Meaningful Advertisements

In researching some material for my blog this week, I stumbled across a news story on Fox News, reporting on a controversial ad in which a mother is painting her little boy’s toenails pink, with the caption “lucky for me I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink.” This ad is supposed to be advertising the clothing both mom and son are wearing. According to the Fox News, however, this ad is “blatant propaganda celebrating transgendered children”.

During my reading on language and the media, “The Language of Media”, an essay written by Charles A. O’Neil, outlined the different factors that are involved in writing and making an advertisement. One of the factors, titled “Edited and Purposeful”, describes advertisements as “engineered messages” that “exist in the context of our society”. According to Fox, this is more than just a clothing advertisement; in fact it is propaganda for the homosexual community that has become so prevalent in society today. According to O’Neil, this advertisement was brilliantly written and produced to pertain to this community and all the controversy that comes with it. Another factor, “Demanding Attention”, also allows for some reasoning behind the choice of this advertisement. “Advertisers use many techniques to attract and hold the attention of the consumer audience” and the most common is sexuality. Not only is our society today a very sexually aggressive one, but there are many audiences who are at the defense for acceptance of their sexual orientation, and for this reason holds on to and exposes anything to do with it. This ad, if indeed it does support transgender or other sexuality, is an example of the response from our society to these people, a response of acceptance. This is the problem that Fox News has with it.

Another reason, stated under “Involving”, as to why Fox News and others might have such an issue with this advertisement, is that ads “exploit parts of our society, the young, insecure, or clueless.” They are about “the systematic, deliberate identification of our needs and wants, followed by the delivery of a carefully constructed promise that the product will satisfy them.” So if this is the case, then this fashion ad does no harm right? It is simply a mother and her son, well dressed, enjoying themselves. The problem is that “as soon as we see or hear an advertisement, our imagination is set in motion, and our individual fears and aspirations, quirks, and insecurities come out to play.” So for all of society that has issues with their sexuality, who does not feel accepted or who feels left out or lonely, they can all look at this ad and feel a sense of hope, a sense of joy that this mother and son feels, and a sense of acceptance that this mother has for her son who likes feminine things (which to many is the indication that he is gay).

Although some people may think that Fox News is completely overreacting, it is clear that advertisers have an ability to make us feel a certain way, and that they know exactly what is going on in society and how to use it to their benefit, and finally how to get people to make a fuss out of their product. In this case, there is so much controversy over this advertisement that it is almost impossible to think that what they were actually selling did not benefit.