When opening a women’s magazine from the 1970s you immediately notice the provocative perfume advertisements that sometimes featured a highly sexualized idea of women and men. This thesis compares perfume advertisements featured in Cosmopolitanand Redbook magazines. By using qualitative and quantitative content analysis when analyzing the various perfume advertisements, the messages of these advertisements were analyzed. Advertisements of perfume products create and reflect cultural notions regarding the status of women and gender roles. Trends from Cosmopolitan and Redbookperfume advertisements revealed:

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Chapter                                                                                                                       Page

1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………….1

Topic 1……………………………………………………………………………

1. LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………………..
2. METHODOLOGY………………………………………………………………
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION…………………………………………………
4. CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………..

Future Research and Limitations…………………………………………………

Implications………………………………………………………………………

Recommendations………………………………………………………………..

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………..

APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………..

APPENDIX A – TITLE…………………………………………………………

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER I

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Through content analysis, this study explores perfume advertisements printed in Cosmopolitan and Rebook magazines from the 1970s era. Both of these magazines are crammed with sexual advertisements, most of them perfume ads. Sexual content in perfume advertising is usually shown in the following ways: models showing chests and breasts, open shirts, tight fitting clothing, touching, kissing, and embracing. These scenes of sexual content are often woven into the promises to make the wearer of the perfume more sexually attractive, more likely to engage in some type of sexual behavior, or simply “feel” sexier. Chapter One provides a brief history of both Cosmopolitan and Redbookmagazines from the 1970s and their targeted audience, discussed sexual appeals used in advertising, the problems of “ideal beauty”, and the specific ways perfume is advertised,and a preview of subsequent chapters. This study uses content analysis and the perspective of the cultivation theory to examine how women are represented in perfume advertisements published in Redbook and Cosmopolitan from 1970 – 1974 and how the advertisements in both magazines differ from one another.

Rationale

Cosmopolitan and Redbook magazines are being studied based on their demographic reach across the United States. By 1976, Cosmopolitan circulated 2.515 million copies monthly; whileRebook’s readership reached 5 million per year in the 1970s. The target audiences for both magazines were women ages 20 to 30 years old. It is important to study the advertisements of this time period within the historical context in which they occurred. Examining these two magazines gives insight as to what it was like to be a young woman during this era.

This thesis argues that perfume advertisements influence opinions and behaviors of the women who read them and society as a whole. Although magazines are only one type of advertising vehicle that can be examined from that time period, they are important to examine, because so much of their content comes from advertising. “Advertising occupies almost 60% of newspaper space, 52% of magazine pages, 18% of radio time, and 17% of television prime time” (Collins &Skover, 1993, pp. 698). According to McCracken (2003), women’s magazines are a perfect way to advertise because, “Advertising occupies up to 95% of the space in some women’s magazines, earning these publications the more appropriate title, ‘women’s advertising magazines’”(pp. 4). Vaughan (2003) suggests that people are more emotionally invested in the content of their magazines, which gives one more reason why magazines are an important medium to study. Redbook and Cosmopolitan issues from the 1970s were chosen because the perfume advertisements in this era constructed images of what being female meant.

The 1970s were alive with feminism, which was reborn in the 1960s as women sought to liberate themselves from society’s traditional roles of being a wife and mother. Women’s liberation was a powerful movement, but the second wave of feminism crashed with the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. “Social historian Ruth Rosen notes that it was the year 1979, when media pundits declared – with a collective sigh of relief – that the women’s movement was dead, and it was 1976 when the first blatantly dissonant magazine advertisement found its way into an issue of Cosmopolitan” (Crymble, 2009, pp. 74). By studying perfume advertisements in these two magazines we are able to see the “blatantly dissonant” advertisement mentioned above that was alive in the 1970s.

Cosmopolitan

Cosmopolitan, or Cosmo, is a monthly magazine for young women, with 50 international editions that feature short fiction and advice articles on relationships, sex, fashion, entertainment, and careers. Schlicht& Field Company founded Cosmopolitan magazine in 1886 as a “family journal of fashion, household décor, cooking, and other domestic interests” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011). Two years later the Schlicht& Field’s company filed for bankruptcy and sold the magazine to Joseph Newton Hallock who added book reviews to the magazine. In 1889 John Brisben Walker took over the magazine and expanded circulation from 20,000 to 400,000 making it “a popular literary magazine featuring poetry, travel essays and short stories” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011). William Randolph Hearst bought out the magazine in 1905 and shortly after, it adopted a format containing short fiction, celebrities and public affairs articles. By 1940, Cosmopolitan’s circulation reached 2 million readers.

