DolceGabbana Advertisements

Dolce&Gabbana advertisements have been the center of controversy for years. Their in-your-face and bizarre types of advertising, which often feature nearly naked models in obscure poses, often show many gender stereotypes that are detrimental to our society.
Dolce&Gabbana is a company that sells luxury items, including sunglasses, purses, watches, and very expensive clothing. It’s funny because most of their advertisements barely have clothing or any of these other items present.
I have found five Dolce&Gabbana advertisements that I am going to critique in this post. I will point out the major stereotypical issues within each advertisement. You can find more of their advertisements at www.dolcegabbana.com or by searching Google images for Dolce&Gabbana advertisements.



This advertisement has always disturbed me. First of all, the woman lying down looks helpless and passive. This is one of the biggest stereotypes about women in our society, especially in the media. Also, the women that are surrounding the scene are all looking at the man. This makes him seem more important than whatever else is going on in this scene and gives the image that the man has the power in this relationship. The woman in the middle is also is a very sexual position – almost making this advertisement look like they are filming a pornography with clothes on. It also looks like the man is naked, but using the chair to cover up his penis. An advertisement like this gives women the image that they should lay down and be passive to men, as well as let someone else videotape them for sexual pleasure. This advertisement gives men the image that women should be passive to them and that they are allowed to videotape women doing sexual things in order to exploit it. This imagery gives a false image for both sexes and is detrimental to our society because it reinforces gender stereotypes.



This is also a very interesting advertisement. I think the part that annoys me most about this particular advertisement is that the woman in the middle has her head placed where the man’s penis should be. There are various references that this image creates, including that women come from men, that there cannot be women without the penis or that women worship the penis. The man on the right side looks like he is controlling the woman and the knife that is in her hand. Once again the man has the power in this relationship and the woman looks like she is in some sort of pain or anguish about it. Showing images like this to women or men make it look like it is okay for men to be in charge and for everyone to worship the penis.



This advertisement looks like the closest thing to pornography that a company could get away with publishing in a magazine. Not only are the women placed in sexually seductive positions, it looks like one of the women is trying to choke the other woman. This advertisement was made for the pleasure of men and, although the women are wearing clothes, it is impossible to figure out what products they are trying to sell – unless it’s lesbian sex and violence for a man’s pleasure. The women are also made to look plastic, almost like they are dolls. This gives imagery that women are like dolls which can be molded to do anything that a man (or another woman) desires. This imagery is bad for our society because it presents false hopes to both sexes. Men expect women to look like this and that they have power over women to make them do what they want – like they can do with dolls. Women are given the impression that they have to look and act like these women to fit in. People wonder why so many teenagers and children are dressing like adults, being slutty, or having sex already … we present these images to people in our advertisements.



I think this advertisement disturbs me the most because you aren’t exactly sure how far the couple is going in this picture. Granted, they aren’t having sex, but they are making out, and his hands have disappeared somewhere down her shirt. It also creeps me out that the men are watching the couple and probably getting some kind of enjoyment out of it. It also reinforces masculinity stereotypes because they are at a boxing match and boxing is seen as a manly sport and something that women don’t participate in, unless it is to objectify men’s sexual desires. The images in this advertisement make it seem that it’s okay for women to be slutty as long as it’s to pleasure other men. Advertisements such as this one give women and men the wrong impression about how to act in public and how to treat sex as a something casual that you can do in public.



I am not the only person who finds this advertisement insulting; this particular advertisement has received national and global criticism for its nature. Men hold all the power is this advertisement. It gives the imagery of the man trying to rape the woman or take advantage of her with the other men looking on this situation and approving of it. The woman is subordinate to these men; she is obviously a sexual object to them and is portrayed as such to the people who see this advertisement. It gives men the image that it is okay for a man to have power over a woman and take sexual advantage of her. This is not an image that we should be presenting to anyone because it gives a false idea to men and women about how relationships are or should be. People may wonder why there are many domestic violence cases every year, yet we continue to allow images like this one in popular magazines across the country.