Introduction Today’s society is based on gaining money and spending it. The media is there to give us the ideas how to do it. The mass media spreads the ideas, especially the one that the most important thing in life is appearances; they make us rely too much on fashion and the way we look. The best way to make people spend the money is to advertise the products they are to buy. Advertisements influence the people creating opinions and stereotypes, especially among the youth. And advertising in fashion industry today is very wide spread and using many strategies to make products sell, that range from using celebrities to World Wide Web.
So, we can ask ourselves do we buy new clothes because we really need it. Or because we saw our favorite singer or actress wearing it, or because fashion magazines and ads say they’re ‘in’? ‘This is how you should look like! ’ Advertisements breed a sense in consumers that something is missing; something which will make one’s life better than it is now. Advertisements offer products, that something, which will assure a person who buys them a better life, more popularity or that they can take you closer to the image of beauty they had set forth. Fashion is image oriented industry.
Clothes we wear can determine race, gender, social and economic status or the way we look. Skinny girls and muscle clad men we see in ads create an illusion that is the perfect body type and that everyone should have it. That is the image that fashion industry has set forth and if your proportions are not 90-60-90 or smaller you do not fit, you are not good enough. Fashion ads influence the minds of people and confine us to be perfectly shaped person. This leads to the loss of identity with many individuals. We stop thinking by ourselves, forget the ideas and principles we had and turn into what someone else had set forth for us to follow.
Teenage market is the one most targeted. Teenagers are still developing their own ideas and opinions about the world, society and this is what makes them an easy targets. A lot of them buy teenage magazines and on the covers of which we can never see an overweight person, but skinny and usually photoshopped model. Articles in the fashion and beauty magazines are dedicated to what is in and out, brand names and images of skinny girls or muscle clad men advertising those brands. The message they deliver to, not only teenagers, but to other people lso is very clear: ‘This is how you should look to fit in. ’ It is another reason why advertising in fashion industry can be blamed for many problems with weight and eating disorders society has, especially in America and Europe. The models in advertisements create the illusion that this is the perfect body all should have. However, fashion industry can no longer afford itself to market all their clothes to fit the women wearing size 0, that is with the perfect model-like bodies. Current trend that is rocking the fashion industry nowadays is that plus-size is not an afterthought anymore.
The models for the plus-size women have to be flattering and also presented to them in a respectful way, which bring us to the strategies used in advertising in fashion industry. One of the favorite strategies is using celebrities to market the clothes especially by wearing them at the public events like an award shows. This way celebrities set trends but also send message: ‘If famous person wears it, it has to be cool therefore you have to have it too. ’ Both for the celebrities and the designers this is a win-win situation. Designers get promoted and celebrities are showered with free items that designers throw their way.
Today’s fashion industry has unlimited resources and they use them freely to advertisement by billboards, mass media and especially by World Wide Web. Most of the world’s population has access to the internet and advertisers know this. That is why one of the most used strategies used lately is advertising on the internet, especially by using banner ads on web pages. Also, many fashion magazines are setting up their web pages where one can read upcoming articles, see what is in and out, and learn the hits of the upcoming season. Advertising companies also use terminology taken from the popular culture.
This is all done to attract the attention of younger population that is teenagers and women who are the most targeted groups. Something that is advertised using words and phrases we use on daily basis is more likely to attract the attention of potential customers than when political or business register is used. Part of the marketing strategy is to put in potential customers head ideas about what they need to make their life better and more complete. Or in the case of fashion industry to implement ideas about what kind of clothes should be worn in different situations: at work, school, parties, weddings, funerals, etc.
Moreover, it is important to note that thanks to very successful marketing there are many fashion items, like the little black dress and blue jeans, which women bought and still continue to buy. Conclusion Fashion industry in fashion industry today ranged from advertising by billboards to mass media to internet. Terminology from popular culture is used, because it is much closer to the common person the using maybe too uptight business or political register for example. Celebrities also play enormous part in advertising in fashion industry.
They wear clothes given to them by fashion designers, setting trends and promoting designers and brands at the same time. Advertisements set forth the images of beauty (usually too skinny girls), ideas of who we are and who we should be to be accepted in the society. This image of ‘skinny and photoshopped’ beauty they had set forth is the cause of many problems with the weight and eating disorders today’s society has, because those are wrong images of beauty. Ads are creating stereotypes based on the clothes we wear and how we look, affecting our opinions and ideas about people and the world we live in.
The ads sell a great deal more than products. They sell values, images and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy. They tell us who we are and who we should be. Sources: 1. http://www. perfecttermpapers. com/research-papers-two/advertising-in-fashion-industry. html 2. http://www. filthylucre. com/fashion-industry-marketing-to-women 3. http://www. medialit. org/reading-room/beautyand-beast-advertising 4. http://www. reprint-content. com/Article/Problems-With-The-Fashion-Industry/21542 5. http://www. prlog. org/10490611-the-fashion-industry-and-marketing-strategies-towards-women. html
