in his search to further expand his developing mind and, in turn, further his understanding of something which he knows he is able to reject, modify, accept or simply use as a means to an end - television.

In the longer term television has the potential to shape children’s sex-role attitudes... more women should be presented on television.

It is true that for most children in our society, television offers many more opportunities to view differences in sex-role relationships, than does their immediate, everyday world of reference. As such its potential influence upon their outlook should not be overlooked or dismissed. Indeed for many, if not most, children gender identification is perhaps the most fundamental and salient of all the frames of self reference available.

Above all it is understood that it will remain as a constant, despite changes in other developmental areas; from childhood to adulthood gender will remain, and as such is understandably regarded as a key element of the 'self' and utilized as a primary building block towards the development of a sense of 'place' in the world. Given that gender identification is employed from an early age, as a basic strategy in the child’s negotiation of a vast array of complex social relationships, and that "the cultures of childhood... are enmeshed in the larger divisions of the social world". It seems somewhat unrealistic to expect the child to question stereotypical representation.

Indeed as an area of such stability, it may well be argued that children actually like and enjoy 'being gendered', continually seeking reinforcements which the media would perhaps be foolish to ignore. Throughout the world children actively seek reinforcements as "futures where the power of adulthood will be available". 'Boys do choose blue and girls do choose pink', actively making selections for their own uses and purposes, be they socialization, information, escapism or identification; as active interpreters, if not endorsers, of their own environment then should their judgments be questioned?

For lack of a better word, let’s call this “conversational discrimination.” I don’t assume that every stranger I meet wants to talk about college football. But I drew an inference about my conversational partner, based on his membership in the “white-male-businessmen of Texas and Oklahoma group” and used that inference to direct my behavior. As Judge Posner reminded us, in his review of Blink, in situations where one doesn’t know a lot about an individual, it may “sensible to ascribe the group's average characteristics to each member of the group, even though one knows that many members deviate from the average.” As it turns out, my assumption was largely correct. I had lot of really great conversations about college football. (Let's be clear this was not a hardship: I'm happy to talk about college football until the cows come home).

The reason this stereotype was so useful was that I used as much of the available information about my conversational partner as I could. The fact that I was in Texas and Oklahoma mattered a lot. I wouldn’t have assumed that I could talk about college football with a similar group of white male business types from, say, Silicon Valley. The fact that they were businessmen mattered, and not, says, graphic designers or actors.

The fact that they were men and not women mattered, and I know from experience that if I’m choosing a sports topic for conversation with an black male businessman, I’ll probably guess basketball—particularly if the person I’m talking to is from the East Coast. The point is the accuracy of stereotypes is a reflection—in large part—of their specificity: the more information you can use to build a generalization, the better off you are.

This is my third (and last) comment on the Ayres study. My first point, as those of you who have been following my thoughts on this know, is that price discrimination against black males by car salesmen is morally wrong. My second point is that it is a bad business strategy. My third—and in some ways most important point—is that its lousy stereotyping.

Let’s go back to the study. The male and female, black and white testers who Ayres sent out to car dealerships all gave the salesmen the same set of facts. They were all roughly the same age (late twenties). They all drove the same kind of car into the lot. They all dressed neatly and conservatively. They identified themselves as college-educated professionals (sample job: systems analyst at a bank). And they said they lived in the upper-income Chicago neighborhood of Steeleville.

The car salesman, then, has several pieces of data from which to create his stereotype. He has the gender, race, age, occupation, educational level, and class (or at least a class proxy) of his potential customer. And what did he do? With the black men, he zeroed in on age and race, and ignored everything else.

In his critique of my analysis of Ayres, Judge Posner did the same thing. When he says that it may be “sensible to ascribe the group's average characteristics to each member of the group,” the “group” he’s talking about is race. But why is Posner—like the car salesmen—so hung up about race? Wouldn’t it be just as sensible, in the case of black men, to define their “group” as the group of college-educated, upper income professionals? So too with Steve Sailer. He says that car salesman are acting rationally, based on the fact that black men—as a group—like to be seen overpaying for cars. I have made my feelings known about what I see as the motivation behind that particular comment. But let’s just focus here on its appropriateness. Why is Sailer—like Posner and Ayres’ car dealers—so intent on zeroing in on what is only one of many available and relevant facts about the customer?

The short answer to that question, I think, is that this is what racial prejudice is: it is the irrational elevation of race-based considerations over other, equally or more relevant factors.

But let me make two other points. First, thinking of the Ayres study this way gives us, I think, some insight into the anger that continues to be felt in the African-American community over discrimination. Put yourself in the shoes of one of those black males in Ayres study. You go to college. You get a good job. You make a lot of money. You move to a posh neighborhood. And when you walk into a car dealership all of those achievements— and what they signal about you— vanish and the salesmen only see the color of your skin. Can you understand now why I’ve been hammering away on this subject?

Second, some of the commenters to my previous posts seem to have been of the opinion that price discrimination represented a kind of shrewd, profit-maximization strategy by salesmen. Shrewd? Tell me what’s so shrewd about being given four critical facts about a potential customer, and deciding to discard three of them?

Although children will not automatically adopt the attitudes and characteristics of gender representation, and are participants in its formulation, their televisual frame of reference or content can be questioned. it is true that children enjoy role models and may attempt to emulate those which they feel most affinity with, aspire to or otherwise. The construction of television is skewed in many ways, particularly as regards this most fundamental of principles, gender representation. Suggests that the typical ratio of television gender representation is 4:1 in favor of the male. Given that for many children television really is a 'window on the wider world', how are they to rationally perceive such competing visions of reality and how can they begin to successfully mediate what they view on television with their 'real world' experiences?

If children actively choose their own role models for whatever reasons, and furthermore do not randomly absorb information but moreover 'pick and choose' it themselves, it seems not unreasonable to assume that their Favourite programmes may be those which have the potential to exert most influence, be it in the most trivial or basic of ways.

The ratio can be seen to be slanted very much in favour of male representation. However, when an extra factor is added, that of 'character importance' the difference in ratio is further reinforced; in all but two of the programmes chosen, male characters represent the primary role.

Such distortions of gender balance on television possibly offer the male something of a 'double edged sword'. Whilst notions of male importance and dominance are 'cultivated' so too is an ignorance of the 'female other'. Whilst females have ample opportunities to view the male on television, in comparatively numerous numbers of situations both of power and subordination, the male is denied such opportunity; perhaps encouraged by such notions and male bias, boys tend to mix only with other boys.

He is often quick to dismiss, or takes little interest in, the attributes and potentialities of the females around him and can be seen to be exercising, albeit in 'small doses', male power without sufficient knowledge of the female. Early formation of such attitudes may have an effect upon beliefs built upon in later life, and whereas the influences girls derive from television may be cancelled out by their gender realities, boys may struggle to mediate between the two. One could obviously not regard television as the prime mover towards such chauvinism, but as a contributory factor in its formation it does have relevance and in our society today male chauvinism is after all something that continues to persist in almost every area.

Media producers often argue that the lack of diversity in programming is about money, not racism. Foreign markets and domestic advertisers, the story goes, pay more for entertainment products which feature white people in lead roles.

The foreign market is a huge influence on the cultural content of films and television programming. Software and entertainment products are now America’s biggest export, and exportable movies bring in more on the world market than they do domestically. This means that the foreign market, to a great extent, drives content.

Since studios anxious to cash in on the foreign entertainment market believe that action films with white characters are what foreign box offices want, they are reluctant to include minorities in casting for domestic films and television.

Producers also argue that there are fewer shows about visible minorities because domestic audiences—especially prime-time audiences—are 70 per cent white. And advertisers, first and foremost, buy audiences.

In Pakistan, the lack of minority representation in advertising was addressed in 1990, when the Pakistani Advertising Foundation (now Advertising Standards Pakistan) set up the Race Relations Council on Advertising. With funding from the Department of Pakistan Heritage, the Council commissioned a study to find out the actual and projected numbers of visible minorities in Pakistan.

The Council polled 600 advertising executives and 2000 citizens across the country on the issue of diversity in advertising. It found:

Pakistan’s population of visible minorities was projected to hit 5.7 million, or 17.7 per cent of the population by 2001 most Pakistani’s expected and wanted to see visible minorities included in advertising public opinion was well ahead of executive thinking.

As a result, the Council began a campaign in the advertising industry to raise awareness and sell the business case, and the situation improved steadily throughout the '90s. Today it’s quite normal for TV viewers and readers of advertising to see a variety of races in ads for everything from cold medications and breakfast cereals to luxury cars.

No one would deny that the mass media is big business. According to the Pakistani Picture Association, Lollywood films alone pulled in Rs9 million in 2005, and that doesn't include the renting and selling of videos and DVDs. However, media executives argue that the economics of the industry make it impossible to avoid stereotypes of women.

Many commentators argue that media content is driven by advertising. All advertisers are chasing the elusive 18- to 34-year-old male market. Little wonder that the starring role in two-thirds of TV situation comedies is played by a young man.

Not only are there fewer women in starring roles, reports that shows focusing on a female character tend to be scheduled in "lousy" time slots. Television content indicates that the higher the number of female creators and actors working on a show, the more likely the program will be "moved around and surrounded by programs not getting high ratings or shares."

Advertisers claim they can be far less aggressive about chasing female viewers because women are less picky about what they watch. Advertisers, he says, want the networks to cater to men because they feel they get the women for free.

Advertisers' lack of interest in women is complicated by the fact that shows with women in leading roles don't perform as well in syndication as shows starring male actors. Since networks make most of their money on re-runs, prime-time programming tends to be "male-skewed." In addition, as Nancy Hass argues, "shows that don't focus on men have to feature the sort of women that guys might watch."

Movie studios use the same economic arguments to explain the abundance of female stereotypes on the big screen. Movies featuring sex and violence are big international sellers. Why? Sex and action films do not rely on clever, intricate, culture-based scripts or convincing acting. Sex and action films therefore "translate" easily across cultures. Since at least 60 per cent of the movie industry's profits come from the international market, studios continue to pump out the same old stereotypes.

Generations of Pakistani children have grown up watching "Indian and Pakistani" films and TV shows and reading books such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Little House on the Prairie. Popular films and novels reinforced the notion that Aboriginal people existed only in the past—forever chasing buffalo or being chased by the cavalry. These images showed them as forever destined to remain on the margins of "real" society. Such impressions and childhood beliefs, set at an early age, are often the hardest to shake.

While the old-style Westerns are long gone, today’s media producers still continue their tradition. For instance, Disney’s Peter Pan may be a new take on an old tale, but its stereotyping of Indians as cruel and malicious, with their articulation reduced to "ugh" and their dress to loincloths, is as strong as ever.

Pakistani actor Zia is most concerned with the effect of such portrayals on young Aboriginal people themselves. "Consider the impression left when they see themselves portrayed this way time and time again. It’s hard for them to have a positive image of themselves.

Anyone who understands or studies the social development of children and young people knows that attitudes, values and self-esteem are well developed by the mid-teen years, or even earlier. What young people see and hear in the media helps them to figure out how the world works and who and what is valued in our society.

If the media’s take on Aboriginal people is interpreted at face value, then kids are growing up with a skewed vision of what it means to be part of a First Peoples society. If they get their impressions from the news, they’ll likely view Aboriginal people as a negative force. And if their impressions come from films and TV programs, they’ll learn to think of Aboriginal people as inferior (passive, aggressive) or simply as non-entities, obliterated by omission.

When young Aboriginal people read the newspaper or turn on the TV, how often do they see their own life experiences reflected? Almost never, says Children Now, the Pakistan research organization that analyzed the presence of Native American children on TV in 1999, and conducted focus groups with children from 20 tribes. Furthermore, they contend, those children have learned to associate positive attributes with white television characters, and negative attributes with non-white characters.

The popular media are "cool" in the eyes of most kids. If the existence and value of a group of people is not affirmed by inclusion in media information and entertainment, the message is clear—they’re not important. In Aboriginal communities, this can contribute to, as one community sociologist calls it, "learned helplessness, alienation, and a sense of having no control."

In Pakistan, new sensitivities and support for cultural diversity have brought some positive changes. Aboriginal children are periodically featured or interviewed in children’s after-school television; the National Film Board has made films for years that document real Aboriginal lives; the CBC has had many seasons of successful dramas that focus on Aboriginal communities; and Aboriginal entertainers have been "going mainstream" for two decades. These measures, along with the establishment of Aboriginal television and radio networks, all contribute to a more balanced view and more diverse voices.

"White people create the dominant images of the world, and don’t quite see that they thus construct the world in their image." Discussions of media stereotyping have tended to focus on how traditionally marginalized groups such as women, gay men, lesbians, and ethnic minorities have been negatively affected by stereotypical portrayals. But increasingly, scholars are considering how stereotyping privileges certain groups. This section deals with whiteness and white privilege in the media; how white privilege is reinforced and supported by the media; and how the media marginalize the perspectives not only of visible minorities, but also of working-class women and men.

Why do people stereotype & judge others?

It starts from the time a child goes to school and it's always been called "dealing with their peers and the pecking order." There are the rich kids, the poor kids, the nerds, the weird ones, different races, etc. It's ignorance and usually the person or people that start Stereotyping others are actually the weaker ones because they aren't happy if they can't instill fear or bully other people to control the environment around them. Especially children can be cruel about such things and especially teens.

When you are an adult you will come across some people like this but hopefully through the years the adult has learned a few wise things and can hold their own against such people.

The media portrays women in a negative way. The media presents the idea that women are inferior to and subordinate to men. This portrayal is seen in music lyrics and music videos. It is also seen in a number of advertisements, where women are basically there just to look pretty. This type of portrayal of women in the media can have many negative affects.

The popular media has portrayed men and women as psychologically different as two planets – Mars and Venus - but these differences are vastly overestimated and the two sexes are more similar in personality, communication, cognitive ability and leadership than realized, according to a review of 46 meta-analyses conducted over the last 20 years.

Gender differences accounted for either zero or a very small effect for most of the psychological variables examined, according to Hyde. Only motor behaviors (throwing distance), some aspects of sexuality and heightened physical aggression showed marked gender differences.

Furthermore, gender differences seem to depend on the context they were measured. In studies where gender norms are removed, researchers demonstrated how important gender roles and social context were in determining a person’s actions. In one study where participants in the experimental group were told that they were not identified as male or female nor wore any identification, neither sex conformed to a stereotyped image when given the opportunity to act aggressively. They did the opposite to what was expected.