In 1965 Helen Gurley Brown, the author of Sex and the Single Girl, became Cosmopolitan’s first female editor and gave the magazine a drastic makeover for the changing times. At a time when Reader’s Digest and The Ladies Home Journal still insisted that a “nice” girl had only two choices, “she can marry him or she can say no,” Brown openly proclaimed that sex was an important part of a single woman’s life. According to Brown, “The single girl is the new glamour girl.” The magazine’s new motto became, “fun, fearless, female,” and covered topics from birth control, independence, premarital sex, and corporate careers.Brown (2000) admitted, “I like skin, I like pretty. I don’t want to photograph the girl next door” (pp. 16).

The 1969 demographics showed the following characteristics of Cosmopolitan readers: two of every six women readers were younger than twenty-four and three of every six were ages twenty-five to forty-four; six of nine were married and two of nine had never married; one of eight was a manager or professional person and three of eight were “pink-collar” employees, while another three of eight did not work outside the home; one of eight earned a median income of $5,050 and five of eight earned above the median; three of eight attended or graduated college; and two of three lived in cities or suburbs. During the 1960’s, the number of women employed outside the house increased by 45% or 11 million workers. Most women were first-generation office workers and first generation collegians. Many possibly were insecure about themselves because they were unfamiliar with workplace etiquette and behavior. Cosmopolitan perhaps assisted many young women in navigating a world their mothers had not known.

At the start of the 1970s women made up 2% of engineers, 4% of architects, 5% of lawyers, 13% of scientists, and 26% of accountants (Landers, 2010).Full time employment for women ages 20 to 34 in the early 1970s was 15.1 million. The median income for women in 1969 was $5,100 and $8,900 for men. The magazine, like its editor, was filled with advice on how to move ahead in a career, meet men, lose weight, and be a good sexual partner.

In the April 1972 issue, Cosmopolitan ran a near-nude centerfold of actor Burt Reynolds that created great controversy, propelling Cosmopolitan to the forefront of American popular culture at the time. Advertising expanded the magazine in the early 1970s to between 328 to 352 pages per issue. At one point so many advertisers wanted to buy advertisements in Cosmopolitan that Hearst executives had to set a strict limit of 200 advertising pages per issue to be able to print the magazine. Cosmopolitan became 55% advertising pages. “The preponderance of ads did not bother readers, who continued to buy an extremely high percentage of copies placed on store shelves and checkout counters” (Landers, 2010, pp. 282). To put this in perspective, Cosmopolitan carried twice the number of ad pages published in Ladies’ Home Journal, McCall’s or Redbook. Cosmopolitan circulated 2.515 million copies monthly by 1976, an average annual gain of 209,000 copies after the Burt Reynolds centerfold had brought the magazine notoriety. Data from a readership survey conducted for the Hearst Corporation in 1969 and 1983 indicated that Cosmopolitan attracted all sorts of women readers, although proportional representations were sometimes surprising. Helen Gurley Brown’s vision is still being carried through the current issues of Cosmopolitan magazine.

Cosmopolitan is the world’s number-one magazine for young women, 61 editions are published in over 100 countries, reaching 78 million readers worldwide – nobody talks to more women globally. Cosmopolitan evokes glamour and aspiration. The editorial philosophy is built on the cornerstones of fashion, beauty, body, sex and relationships making Cosmopolitan a complete lifestyle experience. (The Loop)

Cosmopolitan acknowledges itself, “We don’t just sell magazines, we sell desire and aspiration…speaking one voice – a voice that is worldly, adventurous and of course sexy.” Cosmopolitan also comments on the importance of advertising the magazine, “Our readers don’t flick through Cosmopolitan they devour it, advertisements and all” (ACP Media, 2011). Cosmopolitan readers see the advertisements as a vital part of the whole magazine and they consume every printed part. “We speak in a really authentic voice to women,” Kate White editor-in-chief at Cosmopolitan in 2005 said on The Early Show, “We don’t try to be their sister or the authority. We’re like that smart, fun, girlfriend who is going to tell you like it is. I think women really crave empowerment, someone that says to them: ‘Yeah, go for it, baby!’”

