Contemporary Shifting of Masculinity Concept in Advertising

Abstract

Advertising delivers rise to a dominating ideology. Many advertisements tend to designate women as subordinate and raise the men's dominance assumption. Numerous advertisements visualize male dominance over women. This study uses Ferdinand de Saussure's semiotic analysis to examine the shift in the concept of male masculinity in advertisements. The research method utilized is semiotics with a qualitative approach. Data collection operated observation and documentation. The results revealed that the markers in the ABC ketchup advertisement version of "Kecap ABC Help True Husbands Respect Wives" illustrate the dynamics of domestic life among husband-and-wife characters. In contrast, the signs reflect patriarchal values, masculinity from an out-of-date perspective, and modern masculinity. The shift in the concept of masculinity contained in this advertisement is a change from the concept of masculinity in the out-of-date perspective to the modern concept of masculinity depicted through the figure of the husband, where male characteristics are dominant, selfish, and only concerned with work shift to male characteristics who are considerate, sensitive, and willing to do household chores that were previously identical to women.

Keywords

• masculinity
• advertising
• semiotics
• gender equality