Commodification of Sexuality in Advertising Representation

Abstract

Advertising is part of the overall form of marketing that aims to influence consumers to do things according to the message content of the advertisement. Women with all their sexual attractiveness are a very important part in advertising. Social statuses can be produced through advertisements distributed through various media, print media, audio media and films, statuses can be constructed based on gender, class, race and sex. Ads for Ax Indonesian ad-heaven on eart (full version) persuade consumers from the sexual domain by distributing stimulation, seduction, temptation, pleasure, passion, desire or lust without limits, demonstrating the presentation of the commodification of women. This research aims to understand how signs are arranged to be communicated to the public and how the message structure commodifies women. The method used in this research is semiotics combined with a feminist perspective. The practical benefit to be gained is that advertising should pay attention to ethical dimensions and values in every effort to engineer advertisements for a product, instead of relying solely on the effectiveness of persuasive messages just for the sake of profit.

Keywords: advertising, commodification, sexuality