User:Kate.winski/sandbox

Gucci is famous for producing controversial advertisements that many believe sexualizes and objectifies women. Erving Goffman conducted research on advertisements and how they are consistently reinforcing common stereotypes of women. He outlined different characteristics commonly found in media that tend to favor men over women. These stereotypes, which can all be found in Gucci’s advertisements, include relative size, ritualization of subordination, feminine touch, and function ranking.

Almost all of Gucci’s advertisements include a women who is being dismembered to show off a certain part of her body, positioned in a way that some would consider sexualizes her body, or made much smaller in size to appear submissive to the counterpart (usually a male) in the ad. Jean Kilbourne describes how often advertisements are working to undermine women and place women in positions of passivity. Many people find these advertisements offensive and in turn many organizations have publically criticized Gucci. The Fashion Law argues that the infamous line “sex sells” is proven through Gucci’s continual use of scandalous advertisements and correlating sales.

Gucci became popular in the early 1920s by fashion designer Guccio Gucci, but the controversial advertisement did not begin until Tom Ford and subsequently Frida Giannini took over the business. In the early 1920s print ads were not nearly as popular in the fashion industry as they are today. After Frida Giannini became the creative director for the business sales reached an all time high, in part due to the advertisements drawing mass amounts of attention to the brand name.

In early 2003 Gucci produced a highly popular advertisement which pictured a super model with her pants pulled down and her pubic hair shaved into a “G”. The Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom) received countless complaints from people and organizations, including the director of mediawatchuk demanding the ad be banned due to his belief it was “harmful to society”. Many believed that the outcry regarding the ad just fed the idea that Gucci was using sex to successfully sell their products. Although this was a point of contention between Gucci and the Advertising Standards Authority, scholars have shown that Gucci continues to walk the thin line between offensive and acceptable advertisements.

Despite the fact that Gucci’s “Pubic Enemy” ad was banned worldwide instantly, the Italian luxury brand still continues to publish controversial ads. In order to promote their Spring/Summer 2016 collection, Gucci used a short film and images with reference to a cult film about drug addiction. The campaign advertisement depicted women dealing with drugs and prostitution. The film the Gucci ad is inspired by is based on a 14-year-old heroin addict and sex workers’s true story. A scene in the Gucci campaign takes place in a subway/railway station usually connected with prostitution and drug trade; in the film, the main character and her boyfriend sell their bodies at that same place called the Bahnhof Zoo. This advertisement received a lot of backlash primarily because one of their young models was unhealthily thin according to the Advertising Standards Authority. This advertisement may sound shocking to some, but to the advertisement industry it is a prime example of what they are supposed to do. William O'Barr argues that advertisements' main priority is to break through and draw the consumer's attention, regardless of what is deemed appropriate in society's eyes.