This document summarizes an independent study comparing the portrayal of women in advertisements in the United States and Australia. The study found both similarities and differences between the two countries. Similarities included women dominating fashion advertisements and using body positioning and facial expressions to attract consumers. Differences included the United States using more sexualized and objectified images of women to sell products, while Australian ads took a more modest approach and were less likely to photoshop models. The study provides insights into changing cultural attitudes regarding gender roles and sexuality in advertising.

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Independent Study Paper
The topic of women being portrayed in advertisements, whether that be on billboards,
magazines, or television, has been around for decades and can even date back to war propaganda.
The role of women has drastically changed as more and more people are becoming fascinated
with sex and the human body. A simple advertisement for cleaning supplies could now feature a
woman in her mid thirties showing off a little too much cleavage for a simple window wash.
Women are becoming more objectified and seen as a sex symbol rather than a warming house
wife or dependable mother. The topic of my independent study is to capture the essence of
women in advertising among two different countries; The United States of America and
Australia. After looking at and studying publicly placed clothing advertisements of women in the
city of Chicago and popular women’s magazines such as Cosmopolitan for the United States and
Sydney and Port Douglas as cities in Australia, I was easily able to compare and contrast the
visual representation of women in particularly high-end fashion advertisements as well as
conduct a communication question of how sexually objectifying women communicates to
consumers in order to sell products.
This independent study was going to cover the bases of The United States, Australia, and
New Zealand. However, New Zealand was quite scarce in the finding of advertisements of any
kind let alone those featuring women. I was quite surprised by this as I was hoping to get most of
my research from New Zealand as I would be spending a majority of my time there. Thinking
about the country I come from and how many advertisements are run through my brain within
just an hour is uncanny, then traveling to a country where they might be a billboard talking about
sheep was strange. Needless to say I was not able to gather even one picture from New Zealand
and I was left to study solely in the country of Australia. I was able to gather a solid amount of

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research in two of the three cities I had visited; Sydney and Port Douglas. Almost every billboard
or poster I had seen while walking the streets of women was of the clothing industry with one
hair care product being the exception. After returning home and sitting down to examine the
pictures I had taken while studying abroad, I had noticed both surprising and subtle differences
and even similarities between the two countries. I have also posed the communication question
of; how does sexually objectifying women in advertisements communicate to consumers? With
my own observations and three different scholarly research articles adding to my study, I will
show the similarities and differences among the United States and Australia as well as address
and answer my communication question.
The first section of my study that I will address is the similarities found among
advertisements featuring women in the United States and Australia. Comparing “sexy” women’s
fashion advertisements between those I had found on the streets of Sydney, Australia to those
found in American magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Allure, the similarities are much less
than the array of differences I have found. What I can say is that in both Australia and the United
States, women were featured on a much larger scale in fashion advertisements than men were.
Women dominated the street signs and billboards of any store or boutique that appealed to
consumers. Again, in either of the countries, women have the dominant hand in the clothing
department making them more accessible and easier to target with the flashy signs and big-
window displays. By comparing an American Guess advertisement to an Australian Salvatore
Ferragamo poster, the women are featured on their side. There is a hint of sexual tension in both
cases as the two women with long, flowing, flawlessly curled hair brushed to the sides of their
shoulders attempt to sell the handbag as their main focal point. The purse is the true reason for
the advertisement as both designers are proud of their work, yet the women overpower the

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essence of the product in similar fashions. Their shoulders are prominent while also staring into
the camera with no smiles, no sign of happiness, but rather serious, eye-catching faces with the
mouth slightly open and striking the consumer with her eyes. The thought of fashion trends and
the portrayal of fashion from country to country being extremely different were not all as
expected. Another larger advertisement featuring three women on the same poster came from
Ralph Lauren, a well known fashion designer for men and women in the United States. Again,
the three women are not smiling and the model found at the bottom of the ad is laying on her
right side much like the model from the Salvatore Ferragamo poster and the young, blonde
women also has her mouth slightly open. Two other young women are focused more in the
center of the advertisement and are positioned in chairs rather than the typical laying down pose
or standing at an uncomfortable angle. Chairs have become more useful in fashion magazines as
they provide a new posture for models to have while showcasing pants, dresses, shoes, or their
bodies and have grown among the two countries studied. The United States and Australia focus
greatly on the use of women in advertisements and do so in the similar ways of body positioning
and the sultry faces to attract female shoppers. The fashion world is becoming more and more
prominent across these two countries and yet the way a woman is featured in an American ad as
opposed to a true Australian ad still differs greatly.
The differences among women’s advertisements did out way the similarities in terms of
sexuality and how women are viewed and treated as sexual objects rather than a fashion model or
human being for that matter. The sheer use of women in scandalous ways or featured in
inappropriate ways was seen much more in the United States. Images of women’s health, beauty,
and body are shown across television screens, billboards, bus stops, and shopping malls in every
city of the United States. Women can be seen modeling a lace thong and push-up bra and not be

