Gender Advertisements in the Korean Context

Gender Advertisements in the Korean Context – James Turnbull, July 9 2011

How do we normally look at ads?

In isolation
Common reactions: “That’s just a coincidence”; “You’re reading too much into it”; “So what? It’s just one ad”
With no input from ad’s creative team
Difficult to form any definite conclusions

What are the advantages of using Gender Advertisements instead?
It identifies common visual features of ads, and gives the reasons for them
We can do surveys of ads looking for the presence or absence of these features (this is known as “content analysis”)

If one sex or race is shown differently in numerous ads, then that can’t just be by chance
Examining visual images is important because most people look at ads in the order of:
the illustration
the headline
the text

Unlike most types of content analysis, Gender Advertisements is not language-dependent, making cross-cultural and historical comparisons possible

Feature 1: Relative Size
Person is larger, taller, darker, elevated above another person; person is heavier or in the foreground
In real life, the woman will be taller than the man in 1 in 6 random pairs
In advertisements, the ratio is usually closer to 1 in 200

If their relative size is not important…

Why are they the same size here?
What different feelings and impressions do the 2 ads give you?

I wager you noticed the models’ faces first, yes?
This ad shows how easy to convey a sense of equality when using models of different heights.
So why don’t we see this more often?

Feature 2: Feminine Touch
Person’s hands or fingers are used to caress, touch, or trace the outline of an object. Person’s face is used instead of hand to touch objects or other people. Person touches her/himself
“Self-touching [is] readable as conveying a sense of one’s body being a delicate and precious thing”

This is most often seen in cosmetics ads

Cosmetics are sold to men too, but men are rarely shown touching themselves

But the feminine touch is not only used in cosmetics advertisements

Have you ever held a soju glass like this?
“Women, more than men, are pictured using their fingers and hands to trace the outlines of an object or to cradle it or to caress its surface…this ritualistic touching is to be distinguished from the utilitarian kind that grasps, manipulates, or holds”

This is my favorite soju ad. Try to guess why!

Feature 3: Function Ranking
Person is instructor to person of other sex
Person is being served by person of other sex
Person is in superior occupational role to person of other sex
But this feature is increasingly uncommon, because a) the sexism was very explicit, and b) fewer and fewer ads show couples and groups these days

When men perform housework or childcare, it is often depicted as a special occasion and/or humorously.
(This reinforces the idea that it is not normal for men to do such work)

도우미 (Doumi – “Assistants”)

나레이터 머델 – “Narrator Models”

The men say: “생각, 생각, 생각, 생각”- “Think, think, think, think”

The women say: “어떡하면, 원하는걸, 다 이뤄줄수 있으까?” – “How shall [the card] achieve everything [the customer] wishes?”

Both(?) say: “손잡고 힘을 모아 다 함께 생각 생각” - “Let’s cooperate [with the customer] and collect our energy together and think about all that”

But although the women appear to sing along, actually we only hear the men’s voices!

Male voiceover: “카드의 길을 생각하다” – “What is a card’s purpose? Let’s think about that”

Meanwhile…
There are no female CEOs in the Korean finance industry
There are only 2 women out of a total of 220 team managers in the Financial Supervisory Service (and no executives)
There are no women with either position in the Bank of Korea
Source – “Males Dominate Top Posts in Finance Sector”, Korea Times20 September 2009

Feature 4: Ritualization of Subordination
Person shown in positions of deference: bowing, lowering oneself
Person shown on floor or on bed
Person of one sex elevated above person of other sex
(Problem: This has many similarities to Relative Size)

Here, the difference in status is obvious. But why do men also usually tower over women in ads?
Why do they stand when women sit?
Why do they sit in a chair when women lie on the floor?

But even without men, women are still more likely to be shown on beds, sofas, & floors

But we should acknowledge the role of biology here (i.e. women look good lying on beds)
And that some poses are more often seen on women because, to heterosexuals, they only look sexually attractive on women…

Ritualization of Subordination (continued)
Person is held possessively (around shoulder or hand held)
Person in ‘bashful knee’ bend or leaning on someone
Person in canting posture where head or body is tipped lower
Person is smiling excessively
Person is dressed, posed, and/or acting like a child

I think I speak for ALL heterosexual men when I say this “bashful knee bend” is not particularly attractive…

So why do we see it so often on female models?

Modeling must be a pain in the neck!

Women often pose like children in ads.

Why do we consider this normal?

But not this?

Feature 5: Licensed Withdrawal
Person covers mouth or face with hands
Turns gaze from other(s)
Looks to middle-distance
Dreamily talking on phone
Emotional displays
Snuggling or nuzzling others
Being supported or shielded by others

Unusually, the man is sitting and the woman is standing.
But she is not really paying attention.
She has “withdrawn” from the scene.

