Advertising and Female Body: Evolution and Social Issues

In order to create consumers, ad men had to develop universal notions in co-operation with social psychologists that have demonstrated the effectiveness of links between “instinct” and mass sales. The methodologies followed to create ads have evolved and changed deeply, jointly with the evolution of economy. Both the industrial revolution – before – and the rise of consumerism – later – had a determinant impact upon the characters of advertisements, whose content moved gradually from mere information to more or less subtle persuasion, to be achieved through the stimulation of a consumer’s emotional and psychic sphere. Nowadays, commercials manipulate people’s strongest desires and greatest fears to convince them to buy their preferred products and, doing so, they also uphold stereotypes regarding class, gender and race. The aim of this paper is to show the historical evolution of the use of the female image in advertising during the last decades and the social issues related to this topic.