Selling a product? Hire a sexy blond for your advertising!
Context:
I found this advertisement on google.image when I searched "advertising and woman" and this advertisement is for LavAzza Espresso.
Content:
This image shows a sexy woman pilot needing espresso to do finish her flights. At least, that's what we'd hope the image is. But on further inspection, this image can be characterized as a man's fantasy - the sexy pilot. With her bra showing, her luscious long blond hair, and her 'come do me in the cock...pit' eyes, she uses her sex appeal to sell espresso - no wonder boys suddenly want a rush of caffeine.
Form:
The pilot is in focus in the middle of the picture and everything is blurred behind her; this makes the eye center on her. The color in the shot is mostly neutral with her white and black pilot costume (that is strategically opened to show her neutral colored bra which gives the impression of bare breasts). The only color that pops in the image is her bright red nails which could bring the eye to the espresso but instead brings the eye to the shiny spoon in her mouth, her long and unusually shiny blond hair, and her bright blue eyes. All the color of the shot is on her and centered on her 'come hither' look and not the subject of the advertisement - the espresso. The prop of the espresso makes this image somewhat tolerable - it's not between her legs or her breasts like many of the other images posted. The espresso, however, is sexualized by the use of the spoon and the pilot laying on what is assumed to be a bed.
My Reading:
Through this image I want to drink espresso (but that could be it's also 8:00am.) Seriously, it is saying that woman cannot be pilots but only a sex object dressed up as a pilot and depicting blonds as sluts. This image tells woman that to be successful and pursued, she has to be beautiful and sexy - not intelligent. She has to have the look of having sex - not have a brain.