“Just Like Animals”
Let’s examine gender and sexuality as represented in a Kia advertisement. (SPOILERS: Not very well)
The saturation of visual media throughout contemporary society has a profound influence on popular culture and ideologies. It maintains this effect through the process of hegemony. Understanding hegemony is vital to making sense of “the history and the structure of any given society and the role the media plays in our perceptions of different groups or cultures” (Godwyll & Annin, 2007, p. 42). Hegemony, according to Godwyll and Annin, describes the power or dominance that a social group holds over society (2007, p. 42). It shapes and reshapes the dominant ideologies of our culture, which in turn reinforces the current structure in which we understand constructs like femininity and masculinity. Images in the media help reinforce “the construction of individual relations to power structures that generate and are maintained by media discourse” (Glapka, 2010, p. 48). Consequently, depending on the source of the media and its messages, the media can create a process that can reinforce hegemonic structures or subvert them.
Media is one of the most influential sources of in the production of hegemony, and according to Oliver, images in advertising present themselves as an opportunity for “consumer identification — not with the product as such, but primarily with the lifestyle or social context projected by the situation in which the product in question is seen” (2006, p. 17). Moreover, Stankiewicz and Rosselli articulate the way in which people do not give conscious attention to advertisements, which suggests that their social messages, clear or subtle, will likely remain unquestioned (2008, p. 579).
Because advertising media can have such a powerful influence on cultural ideologies, it is important to examine advertisements that might promote negative ideologies in order to better understand how they affect our society, and why they affect us in the first place. A perfect example of this is in a 2014 advertisement produced by Kia; an advertisement for the Kia Soul EV that features sexualized and objectified hamsters that reinforces cultural stereotypes surrounding feminine sexuality and masculine rape culture. This advertisement in particular presents limiting and negative representation of femininity and sexuality, and plays an immense role in normalizing these standards in our culture. This paper will examine both the visual aspects of the advertisement — specifically the objectification of the female body and portrayals of masculinity — and the musical aspects — focusing on an analysis of the lyrics of Maroon 5’s song “Animals.”
To understand why this advertisement has such an impact on our culture, it is first important to understand the context of this advertisement. Kia, over the past years, has branded their Soul model car with hamsters that have a knack for break dancing. The 2014 series of advertisements featured displays of misogyny to an extreme, imposing gender and sexuality on hamsters that in previous advertisements had arguably ambiguous representations of gender and sexuality.
The advertisement begins with three male hamsters, scientist hamsters nonetheless, experimenting with ways to improve the Kia Soul — cue the introduction of Maroon 5’s chart topping song “Animals” as it plays in the background. The scientist hamster’s next experiment involved constructing a Kia Soul that not only ran better, but also looked sexier. The scientists have a pet hamster that rolls about playfully during their experiments. However, the hamster rolls toward the Kia just as it is shot with an electric blue beam of energy. The pet hamster is caught in the blast; the three scientist hamsters are horrified, until to their relief and pleasure, the car door opens and out steps the proliferation of Douglas’ (2010) enlightened sexism itself: A hamster with sleek blond hair and a voluptuous body, complimented by a black, skintight jumpsuit. According to this advertisement, the beam not only mades the Kia Soul sexier, but also imposed ideals of gender and sexuality onto the hamster.
The sexualized hamster, in this case, embodies the dominant ideological depiction of female beauty and female sexuality in our culture. The female hamster becomes the first point of discussion, but in order to fully understand the advertisement’s underlying messages, one must compare the hamster before sex and gender was imposed upon it. However, one might argue that gender was already imposed on the hamster before it was sexualized and objectified, because it displays feminized gender characteristics.
The female hamster, in comparison to the male hamsters, is much smaller. It appears to be a normal hamster, but a close-up shot reveals eye lashes that flutter repeatedly up and down, and it appears as if the hamster is wearing mascara. The act of wearing mascara has long been associated with femininity. According to Biddle-Perry and Miller, the use of cosmetics is an “ingrained part of most women’s daily experience.” The authors identify Foucault’s concepts of power as “invisible mechanisms of internal subjective scrutiny through which real power is exercised” (Biddle-Perry, 2009, p. 9). Foucault’s theories of power and discipline are excellent tools to help explain the ways in which society imposes the idea of a “perfect woman” based off of certain features, and in this case, often defined or complemented by the use of cosmetics (Foucault, 1978). This power is then internalized and reinforced by individuals rather than hierarchal power (Foucault, 1978). By portraying the hamster with make up, the advertisement is already portraying a stereotypical female through a connection between cosmetics and women.
