Female figures in campus advertisements
From the 1940s to the present, women's representations in advertising have shifted from a lack of agency and representations of servitude to heightened feminism, where the product is less important than the body of the entity selling it. In general, advertising has evolved in a number of ways.
The United States' entry into the war in 1941 had a tremendous influence on women's roles in American society. Women's labor-force involvement expanded significantly when males departed to join the military forces. (Shea, 2018) Factory employment was among the numerous that were available to women as a result of the labor shortage during World War II. Working in a factory has long been considered a stereotypically male occupation because of the heavy machinery involved and the harsh working conditions. As a result, propaganda makers sought to find a means to demonstrate to women that it was okay to rise up, be tough, and occupy industrial roles while still remaining feminist. In the advertisement for Bell system in 1942 in Polytechnic Reporter, there was an early image of a woman with a headset on her head and a serious expression, with the following text "how you can help her speed vital war call", indicating that women also supported the country by joining the workforce during this period. The main audience for this ad was male students at Polytechnic Institute. When they saw female figures in the ads yearning for the workforce, they would also be eager to contribute to their country.
The emerging feminist movement in the 1950s had a significant impact on young women in particular. They desired the freedom to live their own lives, seek professional professions, and have options other than being full-time stay-at-home moms. (Lamb, 2011) In the picture on the left, it was also an advertisement depicting female figures for Bell System with bold texts showing “sorority of service”. The paragraphs in the advertisement appreciated the power of females by using the words “calm, competent, considerate”. The difference with the previous bell system ad is that the 1951 ad focused more on appealing to women, suggesting that the Poly student body had changed from male-dominated to mixed-gender.
In the early 1950s, images of women also began to appear in tobacco advertising, with women smoking. According to reports, per capita cigarette use increased from 54 per year in 1900 to 4,345 per year in 1963. By 1965, women accounted for 33% of smokers in the United States, with advertisements advocating a head-splitting dual-vision of the increasingly independent woman. (Knapp, 2020) In the 1951 Chesterfield advertisement in Polytechnic Reporter, this tobacco ad targeting female consumers at Polytechnic Institute began to be placed, with direct use of images of female college students in the ads and her related interviews. By showing the pleasure that cigarettes offer, the tobacco ads try to market to female consumers at Polytechnic Institute.
As early as 1961, President John F. Kennedy established a Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, the report of which, titled "American Women," marked the beginning of a new awareness of women's issues. (Lamb, 2011) Replying to the government announcements, the advertising and marketing model also changed gradually with the political and public opinion orientations. For Jade East After Shave advertisement in 1968 in Polytechnic Reporter, even though this is a male product, the advertising was aimed at women as the targeted audience. Using the words “give him Jade East” and “say the word for you”, this ad implied female students at Polytechnic Institute gradually took the initiative in relationships and are willing to speak their minds in their own ways.
While considerable progress has been achieved, women's representation is still lacking. Typically, businesses will either provide token representation or employ harmful stereotypes with unintended implications that they either ignore or disregard. While the specific wording has evolved throughout time, the basic message has not. (RTF, 2020) In BIC pen advertising in 1970 in Polytechnic Reporter, the BIC pen company drew a dramatic yet direct analogy between the shape of the pen and the female figure and also emphasized that sadomasochistic engineering students would be satisfied by the longevity of the pen. Engineering students at Polytechnic Institute might be stressed out when doing research topics and performing endless calculations, which led the merchants to consider them“mad scientists” and “devilish abuse sadistic students”. Even though the ad chose the words “beauty” and “elegant” to show the similarity between pen and female, this attempt at appeal was posed out by the sexism, which ends up defeating the entire purpose.