Redbook

Red Book Magazine began in May of 1903 as The Red Book Illustrated by a group of Chicago retail firms of Stumer, Rosenthal, and Eckstein. Red Book was considered the “baby sister of the ‘Seven Sisters’ women’s service magazines,” but exemplified how consumer magazines constantly redefined themselves to maintain their place on the newsstand (Endres, 1995). The first editor, Trumbull White, left Red Book in 1906, and Karl Edwin Harriman took over until 1912. He incorporated several ideas from Red Book’s sister publications the Blue Book and the Green Book, such as increasing the short stories per issue, adding non-fiction pieces, and printing a full novel in monthly sections and Red Book became known as “The Great Ten Penny Short Story Magazine” (Endres,1995, pp. 298). The magazine’s name symbolizes the theme conveyed from the pages; best stated by the first editor Trumbull White, “Red is the color of cheerfulness, of brightness, of gayety” (Endres,1995, pp. 298). The magazine’s name was later changed to the Redbook, and it soon became famous for publishing short fiction and monthly novels by influential writers such as Jack London and Sinclair Lewis, at this time, various advertisements for cosmetics and skin care attracted a vast audience of women.

With the rise of travel and radio in the 1920s, Redbook tried to appeal to every member of the family, for if the whole family read the magazine the publishers felt it could survive on the newsstand.This tactic of appealing to a wide age range to both genders made Redbook a success. Within the first two years of this method,the magazine established a circulation of approximately 300,000 issues (Endres,pp. 298).

Although Redbook was perceived as a family magazine, many of the authors were women. Throughout the 1920s, front covers of the magazine always depicted an elegant young woman in front of a red background. During Harriman’s period as editor, the magazine claimed to be the “Largest Illustrated Fiction Magazine in the World” and described the advertising section as the “Great Shopping Window of America,” which captured the eyes of many consumers who considered Redbook to be a wholesome and family oriented magazine (Endres, 1995, pp. 298).

The magazine’s format changed from editor to editor in order to maintain its prominent position in both the consumer’s household and within print culture. After being bought by the McCall Corporation in the summer of 1929, the flapper and her male counterpart the flipper were considered the new audience of Redbook and the fiction and entertainment pieces became the main attraction to the consumer (Endres, 1995, pp. 300). During this time Redbook featured non-fiction pieces by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Booth Tarkington, Gertrude Temple, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. allowing the new editor, Edwin Balmer, to entice a younger generation of readers and still portray Redbook as a general interest magazine (Endres, 1995, pp. 300). Part of Redbook’s success is due to the fact that it was never a leader of women’s magazines, but always a steady competitor. The fiction and non-fiction pieces continued to be printed along with the monthly book chapters, yet with the rise of television, Redbook quickly began to lose circulation and advertisements.

In 1949, Wade Hampton Nichols replaced Balmer as the editor and altered Redbook so that it would survive the changing times. He decided that the post-World War II key demographic was the youth, so he added the subtitle “The Magazine for Young Adults” to the front cover (Endres, 1995, pp. 301). Redbook now addressed more political issues while maintaining the entertainment and celebrity portions of the magazine. The young adult demographic was viewed to be more open-minded and educated and Nichols thought this new demographic would enjoy reading stories about pollution and political movements in other countries. In the 1960s Robert Stein became the editor of the magazineand he continued striving to attract a younger female audience.In 1965, Sey Chassler took over the publication and dramatically increased the readership from two million to over five million during his stay. During this time Rebook’s target audience were women ranging from 20 to 30 years old. Chassler’s New York Times obituary said, “A strong advocate for women’s rights, Mr. Chassler started an unusual effort in 1976 that led to the simultaneous publication of articles about the proposed equal rights amendments in thirty-six women’s magazines.” From this point on, Redbook would quickly evolve into strictly a women’s magazine both through its marketing and its advertisements.

Redbook was now a forum for women to discuss topics on women’s rights, sexual harassment, and the rise of the workingwoman. According to Zuckerman (1995), “In 1970 the magazine shifted from targeting young married women to zeroing in on the female half of the couple, in her role as mother . . . during these years Redbook was considered the most intellectual of the Seven Sisters” (pp.178). The articles found throughout the pages of Redbook during the 1970s include mothering methods, sex life after marriage, how to discipline children, and how to maintain a social life. The magazine was no longer the once literary-focused Redbook, which was a definite sign of the consumer’s wants. After Chassler’s retirement, the first female editor Anne Mollegen Smith was appointed to Redbook in 1984. She introduced the version of Redbook that is most similar to the present day publication. Smith implemented short novellas, celebrity interviews, and stories on topics like dating and sex (Endres, 1995, pp. 305).

