Women of Advertising on Women in Advertising
Women of advertising on women in advertising
written by Marz Aglipay
Any entity can claim to be all about #feminism and #WomenEmpowerment, but how do they enforce these notions?
Before you continue reading, pause and think of the last time you saw something that claimed to be about women's empowerment. A top-of-the-mind answer will do. Let’s see if it feels genuine by the time you reach the end of this text.
Has our perspective of feminism defaulted to the mere inclusion of the female body?
Today there’s an abundance of messages harping women's empowerment to the point where their identities are acknowledged by their mere inclusion over genuine representation. We see a lot of female bodies in the media predominantly conforming to age-old archetypes that tout impossible idealizations of femininity.
Instead of embracing the broad spectrum of what a woman can be beyond being an object of beauty or as a caretaker, there is a tendency to fall back on tried and tested representations of women with the expectations that it is reframed to conform to buzzwords like feminism and empowerment.
The dilemma it creates is that it continues to thrive on the stereotypes that feminism is trying to break. Hence we are confronted with images of women's bodies being stripped of their character and agency.
This is a problem that women in advertising are trying to work around. In fact, it’s a constant balancing act between championing diverse identities especially since they create stories around women on a daily. They are pressed to build authentic stories while wrestling with these ironies.
Have you thought of an ad yet? Yes? Good. Keep that in mind. If not, let’s keep going all the same.
The process of how these advertisements come about is not as simple as writing a script with creative choices decided by one person overnight. The reality is advertisements undergo a process of exchange of ideas that are vetted by a group of people. There is an exchange that happens, sometimes a negotiation but ultimately, it is the client who has the last say in what the final message will look like.
Women in Advertising
Be that as it may, advertising agencies are constantly offering out-of-the-box representations of women. This is especially true for the three artists in this show. They offer a critique of the female body, challenging conventional takes on “what is” with “what ifs”.
Whether it’s children’s snacks, health products, kitchen appliances, or cleaning products, brands gravitate towards women as their endorsers. Women have appeared in commercials that pushed the sales of household conveniences, and it became generally accepted that women hold the role of taking care of the household. All that responsibility while dressed to the nines and looking happy. So much so, that it brought in a generation of men who expect the household chores to be dealt with by women as a default.
If at this point you just thought of an ad, good for you. You probably thought hard to pick one. You didn’t have to think that hard.
Today women are empowered to break away from these expectations. We’ve seen women go from homemakers to girl bosses. Yet, women in advertising still deal with these archetypes and how women’s bodies are supposed to look.
In the age of social media, the numbers speak for themselves. There are more women influencers than their male counterparts. It’s still the same gameplay, influencers pushing products and brands. However, the algorithm seems to work in favor of women whose bodies fall under a new stereotype-physique of “The Instagram model.” This stereotype reinforces how brands assume that their audiences view women’s bodies as merely disembodied entities.
Did you change your answer to a viral Tiktok video or an IG post you recently liked?
Women of Advertising
The artists understand firsthand that women are not just there to look a certain way and conform to a cookie-cutter mold formed by other people’s expectations.
Play within The Box: Woman Reframed features three women artists who hail from the advertising industry. Jo Aguilar, Villarica, and Tricia Salonga explore and play around with these aged stereotypes of women which are still prevalent in their line of work.
The exhibition’s title flips the industry adage “to think outside the box.” These ladies go full circle and seek from within. Circling back to their own struggles and presenting works that aim to underscore that when women are devoid of agency and choices, their bodies themselves become an ideogram of oppression.
The Exhibition
The show is designed to deliver a sensorial experience for the viewers. As such, the artists have intentionally placed their works in a literal box. Expressed through formats and mediums framed within a box, a square, or a cube, to give their viewers a sense of wanting to be freed from being boxed into a stereotype.
I bet you stopped reading at this point. Let me walk you through the works in the gallery. Start from the left and follow a clockwise route around the gallery.
Upon entering the gallery, you will find the works of Tricia Salonga, some of which the audience are free to interact with. Her wood-carved print installation is presented in a frame-by-frame format that calls to mind how storyboards are used in advertising.
You’re more than welcome to try the prints for yourself. Go ahead and grab a sheet, ink the roller, and take home a print.
These relief plates show tight shots of female body parts. It is a critique of the female being the emblem of commercialism. "In advertising, when one writes a casting brief that involves a female as the main character most of the characteristics of these women kind of sound the same, and are usually safe (e.g. normal, able-bodied, caring, heteronormative, slim, and the list goes on). Even though they still get pretty much edited anyway, sometimes we use different sets of hands or some parts of the body which would fit the composition of the key visual." Says Salonga.
Her installation piece "Things I Wish Were Heard: F(rag)m(e)nt Room" looks at the tradition of pottery production which is often occupied by women. And last but not least is "Flick(Her)" which is a critique of the societal views of female masturbation or female sexuality which is very particular to the Philippine context. These works are followed by Jo Aguilar's work of women garbed as they would in obsolete print ads, touching on the different notions of feminism. Her piece examines the portrayal of middle-class women and their role as housewives in the 1950s.
Let’s see how many female tropes you can identify here.
“The composition was made up of various magazine advertisements published in the decade that limited the placement of women into “The Housewife” stereotype and perpetuated specific qualities that women should conform to. The “ideal wife” shown in those advertisements was domestic, pleasing, and traditional. It also emphasized the woman’s role as a well-behaved wife or a doting mother.” Aguilar explains.
This fresh take by Aguilar recontextualizes the depiction of women in obsolete ads in comparison to the modern take on women being free and unfiltered.
And if you turn once more to the right you will see lights. And yes, you can take a selfie.
Brightening the space are the LED light pieces and mirrors by Villarica. Inspired by the LED signages that light up the night, Villarica uses these lights to remind women that as women in advertising, they are the very people who will push for messages that inspire women to lift one another. Her piece "Talking to the Woman in the Mirror" aims to reinforce that message as well. When a viewer looks at the mirror and reads the message on them, it is as if one is having a pep talk with themselves.
Challenging the Status Quo
Collectively the works offered a glimpse into the frustrations and hopes of these three women. A unique take of what it’s like from the inside looking outside of the advertising industry. The audience is invited to not just think outside the box but also seek to unveil their own prejudices over the female body.
Play within the box: Woman Reframed humanizes women in advertisements as an attempt to liberate them from the figurative box of which everyone is invited to think out of. As these three stalwarts of advertising have championed the brands they’ve worked with, this is their way of creating space for women to recognize their own agency and uplift other women through their art.
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