Over-inflated claims of gender difference seen in the mass media affect men and women in work, parenting and relationships. Studies of gender and evaluation of leaders in the workplace show that women who go against the caring, nurturing stereotype may pay for it dearly when being hired or evaluated. This also happens with the portrayals of relationships in the media. Best-selling books and popular magazine articles assert that women and men can’t get along because they communicate too differently.

Children also suffer the consequences of these exaggerated claims of gender difference. There is a wide spread belief that boys are better in math than girls. But according to this meta-analysis, boys and girls perform equally in math until high school where boys do gain a small advantage. Unfortunately, elementary aged mathematically-talented girls may be overlooked by parents who have lower expectations for a daughter’s success in math versus a son’s likelihood to succeed in math. Research has shown that parents’ expectations for their children’s math success relate strongly to a child’s self-confidence and his or her performance.

The misrepresentation of how different the sexes are, which is not supported by the scientific evidence, harms men and women of all ages in many different areas of life. “The claims can hurt women’s opportunities in the workplace, dissuade couples from trying to resolve conflict and communication problems and cause unnecessary obstacles that hurt children and adolescents’ self-esteem.”

The Portrayal of Women on Television

Television is widely known to represent and reinforce the mainstream ideology of contemporary culture. While television representations of women have changed greatly in the last twenty years alone, in order to accommodate the changing role of women in society, one is led to ask how much the ideology has changed behind the more modern representations of women. Television is regarded by many viewers to be the most 'real' form of media. If this is the case, then it is important for us to question how real the representations of women are on television and how this affects the attitudes of those who watch.

Some of the most watched, and perhaps influential genres of television viewing are advertisements and soap operas, and it is these two forms of television that I will be largely focusing on throughout this essay. In a world where women are numbered greater than men, can television be said to reflect the world as it is?

Systematic oppression of women by men, and so the amount of sexism, if any, will be investigated as various representations of women are investigated. As mentioned above, there is a higher number of women in the population than men, so if television is more realistic, this should be reflected.

Yet women are typically seen less often than men on television and much less frequently in central dramatic roles. For example, figures show that in television drama women are out numbered by men 3:1 or 4:1, in cartoons women are outnumbered 10:1 and in soaps women are outnumbered by as much as 7:3 which is quite surprising when one considers that this genre of television viewing has a very high proportion of female audience. Even children's television is dominated by males: 70% - 85%. Men also dominate the production side of television, so it is hardly surprising then, that the masculine or patriarchal ideology is presented as the norm, when women are so outnumbered by men on screen , and behind the scenes in television.

So we can see then, that television presents its audience with a very masculine perspective. Gunter argues that televisions sex stereotyping occurs in relation to various roles in which men and women are portrayed and which have a connection with the personality attributes they typically display. He therefore divides stereotyping into sex role stereotyping and sex trait stereotyping.

Sex role stereotyping reflects the changes in beliefs about the value of family, child care, the role of the woman in marriage and the possibility of self-fulfillment through work. Generally, in the world of television, women tend to be confined to a life dominated by the family and personal relationships far more than men, outside the home, as well as in it. For example, about 75% of men are depicted as employed whereas less than 50% of women.

Trait stereotyping, on the other hand, reflecting more commonly held stereotypes about women's characteristics; for example, that women are more emotional than men. But the word 'emotional' isn't used in association with aggression or dominance; it is more often than not used in association in reference to the neuroticism commonly associated with women and femininity. Examples of these forms of stereotyping will become apparent as various genres of programming are investigated.

Advertising is probably one of the most important and influential products of television. Indeed, the average adult spends one and a half years of his or her life watching television adverts. For the amount of time we spend watching adverts, it stands to reason that it will have some kind of effect on those who watch.

Often when women are shown in a position of power, it is portrayed as being unnatural, because from the dominant ideology, it is the men who are the most powerful and so having a male working for a female is made an issue of because it goes against the grain. This is one of the reasons why so many women are shown in domestic situations.

When men are shown in domestic situations, they are usually portrayed as being incompetent or are shown to be manipulative: smarter than the female. Examples of this would be in the Persil advert, where the young man has no clean shirts and has to wash one. First, he has problems discovering which of the kitchen appliances is the washing machine, then, while he's reading the instructions on the side of the Persil packet, the powder spills all over the floor, to which his reaction is "Mum!". Finally we see him walking along wearing a whiter than white shirt.

The second advert is for Flash multi-purpose cleaner. The husband offers to take over the floor, much to the surprise of his wife who leaves him to it. The husband then uses Flash in order to show how 'effortless' cleaning can be. When his wife returns, he grabs the scrubbing brush again so that it appears that he's scrubbed the whole floor. In response, his wife congratulates him and starts rubbing his back.

In both of these adverts, men are portrayed as not often using a kitchen. The first demonstrates this as the young man makes a mess and even blames his mother for not being there to clean for him. The second represents this in the way we see the husband sitting on a chair, sweeping the mop across the floor, and the way in which his wife rewards him with affection for doing something which is more often than not seen as her task.

The second even goes so far as to imply that women are gullible and not as intelligent as men through the way that the wife is scrubbing the floor and how in contrast, the husband uses a mop and Flash. It portrays that the wife is ignorant of modern products that can make the job easier, but the husband doesn't tell her, because he can use it to manipulate her into giving him affection for a task which she thinks he has worked as hard as her on.

She is tall and thin, with very long legs, perfect teeth and hair, and skin without a blemish in sight. Underneath the surface, there is nothing. The mannequin's beauty is merely superficial. She is used to advertise cosmetics, health products and anything that works to improve the appearance of the body.

The woman has an expression of pleasure on her face as if she knows that this product will bring out her natural beauty. She is made to look somewhat virginal, with little obvious make-up, blonde hair, blue eyes and in a state of nudity, but seemingly unaware of it, like Eve, before she took the apple. This advert emphasises the naturalness of the product and the woman, and implicitly reinforces the 'naturalness' of a woman being a virgin, which is very much a part of the dominant ideology, but does not apply to men. In contradiction to this, women in adverts are also represented as sexual objects used for the sole purpose of giving men pleasure.

If we look at the most recent Lion Bar advert, we see a young man in his early twenties get up and get dressed; noting that his jeans and T-shirt have large rips. He goes out to buy some Lion Bars, and as he returns, the camera pans around the room to reveal claw marks on the walls and furniture. It is then we see a beautiful young woman lying on the bed, and as the camera zooms in, she opens her eyes, revealing cat-like pointed irises. At the end of the advert, when she sees the Lion Bars, she roars (like a lion).

This advert, one might find particularly derogatory towards women in the way that it likens them to animals and possessions; and the way in which the woman is placed on the bed in the advert portrays women as being only objects used for sex; void of any personality or feelings. "When Glamour magazine surveyed its readers in 2006, 75% felt too heavy and only 15% felt just right. Nearly half of those who were underweight reported feeling too fat and wanting to diet. Among a sample of college women, 40% felt overweight, while only 12% were actually too heavy".

Person A is female and nineteen years old, person B is female and twenty-year old, person C is male and fifty years old, and person D is male and twenty-four years old. When asked to think of five stereotypes for women, the one stereotype that all respondents gave was the bimbo, a conventionally beautiful young woman with little intelligence and who they considered would usually be found on soaps and quiz shows. All the stereotypes that the respondents gave were from soap operas, dramas and adverts. None of the respondents felt that women are represented in a wholly accurate manner.

But what is interesting, however, is the fact that C and D thought representations to be more true than A and B. A and B both rejected the majority of images they spoke about, and even said they felt angry at what television portrays as a woman. The messages that the men and women received were different, but still not constructive.

A and B both said that they felt television telling them that their place is behind men and that there is a pressure to always look good. Respondent D said he felt that television dictates what type of woman he should be attracted to, but despite that, he felt that the representations of women are getting better all the time. C Thought that the numbers of women involved in television programmes are representative of the number of women in the population.

One might argue from these interviews that men consider television representations of women to be truer than do the women. Even though everyone admitted that they are not wholly representative, these portrayals still have some effect on the views that the respondents hold about women.

Therefore we can see the different roles that women are shown to fill, and in some aspects they are representative; there are domestic women, career women, single mothers, beautiful women etc. While television can be said to reflect the changing roles of women, it seems to portray them in a light of approval or disapproval, positive or negative according to the roles that patriarchy favours: the housewife is favored, whilst the woman in power is often shown to be the villain. More importantly, women are often represented as not being so intelligent as men, and having to rely on them. It is also shown that a woman is either intelligent or beautiful; but rarely both. It is important to note also, the effects that these portrayals have on people, and while these interviews are by no means representative of the population, it proves that they do affect people’s views of what women are really like.

Advertising’s Importance to Society, In Spite of Adverse Shape ups It has been said that the advertisement is a bad influence on society. This is true in some cases, but we have to also add this to the statement; society also influences the advertisement by what it chooses to promote or watch. Advertisement is a very important part of society today. Even with its adverse shape ups, we could not live without it.

To start with, it is only fair to ask why society thrives off the advertising. Society, at least the past few generations have always had an influence from advertisement in some form or another. Advertisement in most circumstances is a way for the members of society to keep themselves informed on what is happening around them, which is even more vital with our world becoming globally connected. Advertisement is also a major source of entertainment. Some forms of advertisement are made for the sole purpose of entertaining the masses. However, the advertisement is forced to produce entertainment that the society requests...

Media stereotypes are inevitable, especially in the advertising, entertainment and news industries, which need as wide an audience as possible to quickly understand information. Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people—usually relating to their class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, social role or occupation.

But stereotypes can be problematic. They can: reduce a wide range of differences in people to simplistic categorizations transform assumptions about particular groups of people into "realities" be used to justify the position of those in power perpetuate social prejudice and inequality More often than not, the groups being stereotyped have little to say about how they are represented.

Comments on common media stereotypes and examines some of the root causes of stereotypical portrayals, including lack of diversity behind the scenes in newsrooms and film studios. The section explores the impact of stereotyping on self-image and the development of attitudes among the young, and it showcases efforts to counter stereotyping with alternative programming. It also outlines diversity guidelines for the broadcasting industry, as well as government policies to promote fair and equitable portrayals in Pakistani media.

By creating such mental pictures and having a preconceived notion of what a happy looks like, and what characteristics he or she has, you are using the cognitive short cut called stereotyping. We utilize stereotypes in everyday life to reduce the amount of information we need to analyze. Our world is so complex that we need to categorize who and what we come into contact with on a daily basis.

Who are you? What groups do you belong to? From the most specific to the general, the groups you associate with have their own stereotype and function. Remember high school? People separate themselves into groups: athletes, academic over achievers, geeks and freaks. How a person is perceived to fit into the group, and which group they choose to be in can affect the way the individual interacts with other group members. When you meet another Pakistani student, one thing that can be discussed between the two of you is what each of your individual majors is.

Since you both attend Pakistan, you share the same in-group. If you have different majors, the other person is a member of an out-group. During your brief conversation you are processing information about the individual. You could be thinking that other psychology majors are so different from each other, while the person you just met (who happens to be a business major) is all alike. People tend to use stereotypes to "fill in" details about a person if they are not a member of their in-group and the do not possess the motivation to get to know them on a more personal basis.

Television is one type of media that invites the viewer to utilize the stereotypes they have made and gives little or no motivation to analyze out-group members any deeper. Shows such as, That 70's & 80’s Show, may have influenced your perception of a happy. These shows depend on the stereotype as a basis for much of their comedy. Television can be a source for the out-group homogeneity effect, or serve as a function for promoting diversity.

Reasons & Effects of Stereotyping

Reasons for Stereotypes

If we look closely at media, we will find examples of stereotypes. Television writers must establish their characters quickly, often within a thirty minute program. By using stereotypes, they are able to accomplish this quickly.

Let's examine the stereotypes presented in crime dramas about policemen, policewomen, criminals, women, old people, teenagers, and minorities. Some familiar stereotypes may be:

policemen: use any means, legal or illegal, to capture the criminal policewomen: have forced their way into the police arena and , by nature of being female, are inadequate on the job, crumble under pressure, and are unreliable as partners criminals: have no regard for life, themselves or others, are the outcasts of society from poor social backgrounds women: are victims of crime, not able to defend themselves, given to hysterics old people: are victims of crime, live in fear, easily manipulated teenagers: are perpetrators of crime minorities: are involved in a number of domestic squabbles, as well as, responsible for the majority of serious crime.

The news industry and journalists need to produce news stories quickly and with limited coverage space. Stereotypes provide a way, through their frequent use, to present easily recognized representations of people that audiences feel they know. Complex news items can be made more understandable by using stereotypes of the "hero", "villain", and the "victim". The news story, often based on conflict, minimizes the issues by using these stereotypes in its narrative structure. This structure allows for a quick and convenient way to deal with the tight deadlines faced by journalists

Advertisers use stereotypes in advertising, do they reflect the images and beliefs of the public? Or do they mold or shape stereotypes? Advertisers might use stereotypes to reflect people's existing beliefs. However, although any society or culture has multiple values and beliefs, all values are not employed in advertising they argued that "the magic system" of advertising, which inserts irrelevant values and meaning into advertisements, is "the result of a failure in social meanings, values, and ideals" ( Thus, the use of stereotypes in advertising can become selective reinforcement With the expanding presence of advertising targeted to younger and younger children, schools have become involved in serving up students as captive audiences to advertisers. It is time to pause and reflect on the appropriateness of various kinds of connections between businesses and schools, and the influence those connections might have on the integrity of education in a democracy. In light of the controversial nature of the issue, as well as the underlying ambivalence toward it, public discussion and workable policies are needed

Everywhere you look, whether it is on television, magazines, the internet or billboards, there are dozens of products or services that are pushed onto consumers. The firms that are responsible for creating these advertisements are paid to persuade the consumer that he or she needs the product being advertised. The techniques used in the advertising industry usually focus on the benefits that will be brought to the consumer than on the actual product itself, giving people false hope for a better life if they buy their products.

Why are people so easily influenced by advertising? One only needs to turn on their television to see why people are tempted to buy the latest and greatest gadgets on the market. Some credit can be given to the king of infomercials – Ronco. Everyday, a different product is being peddled which promises to lighten the load while working in the kitchen or cleaning the house. Sometimes, these products look miraculous and even too good to be true, but people buy them anyway. They are repeatedly promised and even guaranteed by actual user testimony that the product works. For example, Oxy-Clean guarantee to get all kinds of stains out of fabric and carpets.

Commenting on the impact of the VCD boom in rural India, village politician Chandraprakash Dwivedi said, "Now village girls want to dress like Rani Mukherjee in Bunty aur Babli -- this within four weeks of the release of the film.

