Under ArmHer
May 2019
Finally! Women no longer have to sacrifice looks when exercising!
As a call to action against institutions I have decided to create a “mock advertisement”. This advertisement is a critique of advertising companies and athletic brands, and how they market products to women. The video features a pair of high heels that I have created out of old American Football cleats and a pair of five-inch heels. In the context of this video, these heels are supposedly the new products of Under Armour, made specifically for women in sports/fitness. By creating an advertisement with a similar cut-style to well-known athletic brands for a product so outlandish, I have specifically made a critique on how gendered products are marketed to women. There is also an underlying commentary and critique on the products that are made for women, however, in this specific form I am creating a call to action to advertising companies and how they market products.
The specific issues that I am addressing through this mock advertisement are about how women are portrayed in the media. Relating directly to the “product” in the advertisement, there is a constant pressure for women to look a certain way. For women in athletics this is amplified because of their bodies are related to their performance. However, in the media, women’s bodies are often over analyzed, and often scrutinized. In advertisements, often only one body type is represented— a slim, athletic, but not “built” woman, who many times is also white. In the advertisements, these women’s bodies are also often a center point. In my mock advertisement I amplified this commonality in order to create this critique by including many shots of the chest and torso. The heels in this case are also to emphasize the body, speaking to the expectations of women to go far and beyond in order to look a certain way. This marketing approach alienates many different women, and there needs to be a change.
This mock advertisement is about the expectations of how women should look and perform. The call to action is for marketing companies to change the way they frame athletic women to the public. Agencies must consider how different women, in various shapes and with varying races, look and perform. By making advertisements that deemphasize the woman’s body, and that feature varying bodies and races of women, they can help create different expectations of women.