Redbook is one of the few surviving publications of the 1920s and is still a prominent women’s magazine in today’s culture. Non-fiction articles explore social issues, parenting, sex, marriage, money, health, and psychology relating to women. For nearly 100 years, Redbook has been providing young women with timely and relevant advice for its readership of active working mothers ages 25 to 44.

Statement of the Research Problem

In the year 1976, Cosmopolitan circulated 2.515 million copies monthly; while Redbookcirculated over 5 million copies each year in the 1970s. Most of the readers for these magazines were women aged between 20 to 30 years old. In the year 2011, Cosmopolitan’scirculation increased by 10 percent as compared to the circulation of the 1970s, while that of Redbook increased by 8 percent. This means the readership of these magazines has been increasing over the years and the content there in reaching a wider population as compared to the 1970s. This is good news to marketers and manufacturers who advertise their products in the magazines since information concerning the products they manufacture can reach a wider market as compared to the 1970s. This research study aims at analyzing the perfume advertisements in the two magazines between the years 1970 and 1974. As mentioned above, perfume advertisements are usually sexualized and explicit. With the increased circulation of these magazines, such adverts are likely to reach a wider population and thus negatively affect the target audience. The discussion below further explains the relevance of carry out this study and its significance and effects on Cosmopolitan and Redbook magazine readers.

Sexual Appeals in Advertising

The use of sexual appeals in advertisements has been used as far back as the 1800s. This has been a tool used by advertisers to entice, shock, and sell their products to consumers (Reichert, 2003). This tactic seems to be effective, because the perfume advertisements that were found in women’s magazines used for this study were flooded with sexual imagery. Magazines are an important medium to study, because they are read by a variety of women and they have the ability to capture their audience for an extended period of interrupted time. “Women’s magazines are a sphere of activity that readers view as an area of freedom, free choice, and free time,” (McCracken, 1993, pp. 72). It is important to analyze advertisements through a feminist perspective because women are the intended recipients of these messages.

Kang (1997) conducted a study that focused on gender behavior in advertisements and determined which behaviors were shown the most in magazine advertisements in 1979 and then again in 1991. He found that “Advertisements have consistently confined women to traditional mother-home, or beauty/sex-oriented roles that are not representative of women’s diversity” (Kang, 1997, pp. 11). Kang’s research found that: (a) women were rarely shown in working roles especially in high-level positions, (b) were shown as dependent on men’s protection, (c) were rarely far from home by themselves or with other women and, (d) men regarded women as sex objects. In Kang’s research women were most often shown in ads for drugs, home appliances, cleaning products, beauty products, clothing, food products, and fragrances.

Kang’s research holds true according to Busby and Leichty (1993) who found women are being portrayed as sex objects in advertisements. “From the 1950s through the 1980s researchers have found a lessening of advertising images showing women in the home or in family settings… but an increase over time in the number of women shown in purely decorative or alluring roles in the ads,” (pp. 250). Of these advertisement images, perfume is responsible for some of the most alluring or sexual roles. “The fragrance product category was found to be the most sexual overall. Fragrance advertisements relied heavily on the use of ‘promise’ – a tool commonly used by advertisers to promote an idealized lifestyle” (Pawlowski, 2007, pp. 104).Women are told over and over again that certain products will increase their chances of having their idealized lifestyle. “The notions of sex and sexiness are used to push and promote much valued cultural ideals and norms. Love, romance, intimacy, relationships, togetherness, and success are just some of the values that are expressed time and again though the use of sex in advertising” (Pawlowski, 2007, pp. 182). A study done by Reichert and Alaro (2001) found that participants who watched a fragrance commercial, which featured a high level of sex appeal throughout, were more engaged than in a non-sexual one they had seen prior. Reicher and Alaro found that participants who viewed the sexual ad also had positive thoughts about the ad and had a greater recall of what the ad was about immediately after viewing it and 2 months later, than the viewers of the non-sexual ad. This experience fuels the notion that sex sells. The promise of sex, love, and intimacy is reflected within the pages of magazine advertisements as well as the promise of ideal beauty.