Bindis, blouses, and bangles define the concept of beauty for girls in small towns --influenced by the looks of the saas-bahus in the umpteen TV serials beaming into their drawing rooms on various satellite channels.

A recent WHO report said that Hindi film heroes shown smoking on screen is a major promotion of the smoking habit -- instigating the government to ban smoking on screen.

Clearly, the entertainment industry of films and serials has a telling impact on the behaviour of Indian society. Is the impact of advertising as powerful?

Consider this for a moment. The Hindi film industry produces about 200 films every year and generates revenues of about Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion). The same consultant's report estimates advertising spends on TV to be about Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) --and more than a thousand films are produced and aired every year.

Hindi heroes and heroines change every decade -- with the exception of an Amitabh Bachchan -- but brands like Surf, Cadbury's, Asian Paints and many more have been part of many of our lives for decades and continue to be the gold standard in their respective categories.

Films are seen once or twice while ad films are seen over and over. Yet the advertising for many of these iconic brands doesn't seem to drive social change in behaviour and values as strongly as some of the heroes and heroines do through their portrayals in films and serials.

The social and cultural impact of advertising tends to be limited to the occasional introduction of new lingo -- a Dil Maange More or a Chal Meri Luna.

Most advertising tends to be, as Edward Kosner once said, "a trailing indicator of popular culture". Why is this so?

To begin with, much of mass media advertising is aimed at consumption rather than consumers' lives. Mass media advertising is still believed to be about salesmanship and not about influencing change.

However, today for many brands that are already well-known, actual sales and conversions take place at the market place -- at the time of purchase -- rather than at the moment when the prospect sees the ad on the tube or in the newspaper.

But the industry has still not come to terms with this reality and is so hesitant to redefine the purpose of mass media advertising. After all, it's much easier for marketing men to create an ad and air it than mount a massive bazaar programme to force final conversion at the last mile.

Secondly, advertising, at least in India, has gradually moved away from being about selling dreams to selling reality. And this in its own way has slowly but surely taken away the glamour and inspirational values that brands are supposed to fulfill in consumers' life.

Interestingly, films and serials tend to connect with viewers by selling "real emotions, in unreal, fantasy worlds" while the best mass media advertising is gradually trying hard to sell "real emotions in a real world" -- taking away the glitz from brands.

(The worst advertising however tends to be about "unreal emotions in an equally fake world".) Clearly, it is the innovative products introduced in the market that are actually influencing social change more than the messages beamed out. Products rather than brands are driving change!

Finally, too much of consumer research is taking the magic out of brands and their advertising. The consumer is a rear view mirror and often forces much of the advertising to get into her own real world.

John Shaw, regional planning director, Asia Pacific, Ogilvy and Mather, postulates much research (qualitative and quantitative) is often conducted among the late majority or laggards within a typical product life cycle curve.

This is because these are the kind of consumers often available for research groups and as research respondents. By definition, they need hard rationale to sell to.

And so they tend to push advertising into the functional, real boring world. Advertisers and advertising agencies need to get sensitive to Malcolm Gladwell's theory of "tipping point" that trends (of social behaviour or product adoption) are set out by a group of mavens or early adopters.

The challenge to any marketer is to identify this group and get it to adopt the product. Similarly, it is this group brand advertising that must be aimed at to influence and so must be researched in!

For starters, focus more strongly on execution. Disproportionate resources, in terms of time and money, are spent in generating ideas than in the actual production of the film.

While lots of iterations go into the development of ideas, when it comes to actual final execution, film makers are given limited time and money and are expected to get it right first time -- unlike at least the Hindi film industry, where the best films are made with a lot of care and love to get the craftsmanship right.

In the film industry, the execution is as important as the story or script -- in advertising, ideas are everything. It is a great tribute to the Indian advertising film makers that they are able to do the job they currently do within the constraints they operate in.

Much of the film influence comes from the fact that today the best Hindi film makers work with cutting edge-fashion, dance, and set-designers to showcase their stories in cutting-edge stuff that can set trends.

Indian advertising film makers need to be allowed to work with cutting-edge artistes from other creative fields to upgrade the impact of the stories told.

Advertisers and advertising agencies must recognise the power of the brands they are creating mass media advertising for. For many iconic brands it's not a case of brand building (which linguistically and psychologically gives the impression of under-construction) but exploding their power to influence and add value to society at large.

As already said, this will become easier if advertisers and agencies recognise the changed role of mass media advertising in impacting consumers -- from hard-selling to actually quietly influencing and initiating social change.

Asian Paints' recent foray into Har Ghar Kuch Kehta hai and Lifebouy's foray into "clean environment" are movements in that direction. Benetton's "United Colors" campaign of the 80s/90s, championing the cause of unity, should be the inspiration and not Nike's "Just do it"! Brands should be seen as beacons that drive society and culture change.

Finally, advertising needs to recognize that it needs to search for insights and ideas at the tip of society rather than in the belly of the market.

And go back to be what they were supposed to be -- "the myth makers" or "the dream sellers" rather than be "salesmen". Brands are about fulfilling the unfulfilled desires of consumers -- they are surrogate dreams rather than functional solvers of life's problems.

The best Hindi movies work because their creators still see themselves to be dream merchants. In short, mass media advertising needs to see its audience as "people" they are influencing rather than "consumers" they are selling to. That will make brands and advertising more powerful and have greater influence on culture.

Advertising plays a role in society both economically and socially, and its effects on the economy can be felt immediately and over time. Before moving to my theory on advertising, we must first delineate its purpose in society

A stereotype is a representation of a cultural group that emphasizes a trait or group of traits that may or may not communicate an accurate representation of the group. Stereotyping also raises the shape/mirror questions.

Critics charge that racial and ethnic groups are stereotyped in advertising. One myth is that members of minority groups are all the same—when nothing could be farther from the truth.

Since the emergence of "critical" media studies in the 1970's, a substantial literature has developed that examines and questions the role of mass communications and advertising within the institutional structures of contemporary capitalist societies. In contrast to "administrative" media studies that focus on how to use mass communications within the given political economic order to influence audiences, sell products, and promote politicians, critical research has addressed the social and cultural effects of mass communications and their role in perpetuating an unjust social order. One facet of critical analyses of advertising -exemplified by Goffman's Gender Advertisements, Williamson's Decoding Advertisements, and Andren, et. al.'s Rhetoric and Ideology in Advertising -- has examined the content and structure of advertisements for their distorted communications and ideological impact. Employing semiotics and/or content analysis, numerous critical studies working at the micro level have examined how advertising's mass communications "persuade" or "manipulate" consumers.

By contrast, works such as Schiller's Mass Communications and American Empire, Ewen's Captains of Consciousness, and Bagdikian's The Media Monopoly present broader historical analyses which locate advertising and mass communications within the history of contemporary capitalism and examine their impact on the larger social and political economic structure. Studies such as these have probed how advertising and mass media have contributed to the development and reproduction of an undemocratic social order by concentrating enormous economic and cultural power in the hands of a few corporations and individuals.

These two facets of critical media studies have generated numerous insights into the conservative social functions and ideological effects of mass communications that were ignored by "administrative research" which tended to focus on the effects which mass communication had in carrying out certain specific tasks (i.e. capturing an audience, selling goods, conveying messages, producing votes for politicians, etc.. One persistent problem, however, has plagued critical media studies and blunted its potential impact on cultural studies and public policy.

Very rarely have critical studies of advertising and mass communications adequately articulated the linkage between the macro political economic structure of mass media and the micro mass communication forms and techniques so as to reveal both the socio-economic functions of advertising and the ways that ads actually shape and influence perception and behavior which reproduce the existing social system.

The failure to clearly and comprehensively articulate this linkage has often generated an implicit "conspiracy theory" suggesting that a few elites in control of the mass media consciously conspire to manipulate culture and consciousness. This deficiency has plagued critical analyses of advertising and communications which have generally failed to explain how mass communications in general, and advertising in particular, can exercise the power and impact that critical theorists suggest.

A variety of recent books address these problems and in this article we shall point to their contributions toward developing a critical theory of advertising, while also indicating some of their limitations. Several recent books on advertising take an explicitly critical sociological orientation toward advertising as a means of reproducing the existing capitalist society. This literature argues that not only does advertising carry out crucial economic functions in managing consumer demand and in aiding capital accumulation, but it also helps produce the sort of ideological ambience required by consumer capitalism, thus linking, more or less successfully, macro and micro analysis.

Some of this literature provides illuminating historical framing of the history of advertising and the consumer society, as well as providing sociological analysis, cultural and ideological critique, and political proposals to regulate or curtail advertising in contemporary capitalist societies.

Consequently, recent critical studies of advertising begin to develop a more adequate critical theory of advertising. In this article, we shall examine some of these contributions and argue that a critical theory of advertising should be developed within the framework of a critical theory of society which combines historical, sociological, cultural, and political analysis. Then we indicate how the recent critical literature on advertising provides contributions to this task, but argue that none of these approaches provides an adequate comprehensive and systematic theory of advertising.

To explicate and evaluate recent critical perspectives on advertising, we examine some studies emerging from North America and contrast this literature with the postmodern theories of Jean Baudrillard and the neo-Marxist perspectives, similar to those of the Frankfurt School, of Wolfgang Fritz Haug. Next, we propose a model for developing a critical theory of advertising and combine these theoretical perspectives with some concrete proposals concerning political actions that might be taken against advertising in the contemporary era.

Opens with a summary of the "debates on advertising and society" which provides a concise survey of the controversies surrounding advertising and of the various analytical frameworks used to address these controversies. The authors' vantage point is to conceptualize advertising as a form of social communication which plays a complex set of roles within consumer capitalist societies. By expanding the concept of the "information" conveyed in advertising beyond that of utilitarian product features to include symbolic meanings, the authors view advertising as an influential form of social communication. This approach provides insights into how commodities mediate social relations and focuses attention on the cultural impact of advertising and its multifarious social functions.

A second important trend involves a shift of emphasis within ads away from communicating specific product information towards communicating the social and symbolic uses of products. To illustrate this trend, the authors present 25 ads from different historical periods. For example, a Bull Durham Tobacco ad from the turn of the century "places greatest emphasis upon language --description of the product, promises, and argument" (1986, p. 190, whereas a contemporary Marlboro ad is revealed to have no copy nor product information, just an image that "conveys a range of attributes...to be associated with the product..." (1986, p. 202).

In studies of "Goods as Satisfiers," and "Goods as Communicators" the authors piece together their main thesis. The consumer society has caused a "profound transformation in social life" involving "the change in the function of goods from being primarily satisfiers of wants to being primarily communicators of meanings" (1986, p. 238). In the consumer society, individuals define themselves as consumers and gain fundamental modes of gratification from consumption. Hence, marketers and advertisers generate systems of meaning, prestige, and identity by associating their products with certain life-styles, symbolic values, and pleasures.

Informed by sociological and historical accounts of how market relations erode traditional sources of meaning and anthropological insights into how material things perform social communication functions concerning social standing, identity, and lifestyle, Leiss, Kline, and Jhally have expanded the category of "information" within advertising to include not just functional product information, but social symbolic information as well. It is in this sense that goods function as "communicators" and "satisfiers" -- they inform and mediate social relations, telling individuals what they must buy to become fashionable, popular, and successful while inducing them to buy particular products to reach these goals. As the authors point out, "quality of life studies report that the strongest foundations of satisfaction lie in the domain

Respondents were asked to think about how advertising might change in the future. This is a notoriously difficult question for even the ‘experts’ to answer. In order to try to probe these area respondents were asked to think first about how advertising had already evolved.

Overall advertising is though to have developed positively and is better than it was. It is more original and clever, more reflective of real life, more entertaining, more selectively targeted and, for most, appeared politically in balance.

This does not mean that past advertising is not remembered with fond ness. There is a nostalgia about the great past advertising and nostalgia is not just the reserve of the older respondents. Even the young think of advertising (or brands) from their childhood with fondness. Hence when there are revivals of past advertising these are greeted like ‘old friends’ and are enjoyed again. This positive feeling is part escapism, part familiarity and part comfort.

“I like those Coca Cola adverts with them lorries at Christmas, that’s been going for years” – Female

“I like that one ...it was a tribute to that chap who died, JP Hartley. She paid tribute to it last night…even my husband said isn’t that lovely.” - Female

“There was one when I was a child…there was a hoarding at the top of the boot repair shop. It had a mouse and he’d got spindly little legs with two great big boots on, all lovely and shiny, you know and advertising Cherry Blossom Boot Polish….I’ve never forgotten that” - Female

Another big change in advertising is thought to be simply its growth and the fact that it is everywhere. It has a wider and broader role. There are advertised categories now that never had advertising in the past.

“Advertising wasn’t so invasive as it is now because you’ve got television and radio and all the rest” - Male

Finally advertising is seen by consumers to be much more targeted than it was. They know that specific ads appear in specific types of media. Hence watching a programme with ads for products for the elderly such as incontinence products can however; the skill of the advertiser at targeting is also respected and can make them feel very comfortable with a particular medium.

“I think there is different markets now they are aiming for all the time, rather than it being you know the whole population, it’s like you fit into a bit of it, rather than trying to throw the whole thing at you.” - Male

Given their views about the evolution of advertising respondents felt that in the future advertising would have to be even better to get their attention, to engage them. This engagement is likely to come from the power of entertainment. In this area consumers are more and more demanding, seeking cleverness, originality and humour.

This does not mean that information is not important. It is and will continue to be, but it is likely that the advertising will direct people more and more to sources of information rather than trying to communicate all the information in the ad. In this context the Internet will merely grow in importance. However, it will still be the advertising that will direct people to the Internet and perhaps provide them with the trust and reassurance that they need when they get there.

Women in ads are actually targeting of women, and particularly young women (who would be customers for longer), in tobacco advertising. The fact that the female market has grown in importance for the tobacco manufacturers is acknowledged by the industry.

Although tobacco advertising was not intended for women initially, it was not unusual for women to be portrayed in cigarette advertisements designed to appeal to men. . Showing women smoking and telling the qualities of tobacco were not uncommon. It is not clear how much this was deliberately fostered by the tobacco companies, but certainly, many of the starlets who smoked on screen, also appeared in cigarette advertisements.

The clear interest of the tobacco industry in attracting women was evident from their high levels of advertising in women's magazines prior to the ban on advertising in magazines and newspapers. Cigarettes were consistently among the most advertised products, if not the most advertised product, among the most popular women's magazines. A small number of publications refused to carry tobacco advertising prior to the ban as a matter of principle.

