The document traces the evolution of female portrayals in advertising from the late 1800s to the 1980s. Early ads resembled classified sections and featured informational text. Later ads shifted to attention-grabbing visuals that exploited the female body to sell products by appealing to desires. Modern ads addressed female empowerment by acknowledging women's changing social roles.

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Dreamgirls: The Evolution of the
Female Figure in Advertising
Jared Bellot

2. +
“Advertising is as old as Humanity:
indeed, much older; for what are the flaunting
colours of the flowers but so many invitations to
the bees to come and "buy our product".
Everything is already there: the striking
forms, the brilliant hews, even the "conditioning
of the customer".... Advertising might be defined
as any device which first arrests the attention of
the passer-by and then induces him to accept a
mutually advantageous exchange.”
- James Laver

3. +Excerpt from Harper's Weekly Advertising Page
1876
It was not until the late 1800‟s that
advertising began to emerge in the
American sphere as a distinguishable
and identifiable public
phenomenon, fueled by the
development of a national market and
mass production/mass consumptions
models which led to the need for
mass marketing. These early
advertisements were quite different in
appearance than the modern
advertising campaigns that we are
familiar with today and resembled
more of the „Classified‟ sections of
newspapers today. However the early
imaginings of American advertising
laid down the foundation for the future
evolution of the advertising industry.

4. + NABISCO – „Sweet Memory‟ Advertisement
1905
Advertisements function within a
larger consumer focused culture, and
as such communicate to their
viewership using a language of
consumption which places
advertisements as the centerpieces of
a public, communal experience, one
which is ruled by commercial wants
and desires. Advertisements
simultaneously influence a greater
social culture (including gender
roles, class differences, etc.) and are
influenced by the society in which they
exist. The role of women in
advertisements, therefore, is often
linked to the feminine aspects of the
public sphere – the home, the
family, etc.

5. +
Kellogg‟s – „Grandmother‟ Advertisement
1934
As the advertising industry
grew, people had to be turned into
consumers and taught how to listen
to and understand commercial
advertisement, and consumers had
to be willing to accept self interest
persuasion instead of more
objective forms of information about
goods. Companies were forced to
showcase their distinctive products
and promised real or imagined
advantages over rival brands or
unbranded goods. As such, it was
very important for these brands to
keep up with the modern and
associate themselves with the „new‟
in society. In this
advertisement, Kellogg‟s posits
itself as a cereal for a
new, progressive woman, distinct in
appearance and attitude than
women of earlier generations and
asserts that a “change to crispness”
will allow for existence in this
modern social sphere.

6. +
Lux Soap – „Rita Hayworth‟ Advertisement
1940
Like the textual shift that occurred in
American advertisements over the
course of the twentieth century, from
information providing to attention
grabbing, so too did the layouts and
imagery used in Advertisements
undergo a similar shift. The
connection between language and
imagery in advertisements moves
from the visual facet of the
advertisement complementing textual
element to visual aspect drawing
consumers to the text. In
advertisements such as this one for
Lux Soap, the push towards
sensational imagery (here, Rita
Hayworth, a sex symbol of her time is
photographed in the shower), and the
exploitation of the human (notably the
female) body is made by
advertisements capitalizing on the fact
that “sex sells.”

7. +
Coca-Cola – „Yes Girl‟ Advertisement
1946
Advertising brands allow for products to transcend their mere physical incarcerations
to manifest into an all-encompassing persona. Brands allow for companies to
transcend beyond their mere physical products and come to signify our
understanding of the relationship between the consumption of the physical product
and the actualization of the hopes and dreams that the product promotes. Especially
strong brands (such as Coca-Cola, pictured below), are able to operate on
simple, iconic, sensationalist images, such as the Coca-Cola „Yes Girl,‟ a famous
advertising campaign developed by the Coca-Cola company in the late 1940‟s
utilizing branding, sensational imagery, and the sexual exploitation of the female
body.

8. +
Tupperware – „Dreams‟ Advertisement
1955
Advertising is about
desires, aspirations, and values. It
names them, describes them, and
offers satisfaction through the
purchase and consumption of
consumer goods. In this
way, advertising functions on a level
of dreams. Advertising campaigns
offer an idealized version of reality
and offer society a chance to buy into
this imagined landscape. The
commercial market place, like other
spheres of our social and cultural
life, provides a forum where ideas and
information flourish and serves as a
forum for the middle class to speak to
itself. As such, core “American”
beliefs, or tropes, such as the
happy, middle class housewife of the
1950‟s who wanted noting more in life
then to spend time with her family, are
frequently represented in
advertisements of the time.

9. +
Avon– „Shades of Beauty’
Advertisement
1975
Advertisements often serve as the
voice for larger than life businesses
and companies. With the decline of
small, family owned, local stores, and
the rise of a global commercial
market, consumers were no longer
able to form close and long lasting
bonds with the individuals who sold
them goods. Companies combated
this shift by using their advertisements
to address the consumer directly
(using pronouns such as „you‟ or „we‟)
and by positioning themselves as
friends and advocates of consumers.
As seen in this Avon
advertisement, companies would offer
advice, beauty secrets and other
helpful tips to make the consumer the
best individual that they could
possibly be.

10. +
Nike – Women's Basketball
Advertisement
1980
Advertisements, at all times must exist
increasingly in the present day.
Because the successes and failures
of advertising campaigns are so
closely tied to their ability to be
heard, seen and understood by
consumers on a plethora of
levels, ads must always remain
relevant to the modern moment. As
such, portrayal of society as it
develops is very closely mirrored in
commercial advertisements. In this
advertisement, Nike acknowledges
the changing role of women in
society, from homemaker to
equal, independent member of society
and molds their campaigns to meet
the perceived needs and desires of
this new woman.

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