Fashion Campaign

Páginas: 9 (2172 palabras) Publicado: 4 de marzo de 2013
Analysis Paper: Dolce and Gabbana Advertisements

Kirsten Millwater 827997395 Jessie Stewart Visual Communication: SPCM 347

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Owners of Dolce and Gabbana; Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, probably never thought they would be reading so many negative things about their company and the name before they released just another advertisement for their campaign in March of 2007.The image released was one of a man holding a woman down forcefully while three other men stood and watched. The debate rages over whether or not this image represents an artistic interpretation of a sexual fantasy, or if it just glorifies rape. As the fashion industry continues to push the envelope and strives to remain cutting edge the line between risqué and offensive continues to blur. In thispaper I will mainly focus on the advertisement which received the most flak, the one a woman being held down, which suggests possibilities of gang rape and violence against women. I also will analyze a few other advertisements from Dolce and Gabbana to form the argument that Dolce and Gabbana continually pushes the lines of right and wrong in the media by releasing advertisements that are notpublically acceptable. Dolce and Gabbana is well known for their high fashion images/ads, as well as their beautifully designed clothing/shoes/accessories, but regrettably released one specific advertisement that caught publics’ attention quite fast. The Ad ran in the March issue of Esquire magazine in the United States, but was also released globally in various different mediums. Dolce and Gabbana wasprompt to pull the quickly regretted ad from public, yet still today when you type in the words “Dolce and Gabbana” into Google, and hit enter, this image is one of the first that you see. But you would be surprised by the other not-so-pleasant images and articles that cover the page. The first couple of hits are mostly from the actual webpage for consumers to purchase clothes at their “oh sohip” fashion store online. But just a few titles below, are articles debating one image of a very racy advertisement from this company that created a huge scandal

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in the news. An article from “Think Fashion” stated that “Dolce & Gabbana insist that the ad was never meant to be controversial and that it was meant to represent an erotic dream; a sexual game… We have decided to cancelthe advertising image that has caused such repercussions within human interest groups and individuals." Ok, so they apologized and pulled it from the media, but did they really think that the public would respond positively to this image? Very unlikely. The image does not include much clothing on their models at all, so the company is clearly not asking the viewers to purchase much from their line.So what is it really communicating? An article titled 'Gang rape' Dolce and Gabbana Advert Banned stated that "Because of the passive and helpless position of the woman relative to the men around her, the image evokes the representation of abuse or the idea of violence towards her." If this is true, then why would Dolce and Gabbana, such a high fashion company, try to convey these deeper meaningsto its viewers? Why would the editors not see an issue with the gender-demeaning pose of the models? Maybe they really were just trying to be high fashion (as many up and coming clothing lines are these days) and if that is the case, then they apologized for the release of such a controversial image and should now be able to move on with other advertisements for their company that are morepleasing to their viewers… Before we let them off the hook though, I would like to introduce another photo from their ad campaign released shortly after this one.

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When we look at this advertisement, we can see that Dolce and Gabbana also touches on issues of sexuality as well. They could be trying to argue that public needs to be more comfortable with homosexuality, but they...
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