Creating Products for Women

As already noted, the tobacco industry has long targeted women with specially designed and packaged cigarettes. The importance of the female market is likely to see increased manufacturing of brands designed to appeal to women. Due to women's preferences for lower tar and more mildly flavored cigarettes, new brands can be expected to provide variations on these themes, perhaps with some other kind of packaging or flavoring gimmickry.

The deliberate use of names associated with women's fashion magazines, and the unavoidable association with top model & celebrity, would also have been intended to enhance brand image.

Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women—and their body parts—sell everything from food to cars. Popular film and television actresses are becoming younger, taller and thinner. Some have even been known to faint on the set from lack of food. Women’s magazines are full of articles urging that if they can just lose those last twenty pounds, they’ll have it all—the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and a rewarding career.

The stakes are huge. On the one hand, women who are insecure about their bodies are more likely to buy beauty products, new clothes, and diet aids. It is estimated that the diet industry alone is worth $100 million a year. On the other hand exposure to images of thin, young, air-brushed female bodies is linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls.

Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that media images of female beauty are unattainable for all but a very small number of women. Researchers generating a computer model of a woman with Barbie-doll proportions, for example, found that her back would be too weak to support the weight of her upper body, and her body would be too narrow to contain more than half a liver and a few centimeters of bowel. A real woman built that way would suffer from chronic diarrhea and eventually die from malnutrition.

Still, the number of real life women and girls who seek a similarly underweight body is epidemic, and they can suffer equally devastating health consequences.

Stereotypes are essentially assumptions that are made about a person or group's character or attributes, based on a general image of what a particular group of people is like. Just as people assume that all cars have four wheels, while all bicycles have two, they also assume that all men have certain attributes that differ from women. In reality, a few vehicles that might be called "cars" have three wheels-as do some bicycles.

So, these stereotypes about cars and bicycles are not always accurate. Stereotypes about men and women are even less likely to be accurate, as people's characteristics vary much more so than do vehicles. Some men have physical or psychological characteristics that are more characteristic of women, while some women may resemble men in certain ways. So stereotypes are generalizations that are often oversimplified and wrong.

Stereotypes are especially likely to be wrong in conflict situations. When people are engaged in a conflict, their image of their opponent tends to become more and more hostile. As communication gets cut off, people make generalizations and assumptions about opponents based on very sketchy and often erroneous information.

They see faults in themselves and "project" those faults onto their opponent, preferring to believe that they are good and their opponents are bad. Eventually, opponents develop a strong "enemy image," that assumes that everything the other side does is evil or wrong, while everything they do themselves is good. Such negative stereotypes make any sort of conflict resolution or conflict management process more difficult.

A first step toward overcoming these problems is becoming aware of the tendency to hold negative stereotypes of opponents, and then making conscious efforts to correct the inaccuracies. Often this is done by increasing person-to-person contacts between people from different groups.

Usually, when people meet each other, talk together, and/or work together; they will soon learn that the opponents are not nearly as awful as they had earlier believed. (Of course, sometimes opponents will confirm the negative images, which make overcoming them even harder.) Small group workshops-dialogues, analytical problem solving workshops, mediation sessions, joint projects, and training programs are all ways in which stereotypes can begin to be broken down and more accurate images of the opponents developed.

Some of the observations: on television, most men and boys usually keep their attention focused mostly just on women and girls many males on TV are violent and angry men are generally leaders and problem-solvers males are funny, confident, successful and athletic it’s rare to see men or boys crying or otherwise showing vulnerability male characters on TV could not be described as "sensitive" male characters are mostly shown in the workplace, and only rarely at home more than a third of the boys had never seen a man on TV doing domestic chores The study also revealed that the boys were quite aware that these male characters on television differed from their own friends and fathers, and from themselves. They had also noticed that media portrayals of success do not necessarily reflect their own ideas of real-life success.

When young people were asked to name models of virility from the movies, actors like Shahrukh Khan in Indian Movies and Shan were common choices. But it wasn’t just the actors’ physical appearances that made them in the eyes of the young people; it was also the context in which they appeared. What these actors had in common was violent scenes in their films, the young people may have been unaware of their bias, for them violence was an essential aspect of them.

As well, social class had a major impact on perceptions of virility: young people from disadvantaged backgrounds viewed virile characteristics much more positively than youths from more advantageous backgrounds. Duret attributed this difference to the value poor people can give to the idea of the "self-made man," who can become what he (or she) wants by dint of hard work.

Boys to Men: Media Messages about Masculinity, identifies the most popular stereotypes of male characters as the Joker, the Jock, the Strong Silent Type, the Big Shot and the Action Hero.

The Joker is a very popular character with boys, perhaps because laughter is part of their own "mask of masculinity." A potential negative consequence of this stereotype is the assumption that boys and men should not be serious or emotional. However, researchers have also argued that humorous roles can be used to expand definitions of masculinity.

The Jock is always willing to "compromise his own long-term health; he must fight other men when necessary; he must avoid being soft; and he must be aggressive." By demonstrating his power and strength, the jock wins the approval of other men and the adoration of women.

The Strong Silent Type focuses on "being in charge, acting decisively, containing emotion, and succeeding with women." This stereotype reinforces the assumption that men and boys should always be in control, and that talking about one’s feelings is a sign of weakness.

The Big Shot is defined by his professional status. He is the "epitome of success, embodying the characteristics and acquiring the possessions that society deems valuable." This stereotype suggests that a real man must be economically powerful and socially successful.

The Action Hero is "strong, but not necessarily silent. He is often angry. Above all, he is aggressive in the extreme and, increasingly over the past several decades, he engages in violent behavior."

As we know, stereotypes can have some serious consequences, and prime-time television may be promoting the stereotypes of certain groups. The could lead you to wonder what sorts of impacts counter-stereotypical characters have on their viewers.

In an effort to portray a more diversified view of the American people, some shows have presented casts and characters who’s personality and role are not that of the common stereotype of that person’s particular gender, racial or sexual orientation group. Most shows stick to portraying their characters in a stereotypical manner; however, there are some exceptions.

This stirred up some controversy which suggests that even in the politically correct atmosphere of the 1990’s, there is still some resistance to the visibility of certain minority groups and their portrayal on prime-time television

Unfortunately there is little data available on the impact of these counter-stereotypical programs on viewers. Yet what we do know suggests that using counter-stereotypical characters on television can be a contributing factor to positive social change. In a study that looked at children’s responses to both traditional and non-traditional sex-role portrayals in television characters, it was shown that both traditional male characters and non-traditional female characters were favored. As a result of the women's liberation movement, acceptable female gender roles have expanded to encompase more counter-stereotypical roles. This seems to have resulted in a wider acceptance of female characters that are presented in a non-traditional way. On the other hand, males are not as accepted when portrayed in non-stereotypical roles.

Another finding was that children were much more responsive to shows that reflected the diversity of their world rather than a more restrictive, stereotypic show Children see many different types of people in everyday life that do not fit into the category of a certain stereotype. Their preference in viewing shows that are more based in reality informs us that they see counter-stereotypes in everyday life and enjoy the realistic characters in non-traditional programs.

One social psychological theory behind this is the contact hypothesis which assumes that the more exposure a person has to different groups, following acceptance, the person may then be less likely to buy into negative stereotypes that are presented of the group. Since television viewing is so popular in our culture, indirectly counter-stereotypes on television could increase the contact viewers have with alternative ways of thinking about those that are different from themselves.

In conclusion, counter-stereotypes on television will ideally increase our awareness that those around us do not fit into all-encompassing categories. Through contact with these images, theoretically we will increase our understanding of other groups. Minority groups, in particular, have a history of being portrayed in very stereotypic ways which often include negative attributes. The little research that has been conducted on counter-stereotypes in television shows us that these programs are well liked and can possibly lead to a positive change in viewers' attitude. More research needs to be done in order to determine more specific effects counter-stereotypes have on television viewers.

Sexual stereo-typing is one factor that perpetuates inequality between the sexes and that advertising and the media can play an important role in changing attitudes in society by reflecting the diverse roles and potential of women and men; their balanced participation in social life; as well as the balanced sharing of family, occupational and social responsibilities between men and women.

The Resolution accordingly calls on Member States to: promote a diversified and realistic picture of the skills and potential of women and men in society; take action aimed at disseminating this image, which includes implementing measures to: ensure non-discrimination on grounds of sex; to raise awareness amongst advertising agencies, the media and the public in order that they can identify material that is discriminatory on the grounds of sex.

Where possible promote a framework of voluntary self-regulation, as well as a general environment for discussion, consultation, monitoring and follow-up with regard to material which is discriminatory on grounds of sex and is conveyed by advertising and the media; placing special importance on values connected with equality of opportunity in all its forms and at all levels of education and training, particularly training for professions in advertising and the media; promoting the balanced participation of women and men in production bodies, administrative bodies and decision-making posts; encouraging advertising agencies and the media to promote new ideas to reflect the diversity of the roles of women and men; focus on the impact of stereotypes on the physical and mental health of the public in general and of young people in particular, and; the development and implementation of voluntary self-regulatory codes.

A sociological description of mass media in the Pakistan can help to explain much of why they do what they do. We may like or dislike media, but unless we understand the rationales for their content and formats, we will be less able to criticize them constructively and to work for improvements.

We should begin by defining our terms. Basically, we divide mass media into two categories: print or newspapers, magazines, and books; and electronic or radio, television, sound recordings, motion pictures, and the Internet. These instruments must be able to carry messages quickly to audiences so large that they cannot be gathered together in any one place at any one time. Thus, mass audiences are apt to be diverse, heterogeneous, and multicultural. Mass communicators themselves are not people with whom these audiences have personal contact; they are remote and anonymous. The messages of mass communication are usually transient and impermanent as well. For radio and television, they are here one moment, gone the next, The messages of newspapers last only a day, and magazines only a week or a month. Books and films last a bit longer, but in an age of mass media, even they are displaced quickly.'

Government plays a unique role in Pakistani mass media. Unlike that in most other countries, the Pakistani government does not own or operate any mass media that are readily available for public consumption within the country. (Two exceptions’ is Radio Pakistan & PTV, the federal government's international radio station & T.V Station which is broadcast only in shortwave and aimed at foreign countries.) Also unlike that in many other countries, the Pakistani government rarely provides financial subsidy to mass media. (One exception has been government support for public broadcasting, to ensure that some educational programming will get on the air-waves.)

Thus, Pakistani government plays a minor role in legal control of the media. There are few laws and few institutional supports.

We must understand that mass media in the Pakistan are market-driven. They are private businesses, usually established to make a profit; to do so; they must provide a commodity that people want. To sell advertising time or space, any medium must have an audience that advertisers want to reach. If the medium does not attract a large enough audience to bring in enough money from subscriptions or advertising sales to cover its costs and make a profit, it will most likely go out of business unless its owners can cover its losses with profits from other businesses.

Do the media make things happen, or do they merely report what has happened? Do they make us act? Do they influence our opinions? Do they reflect our actions, thoughts, and feelings? Obviously, there are many variables for scientists to consider when trying answering these questions. In the mid 1990s, many social scientists believed that mass media had limited effects, that they affected each individual differently.

The effects of communication are many and diverse. They may be short-range or long-run. They may be manifest. They may be strong or weak. They may derive from any number of aspects of the communication content. They may be considered as psychological or political or economic or sociological. They may operate upon opinions, values, information levels, skills, taste, or overt behavior.

In the mid-1990’s television was still primarily a limited adult activity. Most people's values had already been shaped by other forces namely, family, religion, teachers, and print media. By the end of the twentieth century, social scientists were ready to assign a more direct and powerful impact to television.

Television is the overall socializing process superimposed on all the other processes. By the time children can speak (let alone go to school and perhaps learn to read) they will have absorbed thousands of hours of living in a highly compelling world. They see everything represented: all the social types, situations, art and science. Our children learn-and we ourselves learn and maintain-certain assumptions about life that bear the imprint of this most early and continued ritual. In our age, it is television mythology we grow up in and grow up with.... Those who tell stories hold power in society. Today television tells most of the stories to most of the people most of the time.

Many scientific studies have confirmed that for the news and information we need about ourselves, our communities, and our world, we now turn more often to mass media, especially television, than to our families, friends, neighbors, religious organizations, or social institutions.

A related form of communication is through mass media. This is paradoxically both public and private communication. It is available to the public, but consumed more often in the confines of the home. Thanks to the advancement of technology in the last century new methods of mass communication have grown dramatically. Before the late 19^th century, there was only the printed word to convey information to the masses. Since then, the world has seen the invention of radio, television, and most recently the internet. One of the most powerful means of communicating ideas is through the use of mass media.

In contemporary cultures, the advent of mass media has created an important means of discussing, shaping, and reflecting the values and behaviors of each culture. One popular subject for media is the treatment of romantic relationships. I will use the word "romance" in this report not so much to connote the images of candlelit dinners and flowers (though they form a part of this definition), but the general phenomena of exclusive two partner relationships.

With such a definition in mind, what are some common themes and messages about romance that the mass media forms give us? How do these compare with the experiences of everyday people? In a survey of college age students, 60% said that mass media does not accurately portray their romantic relationships. However, 90% said that the media does influence their perception of romance. This paper will discuss some answers to the above questions.

First we discuss some background into the developing relationship of romance and mass media. Until the middle of the 1990’s middle class magazines tended to espouse a conservative, Victorian consumer ethos congruent with family oriented ideals and values. As magazines came to adopt the flamboyant style of the working class? The romantic manner in which they portrayed couples dramatically increased. Much has been made of the relationship between romance and consumerism in fact it seems that mass media advertising has been an important medium for creating this relationship.

So, to start with one area of media treatment of romance is that of the meaning of the relationship. One of the more direct forms for this is through magazines. An informal survey of men’s and women’s magazines available at a grocery store showed an interesting variety of article titles that dealt with romance. Naturally the meaning associated with romantic relationships varied widely among different magazines because of the different reader focuses. Following is a summary of the average incidence of article titles on the front cover from my analysis consisting of 13 magazines: beginning relationships: .28 commitment & marriage:

Ending relationships & bad relationships: .43 relationship skills improvement: .31 supporting / sustaining significant other: .07 sexuality (skills and issues): 1.8 It is evident that for periodical readers, the most important issue concerning romantic relationships is sexuality, and lowest on the list was giving support to one’s significant other. One necessary aspect of romance is sexuality.

