Male Gaze in Food Commercial (Final)

Nowadays, the concept of “male gaze” is more and more commonly used in many commercials intentionally. It is not only limited in female mainly targeted products, such as perfumes or make ups. It is also prevalent in food industry. In many food commercials, women always are depicted more delicious and more alluring than the food itself to make the product more appealing to audiences. It is a very common strategy that used in food industry because company leaders believe sexy female figures are always objects to easily draw men’s attention. Though it is a good tactic for the company itself. it can twist how people view female figures in a more biased way and bring danger to women. There are many examples of food advertisements involve elements of “male gaze”. They try to attract men’s attention toward the food by first evoking their desire on the female figure.
Many times, advertisements of food would show a hot female eating the food, such as burger, cheesecake, etc. In this “sexy burger” poster shown above, this woman is almost totally naked with only bikini on. When I look at this poster, I naturally put myself on men’s position, feel like I am also on the beach and am peeping at this woman. She seems to be portrayed very vulnerable in this poster: while she is eating a burger, a man might be waiting for eating her. She, and the burger are both objects that are selling to audiences. This is one way of how female are usually presented in food advertisements. However, sometimes, “male gaze” still plays big part in food commercial even though there is no actual female figure presented. Shown in the picture below, this dish of chicken wing and potato is very sexy because it is intentionally shaped like a woman who is lying on bed and waiting to be taken. This picture is likely to form a stereotype that women with seductive body shape are willing to give themselves to men.

I also found two opposite videos in youtube shown in the link below that I thought are interesting. “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J11qUjHiGhs” It is a chicken salad advertisement from Carl’s Jr. The scenery that first appears to us is a woman, with a sexy long pajama, walking gracefully to her bed. And on her bed, there is a bowl of the “cranberry apple walnut chicken salad”. It is very interesting to me because the woman is not eating this salad either on her kitchen table or in a restaurant, instead she is eating it on her bed and lying down in a curly body shape. The company seems to want to send us the message that the salad is as tasty as her, or jump to the bed, enjoy the salad and her together. The commercial ends by a man’s voice, saying “who said salad can’t be hot?” There are so many scenes that shown in this TV commercial are not necessary for advertising the chicken salad at all. They are there because directors of Carl’s Jr want audiences, especially male audiences, to be attracted and can think of the sexy woman when they are eating the chicken salad so it might taste better to them.
There is also another version of the same commercial. “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx-X2Wu_XbI” The sexy woman is not involved any more, instead it shows a young boy doing exactly the same thing that was depicted in the woman-version commercial. Without the presence of the woman, the salad just seems really normal and not hot at all. It is very interesting to see how ineffective this commercial will be if every scene is the same, but only the sex of the main character changes. That is how “male gaze” works in food commercial. Women always are used in commercials by showing their sexy, tasty bodies because they are prejudiced to be vulnerable and weak.

The way of how all food advertisements discussed above have rarely relationship with products themselves. Instead, no matter whether it is a bowl of chicken salad or a burger the company wants to sell, a sexy female figure can make the food looks more delicious because of the power of “male gaze”. In most of these commercials, women are always presented as vulnerable objects, just like the food being advertised. The way they are shown in commercials are always being alluring to men and trying to evoke men’s desire towards them and therefore towards the food along with them. I don’t think “male gaze” should be encouraged in food commercial. It is not only because it has nothing to do with the food itself, but also it can deepen people’s stereotype about characteristics of female today. It can also, in some sense, increases women’s risk of being attacked by men since too many sexy figures shown in food commercials may make men think of sexy things when they see the food which is advertised with a alluring female figure together.

Work Cited:
Evelyne. Cheap Ethnic Eatz. 2nd Oct, 2009
http://www.cheapethniceatz.com/2009/10/02/sexy-food/

Luisa Amanda Gomes. “Soft-Core Fast Food Ads.” Trend Hunter’s Magazine. 18th Feb. 2010
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/kim-kardashian-carls-jr-commercial1

"Very Demotivational." Very Demotivational - The Demotivational Posters Blog. Web. 21 Sept. 2011. http://verydemotivational.memebase.com/?id=a.

