Women or Machines?

As you can tell in this Wii commercial, it is a competition between two different Nintendo systems, portrayed as women. The beautiful, skinny, half-naked woman is the “Wii” while the larger, unattractive woman with glasses is the “PS3”. They are trying to sell themselves by referring to their human/machine like qualities with statements such as, “I am large and in charge” or “All you have to do is just touch me, and you’ll have the time of your life”. The Wii advertisement uses the more socially accepted and highly provocative woman (Nintendo system Wii) as their strategy of persuasion. By using women as parts or machines, advertisement companies can attract many different audiences depending on what route they want to go. In the two cases here, the primary advertisement (Wii) is reaching out to the teenage boy or young adult male, while the other advertisement (“What is Sexy“) to help justify, is targeted towards women. In the early years of the 21st century of producers and consumers, advertisement is manipulated by using sex and technology to attract their consumers.
Technology today is advancing faster than ever and advertisers use sex to lure consumers in. Nintendo systems (a vastly growing technology) are ideally played by teenage boys or young adult men, so by using a distorted view of reality (men want attractive women) Wii and other commercials use sexy, desirably women to sell their product. In this Wii advertisement, they make it very obvious which “machine” is more desirable. The Wii is depicted as a fun, flirty, attractive and cheap machine by a woman of the same standards, while the PS3 (competition) is depicted as a boring, dull, nerdy and unattractive machine, like the woman describing herself. The women clearly state that they are a machine, “I’m a PS3 and I’m a Wii” undervaluing the women as human, but also giving the machine a distorted reality of what men want. Visually, the more attractive woman in her swimsuit, creates a desire for consumers (teenage boys and young adult men) to want a machine that is more “fun”, as the Wii woman puts it. As she flirts and moves around in sexy gestures, it makes the Wii look more desirable to buy. Would a teenage boy or young adult man want a large, nerdy, bulky unattractive woman or a beautiful half-naked, sexy woman to “play” with? Obviously consumers targeted are going to side with the sexy woman in her bathing suit, dancing around and telling them to touch her. Sex sells. This image of women provokes thoughts and ideas, creating a distorted view of reality to its consumers. The consumers see the advertisement as a sexy woman dancing around and slapping her butt, but do not really look at it the real underlying statement of producers trying to sell their product. Consumers in our society want the newer, sexy and more attractive machine.



Another advertisement strategy targets women instead, by showing women consumers they can be sexy too. Just as the Wii commercial flaunts the beautiful woman around to attract male consumers, Victoria’s Secret, “What Is Sexy” commercial shows women consumers they can be sexy and in charge with VS’s new underwear technology. This commercial has no words, but instead powerful music and dramatic poses. Even though the advertisement doesn’t use speech, the point is clearly made. Through Victoria’s Secret advertisement the sexy women are juxtaposed with heavy machines such as cars and trains. In doing so, the juxtaposition shows how compatible the VS women are with the hot car and powerful train. By doing this it is also showing that their product will make the women just as powerful and sexy as the heavy machinery, just like the way men like their machines.
With these two commercials, both women and men are targeted by the use of sex and technology as to consume advertisers products. Appearance and power these days are societies primary goal in life, so advertisers take full advantage of that. With the next powerful technology and new plastic surgery, people strive to be “the best”. Consumers buy products because it is going to make them look better and become more powerful. These two advertisement companies, Wii and Victoria’s Secret, best suit how America sells their product to envious consumers of the 21st century.
Carly Rieder
TA: David Witzling