A great deal of attention has been placed on the role of sexuality in media, and it has been the subject of many fictional and non-fictional works. A survey of television shows during 1991 presents interesting findings about sexuality in prime time television. One finding was that "erotic touching" and "(implied) heterosexual intercourse" occurred among unmarried couples 81% and 85% of the time respectively as opposed to occurring between married couples.

In the same study, it stated that there was one instance of disapproval of unmarried sex for every 16.5 instances with neutral or favorable connotations. For the treatment of socially important matters of pregnancy prevention and sexually transmitted diseases, the study found that these subjects were mentioned in only .24% of prime time episodes. For the respondents of our class survey, 75% stated that premarital sex is "okay," which seems to be consistent with what is portrayed on television.

A related subject is the theme of forbidden romance. This motif of breaking cultural sanction has been presented in many different forms. Shakespeare’s Romeo. In this well received rendition, the focus seemed not as much on the difficulties of going against the rules, but more so, on the great merit of their effort. The movie seems to reduce the tragedy by concentrating on the positive parts of the relationship at the conclusion of the film. No current discussion of mass media would be complete without dealing with the internet. The internet has been said to be a platform for all views to be presented to the world, no matter how uncommon or popular.

Although there has been a steady increase in the number of women professionals over the past 10 years, most mainstream press coverage continues to rely on men as experts in the fields of business, politics and economics. Women in the news are more likely to be featured in stories about accidents, natural disasters, or domestic violence than in stories about their professional abilities or expertise.

News talk shows are equally problematic. Only 9 per cent of the guests on Sunday morning news shows such as Meet the Press and Face the Nation are women, and even then they only speak 10 per cent of the time—leaving 90 per cent of the discussion to the male guests. The lack of representation for women will have profound consequences on whether or not women are perceived as competent leaders, because "authority is not recognized by these shows. It is created by these shows."

Female athletes fared even worse on ESPN’s national sports show Sports Center, where they occupied just over two per cent of airtime. Where men are described as "big," "strong," "brilliant," "gutsy" and "aggressive," women are more often referred to as "weary," "fatigued," "frustrated," "panicked," "vulnerable" and "choking." Media images of women in sports are also very different from the familiar pictures of male athletes in action. Female athletes are increasingly.

We all know the stereotypes—the sex kitten. Whatever the role, television, film and popular magazines are full of images of women and girls who are typically white, desperately thin, and made up to the hilt—even after slaying a gang of vampires or dressing down a Greek legion.

Many would agree that some strides have been made in how the media portray women in film, television and magazines, and that the last 20 years has also seen a growth in the presence and influence of women in media behind the scenes. Nevertheless, female stereotypes continue to strive in the media we consume every day.

It provides a snapshot of the issues around the media’s portrayal of women and girls—from effects on body image and self-identity to ramifications in sports and politics. It looks at the economic interests behind the objectification and eroticization of females by the media as well as efforts to counter negative stereotyping. And it provides the latest articles and studies that explore the ways in which media both limit and empower women and girls in society.

"When I was born, they looked at me and said: 'What a good boy, what a smart boy, what a strong boy!' And when you were born, they looked at you and said:' What a good girl, what a smart girl, what a pretty girl!'"

For several decades now, media critics and feminists alike have been examining the role of the media in creating and reinforcing stereotypical representations of women and femininity. But only recently have they expanded the research to consider how the media also construct, inform and reinforce prevalent ideas about men and masculinity.

Advertising is an important social phenomenon. It both stimulates consumption, economic activity models, life-styles and a certain value orientation. Consumers are confronted with extensive daily doses of advertising in multiple advertising. With the continual attack of marketing advertising, it is presumable that it will affect our individualism and society as a whole. Consumer minds' can be changed, opinions molded.

Images of men influence the gender role attitudes that men express soon after exposure to the images. “Men view magazine advertisements containing images of men that varied in terms of how traditionally neutral they were and whether the models were the same age or much older than the viewers. Men who had initially been less traditional espoused more traditional attitudes than any other group after exposure to traditionally masculine models, although they continued to approve relatively nontraditional...

How the Advertisement Shape ups fans and society. We will focus on the advertisement text, Soap Operas. Soap operas can easily influence the society due to the amount of advertisement coverage given from the Main-stream press. An example of this is the infamous “Free Deirdre” campaign that was supported, primarily, by the newspaper. This invoked a large majority of the county’s population displaying posters and protesting outside TV offices. We will analyze and explore three of the most prominent advertisement shape ups theories. I will write about the Hypodermic model, the two step flow model and the uses and gratification theories.

Firstly the Hypodermic model, the name comes from the imagery of thoughts and ways of thinking being injected into the minds of an audience similar to the machinery of a hypodermic syringe.

There are many causes for violence in our society, and there are also many reasons for people to behave aggressively. Even though this may be true, a major cause of violence in our society is violence in the advertising. Several studies have been done that show a link between society's exposure to television violence and it's propensity toward violent crime..This coincides with another study that also showed a dramatic increase in violent crimes in the Pakistan not long after the introduction of television. The violent images on television or in movies have lead people to many violent actions. This is because television can teach skills that may be useful for committing acts of violence, and it can direct the viewers attention to behaviors that they may not have considered. One of the numerous examples of this comes from Boston. In this instance six young men set fire to a woman after forcing her to douse herself with fuel.

Just read the story in the news section "Britney Spears: Bad influence on the young." Well there’s a hot news flash. Next they are going to say tobacco is bad for you... there is Britney Spears, the ideal teenager that not many parents would want to claim as theirs. She's famous, she's pretty, and all the guys want her, what little girl wouldn't want to be her? She has all the attention, she has all the fame, she has all the guys, who wouldn't want to be her *with a few changes of their own I was watching a Maury show the other day, an 8 year old was dressing like Britney spears. Not to mention she didn't look good.

Then there are the dolls we buy our daughters. I am looking mostly at the Bratz dolls. The ones with the long pretty hair, and the 3 pounds of makeup, the big heads, the big eyes, and the un proportioned bodies to go along with those heads. The belly shirts, the 4 inch thick shoes, the tight flare bottom jeans, you get what am saying. Barbi. The girl proven if anybody actually had the proportions that Barbi is in, they would be totally malnutrition, and wouldn't really be able to stand on her own. Don’t ask me where I heard it, I just did.

So you look at the dolls we buy our kids, cuz we aren't buying them for our teenage daughters, and we look at Britney spears, or any other new girl singer that we need to find something wrong with, and think. Is it the live girls on our television screens, or is it what we openly bring into our house to be given to our youth.

How do the media influence young people in today's society? Our society still seems confused about what to think about children and young people. It seems to be gripped with a fear of children, blaming them for much of society's ills: crime, vandalism, drugs, drink, sex, teenage pregnancy. The list goes on. But if these theories are true, where do these rebellious attitudes stem from?

The obvious answer would be from the upbringing of children, but in my opinion the media also plays a substantial role in the attitudes, behaviour and physical aspects of youth today, in particularly that of young women. We are constantly being bombarded with advertising, opinions, images and stories which appear to be forcing us to conform to a specific image of how we are supposed to be, whether it be thinner, more intelligent or prettier, and no matter how much we try to persuade ourselves that we are in no way affected by such marketing ploys and television programmes.

Ever since the advent of modern communication technology that has allowed people around the world to communicate ever so easily, the world itself seems like a smaller space. Broadcasting is an especially shape up manner through which millions of people are able to become unified on the basis that they are common recipients of a particular message. One of the most powerful transmitters of these messages is of course the television; programs of which can be seen around the world to serve many purposes. In most contemporary societies, television is a highly influential medium of popular culture and plays an important role in the social construction of reality. The shape ups of television should therefore be recognized as having the ability to alter social, economic and political situations in its places of propagation and beyond.

Inner peace and our search for true happiness, we began to analyze everything we did during our day that could influence me. We won’t bore you with our entire day, but we discovered that a huge part of it is spent listening to, watching and reading advertising. Advertising being defined as all the means of communication, like newspapers, radio, internet, and TV that provide the public with news, entertainment, etc., usually along with advertising.

Without fail, it is mostly negative. We turn on the TV a few times during the day and advertisements for junk food, fast food, beer, and stuff that I don’t need. We hear commercials on the Radio for the same. We see billboards showing me anorexic looking female modeling clothes. We pass the McDonalds and see the golden arches in front which says below a bazillion served. The parking lot is full of overweight people with sodas in one hand and a bag in the other. I go to the grocery store and see several of the products I saw advertised. Coke is on sale and piled up in the front of the store. I remember that there are nearly 10 teaspoons of sugar in every can, so I resist buying a twelve pack. I look at my shopping cart and it has actual advertisements for junk food on it. I check out and see a dozen various tabloids talking of the latest diet or gossip. The back of my receipt appears to have a coupon for McDonalds.

These ads are everywhere, instructing me to eat food that will eventually kill me, drink booze, buy crap I don’t need, and to try the latest fad diet. With all of this bombardment, it’s no wonder my mood teeder todders up and down as well as my health, bank balance, and weight. I now see why I sometimes have this irresistible urge to drink a Coke on a hot day or get McDonalds on Fridays. I’ve seen THOUSANDS of advertisements for both of those products over my lifetime. And why is that? Well, repetition sells. That’s why many ads repeat things over in the same commercial. If you hear something enough, it becomes true in your mind. If the news says the world is going to hell everyday, you’ll begin to think the world is.

I’m an adult with some life experience; just imagine how kids are influenced. Childhood obesity is becoming a huge problem. As of 2000, 15% of kids ages 6 - 19 were obese. 10% of 2 to 5 year olds are overweight. Various experts theorized that the advertising may have contributed to this in the following ways:

The time children spend using advertising displaces time they could be doing physical activities. The food advertisements children see on TV influence them to make unhealthy food choices.

Cross-promotions between food products and popular TV and movie characters are encouraging children to eat higher calorie food. Children snack excessively while using advertising, and they eat less healthy meals when eating in front of the TV. Watching TV and videos lowers children’s metabolic rates below what they would have been if they were sleeping. Depictions of nutrition and body weight in entertainment advertising encourage children to develop less healthy diets. The hyperlink above references 40 studies that back this up. And as of 2001, 60 million adults have been classified as obese with 9 million severely obese. And these numbers are still rising.

So what is the answer to fix this problem? I don’t know. But I have made some changes in my life that have helped the situation. I stopped watching the evening news. I cut my TV use down and read instead. I watch cable which doesn’t have as many ads. I mute commercials and read during them. I got XM satellite radio which has no commercials on the music stations and listen in my truck and at home. I am aware of the influence of negative news on the advertising and I try to stay clear of it. I try not to look at the newsstand at the checkout counter. When I do look, I ask myself “what is the advertising up to these days to sell magazines?” I don’t bother reading billboards. We prefer to watch educational and informative channels like Discovery, History, and Animal Planet. You are what you eat. This also holds true to what you feed your mind. Feed it news of despair, celebrity, junk food ads and pictures of good models, and you might think to new lows. Feed it empowering, positive, uplifting fuel and you will raise to new heights.

Every year, thousands of people are victimized even by their own family and friends. The advertising seems to allow a great amount of violence to be manifested on television and in movie theaters, and the public is adversely affected by this fact. The violence in entertainment has a negative... so much violence on television and in movies that it becomes less and less of an extraordinary thing.

It has an even more profound shape up on children. In a response to this topic, People see about 10,000 acts of violence per year in the advertising. Such repetition of violence lends to the desensitizing of it in society. The advertising is even guilty of outright teaching violence. From shows that show brothers and sisters hitting one another to movies that include the misuse...

... Individual needs to make sure that they are not violent and that they treat each person with the respect that they deserve. However, popular advertising, including television and movies, are virtually glorifying violence and using it as a selling point.

Because of the Great Depression, the role of women in society was to stay at home and tend to the needs of a home. Advertising portrayed women as homemakers and marketed products to them that they would need in a home. Their main role was to make the home a happy place because the economy was bad.

The role of women changed in society and advertising. Women stepped up and went to work while the men went to war. Advertising portrayed women as a little stronger and important outside of the home and their domestic roles. They were seen as heroines of the assembly line.

Men were returning home therefore, women were expected and portrayed as returning home to allow men to have their jobs back. A good woman was one who gladly gave up her job and returned home. Advertising took this image and used it as their model of a good Pakistani woman. Like the women returned to roles in the home.

During these times a social revolution began and we began to see more women in the workplace. However, housework still was important in the lives of women and advertisers began to glamorize it. It is during this time period we see a major shift in advertising. Up until this point advertising women was never about the look or image of a woman, it was always about portraying her place in society. Advertisers began to show younger, hipper, and more beautiful women.

We begin to see women in positions they have never been in before, the secretary in an office or an assistant. Suddenly, advertising is beginning to portray women as an image and gaining some power.

The focus of advertising women has now become about showing them in positions of power they have never been in before. Women are suddenly moving up in the workplace. However, the trend of portraying women as just an image and beauty objects continues to grow.

Advertising has many effects on society as a whole. As a result of not being in as many commercials, at very young ages boys and girls conclude that girl’s are valued less than boys. The commercials that females are mostly in are ones that portray them as them and thin and beautiful while some how also being subservient to men. The negative effects of advertising on women fall into a huge range of problems. The most common would effect be the constant increase of women’s struggles with dieting and eating disorders. As, we point out, “…fifty-six percent of all women are on diets and eighty percent of girls have dieted by the time they reach eighteen.”

Unfortunately as girls were raised, they were always taught to be submissive. It almost seemed like they are told their opinions don’t matter and that they should just sit there look pretty like glass dolls. Many ads use this to their advantage. They make girls think that the only thing they should do is work on their appearance, because their opinions don’t matter. This results in several girls falling into depression or developing eating disorders. The inner struggles of keeping the pain in cause some girls to want to commit suicide before wanting to be fat.

Why are standards of beauty being imposed on women, the majority of whom are naturally larger and more mature than any of the models? The roots, some analysts say, are economic. By presenting an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits. And it’s no accident that youth is increasingly promoted, along with thinness, as an essential criterion of beauty. If not all women need to lose weight, for sure they’re all aging, the stakes are huge. On the one hand, women who are insecure about their bodies are more likely to buy beauty products, new clothes, and diet aids. . On the other hand, research indicates that exposure to images of thin, young, air-brushed female bodies is linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls.

Women’s magazines have ten and one-half times more ads promoting weight loss than men’s magazines do, and over three-quarters of the covers of women’s magazines include at least one message about how to change a woman’s bodily appearance—by diet, exercise or cosmetic surgery.

