Dove advert

According to Stuart Hall, meaning is constituted by representation; by what is present, what is absent, and what is different.

Through the analysis of the 2 advertisements for Dove, what messages are communicated about Gender through the representations?

Through the analysis of the 2 adverts for Dove I am of the opinion that gender has both been challenged, in the sense that they are trying to go against conventions, and also reinforced through the media language used.

In the Men’s Dove care advert they are trying to go against the conventions of traditional media as they are trying to present to the customers that “Real Men” are family orientated instead of the stereotypical hyper masculine characters that the media would usually be promoting to their customer base. This shows that the company is trying to go against the stereotypical conventions that are usually present throughout the media. However, although their plan was to advertise against conventions, they also inadvertently reinforced those gender stereotypes within the advert. This can be seen through the use of the colour palette which is mostly that of blue which stereotypically is a masculine colour within the media and they have also used well groomed, muscular man which can be seen to be reinforcing the idea of a man needing to be athletic, well groomed and in a sense hyper masculine which goes against their ideal message for the advert.

In the Women’s advert for grey hair, Dove are not necessarily selling a product in this advert they are instead trying to sell the idea that they are not ageist instead promoting the idea that anyone can be beautiful, they achieve this by using an older and more mature model who in turn goes against the stereotype that all of those that are of an older age become haggard in appearance and look tired etc. They are also appealing to the older audience by portraying the model as elegant what with the minimalist style that has been used which again goes against the stereotypical conventions that we may have been previously exposed to. However, in this advert Dove also reinforce gender stereotypes in this advert this can be seen through the use of a beautiful model in the advert which could be interpreted as that the idea that a woman has to be perfect and beautiful and that someone’s worth should be based on the shallow and vain view of their appearance which reinforced the stereotypical and “traditional” view of women as in the past men would have based a women’s worth solely on their appearance and their ability in the household which goes against what Dove are trying to convey to their customers for their adverts.