As Anandi Ramamurthy states, "the commodification of human relations is one of the most pervasive influences of modern advertising, creating images expressive of human emotions and relations which are used to give products superficial of "false" meanings" (594). This exemplifies the impact of emotion and visual stimulus in advertising, causing women to indulge in the newest and latest products.
It is necessary for the female gender to understand the logistics and mechanics behind the finished product of an advertisement to truly make use of critical media skills. Once a clear understanding of these skills is developed, the reader can combat the media and advertising industry, seeing "through" the implications of the advertisement. Enabling the reader to comprehend the true form of the advertisement is increasingly important for women, considering the unbalanced proportion of products targeted to them. In this unbalanced society, gender barriers are reflected by the fact that women are consistently displayed as onothing more than materialistic objects. This form of materialism enables the female viewer to interpret media from an oppositional point of view. .
In short, advertising, in a capitalist country, is not just a part of the cultural or economic system -- a source of information about products you might need -- but is its engine, its driving force. In order to be successful, advertising must goad the populace to consume, and to throw away what they buy, so they will have to buy it again. This is what the knowledge of critical media skills must prevent: the uninformed consumer. In order to help combat the problem of current consumerism, I chose to display these skills through analyzing two advertisements focusing on products for women. .
The first ad that I chose to analyze is the perfume product Cool Water. This specific advertisement was found in a women's fitness magazine, noting the target audience is already somewhat defined.