This advertisement is eye-catching. If a reader is flipping through a magazine filled with many articles and ads for different products, he or she would be more prone to stop and look at an ad of this sort. It is obvious to see that this advertisement is suppose to attract the attention of teenage and young adult males. Erica Scharrer states in her article about video games that only twelve percent of high school and college guys consider themselves non videogame players (Scharrer 401). This high number is the reason that ad executives target young men when selling videogame products. The advertising company could have used bloody gory pictures from the actual video game to try and catch the attention of the readers, but when it comes down to it the beautiful woman is more eye catching. If the reader takes an extra second to stop and look at an ad, then the advertisers did their job.
Once the eye has been caught, the person looking at the ad will more than likely take the time to examine the ad more carefully to figure out what product is being sold. After this, the reader might think about this product and if the product looks good then he or she may consider buying it. In other words, if an ad can capture the attention of a buyer than there is a more likely chance that he or she will buy the product than if the ad is boring and doesn’t stand out. People don’t always have time to sop and analyze every single advertisement in a magazine, so the ad needs to standout in some way to the reader.
The woman in this advertisement is obviously the main eye catching element, but if one stops and looks very closely at the ad he or she will notice more than just the woman. For instance, if one looks very closely at this ad, he or she would notice the pool of blood surrounding the woman’s head. It is hard to notice this blood, because it blends in with the woman’s hair and clothes. Along with the blood there is also a bullet hole in the woman’s head. The blood and bullet hole are not meant to be the very first things seen in the advertisement. The advertiser obviously did not want this to be a bloody, gruesome ad even though the video game he is advertising is one in which murder is the objective. This is why the words “Beautifully Executed” are written at the top of the advertisement. These words are the theme of the advertisement. The words are in reference to the beautiful woman lying on the bed murdered “beautifully” for an unknown reason. Her guts are not all over, because advertisement executives were going for a classy representation of murder. Video games are usually not beautiful or classy. The advertisers were going for the “sex sells” approach. They could have very easily had pictures that represented more of the game, such as guns, guts, and mass killings; instead they chose to use a beautiful woman to sell the product.
The beautiful scantily dressed woman sprawled provocatively out on gold sheets is what advertisement companies want the reader to notice. Scharrer notes that “females are largely shown in a way that is consistent with male fantasies—that is, as highly attractive and highly sexualized…females wore tight-fitting clothing, showed cleavage or otherwise had their breasts emphasized, and were very commonly voluptuous and thin (Scharrer 405). The beautiful woman in this ad proves Scharrrer’s findings by being dressed only in lingerie, high heels, and some gold jewelry. The fact that she is wearing lingerie gives this ad sex appeal. It is used to gain the attention of males. The double standard in society that women are sexier than men was obviously thought about when the advertisement companies made this ad. A hot young male with a wash board stomach does not give the same kind of sex appeal that a woman does. Although if it was a male lying there half naked on the sheets, one would not necessarily assume that there was some sort of sexual relations involved in the murder. Guys are not seen as sex objects, and that is why the advertisement companies use females to sell the products.
There have been many studies done on the objectifying of women in videogames. Melinda Burgess, Steven Stermer, and Stephen Burgess did research on the portrayals of men and women on 235 different videogame covers. One of the things they found by their research was that females were physically objectified more often than males. When looking for characters who were physically objectified, the researchers looked for a combination of vulgar, revealing, or tight clothing along with sexually suggestive poses. The research team discovered that women were physically objectified on 47.4% of the videogame covers. Men on the other hand were only physically objectified on 13.5% of the covers (Burgess 425). This research proves that women are often just looked at as objects. The sexy provocative female body is usually used only to make the videogame sexy and more appealing to young males.
The fact that the woman in this photograph is only in lingerie, and she is spread out on satin gold sheets makes it seems like she has been raped and then shot. The woman is positioned on the bed in such a way that makes one assume that she was raped. Why else would she be scantily dressed and lying in a provocative pose on some satin gold sheets? No one really knows what happed for sure, but logical reasoning tells the reader that there was probably some prostitution or rape involved in this murder. Videogames often use prostitutes in the game to allow for the fact that today’s society is obsessed with sex. If women are not sex objects in the game then they are just easy shooting targets, or both as in this case. Studies show that:
The ways in which female characters were depicted were consistent with the fantasies of the main target audience for video games, adolescent males. In fantasy-based games, female characters tended to be secondary or peripheral to the action. In ‘street-fighting’ games, females were portrayed as antagonists whom the protagonist must dispense with to continue play. In ‘urban violence’ games, females were dangerous and violent (as well as being subject to violence) but also conformed to adolescent sexual fantasy standards in terms of their clothing and appearance. (Scharrer 403)
Videogames in which killing and fighting are the main objectives are usually made to appeal to young guys. The fact that this advertisement which uses sex to sell is meant to catch the attention of young guys is rather appalling. The ad executives know that guys are obviously attracted to beautiful women and they use that to their advantage. By placing this advertisement with a beautiful woman in a magazine, it is more likely to be noticed. Magazines are full of articles and many different ads. Advertising companies know that they need to make an ad that will stand out and make someone stop and look at the ad. The advertisement agencies know that sex sells and purposefully use half-dressed women in the ads to sell products to guys. In today’s society, it is easy to see how sex sells. Scantily dressed women are selling all sorts of products everywhere a person looks. It is sad to know that it takes half-naked people to catch people’s attention. The fact that women are sex objects is rather appalling.
Works Cited
Burgess, Stermer, and Burgessz. “Sex, Lies, and Video Games: The Portrayal of Male
and Female Characters on Video Game Covers.” Sex Roles. 57.5 (2007): 419-33. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. U of South Dakota, ID Weeks Lib., Vermillion, SD. 26 March 2008.
Scharrer, Erica. “Virtual Violence: Gender and Aggression in Video Game Advertisements.” Mass Communication & Society 7.4 (2004): 393-412. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. U of South Dakota, ID Weeks Lib., Vermillion, SD. 25 March 2008.