"Kim Kardashian Carl's Jr Sexy Ad - YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 21 Sept. 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J11qUjHiGhs.

"Kim Kardashian Carls Jr Commercial 2 - YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 21 Sept. 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx-X2Wu_XbI.

House/Electronic "Male Gaze" Final

I am a huge fan of music and the whole culture that revolves around the creation and appreciation of music. Lately, I have been into house and electronic music. It is a great culture and environment but it is still a culture with the “male gaze”. This can be seen in the song lyrics, Artist names, and the music video’s/ covers. I was looking up more house music over the weekend and the “male gaze” was everywhere. This got me thinking of how much of this is out there and what type of music it is most prominent in.

I started with just the house and electronic music for this weekend. By simply going through my iPod I was able to find names that were from the “male gaze”. The first one that stuck out like a sore thumb was PANTyRAiD. The songs that I have from PANTyRAiD are electronic/house contain one line repeated or no words at all. It is just the name itself that caught my attention. The name is just there to catch people’s attention and has nothing to do with the music. While I love the music the name is funny and completely unnecessary. The artist PANTyRAiD should rely on his talent and music to get followers instead of such a name. Another artist I found was SOFI. SOFI stands for Some Other Female Interest and is featured on a lot of other house/electronic artists. The interesting thing I remembered about this artist is that SOFI is female. She is sticking to the “Male Gaze” with her name and her lyrics are about getting used for entertainment of men. The songs are good but they fit the “Male Gaze” almost perfectly.

I also found that the covers for the house music mixes almost always have a half-naked girl on the cover of the mix that has nothing to do with the track lists. The models are most likely strung around a expensive car or on the beach. There is no reason for them on the cover other than having people check out the mixes because of the girls. Its complete “male gaze” marketing for the songs and it seems to work because most comments on the mixes are about the girls and not much about the songs in the mixes. It is sad because the music itself is great but it seems to be degraded to just background music for the girls on the convers.

The interesting thing that I found going through all this music and all the covers is that it seems that the artists have to stick to this formula of fitting the “Male Gaze”. Some artists fit this formula through their names alone. This seems to bring in people who are just sifting through music and draws them to the songs of the artist just because of the name. If the name is not fitting in with the “Male Gaze” then the lyrics of the song can be found within the scope of a male audience. Even if the lyrics or artist name do not have an overly obvious male scope to them, music video’s or performances do. There were two that I remember that fit into this last part.

The song “Destination Calabria” by Alex Gaudino is a great song that I heard at a club in Europe. The song was so good that I went and looked up the music video. The video actually made me laugh the first time I looked at it. The song itself has a heavy use of saxophones. The director used this to make the video about an overly-sexual marching band. The uniforms are practically non-existent. The formations are there to get the women in sexual positions. Even the instruments are used in a way that over sexualizes everything. It honestly was hilarious to see how the song and the video could ever be linked.

The other “Male Gaze” that sticks with me is a concert I went to last year in Athens. The concert was for a new house/electronic group called “The Glitch Mob”. The concert was amazing as the group plays songs with a heavy synth/computer influence with little to no words. Never before have I seen any of the group’s songs or performances with a clearly defined male viewpoint. Half way through the concert, however, a dancer was brought up into the air on a rope almost like a pole dancer. It added the “Male Gaze” to a songs and a group that has never used the male scope before. I thought it was interesting but it was talked about after the concert. That seems to be all the artists care about now. If it helps them get themselves and their music out their then some boundaries may be pushed to gain those fans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGtLJDP1BIk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDndZn0YPdI&ob=av3e

For the “SOFI needs a ladder” song, the top rated comment is “SOFI needs to get back in the kitchen”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APtj3EvhfWA&feature=fvst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMYjWzg8tYU

Video

Get the Money. Perf. PANTyRAiD, . 2009. Web. 21 Sep 2011. .

SOFI Needs a Ladder. Perf. DeadMau5, SOFI. Ultra Records, 2010. Web. 21 Sep 2011. .

Destination Calabria. Perf. Alex Guadino, . 2009. Web. 21 Sep 2011. .

