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.