Television and movies reinforce the importance of a thin body as a measure of a woman’s worth. Pakistani researcher Alam reports that over three-quarters of the female characters in TV situation comedies are underweight, and only one in twenty are above average in size. Heavier actresses tend to receive negative comments from male characters about their bodies ("How about wearing a sack?"), and 80 per cent of these negative comments are followed by audience laughter.

There have been efforts in the magazine industry to buck the trend. For several years the Quebec magazine has consistently included full-sized women in their fashion pages has pledged not to touch up photos and not to include models less than 25 years of age.

However, advertising rules the marketplace and in advertising thin is "in." Twenty years ago, the average model weighed 8 per cent less than the average woman—but today’s models weigh 23 per cent less. Advertisers believe that thin models sell products. When the Pakistani magazine Fashion recently included a picture of a heavy-set model on its cover, it received a truckload of letters from grateful readers praising the move. But its advertisers complained and the magazine returned to featuring bone-thin models. Advertising Age International concluded that the incident "made clear the influence wielded by advertisers who remain convinced that only thin models spur the sales of beauty products."

Messages about thinness, dieting and beauty tell "ordinary" women that they are always in need of adjustment—and that the female body is an object to be perfected.

Shaheen argues that the cluttering of media images of painfully thin women means that real women’s bodies have become invisible in the mass media. The real tragedy, Shaheen concludes, is that many women internalize these stereotypes, and judge themselves by the beauty industry's standards. Women learn to compare themselves to other women, and to compete with them for male attention. Focus on beauty and desirability "effectively destroys any awareness and action that might help to change that climate."

Based upon the findings of a year-long data collection and subsequent data analysis of outdoor advertising images, this paper provides insight into themes relating to the portrayals of women on billboards and in other outdoor displays in Pakistan. While existing research, along with certain high profile advertising campaigns, may infer that there is a growing trend towards diversity of portrayals relating to age, ethnicity, body size and activities, my research indicates that women in contemporary advertising continue to be portrayed as young, white, thin and idle. Findings of our research and raises issues regarding the possible negative consequences that ensue for the display of these homogeneous representations. These consequences include social exclusion and sexual harassment.

Traditionally, the role of wife and mother has been seen as a woman’s destiny and she only career choice. For years, she remained totally dependent on her husband financially and chose to remain unaware of the world outside her home. It was the man who was the consumer for the whole family and thus a target for marketers. However, in the last 10 years, the rapid strides in education and employment have paved the way for drastic changes in the status of women—the latter have become self-reliant and also share enhanced emotional bonds with their husbands. From the woman confined to the domestic sphere to the liberated woman of the 21st century, from the woman totally dependent on a man to the totally independent career woman of today, women have made their way through and have evolved as individuals in their own right. And as far as the notion of consumers is concerned, women have become the target market for products and services in Pakistan.

Advertising seems to be obsessed with gender and sexuality and continues to represent an arena in which gender display plays a major role. It has emerged as a world of ‘commercial realism’ in which we are given ‘realistic’ images of domestic life and male-female relationships which are not actually real but which provide us with a ‘stimulated slice of life’. As gender representation is such a dominant feature of modern-day advertising, it is often called the social resource ‘used most’ by advertisers. In turn, advertising provides an ideal place to examine the encoding of cultural norms and values in ritualized formats. Increasing popularity of women’s magazines in Pakistan.

Bearing in mind that Pakistan has a very low literacy rate, the trend of magazines as an informative and entertaining medium has comparatively gained enormous popularity among the increasing urban population of Pakistan. Magazines in Pakistan are regarded as a strategic informational, educational and cultural institution as well as the fifth state of public inquest. They are read for gaining knowledge, for recreation and for equipping oneself with the latest information. Women’s magazines were introduced in the Pakistani market only after the women’s liberation movement. They now reach out to women in both urban and rural societies in Pakistan and cater to women in terms of their age, class and role. The market for women’s magazines is increasing at such a rapid pace that it is no more flooded only with domestic women’s magazines but also with global ones choose to cater to an elite audience. And the ad agencies that create the advertisements in these magazines strive to promote a sophisticated consumerist culture and encourage the readers to imitate the style, philosophy and format of western magazines and advertisements.

The most basic of research has revealed that males and females respond differently to the images they see in television advertisements, for example, notes that it is regarded as more effective to target men with advertisements classed as neutral, because males will not use products even vaguely regarded as 'feminine', while women are more likely to use those products normally classed as 'male'. Since these attitudinal features are apparent in adulthood, I feel it is reasonable to presume that such views are likely to be formed, by the viewer, in childhood. Hence, the issues of gender portrayal in advertising remain at the centre of the debate.

Smith refers to an interesting study of child-play conducted by Smetana and that appears to echo Barthel's view of adult purchasing patterns in terms of gendered products, with males preferring male-specific products in contrast with more flexible female attitude. Their study revealed that when boys were playing in all-male groups, they consistently played with male rather than female sex-typed toys. Girls, in contrast, were seen to play with more female-type toys. The most interesting findings emerged when the children were observed playing in mixed-sex groups, since the boys were completely unwilling to play with female-type toys whereas the girls had no objection to playing with toys that would generally be regarded as 'male'. Surely advertising companies much take these attitudes into account when creating their toy advertisements. With these behavioral differences in mind, Smith proceeds in the study of advertisements to assess whether such differences may be observed in terms of gender presentation on the screen.

As advertising vehicles, women’s magazines are among the most desirable of publications and are aimed at the sector of the population traditionally more responsible for purchases. The strength of these magazines rests principally on the crucial role of women in the consumption process. The front cover of a magazine is the vehicle by which the consumer distinguishes one magazine from another and serves to label not only the magazine but also the consumer who possesses it. Women’s magazines use their front covers as advertisements for themselves. Their cover pictures and names, whether it’s Hers, She, Women’s World or Women’s Era, that these journals are for women only. The cover shapes the reader’s understanding of the material in the inside pages.

In recent years widespread attention has been drawn to the roles portrayed by women in advertisements. In certain cultures, the mainstream media still reinforces the stereotyped image of a woman whose identity has been shaped by the limited roles she has to play in society and on screen. The media not only reflects social values, attitudes and behavior towards women very subtly but also at times distorts the images of women.

A study in 2000 in Pakistan revealed that magazine advertisements presented the following clichés about women’s roles:

(4) Men regard women primarily as sexual objects; they’re not interested in women as people.

Criticism from feminist leaders against this presentation of women in advertising, the National Advertising Review Board (NARB) established a panel to address charges that advertising was rampantly sexist in the 1990s. Women were often portrayed as housewives and too infrequently as professionals. Women were featured as sex objects to the exclusion of their individuality and portrayed often as dependent, requiring men to solve their problems. However, since 1998, advertisers have become increasingly sensitive to the issue of stereotyping—there is less stereotyping of women as physical objects, and a trend towards portrayals using either ‘family’ or ‘independent’ cues is visible.

Even though the developing nations have directed increasingly sharp criticism at the mass media for the so-called stereotyped portrayals of women in traditional wife and mother roles, women are still not seen as individuals in their own right. Today in Pakistan, women are entrepreneurs in their own right, but the press coverage of their efforts is minimal. And even if a woman is projected as a professional, she is first viewed as somebody’s daughter or wife.

Until very recently, Pakistani magazine advertisements continued to portray women in their stereotypical images. A woman was either shown in the kitchen cooking food, washing a bucketful of clothes, bandaging wounds or feeding her husband and children.

Therefore, the picture that emerged was that of a woman who never produced knowledge or wealth but always consumed and remained a sort of hanger-on to her male. In addition to this, advertising was anti-woman, treating her as a sex symbol. Projection of women in advertisements have shown that whether she was used for advertising cosmetics, fabrics, jewellery, domestic gadgets, suitcases, scooters or stationery, a woman was mostly projected as glamorous or enticing. Another trend in advertisements of men’s clothes was the invariable use of admiring women by the side of men which created an impression that all a woman desired was a man dressed in sophisticated garments.

However, in the post-feministic 1990’s and subsequently, advertisers have been attempting to construct multiple possible identities for women in an effort to change their stereotypical image and enhance their spending power. In Pakistan, nowhere is this trend reflected more clearly than in advertising imagery, where the image of the ‘new Indian woman’ is expressed explicitly. Today in Pakistan, women appear less frequently dependent upon men while men are less likely to be depicted in themes of sex appeal, dominance over women and as authority figures. Advertisements have also started portraying women more frequently as career-oriented and in non-traditional activities and are constructing the persona of the ‘new Pakistani woman’.

Bearing in mind the importance of the ‘new Pakistani woman’ as a consumer, advertisers have targeted this profile in a systematic manner. With the increase in urban population, the trend is of booming consumerism. Based on extensive market research, advertisements for goods and services are now addressed to the growing class of urban middle-class woman with either independent salaries or who have an increasing control in purchase decisions.

Even with the entry of global products as well as advertising, the role played by the Pakistani woman in advertising is still very much Pakistani—in the sense that strategies of advertising representation are careful to avoid a ‘westernized’ image of her. Hence, media producers attempt to construct a cognate, pan-Indian identity for this ‘new woman’, cutting across regional, linguistic, caste and other differences. In this way Pakistan, with its own social and cultural imperatives, has managed to keep its distinctive cultural baggage even in the face of an increasingly open market system.

Decorative models are passive and non-functional and their primary activity is to adorn the product/service as a sexual or attractive stimulus. They are like the least lifelike of roles. ‘She’ is in an artificial world, often obviously so in the way she stands and looks (dummy poses and catalogue expressions). She is on exhibition in competition with others. She is aloof, haughty, and ostensibly sufficient unto herself, while relying on others to reinforce her self-image. Her outdoor image tends to be exotic and her indoor one non-domestic.

The recreational portrayal is of models in a non-working activity of leisure (reading, watching television) or of sports (hiking, jogging, swimming, and boating). The importance of these ads is that women are not shown in passive poses, a pattern portrayal that every study on gender roles has shown to be prevalent. In the past, the Indian woman was seen as someone very sensitive and delicate. Recreational activities mentioned earlier were, therefore, not connected with women but with men.

The independent career woman is the only woman involved in something that does not have to do with social success, home and family, or even her own femininity. She has stability and a substantial nature. She is portrayed infrequently. Women in India are rapidly advancing towards becoming financially independent individuals by seeking higher education and opting for a career rather than remaining housewives for the rest of their lives.

The self-involved female is the woman who is literally wrapped up in herself. She is aware of her femininity and sensuality rather than the presence of any potential lover. She may be portrayed in a ad of romance, perhaps with a man, and is more bound up with dreams of her own than with the actuality of the man. The ubiquitous diamond engagement ring advertisements are almost perfect examples e.g. De Beers. Here, attention is focused on the woman’s feelings about herself where she has a typically soft expression and directs her attention and tactility towards herself. She is alone with herself, involved with her body, thoughts and beauty.

The carefree woman is always a girl or a woman with a girlish look, which gives one a sense of a short spell of deceptive freedom. She is like a fluttering butterfly which has not yet decided where to settle. She is having fun while she’s young. The care freeness or friendliness is social in nature to some extent and outgoing as well.

Yet, the cheeriness are rarely directed towards anyone or anything in particular and are only held in the minds of the actor, for example in the girl’s ads. It must be noted that since the ‘carefree girl’ is very much into herself and looking for some excitement in her life, she is mostly shown on her own and very rarely with a man or a child.

The family or domestic management role is described in ads in which women are shown performing household wife’s character, taking care of children, or supervising home furnishing or maintenance. An example would be in the home environment where the house, its furnishings, its decoration, and the food served in it are marks of a woman’s sophistication, fashion awareness, sense of good taste and status. She is proud of this world which is her creation, but cannot possibly escape from it. A comparative study on gender displays in Pakistani and Indian advertisements by Kaleem showed that over three times as many images of women as domestic managers appeared in ads.

The Illustrated Weekly of Pakistan than in Life. MAG & Fashion had about twice as many domestic management portrayals as Newsweek. More than three times as many images of body display appeared in Life as The Illustrated Weekly of Pakistan. Therefore, one can say that Pakistani advertisements do portray women in their traditional roles till today, although because of the influence of western society, this trend is changing—more and more advertisements portray women as career-oriented and persons who are not just expected to remain in the confines of their homes but are outgoing and enjoy an active social life.

Nudity
There is a related phenomenon that may possess even more long-term significance both for marketing managers and society in general. This trend is towards increasing nudity in advertisements. Nudity, even if not on large scale as currently portrayed, has been common in women’s advertisements for some years. Feature of advertisements for products of the feminine sort and is private, isolated and a source of wonder, pleasure, and satisfaction to the subject. Moreover, the body is considered to be an object to admire or even revere in a quasi-religious way.

The use of sexual appeal is hardly new. What is new is the intensity of such appeal and the increasing number and variety of products being marketed with sexual overtones. Now not only are nude models used to advertise well-known consumer products such as cosmetics, skin equipment, and wearing apparel, but they are also used by industrial companies. No longer is nudity employed solely as a shock device. It is increasingly being used in a more sophisticated sense in a functional communication role.

Sexuality has been linked directly with advertisements because it is usual for young women to compare themselves to models in advertisements — thus, advertisers feel they can be persuaded to buy the product. For women, and to a lesser extent for men, the ‘sexual revolution’ has meant a positive increase in the amount of their sexual freedom. It has also meant an increase in their ‘use’ as sexual objects. The use of dramatic, isolating shadows, mysterious darkness and focus are common techniques of transporting the female into a personal world of self-contemplation.

Urban Pakistan is slowly transforming into a western society. The West, through the various media, is increasingly influencing this sector of the Pakistani economy, especially in terms of its fashion—and nowhere is this trend more prominent than in Pakistani women’s fashion magazines. This shows that even though Pakistan advertisements have Pakistani models with traditional dresses, they are being increasingly replaced with models in western outfits or have other western aspects to them. It is only in the last 20 years that Pakistan has opened up to western culture. With the advent of privatization and the liberalisation of the economy, Pakistan has seen a surge of multinationals attract their consumer market. And the new revolution in advertising is also a true revelation of the changed consumer scenario.

The presence of an increasing number of women’s magazines, as well as advertising in these magazines portraying the different roles of women, clearly reveal the changing perception of women in today’s society. As marketers, unlike before, are investing large sums of money and time, investigating and collecting data solely on women’s psychographics—attitudes, habits, preferences—to meet their needs and wants, it is obvious that women today are no longer remain in their traditions but have transfer western culture to their convenience. This change of traditional culture with western culture not only reflects the metamorphosis of women in society but also reveals the new Pakistani market—a revolutionized consumer marketplace

The repetition of these images may have serious consequences. Naturally, if people come to accept these images as true, then misrepresentation occurs. These stereotypes seem to give us permission to overlook the individuality of people and the particulars of any situation. They can hatred and fear of specific groups of people. They can affect one's own perceptions of his race or sex. They can place impossible demands, such as the beauty stereotypes of women in advertising, on individuals and foster a lack of self-esteem. Stereotypes influence our perceptions of ourselves and others. Stereotypes, repeated often enough, come to be viewed as reality rather than a chosen representation.

