Billboard Analysis: Joe's

This billboard is really quite different to the previous magazine billboard that I analysed, as it is for a clothing company. I thought that it would be a good idea to observe the differences between a fashion magazine and a fashion company. The primary target audience for the product is women aged 17-25. This is easy to tell because a woman is featured on the billboard wearing women's clothing, which is something that tends not to attract men unless in context.

As I mentioned in the previous analysis, I do not agree with sexualisation within media texts, as I believe that equality is really important. Mulvey (1975) stated that women are only in the media as viewing pleasure for men. Even if the product is not targeted at men, it could attract them and encourage the females around them, such as girlfriends, to take on the same behavioral qualities as the models in the advertising. This one will definitely attract males as it features a female topless, something that is unlikely to appeal to females unless the female is aspiring to be like the vehicle used, in which case the producers would have been successful in attracting their audience. The fact that the company is called 'Joe's' and uses a font that is not overly feminine suggests to me that there would be a mens clothing line as well as women's, so again, attracting males through the sexualisation seems to be what they are trying to do here.

Because she is situated on a swing, it is suggested that the billboard is trying to take the audience back to the days where they were children having a good time in the playground, especially seeing as all around her is deserted land, connoting a peaceful atmosphere which contrasts with the stressful atmosphere that everyone takes on as they grow up. It also shows how the audience has grown by having the model topless, symbolizing that the women who purchase their clothing still have have like they did when they were kids, only they have grown up and now have sex appeal, convincing the audience that their clothes give a less stressful lifestyle.

Personally, I do not feel as thought this billboard has been overly helpful in gaining me knowledge of what I need to do in order to ensure my own billboard is exactly what I want it to be, as it has heavily sexualised the model in the image, precisely what I have been trying to avoid throughout my studies as I believe that sexualisation is such a negative and degrading thing. Women should not be placed in the eye of the media for the viewing pleasure of men, they are human beings, not objects, and I want to empower my audience, not objectify them.