The Glitch Mob In for the Kill with awesome dancer: New Years Athens GA. Perf. Glitch Mob, . 2011. Web. .

Images

"Gotta Love House Music." Photograph. Chubby Beavers Fat Music. First Last. 2011. Web. 21 Sep 2011. .

"Artist Spotlight:PANTyRAiD." Photograph. Rage!Chill.. First Last. Web. 21 Sep 2011. .

"Passion Pit Sleepyhead Borgore Remix." Photograph. Hypster.com. First Last. 2010. Web. 21 Sep 2011. .

Male Gaze in commercial 2

Kim Kardashian Carl's Jr Commercial 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J11qUjHiGhs
Kim Kardashian Carls Jr Commercial 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx-X2Wu_XbI

Hardee's Padma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvz63nkDcMM

Nowadays, the concept of “male gaze” is commonly used in many commercials intentionally to attract more customers, especially commercials in food industry. In many of these commercials, women always are depicted more delicious and more alluring than the food itself to make the product more appealing to audiences. It is a very common strategy that used by many food companies. It is also understandable why “male gaze” is very popular in food or restaurants commercials. There is one saying “love me, love my dog”. In the case of food advertisements, “me” is the delicious female figures presented in the show, and “my dog” is the food she is eating. When we watch these advertisements, we all intend to put ourselves in men’s perspectives and enjoy the flirting movements of actress shown in the commercials. When we enjoy seeing the actress, we then naturally feel that we also enjoy the food that she is eating. There are two examples of food advertisements that both show great examples of how the “male gaze” serves the advertisement in a good way and successfully makes the food look more tasty and attractive.

In the Carl’s Jr commercial, the scenery that first appears to us is a woman, with a sexy long pajama, walking gracefully to her bed. And on her bed, there is a bowl of the “cranberry apple walnut chicken salad”. It is very interesting to me because the woman is not eating this salad either on her kitchen table or in a restaurant, instead she is eating it on her bed and lying down in a curly body shape. The company seems to want to send us the message that the salad is as tasty as her, or jump to the bed, enjoy the salad and her together. The commercial ends by a man’s voice, saying “who said salad can’t be hot?”
I also found another version of the same commercial. The sexy woman is not involved any more, instead it shows a young a boy doing exactly the same thing that was depicted in the other woman-version commercial. Without the presence of the woman, the salad just seems really normal and not hot at all. That is how “male gaze” works in the commercial. Women always are depicted sexy, tasty and waiting to be taken in commercials.

There is another burger advertisement shown in the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvz63nkDcMM
When I look at this advertisement, I was surprised by how similar this commercial is compare to the Carl’s Jr commercial, even though one is selling burger, the other is selling salad. Two companies use the same tactic which is presenting a extremely beautiful female figure. There are even many similar captured scenes in both two commercials. For example, there are both close scenes of actresses’ sexy lips while they are eating. And while they are eating, there are both salad sauces or burger sauces been dropped off from their mouths, went pass through their chests or landed near their butts.

The way of how both advertisements present their products have rarely relationship with products themselves. Instead, no matter whether it is a bowl of chicken salad or a burger the company wants to sell, a sexy female figure can make the food looks more delicious because of the power of “male gaze”. In most of these commercials, women are always presented as vulnerable objects, just like the salad/burger being advertised. The way they are shown in commercials are always being alluring to men and trying to evoke men’s desires toward them and therefore toward the product along with them.

House/Electronic "Male Gaze" Draft 2

I am a huge fan of music and the whole culture that revolves around the creation and appreciation of music. Lately, I have been into house and electronic music. It is a great culture and environment but it is still a culture with the “male gaze”. This can be seen in the song lyrics, Artist names, and the music video’s/ covers. I was looking up more house music over the weekend and the “male gaze” was everywhere. This got me thinking of how much of this is out there and what type of music it is most prominent in.