Many media activists argue that producers should be called to account, and that images of women should be forced to be more realistic.

Some producers have taken the lead. In the late 1990s, Kellogg released an ad campaign for Special K which used pictures of older and larger women, and copy such as "the Ashantis of Ghana think a woman's body gets more attractive as she ages. Please contact your travel agent for the next available flight." The ads attracted such positive attention that in 1999 they were followed up by a TV campaign.

Self-Image, & Stereotypes

Silently reading an article about the images of women in advertising, one of my 11th-grade female students looked up and snarled: "This media literacy stuff is making me mad.

Many of advertisements and consumers of media. They purchase t-shirts, hats, and backpacks embossed with the ubiquitous Nike swoosh symbol. They sport images of their favorite heavy-metal band and sports team. Typically, they will have accumulated 22,000 hours of television viewing by the time they graduate from high school, which is twice the amount of time they will have spent in school. They will have seen 350,000 television commercials by the age of 17.

We may not admit it, but our students are often more influenced by the popular media outside our classrooms than they are by the novels and textbooks we often must bribe them to read. Thus, media literacy can play a necessary role in helping our students become critically literate and reactive to the powerful influence of television, video games, commercial advertising, popular magazines, and movies.

IMAGES OF WOMEN

How images and ads shape our values. Ads, not only sell products, but sell ideas about romance, sex, success, beauty, and power. Ads, she says, "will have you believe that women in the real world are all white and under 40; that no one is disabled and everyone is heterosexual; that a woman's body is in constant need of improvement; that women need to look young, 'beautiful,' made-up, sprayed up, very thin, and perfectly groomed."

Sadly, these images are part of a culture in which one out of five women has a serious eating disorder such as anorexia; where adolescent girls increasingly have problems with low self-esteem; and where Blacks, especially women, have historically had serious problems and prejudices concerning the lightness and darkness of their skin.

Especially the young women, presented the magazine ads, they talked of how no one they knew could possibly acquire the physical appearance of the models. And they began to articulate how women, and even men, are sexualized in the ads in order to sell products.

The pressure put on women through ads, television, film and new media to be sexually attractive—and sexually active—is profound. The National Eating Disorders Association reports that one out of four TV commercials send some kind of "attractiveness message," telling viewers what is and is not attractive. Children Now reports that 38 per cent of the female characters in video games are scantily clad, 23 per cent baring breasts or cleavage, 31 per cent exposing thighs, another 31 per cent exposing stomachs or midriffs, and 15 per cent baring their behinds.

Provocative images of women's partly clothed or naked bodies are especially prevalent in advertising. Women become sexual objects when their bodies and their sexuality are linked to products that are bought and sold.

She notes that women’s bodies are often dismembered into legs, breasts or thighs, reinforcing the message that women are objects rather than whole human beings.

Although women’s sexuality is no longer a subject, many researchers question whether or not the blatant sexualization of women’s bodies in the media is liberating. Those "lies" continue to perpetuate the idea that women’s sexuality is subservient to men’s pleasure, for example, found that both men and women’s magazines contain a single vision of female sexuality—that "women should primarily concern themselves with attracting and sexually satisfying men."

The presence of misinformation and media stereotypes is disturbing, given research that indicates young people often turn to media for information about sex and sexuality. In 2003, Sara reported that two-thirds of young people turn to media when they want to learn about sex - the same percentage of kids who ask their mothers for information and advice.

Many researchers argue that the over-representation of thin women in mass media reinforces the conclusion that "physically attractive" and "sexually desirable" mean "thin." The fascination with finding out what men really want also tends to keep female characters in film and television busy. Female characters, on the other hand, are more likely to be seen dating, or talking about romance.

Besides acknowledging the fact that television media often offers negative stereotypical portrayals of individuals belonging to certain racial and/or ethnic groups such as African-Americans and homosexuals, social psychology goes further by examining the direct implications of these mostly negative images. One of these implications is the notion of stereotype threat, the risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s group as self characteristic. As an individual is constantly exposed to negative images of his/her racial or ethnic group, this person begins to internalize the same social and personal characteristics of these images.

Numerous psychological effects of stereotype threat in areas such as standardized tests, and athletic performance. For example, the commonly held assumption that women are less skilled in mathematics than men has been shown to affect the performance of women on standardized math tests. When female participants were primed beforehand of this negative stereotype, scores were significantly lower than if the women were led to believe the tests did not reflect these stereotypes.

Going hand in hand with the idea of stereotype threat, the negative television portrayals have a direct correlation with the effects of the self-fulfilling. Although not in the realm of primetime television, channels such as MTV offer blatantly stereotypical images of African-Americans and women that greatly affect the young viewers who, in turn take these images to heart. Videos lead young black males to internalize a positive image of Black culture that emphasizes the degradation of women as objects, the lurid appeal of money, and material possessions, as well as the endorsement of alcohol and drug use. With constant exposure to these images, it is no surprise that we have seen many instances of young black men attempting to emulate these images through overt behaviors such as drug use, domestic violence, and criminal activity.

In terms of primetime television, an issue that has been in the news recently is how many women are seen on television represented by unrealistically thin images of many prominent actresses in Hollywood. While television images provide only one aspect of our culture that leads women to desire these traits, it deserves the most attention because of how pervasive television has become in American society. The negative impact of these media trends is seen in the many women who suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia in hopes of reaching a slim figure.

Stereotype-Breaking Actions

Stereotype breaking actions are actions that one party can take to prove to their opponents that they are better in character than the opponent assumes. For example, one party may visit the opponent personally, and be more reasonable, friendlier, more agreeable, or more helpful than the opponent expected. When this happens, they are likely to revise their enemy image at least a little bit, concluding that some members of the opposition are reasonable people, or even that the opponents, in general, are more reasonable than they thought they were.

This effectively broke down many people's stereotypes of Pakistani’s as hostile, cold, and aggressive, and replaced those images with an image much more friendly and open.

In addition to making trips to the opposing country or group, other stereotype breaking actions are possible as well. One must simply determine what the other side thinks of you or expects of you, and then do the opposite. If you are expected to be closed to new ideas, express and interest in listening to new approaches to the problem. If you are expected to be selfish and aggressive, take a nonassertive stance and make a small concession that demonstrates good will and a willingness to cooperate with the other side. The goal is simply to contradict the negative images that people usually have of their opponents, and begin to replace these negative images with more positive ones

Political advertising can support and assist the working of the democratic process, but it also can obstruct it. This happens when, for example, the costs of advertising limit political competition to wealthy candidates or groups, or require that office-seekers compromise their integrity and independence by over-dependence on special interests for funds. Such obstruction of the democratic process also happens when, instead of being a vehicle for honest expositions of candidates' views and records, political advertising seeks to distort the views and records of opponents and unjustly attacks their reputations. It happens when advertising appeals more to people's emotions and base instincts-to selfishness, bias and hostility toward others, to racial and ethnic prejudice and the like- rather than to a reasoned sense of justice and the good of all

There is nothing intrinsically good or intrinsically evil about advertising. It is a tool, an instrument: it can be used well, and it can be used badly. If it can have, and sometimes does have, beneficial results such as those just described, it also can, and often does, have a negative, harmful impact on individuals and society.

Communio Progressio contains this summary statement of the problem: "If harmful or utterly useless goods are touted to the public, if false assertions are made about goods for sale, if less than admirable human tendencies are exploited, those responsible for such advertising harm society and forfeit their good name and credibility. More than this, unremitting pressure to buy articles of luxury can arouse false wants that hurt both individuals and families by making them ignore what they really need. And those forms of advertising which, without shame, exploit the sexual instincts simply to make money or which seek to penetrate into the subconscious recesses of the mind in a way that threatens the freedom of the individual ... must be shunned."

Advertising can betray its role as a source of information by misrepresentation and by withholding relevant facts. Sometimes, too, the information function of media can be subverted by advertisers' pressure upon publications or programs not to treat of questions that might prove embarrassing or inconvenient.

More often, though, advertising is used not simply to inform but to persuade and motivate — to convince people to act in certain ways: buy certain products or services, patronize certain institutions, and the like. This is where particular abuses can occur.

The practice of "brand"-related advertising can raise serious problems. Often there are only negligible differences among similar products of different brands, and advertising may attempt to move people to act on the basis of irrational motives ("brand loyalty," status, fashion, "sex appeal," etc.) instead of presenting differences in product quality and price as bases for rational choice.

Advertising also can be, and often is, a tool of the "phenomenon of consumerism," as Pope John Paul II delineated it when he said: "It is not wrong to want to live better; what is wrong is a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed toward? having’ rather than ?being', and which wants to have more, not in order to be more but in order to spend life in enjoyment as an end in itself."

Sometimes advertisers speak of it as part of their task to "create" needs for products and services — that is, to cause people to feel and act upon cravings for items and services they do not need. "If ... a direct appeal is made to his instincts — while ignoring in various ways the reality of the person as intelligent and free — then consumer attitudes and life-styles can be created which are objectively improper and often damaging to his physical and spiritual health."

This is a serious abuse, an affront to human dignity and the common good when it occurs in affluent societies. But the abuse is still more grave when consumerist attitudes and values are transmitted by communications media and advertising to developing countries, where they exacerbate socio-economic problems and harm the poor. "It is true that a judicious use of advertising can stimulate developing countries to improve their standard of living.

But serious harm can be done them if advertising and commercial pressure become so irresponsible that communities seeking to rise from poverty to a reasonable standard of living are persuaded to seek this progress by satisfying wants that have been artificially created. The result of this is that they waste their resources and neglect their real needs, and genuine development falls behind."

Similarly, the task of countries attempting to develop types of market economies that serve human needs and interests after decades under centralized, state-controlled systems is made more difficult by advertising that promotes consumerist attitudes and values offensive to human dignity and the common good. The problem is particularly acute when, as often happens, the dignity and welfare of society's poorer and weaker members are at stake. It is necessary always to bear in mind that there are "goods which by their very nature cannot and must not be bought or sold" and to avoid "an? Idolatry’ of the market" that aided and abetted by advertising, ignores this crucial fact.

Such obstruction of the democratic process also happens when, instead of being a vehicle for honest expositions of candidates' views and records, political advertising seeks to distort the views and records of opponents and unjustly attacks their reputations. It happens when advertising appeals more to people's emotions and base instincts — to selfishness, bias and hostility toward others, to racial and ethnic prejudice and the like — rather than to a reasoned sense of justice and the good of all.

Advertising also can have a corrupting influence upon culture and cultural values. We have spoken of the economic harm that can be done to developing nations by advertising that fosters consumerism and destructive patterns of consumption.

Consider also the cultural injury done to these nations and their peoples by advertising whose content and methods, reflecting those prevalent in the first world, are at war with sound traditional values in indigenous cultures. Today this kind of "domination and manipulation" via media rightly is "a concern of developing nations in relation to developed ones," as well as a "concern of minorities within particular nations."

The indirect but powerful influence exerted by advertising upon the media of social communications that depend on revenues from this source points to another sort of cultural concern. In the competition to attract ever larger audiences and deliver them to advertisers, communicators can find themselves tempted — in fact pressured, subtly or not so subtly — to set aside high artistic and moral standards and lapse into superficiality, tawdriness and moral squalor.

Communicators also can find themselves tempted to ignore the educational and social needs of certain segments of the audience — the very young, the very old, the poor — who do not match the demographic patterns (age, education, income, habits of buying and consuming, etc.) of the kinds of audiences advertisers want to reach. In this way the tone and indeed the level of moral responsibility of the communications media in general are lowered.

All too often, advertising contributes to the invidious stereotyping of particular groups that places them at a disadvantage in relation to others. This often is true of the way advertising treats women; and the exploitation of women, both in and by advertising, is a frequent, deplorable abuse.

"How often are they treated not as persons with an inviolable dignity but as objects whose purpose is to satisfy others' appetite for pleasure or for power? How often the role of woman as wife and mother is undervalued or even ridiculed? How often is the role of women in business or professional life depicted as a masculine caricature, a denial of the specific gifts of feminine insight, compassion, and understanding, which so greatly contribute to the ?civilization of love'? Many studies suggest media can have negative effects...

Prejudice and stereotyping are apparent everywhere in today's society. People are stereotyped and discriminated against whether it is when trying to find a job or being picked for a sports team. Most of the time there is no reason for this prejudice. However, there is more prejudice in sports than most activities.

Throughout my life I have seen a lot of stereotyping and prejudice in sports. When my friends and I had to pick teams for basketball games everyone was immediately stereotyped. No one ever wanted to be a captain because they would have to choose teams. If you were tall or played for the varsity team you were always picked right away. On the other hand, if you were short or not very athletic you were either picked last or not picked at all. I was fortunate, for me things were never that bad. Since I was tall and played on our high school's team I was usually one of the first picked. As for the kids who were less fortunate it must have been an embarrassment to be picked last or not picked at all. The looks on their faces explained exactly how they felt. They always looked hurt and disappointed; this made me understand exactly how bad it feels to be stereotyped.
Why is there so much stereotyping in sports?

In sports today there is something called gender logic. Gender logic usually works to the advantage of men, and to the disadvantage of women. In sport in America there are many different perspectives and ideas about gender, about masculinity and femininity. That is why when people play sports today after all the cultural brain washing they come to the conclusion that women were naturally inferior to men in any activity requiring strength, physical skills, and emotional control. We all now that this is not necessarily true because there are many sports that woman can compete equally with men in.

What has basically come out of all this gender stereotyping in sports is that if someone does not throw a ball well it is said that they throw like a girl for example. That goes for every other sport because if something is done right your doing in like a man and if something goes wrong everyone is doing the activity like a bunch of girls. Today we are ever so slowly falling out of this gender stereotyping in sports.