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given a second glance. The trends of women’s fashion advertisements have grown since the
1960’s when women were voting, liberated, and becoming more obsessed with body image. The
rate of ads only snowballed from there until the 1990’s when sexual advertisements were
covering almost every magazine published. The United States has since continued these trends
and the focus of women and body images are still as prevalent as ever. This is a major difference
from Australia and their social views on body shaming and dehumanizing women to sell a
blouse. An Australian study conducted by Michael and Debra Harker look at the true feelings
women have towards attitudes of Australians towards gender portrayal in advertising. With
additional research conducted by Stuart Svensen, “the study tested a model of attitudes toward
gender portrayal in advertising that found an unambiguous relationship between attitudes to
female autonomy and the perceived offensiveness of the portrayal of women in advertisements.
[The] study, in contrast, suggests that the relationship is more complex. While one group of high
female autonomy respondents (that [was] labeled "Feminist Pessimists") rated the offensiveness
of the portrayal of women in advertising very highly, another high female autonomy group
(labeled "Feminist Optimists") did not. Hence regulatory bodies may treat complaints on
stereotyping in advertisements from these groups in different ways and advertisers may modify
their messages for maximum effect” (Harker, 1). The attitudes towards sexual displays in public
clothing stores were much more up in the air and seen as controversial as compared to the United
States.
The differences among the two countries could be affected by the changing times of
fashion and being that the United States is more “up to date” in the fashion industry as I had also
noticed throughout parts of New Zealand. An advertisement that caught my eye right away was
in Sydney, it was a clothing advertisement for Fossil clothing line. This particular ad caught my

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eye because there is a young woman who is bashfully smiling for a picture that a gentleman,
maybe a few years older than her, is taking of her with an old Polaroid camera. There is no sex
appeal, no longing for each other between the young man and woman but a simple representation
of a friendly relationship and the clothes are the highlight of the poster as it should be.
Everything seemed normal until I got up close to take a sample picture and noticed one of the
biggest differences between Australia and America; the models were not photo shopped. The girl
model had hair stubble on both of her legs and a small mole on the right side of her neck, while
the male model was not clean shaven on his face or on the back of his neck and he had freckles
covering a small portion of his left hand. I was shocked, as were the others around me, as I saw
leg hair coming off of her what should have been perfectly airbrushed legs. Any women seen in
America with hair in places not deemed suitable would immediately be photo shopped as well as
trimming her legs, face, and stomach. The use of photo shop is so common in the United States
that it is also being taught in classrooms and bodies are continuing to be changed and conformed
to be perfect 100% of the time. Walking by and seeing a large clothing advertisement and no use
of photo shop was extremely foreign and again shows the progress of women’s standards in
fashion ads. Other women’s fashion advertisements I had studied included J’adore, Calvin Klein,
and Versace for United States ideas on women’s fashion. As for Australia, I also captured
pictures of Jigsaw clothing company that used wooden mannequins as their models as opposed to
real women. I found that to be interesting because there was no social construction on what body
type of image a woman had to be to purchase the clothing there, it was a blank canvas for all to
enjoy. The last advertisement I noticed was a three part series from the QVB Collection. Each of
the three pictures represents a different insight of the clothing as the models embody the
fantasies of indulgence, nostalgia, and glamour. The advertisements featuring women in

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Australia were more personable and real as compared to the high-end glamour shots found in the
more extravagant United States and I found the honest ads to be more humble and how a true
woman should be represented whether that is in a fashion advertisement or in person.
All in all, after capturing different screenshots of American and Australian
advertisements, it is clear that sexuality is a growing use for the fashion industry and women
have been sexually objectified for decades. The use of sexy fashion ads was much more common
in the United States; however, Australia was growing in the sense of prominently displaying a
woman seductively modeling a purse of posing in a bikini swimsuit. Advertisers have picked up
on the growing trend of women dominating the shopping world and have used the bodies of
women to be more manipulative and target the consumers making the final purchase. A woman’s
body should be displayed as beautiful and honest rather than inappropriate and demeaning. I do
not see the fashion industry changing its ways any time soon, but I do however hope that women
will not compare themselves to Heidi Klum and embrace their natural selves such as the women
found in the Australian ads.

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Examples of Advertisements
American:
Australian:

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References
Felix, S. (2012, October 28). 18 ads that changed the way we think about women. Retrieved July
31, 2015.
Harker, M., Harker, D., & Svensen, S. (2010, February 1). Attitudes towards gender portrayal in
advertising: An Australian perspective. Retrieved July 31, 2015.
Marlena, M. (2007). Women in advertising. Retrieved July 31, 2015.