In isolation, a perfectly normal and unobjectionable soju ad. But…

…what on Earth is she looking at???

The men are like shields for the women.

New Features (often combined)
Body Display: Person wears revealing, short, or tight clothes and/or is shown semi-nude
Independence/Self-assurance: Overall, the person appears independent and/or self assured
poker-faced
straight and confident gaze
space occupying posture

Soju ads are a great example of this trend. In just a few years, changing from this…

…to this!

But of course men are increasingly shown nude and/or objectified too

And the change has been especially dramatic with Korean men…

But when it comes to body display, be aware of cultural differences!

G.NA’s relative lack of self-objectification (of her breasts) may be a good demonstration of this

And is increasing body display genuinely liberating for women? Does it mean that Korea is becoming a more sexually-liberated society?

In 2008, did 16 year-old So-hee pose like this because she genuinely wanted to?

A 2010 MOGEF (여성가족부) survey found 60% of female teenage entertainers were sometimes forced by managers to wear revealing clothes and adopt sexual poses in music videos, dances, and/or ads

Contrast the women in the last few pictures with this one. Which one appears the most sexually-empowered and assertive?

And nudity, sexual poses, and/or tight clothing are not demeaning in themselves

Note the relative lack of Korean women with confident gazes

And Western (especially Caucasian) men are also usually presented as more confident, assertive, and/or semi-nude than Korean men

Applying Gender Advertisements to Korean Ads: Things to Consider
Their unbelievably rapid change
Occidentalism, lingerie modeling, andsexual stereotypes about Westerners (especially Caucasians)
Exceptionally tolerant attitudes towards photoshopping
That celebrities are exceptionally important in Korean advertising

That aegyo (애교) and cuteness are very important in Korean popular culture

That the social status of the models often outweighs all other considerations in ads
That sexual innuendo is (was?) surprisingly common

“This 2009 coffee commercial featured a kissing scene for the first time in the history of Korean advertising and inspired many copycats among advertisers. But also some young couples in the streets of Seoul, thus effectively shattering a taboo for expressing affection in public.”

Previous studies of ads in Korean women’s magazines have found that 30% to over 50% of female models are Caucasians. Why so many?
(Only 1.9% of US ads have Asian female models)

Answer: Most are lingerie models

Lingerie modeling has a stigma for Korean female models

But not all female Caucasian models in Korean ads are lingerie models.

Many Korean men are shown romantically involved with Western women these days

But not always positively…

In contrast, there has been only one ad featuring a Korean woman interested in a Western man

Also, sexually-explicit (야한) advertisements disproportionately feature Caucasians

This has many negative consequences

With many caveats(!), these include:
Many Caucasian women reporting being groped and/or sexually-harassed because of their ethnicity
Some Korean men having unrealistic expectations of Caucasian women’s promiscuity
Sexual stereotypes of Caucasian men feeding into and helping sustain negative media images of male English teachers

Big double-standards for Western and Korean celebrities and models (especially women)
That if too many confident and/or sexually-assertive models are Western, then young Koreans may feel that their examples don’t apply to them

Amore Pacific thinks women should have “X-lines”

Neglecting to mention that they don’t exist outside of Photoshop

Photoshopping video is also increasingly cheap and simple to do

Q) What’s one big difference between advertising in Korea and the UK?
A) “Celebrity endorsement – a huge proportion of Korean ads [70-75%] depend on famous people. Of course, it’s not uncommon in the West for stars to endorse a product, but generally the ad has a core idea and makes use of the celebrity endorsement to enhance the original concept. Not so in Korea…(cont.)

…In its crudest form, Korean advertising de-generates to beautiful people holding a bottle. This is one of the things holding back the reputation of Korean advertising worldwide”
- Bruce Haines, first foreign head of Cheil Worldwide (제일기획), Korea’s largest advertising agency

The women are objectified in this CF, the men are not. But SNSD always wear hot pants, so does that make it okay?

As noted, Korean men are increasingly shown semi-nude and/or with confident and assertive poses. But…

…they are more likely than Western men to be shown behaving cutely and childishly

In fact, Korean men are much more likely than Western men to be shown doing all the ‘negative’ things discussed today (but still much less so than Korean women)

What does “Let’s go to Hong Kong!” mean?^^

Final Thoughts

Everybody in modern, capitalist societies comes across 500-1000 advertising messages a day. These undoubtedly have an effect on all of us.

Advertising helps socialize us into thinking that some roles, poses, behaviors, and/or occupations are more “naturally” suited to one race or sex than the other.

Next time you see differences in the way men and women or different races are portrayed in ads, please think about why!

And for much more information about everything mentioned today, please visit my blog at http://thegrandnarrative.com/

Gender Advertisements in the Korean Context

by James_Turnbull on Jul 08, 2011

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Gender Advertisements in the Korean Context — Presentation Transcript