I started with just the house and electronic music for this weekend. By simply going through my iPod I was able to find names that were from the “male gaze”. The first one that stuck out like a sore thumb was PANTyRAiD. The songs that I have from PANTyRAiD are electronic/house contain one line repeated or no words at all. It is just the name itself that caught my attention. The name is just there to catch people’s attention and has nothing to do with the music. While I love the music the name is funny and completely unnecessary. The artist PANTyRAiD should rely on his talent and music to get followers instead of such a name. Another artist I found was SOFI. SOFI stands for Some Other Female Interest and is featured on a lot of other house/electronic artists. The interesting thing I remembered about this artist is that SOFI is female. She is sticking to the “Male Gaze” with her name and her lyrics are about getting used for entertainment of men. The songs are good but they fit the “male Gaze” almost perfectly.

I also found that the covers for the house music mixes almost always have a half-naked girl on the cover of the mix that has nothing to do with the track lists. The models are most likely strung around a expensive car or on the beach. There is no reason for them on the cover other than having people check out the mixes because of the girls. Its complete “male gaze” marketing for the songs and it seems to work because most comments on the mixes are about the girls and not much about the songs in the mixes. It is sad because the music itself is great but it seems to be degraded to just background music for the girls on the convers.

The interesting thing that I found going through all this music and all the covers is that it seems that the artists have to stick to this formula of fitting the “Male Gaze”. Some artists fit this formula through their names alone. This seems to bring in people who are just sifting through music and draws them to the songs of the artist just because of the name. If the name is not fitting in with the “Male Gaze” then the lyrics of the song can be found within the scope of a male audience. Even if the lyrics or artist name do not have an overly obvious male scope to them, music video’s or performances do. There were two that I remember that fit into this last part.

The song “Destination Calabria” by Alex Gaudino is a great song that I heard at a club in Europe. The song was so good that I went and looked up the music video. The video actually made me laugh the first time I looked at it. The song itself has a heavy use of saxophones. The director used this to make the video about an overly-sexual marching band. The uniforms are practically non-existent. The formations are there to get the women in sexual positions. Even the instruments are used in a way that over sexualizes everything. It honestly was hilarious to see how the song and the video could ever be linked.

The other “Male Gaze” that sticks with me is a concert I went to last year in Athens. The concert was for a new house/electronic group called “The Glitch Mob”. The concert was amazing as the group plays songs with a heavy synth/computer influence with little to no words. Never before have I seen any of the group’s songs or performances with a clearly defined male viewpoint. Half way through the concert, however, a dancer was brought up into the air on a rope almost like a pole dancer. It added the “Male Gaze” to a songs and a group that has never used the male scope before. I thought it was interesting but it was talked about after the concert. That seems to be all the artists care about now. If it helps them get themselves and their music out their then some boundaries may be pushed to gain those fans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGtLJDP1BIk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDndZn0YPdI&ob=av3e

For the “SOFI needs a ladder” song, the top rated comment is “SOFI needs to get back in the kitchen”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APtj3EvhfWA&feature=fvst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMYjWzg8tYU

Male Gaze in commericial

Kim Kardashian Carl's Jr Commercial 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J11qUjHiGhs
Kim Kardashian Carls Jr Commercial 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx-X2Wu_XbI

Nowadays, the concept of “male gaze” is commonly used in many commercials intentionally to attract more customers. In many commercials, women always are depicted as sexy or alluring as possible to make the product more appealing to audiences. The Kim Kardashian Carl’s Jr commercial shows a great example of how the “male gaze” serves the advertisement in a good way and successfully makes the chicken salad look more tasty and attractive.

In this Carl’s Jr commercial, the scenery that first appears to us is a woman, with a sexy long pajama, walking gracefully to her bed. And on her bed, there is a bowl of the “cranberry apple walnut chicken salad”. It is very interesting to me because the woman is not eating this salad either on her kitchen table or in a restaurant, instead she is eating it on her bed and lying down in a curly body shape. The company seems to want to send us the message that the salad is as tasty as her, or jump to the bed, enjoy the salad and her together. The commercial ends by a man’s voice, saying “who said salad can’t be hot?”

I also found another version of the same commercial. The sexy woman is not involved any more, instead it shows a young a boy doing exactly the same thing that was depicted in the other woman-version commercial. Without the presence of the woman, the salad just seems really normal and not hot at all. That is how “male gaze” works in the commercial. Women always are depicted sexy, tasty and waiting to be taken in commercials.

