Advanced Search
GenderLinks
Mobile Menu
Alfa 159 Car...

Alfa 159 Car


Date: January 1, 1970

  • SHARE:

A full colour half page advert for the sale of a very masculine car,an Alfa 159 sports saloon. There is on one side of the advert a woman shown in Red and on the other side a black sports car.The two are not linked in any way

This Advert may be used to:
1. Demonstrate a blatant stereotype in advertising.
2. Demonstrate how sensual images of women are used to sell unrelated products.
 
Trainer’s notes
In the Mirror on the Media Advertising research conducted by GL, women and the men found the advertisement degrading to women. The advertisement image has nothing to do with the product being sold. The woman is plainly objectified as a sex object. A man said the message is that: “si mo aste sa loto la mo gagn enn fam” (if I buy this car I get a woman.” The advert may also be considered to be insinuating that men need a car to get a woman.
 

On one side of the advert there is a lusty temptress of a woman and on the other side a big, high class black sports car, shiny and sharp looking. The headline “driving soul” shows that the car is personified and that the woman has lost her soul. She is so weak that even a car can take it away from her.

The woman looks half naked, in a very sensual position, eyes closed and lips slightly apart. She has been manipulated on the computer and is now all in red.

Discussion Questions:
1. How can the advert be made gender aware?
2. Discuss the argument that women “sell their bodies willingly and should not be prevented from doing so.”
 
Training exercises
1. Print out the advertisment at the beginning of the session. As participants to name three things that come to mind when they look at this advert.
2. As participanst to examine other advertisments for cars. How do they compare.
3. Conduct a poll. Ask a group of men and women what motivates them to buy a car, compare this with the strategy used for this advert,

 
Additional training resources

Picture our Lives, Gender and Images in Southern Africa, Chapter three: Sex, Gender and Stereotypes
 
Related GL Commentaries


Download : BS car Maur 12 12 06 LR

Comment on Alfa 159 Car

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

What’s New

Recent Comments

Gender Links

Connect with us

Gender Links Tel: +27(0)11 029 0006 / +27 (0)11 028 2410, Fax: +27(0)11 622 4732,

30 Gill Street, Observatory,

Johannesburg, 2198, South Africa.