Ideal Beauty

Women are under an extreme amount of pressure to embody “ideal beauty” because they learn very quickly that social opportunities are affected by how beautiful they are. Because of this, their sense of beauty becomes very important to young women’s identities. Research shows that exposure to images of thin, young, airbrushed female bodies is linked to low self-esteem, depression, and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women (Media Awareness). In 2007, the American Psychological Association released a report concluding that girls exposed to sexualized images from a young age are more prone to depression, eating disorders, and low self-esteem. Consumers spend large amounts of money on the latest clothing, makeup, plastic surgery, and accessories that can help them reach the level of “ideal beauty” they see in media messages on a daily basis. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), more than eleven million surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures were performed in 2007 and just under $13.2 billion were spent on these procedures.

Advertisements repeatedly tell women that what is most important is how they look. They surround us with the image of “ideal beauty”, but this flawlessness cannot be achieved. This look has been created through airbrushing, cosmetics, and computer retouching (Killing Us Softly, Jean Kilbourne). According to Wood (1999), “to be feminine in the United States is to be attractive, deferential, unaggressive, emotional, nurturing, and concerned with people and relationships” (Frith, K., Shaw, P., & Hong Cheng. 2005). Advertisers know this and use this information to manipulate women to invest large amounts of money on superficial objects to feel attractive.

Sexualized advertisements are most likely to be shown in women and men’s magazines compared to general interest magazines. Advertisements in men’s magazines portray women in a more sexualized fashion, although women’s magazines show both men and women in a highly sexualized manner. Women are highly sexualized in men’s magazines with a shocking number of women appearing partially clad or nude. However, a study involving leading U.S. magazines, Cosmopolitan and Glamour, found that images of undressed men increased from 3% in the 1950s to 35% in the 1990s, which suggests that men are also becoming victims of being overly sexualized in magazine advertisements (Tiggemann, M. & McGill, B., 2004).

There are a mixed variety of the types of advertisements that appear in women’s magazines. “Many magazine advertisements portray a body part only, for instance, a pair of women’s legs to advertise shoes, or a flat stomach to advertise breakfast cereal” (Hall & Crum, 1994, p. 329). Hall and Crum (1994) refer to images solely of a part of the body as “body-isms” (pp.329). The widespread use of female body-isms in the media offers a representation of women as fragmented parts and devoid of personality (Tiggemann& McGill, 2004). Perfume advertisements often feature isolated images of the female body, which only contributes to the misrepresentation of women (Gales, J. &Rajagopal, I., 3333).

Perfume Advertisements

One thing is certain: fragrance marketers play to people’s fantasies. Sexual content in perfume advertising is shown in the usual ways: as models showing skin and breasts, open shirts, tight-fitting clothing and as flirtations involving touching, kissing, and embracing. This sexual content is often woven into the explicit and implicit sexual promises. (Reichert, 2003). A study in 1970 conducted by marketing analyst Suzanne Grayson revealed that sex was the central positioning strategy for 49 percent of the fragrances on the market. The second highest positioning strategy was outdoor/sports at 14 percent. According to Richard Roth, an account executive for Prince Matchabelli, “Fragrance will always be sold with a desirability motif” (Reichert, 2003). In Grayson’s analysis, sexual themes ranged from raw sex, to romance with the fragrance positioned as an aphrodisiac -an “aromatic potion” that conjured intimate feelings or activated behavioral expression of those feelings.

Even when advertisements do not directly present manifest social life, they reflect viewers’ anxieties, daydreams, desires, sense of whimsy or nostalgia, and especially longings to be a certain kind of person. Image advertising for instance, fabricates user images, that is, images of the kind of person who uses a product…Thus advertisements are peopled by Marlboro’s macho loner, Chanel No 5’s sensualists, or basketball stars who can ‘sky.’ Still other advertisements parade women who allow Vanderbilt perfume to “release the splendor” of themselves, or announce that they are, variously, Charlie, Scamp, or “Shalimar, all over,” or have a place among Revlon’s “most unforgettable women in the world (Hirota, J &Jackall, R., pp. 103).

Perfume advertisements create a sensual mood, which are essential in fragrance advertising. “A fragrance doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t stop wetness. It doesn’t unclog your drain. To create a fantasy for the consumer is what fragrance is all about. And sex and romance are a big part of where people’s fantasies tend to run,” confessed Robert Green, vice president of advertising for Calvin Klein Cosmetics, to the New York Times (Reichert, 2003).

Chanel No. 5 has been one of the most top-selling perfumes since its release on May 5, 1921. The package by French designer Coco Chanel’s has remained unchanged since she first tested the fragrance in the vial labeled “Chanel No. 5.” The company’s subtle advertising approach was a wise strategy considering that the target audience was older women: “Our advertisin