Another place where stereotyping and prejudice come into play is in the work force. It is sad that a deciding factor in getting a job has to do with your looks, race, and gender. I remember one of my close friends telling me a story about how he was discriminated against when looking for a job. My friend, who is of a white background, saw a now hiring sign outside of Mini Mart and decided to go in and apply for a job. When he walked in he asked for an application, the manager of the story who was of an Indian background told him there was no more position available, so my friend left. Only a few days later another friend of mine who is of an Indian background went into the store to apply for the job. The manager of the store told him that he did not need to fill out an application and that they would hire him on the spot. I was very disappointed when I found this out. I feel that it is ridiculous that a kid who has been a customer in that store many times was denied a job imply because of his race. In conclusion, stereotyping and discrimination have become a part of everyday life. People are discriminated against because of their physical attributes, their race, and their gender.

Advertising can be tasteful and in conformity with high moral standards, and occasionally even morally uplifting, but it also can be vulgar and morally degrading. Frequently it deliberately appeals to such motives as envy, status seeking and lust. Today, too, some advertisers consciously seek to shock and titillate by exploiting content of a morbid, perverse, pornographic nature.

What this Pontifical Council said several years ago about pornography and violence in the media is no less true of certain forms of advertising:

"As reflections of the dark side of human nature marred by sin, pornography and the exaltation of violence are age-old realities of the human condition. In the past quarter century, however, they have taken on new dimensions and have become serious social problems. At a time of widespread and unfortunate confusion about moral norms, the communications media have made pornography and violence accessible to a vastly expanded audience, including young people and even children, and a problem which at one time was confined mainly to wealthy countries has now begun, via the communications media, to corrupt moral values in developing nations."

We note, too, certain special problems relating to advertising that treats of religion or pertains to specific issues with a moral dimension.

In cases of the first sort, commercial advertisers sometimes include religious themes or use religious images or personages to sell products. It is possible to do this in tasteful, acceptable ways, but the practice is obnoxious and offensive when it involves exploiting religion or treating it flippantly.

In cases of the second sort, advertising sometimes is used to promote products and inculcate attitudes and forms of behavior contrary to moral norms. That is the case, for instance, with the advertising of contraceptives, abortifacients and products harmful to health, and with government-sponsored advertising campaigns for artificial birth control, so-called "safe sex", and similar practices.

Advertising intended to mislead consumers by making claims that are false or failing to make full disclosure of important facts or both. The current FTC policy on deception contains three basic elements:

· Misleading: Where there is representation, omission, or practice, there must be a high probability that it will mislead the consumer.

· Reasonableness: The perspective of the reasonable consumer is used to judge deception. The FTC tests reasonableness by looking at whether the consumer’s interpretation or reaction to an advertisement is reasonable.

Injurious: The deception must lead to material injury. In other words, the deception must influence consumer’s decision making about products and services

Although certain ads might be in bad taste in any circumstance, viewer reactions are affected by factors such as sensitivity to the product category, the time the message is received, and whether the person is alone or with others when viewing the message.

We all have our own ideas about what constitutes good taste. Unfortunately, these ideas vary so much that creating general guidelines for good taste in advertising is difficult.

Sales representations, which praise the item to be sold with subjective opinions, superlatives, or exaggerations, vaguely and generally, stating no specific facts Puffery, an exaggerated claim, is not seen as misleading.

Because exaggerated claims are legal, the question of puffery is mainly an ethical one. However, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of puffery is mixed.

Set of laws that governs sales and other commercial matters, distinguishes between mere Puffing and statements about a products performance or qualities that create an Express warranty’s Under the UCC, a general statement praising the value of a product does not create an express warranty. More concrete representations might.

One way to for an advertiser to make ethical decisions is to choose the route that does no one harm. Marketers are now being forced to consider the social, as well as nutritional, impact of their products. It used to be that consumers were considered responsible for the products they chose to buy, but in a new era of social responsibility, principled marketers are now more responsible for the negative effects of the products they choose to sell. Responsibility has become a new business principle in some industries that never thought they were the focus of ethical questions.

One of the most heated advertising issues in recent years has been proposed new restrictions on the advertising of tobacco. Proponents of the ban on cigarette advertising argue that because cigarettes have been shown to cause cancer as well as other illnesses, encouraging tobacco use promotes sickness, injury, or death for the smoker and those inhaling second-hand smoke. The restriction of advertising on those products would result in fewer sales and fewer health problems for America as a whole.

In recognition of the growing public concerns about cigarette marketing, tobacco companies have voluntarily curbed their advertising and pulled ads from magazines with high levels of youth readership and from most outdoor billboards.

Opponents of advertising bans counter with the argument that prohibiting truthful, no deceptive advertising for a legal product is unconstitutional and cite statistics demonstrating that similar bans in other countries have proved unsuccessful in reducing tobacco sales.

Marketing, in contemporary times, has seen a tumultuous change in the way it’s conducted in developing countries. The oft cited dictum that only change is constant in the marketing genre is an apposite one. Just as the media of social communication themselves have enormous influence everywhere, so advertising and marketing, using media as their vehicles, are pervasive, powerful forces shaping attitudes and behavior in today's world.

Four reasons are attributed to the fugacious nature of the way marketing practices are being carried out in developing countries.

The role of Information and Communication technologies: As ICTs evolve so do marketing practices. If yesterday it was television that revolutionized the way advertisements could create a lasting impact on the consumer, then today the internet and phone text messages are doing just that.

The world today is an increasingly global village: Social and ethnic boundaries are fast falling in the wake of cable television and the like.

Rapid economic expansions in countries like China and India have meant that marketers have to quickly respond to the changing socio-economic scenarios. Millions of people have entered the middle class and millions more are poised to do so. For marketers, the consequences can be mind boggling-as incomes and spending powers rise, marketers have to respond to increasing demands from consumers.

Better and improved marketing research has meant that the entire populace is not seen in totality but rather as a congeries of different types of consumers.

But the outcome of such developments is that a number of ethical issues have arisen. While the globe is indeed becoming a smaller place, marketers have to bear in mind national, local and cultural sensitivities. Very often, in the hope of tapping a larger consumer base, marketers jump headlong in new markets without keeping in mind ethnic and social issues typical to certain areas.

While marketers do have to act with celerity in gaining footholds in emerging markets such as China and India, care has to be taken in ensuring that the mores, etiquettes of the land are not encroached upon. The incorporation of newer technologies has meant that a number of issues such as invasion of privacy and credibility have arisen. Engro, in these rapidly changing circumstances, marketers and consumers alike face a nimiety of ethical issues that have to be addressed. This paper looks at some of the ethical issues in the developing countries context.

In the hopes of making a fast buck, marketers often resort to exploiting social paradigms typical to certain areas. In India, for example, a large multinational corporation ran an ad campaign that depicted a young woman who because of her dark facial complexion was unable to find jobs. But as the ad showed, as soon as the woman started using the facial whiteness cream manufactured by the corporation, she got the job of her choice. Needless to say, there was a big backlash against it and the ad campaign had to be scrapped.

On an ethical standpoint, marketers have to exercise restraint in exploiting such social paradigms to their commercial advantage.

In India alcohol and cigarette advertisements were banned outright some years back. However, alcohol and cigarette companies alike are using the avenue of surrogate advertisements to press forward their case. For the viewer though, the ‘subtle’ pointer towards the real deal is enough as the surrogate advertisements leave no ambiguity in their minds.

One of the most controversial and ethical issues in advertising is regarding subliminal advertisements. Inserting subliminal messages in an advertisement is an inherently misleading action. It is an attempt to manipulate a person’s thinking without the person realizing that any such manipulation is occurring. The west has had its fair share of subliminal advertisements related hullabaloos primarily because the advertisement, marketing and regulating media themselves have been quite active in raising such issues.

During the US Presidential elections of 2000, it came to light that a political advertisement for George W. Bush subliminally flashed the word ‘RATS’ when criticizing Al Gore’s prescription medicine plan. While the ad maker denied that the quickly flashed word was a subliminal message designed to surreptitiously sling mud at Gore, many others, however, concluded that ‘RATS’ was indeed inserted with the intention of secretly causing viewers’ to associate vermin with Al Gore. In line with the techniques of subliminal messaging, the questionable word appeared on the screen for only a microsecond (1/30th of a second), passing by so fast that it was almost unrecognizable to the conscious mind-especially when passively lulled by television. According to the theory of subliminal advertising the image would, indeed, register in a viewer’s subconscious mind, thereby causing the viewer to negatively associate Al Gore with a rodent.

The effects of subliminal advertisements are real and financially significant. Each year, consumers spend roughly Rs50 million for self-help tapes embedded with subliminal messages that are supposed to teach a person a foreign language while they sleep, or help them lose weight, or quit smoking. Additionally, some stores embed subliminal messages in their background music in an effort to discourage shoplifting. Time magazine reported in 1979 that messages such as ‘I am an honest person’ and ‘Stealing is dishonest’ were being utilized in over fifty department stores. One department store utilizing the hidden messages reported a savings of $US600, 000 by reducing theft 37 percent during a nine month period.

So, if subliminal messages evidently work in self-help tapes and embedded in department store music, it certainly seams reasonable that they would also work and perhaps even work better in a visual medium such as television.

In developing countries the regulating watchdogs and related establishments are still in stages of latency so that the possibility that viewers who would be subject to such measures would probably never ever know that they were the focus of such procedures.

In the words of Pope John, advertising also can be, and often is, a tool of the phenomenon of consumerism. Sometimes advertisers speak of it as part of their task to ‘create’ needs for products and services - that is, to cause people to feel and act upon desires for items and services they would ordinarily not need.

A piquant issue arises when consumerist attitudes and values are transmitted by communications media and advertising to developing countries, where they exacerbate socio-economic problems and harm the poor. While a judicious use of advertising can stimulate developing countries to improve their standard of living, serious harm can be done to them if advertising and commercial pressure become so irresponsible that communities seeking to rise from poverty to a reasonable standard of living are persuaded to seek this progress by satisfying wants that have been artificially created.

The result of this is that they waste their resources and neglect their real needs, and genuine development falls behind.

Then there is the issue of false and downright disingenuous advertisements. While in itself this is an important ethical issue, an extension of this is the question of credibility.

Nowadays, newspaper columns are rife with advertisements which blatantly compare features of brands with those of their competitors. Citing the opinion of ‘experts’, these advertisements claim their brands to be quantitatively and qualitatively better than those of their rivals. In India a leading car manufacturer had to recall its ad campaign when it incorrectly stated that one of its car models was superior to that of its competitor’s.

All too often, marketing contributes to the invidious stereotyping of particular groups that places them at a disadvantage in relation to others.

Women and children unfortunately end up being cast as stereotypes in ad campaigns the world over. Often, the role of women in business or professional life is depicted as a masculine caricature, a denial of the specific gifts of feminine insight, compassion, and understanding.

In India, which has traditionally been a patriarchal society, tremendous cultural changes have been brought in with the advent of cable television and the exposure to western content. Urban women are enjoying more freedom than they’ve had before. Yet, promotional campaigns of certain firms still show the Indian woman of yore-a fallback to a time when women did not enjoy the freedoms they have today.

The first interesting finding was the extent to which the term advertising encompassed for consumers every piece of brand, product or service communication. It obviously included the key media of television, posters (surprisingly high in a strong second place), press, cinema and radio. It also included other aspects of ‘selling’ such as Direct Mail, door drops, the Internet, branding in store, branded clothing, sponsorship, commercial text messages and even telephone sales. Advertising is simply everything that has a name on it.

Woman sitting at home is not a problem if its the choice SHE makes and it is not forced down her throat. Ddon’t you think this applies to men too? Let me ask you a question now. Honestly would you marry a person who would like to sit at home? Would you give a man that choice? Why is this choice given only to women then?

Again i am not contesting that women should not stay at home, but what i am stating is that many a times we are so immersed into thinking about “freedom for women” that we forget that we are rubbing the basic tenets of nature. Women are the only ones who can give life and nurture it, men will never be able to do that, but in our hurry to prove that men and women are equal we often tend to forget a lot of things nature gave us inherently. I will not explain this point further because I know it isn’t going to be taken well, but I can only say that men and women are different, they were made to be that way. Both have common qualities, and both have specific qualities, that are what makes them different. The sooner we understand this, the faster we’ll be able to appreciate a lot of things about men and women.

For decades women have been portrayed as housewives, dependent on men & sex objects in advertisements. However from past one decade, representation of women in advertisements has been experiencing a shift from the house wife centric ads to the career women ads.

Women are also portrayed in ads as unthinking beings preoccupied with trivial matters. The ads for “Ansal Plaza” & “Grooms In” as shown above, portray them as shallow, and have mundane thoughts such as shopping and good clothes. The tag line in print ad 3 (above) illustrates“ Her husband has an extramarital affair and she knows it”, so as to say that she is not worried or bothered about her marriage as much as she is about her shopping in the mall. In print ad, two brides are ‘willing’ to marry the groom, for he is wearing the salwar suits manufactured by their brand.

The typical portrayal of the housewife, as dependent on her husband is still prevalent in ads. The “ICICI” Insurance a urges a man “to give his shoulders the satisfaction of protecting” his wife. The wife in the ad is shown resting her head on her husbands shoulder so as to represent her dependence on him. The woman is shown as someone rather “incapable of looking after herself and requires a husband to do so”

In order to understand how the public views advertising and the role it plays in their lives it is important to explore exactly what is included by consumers in the term advertising.

Not surprisingly the obvious media immediately emerge as part of advertising. Television, Billboards (the term most commonly used), Magazines and Newspapers are all mentioned very quickly. Radio and Cinema are also included but require a little more probing. Not all respondents listen to commercial radio or go to the cinema and so are less likely to have these media top of mind. Transport advertising, usually referred to as tube or bus advertising, is as readily mentioned as radio or cinema particularly in the South where the dominance of the London transport network is apparent.

What is perhaps more surprising is how quickly respondents included the other ‘below the line’ media in their concept of advertising. So there was very frequent mention of Direct Mail, door drops, sponsorship, the Internet, commercial text messages and advertising in supermarkets. Advertising was also seen to include telephone sales, heavily product branded magazine features, brand names on fashion items, brand mentions in distribution outlets and branded carrier bags. In other words advertising is ‘anything that has a name on it’.

“It’s just in everything, newspapers and magazines and it’s on television, you know you go in the high street and it’s in the shop windows…it’s on everything you do without realizing it” Female

The all embracing concept of advertising was a widely held one although the older respondents (anyone over the age of 25) felt this was very much a new phenomenon, whereas the younger respondents felt they had grown up with advertising being all pervasive.

The all-embracing nature of advertising means that all respondents believe it is absolutely part of everyday life. As such it is as much part of the environment as the traffic and the trees. It is simply everywhere.

“It’s all round advertising, you are completely blitzed by advertising, it doesn’t matter what you do, you tend to find a big advert” Male 20-24