Initial research And ideas

My cop project this year is focused around the way in which female products are advertised unrealistically below is my research question.

‘How does mainstream advertising present unrealistic ideas of femininty’ - from my initial research in to this topic i’ve Decided that my practical project will revolve around redesigning an existing female product, in order to communicate a more accurate representation of what it is to be a female, and how real women use these products, for example the fact that female razor adverts show the product shaving an already hairless, smooth leg; not only showing the product not working, but also reinforcing the idea that women are hairless and that female body hair is ultimately unattractive.

 I’m going to focus on three particular female targeted products within my essay, ones which I personally believe are the most unrealistic.

Sanitary products- the way in which sanitary products are advertised is very unrealistic. Not only due to the fact that a blue liquid is used to represent period blood but also the type of women these adverts depict; often smiling, doing some form of physical activity and not showing any signs of being on their period.

Women’s Razors- the main issue and unrealistic representation within these advertisements comes from the fact that mainstream adverts never show any female body hair; it’s always a completely hairless leg being show, which communicated a number of things; first being that women don’t grow hair/pushing the idea that female body hair is unsightly and secondly they don’t even show the product working which suggests that the advertisers care more about how the woman looks than actually showing that their product works.

Finally I want to look in to the way in which pregnancy tests are advertised, from the research i’ve Done so far and from the adverts I often see on tv it’s always a woman receiving a positive result with her reaction always being positive too. This is very unrealistic due to the fact that women don’t only take pregnancy tests with the hopes of being pregnant, sometimes it’s with the hopes of not being pregnant; these adverts should show the positive reactions to a negative result rather than pushing the idea that all women want to be mothers, not only is it unrealistic but it’s also very dated and stereotypical.