After the hamster is shot by the “sex ray,” this feminization is taken to a new extreme. The hamster that is created by the male hamsters have the “Giselle Bund” Victoria’s Secret body that Douglas refers to when she discusses what society deems the “ideal woman;” she has has the appearance of a Barbie-doll (Douglas, 2010). Ponterrotto analyzes the this unachievable-yet-ideal body type specifically as it is represented in the media. According to Ponterrotto, the media suggests the ideal Barbie body is very damaging to audiences, male and female, as it displays the perception that “only this type of body is healthy; only this type of body is beautiful” (2016). The female hamster is also immediately flirtatious towards the male hamsters, suggesting her sudden interest in sexual activity. She waves and blows them a kiss that literally knocks one hamster off his feet. This provokes a sexual attitude correlating to this body type, and is used almost as if to negate any notion of non-consent that might be apparent in this ad otherwise. Similar to other ads that objectify and sexualize women nearly to the point of pornography, when advertisement commonly create a crucial issue in the representation of women in connection to sexuality and gender (Deveraux, 2012). At one point, the camera focuses directly on the sexualized hamster’s waist and behind, providing a perfect example of Mulvey’s concept of the male gaze (1989). This shot positions the audience from the perspective of a masculine point of view, which further sexualizes the hamster’s body (Mulvey, 1989).
The female body type also extremely objectified in this advertisement. Upon creating both a “sexualized hamster” and a “sexualized car,” the male hamsters run not to the hamster, but rather to the Kia Soul EV. The male hamster’s act in this scene equates women with objects like cars, and sets their value beneath cars, even when she matches the stereotypical ideal standards of beauty reinforced in our culture.
In many ways, “these increasing levels of objectification pose the question of what effect objectifying women in advertising has on people’s real-life perceptions of women” (Vance, Sutter, Perrin, Heesacker, 2015, p. 570). For female audiences of this advertisement, the sexualized hamster will fit the stereotypical representation of health and beauty, which is a limiting body type that not all women have, and in the case of this advertisement, is entirely generated by computer graphics. Furthermore, by equating women with objects, it displays a type of “moral disengagement” that “mediates the link between pornography and an increased tolerance of sexual aggression toward women by dehumanizing them” (Ohbuchi et al, 1994 as quoted by Vance et al., 2015).
For male audiences, it is equally negative, as the advertisement reinforces the notions of what an attractive woman looks like. By reinforcing the “ideal woman” to male audiences, women that do not fit this body type will be scrutinized by male hierarchal power, continuing the process of hegemony. By anthropomorphizing the hamster in both feminine and sexual ways, the Kia Soul EV advertisement is contributing to the reinforcement of very limiting and negative ideologies surrounding gender and sexuality.
On the other hand, the advertisement in turn displays its own depiction of masculinity. The male hamsters are still hold patriarchal power over the female hamsters through the depiction of being the scientists in control. The first contrast that is immediately clear is that while the female hamster starts as a normal sized hamster, the male hamsters are much larger, even “human” sized. The hamsters wear lab coats and glasses that further signify their status as intelligent scientists. Male hamsters are depicted as having knowledge, power over technology, and ultimately, the power to transform women so that they match dominant ideological standards. In comparison, the female hamster is depicted as flirtatious and sexual, and does not seem to have any interests other than being conquered by the male hamsters. According to Kahlor and Eastin, “societal-level variables impact men and women differently” which becomes apparent when men “generally dominate women in terms of family, education, works and politics” (2010, p. 216). This advertisement is clearly reinforcing the distinction between the men hold dominating roles while women are positioned beneath men.
Another, rather sinister side to the masculinity displayed in this advertisement is revealed through the lyrics of Maroon 5’s song “Animals.” The inclusion of Maroon 5’s hit song adds new depth to the misogyny displayed in this advertisement, and arguably promotes rape culture. By examining the lyrics, the song’s predatory features become further defined. Adam Levine, lead signer of Maroon 5, sings “Baby, I’m praying on you tonight” to highlight his role as the predator pursuing his prey (2014). The line “hunt you down, eat you alive” also conjures both sexual and predatory images (Levine, 2014). Levine asks the woman if she “thinks that [she] can hide,” but it does not matter because he can “smell [her] scent for miles” (2014). All of his musings about hunting down women like sport culminate to the comparison of life to being “just like animals,” relating Levine’s sexual conquest to that of a top predator devouring its prey (2014).
This song not only depicts men in the role of predator, it might also be interpreted as the blurred lines between consensual sex and rape. The woman’s desire to hide in the song might be equated to an expression of non-consent. However, “Animals” promotes the aggressive hunt and sexual conquest of a male, despite an answer of “no.” Additionally, the song also positions women below men, lower on the food chain, something to be consumed, or as Levine indicates, “eaten alive” (2014). “Animals,” played in the context of the Kia Soul EV advertisement heightens the sexual nature of the advertisement, while also increasing the negative depiction of masculinity and femininity.
In our media saturated society that shapes its power structures around hegemonic ideologies, it is not surprising that this advertisement exists. It not only reinforces dominant acts of gender and sexuality, it also reflects our current culture. The advertisement presents a troubling vision into the way that femininity and masculinity are constructed in our society. These representations of women are limiting and negative, and it is difficult to break these boundaries when they are so regularly enforced in advertisements just like this. The advertisement seems to align perfectly with Douglas’ notion of the “knowing wink,” the idea that we live in a post-sexist society, and any sexism is now but a joke, not intended to be harmful (2010). However, when the media treats women “just like animals,” the cycle of harmful and negative ideologies will continue to be reinforced.
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