Music and "Male Gaze"

I am a huge fan of music and the whole culture that revolves around the creation and appreciation of music. Lately, I have been into house and electronic music. It is a great culture and environment but it is still a culture with the “male gaze”. This can be seen in the song lyrics, Artist names, and the music video’s/ covers. I was looking up more house music over the weekend and the “male gaze” was everywhere. This got me thinking of how much of this is out there and what type of music it is most prominent in.

I started with just the house and electronic music for this weekend. By simply going through my iPod I was able to find names that were from the “male gaze”. The first one that stuck out like a sore thumb was PANTyRAiD. The songs that I have from PANTyRAiD are electronic/house contain one line repeated or no words at all. It is just the name itself that caught my attention. The name is just there to catch people’s attention and has nothing to do with the music. While I love the music the name is funny and completely unnecessary. Another artist I found was SOFI. SOFI stands for Some Other Female Interest and is featured on a lot of other house/electronic artists. The interesting thing I remembered about this artist is that SOFI is female. She is sticking to the “Male Gaze” with her name and her lyrics are about getting used for entertainment of men. The songs are good but they fit the “male Gaze” almost perfectly.

I also found that the covers for the house music mixes almost always have a half-naked girl on the cover of the mix that has nothing to do with the track lists. The models are most likely strung around a expensive car or on the beach. There is no reason for them on the cover other than having people check out the mixes because of the girls. Its complete “male gaze” marketing for the songs and it seems to work because most comments on the mixes are about the girls and not much about the songs in the mixes. It is sad because the music itself is great but it seems to be degraded to just background music for the girls on the convers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGtLJDP1BIk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDndZn0YPdI&ob=av3e

For the “SOFI needs a ladder” song, the top rated comment is “SOFI needs to get back in the kitchen”

About me: Yingbo Shi

My name is Yingbo Shi. I was born in China and spent my first 14 years there. Since I am the only child in my family, I always get the whole attention and love from my parents. When I was 15, I went to Connecticut for high school. The school set me as a listener instead of a regular student because of my extremely poor English. I didn't need to homework, or take any tests. All I needed to do was sitting at the back of the class and listening to the teacher that I had no idea of what he was talking about. I basically spent the whole year learning how to become independent since I relied too much on my parents before. At the end of the year, I decided to repeat my sophomore year there.

When I was four, I started to play violin. Then I fell in love with music. I dreamed to be a musician when I was little. I participated in many singing contests and owned some rewards. I even tried to write some songs. Though I lost them all, I still remembered how proud I felt when I finished them. However, later, I was told by many that it is almost impossible to make a whole lot of money from it unless you are the top one in the field. So I changed my mind, went to Gatech, started my engineering journey and kept music as my most beloved habit.

I am not good at sports. But I played squash in my four years of high school, started from the lowest level and finally climbed up to Varsity. It was hard for me but I enjoyed it.

About Me Brendan Nagle

My name is Brendan Nagle and I am from Smyrna, GA. Both my parents were born and raised in Ireland and moved over here a year before I was born. That makes me the first generation to be an American citizen. It is amazing to have the best of both worlds with such a rich culture in my Irish family and the opportunities of America. I came from Marist in Dunwoody and am doing IE here at Tech. I did shot-put and discus in highschool all four years and was captain my senior year.

Right now my biggest hobbies are working and riding my motorcycle that is now so highly modified that there is not one like it in the world. My other hobby is in music. This is more than just listening to music, which I do alot of, but discussing the makeup of specific songs, styles of different musicians and DJs, and even creating music through mixing and creating. This hobby has even come ot Tech as my dorm has a sound system that is meant for a house. No one has complained however. I do paint as hobby as well. This painting is painting of miniatues and models like plains and ships. This painting has grown into assembling miniature kits and even scratch building my own model boat. This fits perfectly with my motorcycle as I have scartch build the tail section and front headlight section. I also have mixed and matched other parts of other bikes to create the bike i love today.

Brendan Nagle