International Baccalaureate

Written Task #1 with Rationale

Unit of study: Part 2, Language and Mass Communication

Title of Written Task: Duncan Quinn Advertisement Proposal

Level: Standard Level Language and Literature

Exam Session: May 2017

Word count for the rationale: 300

Word count for the Written Task: 996

Stimulus Material:

(Quinn)
 Rationale

The Language and Mass Communication portion of the IB English course aims to

demonstrate how language and imagery in advertisements persuade audiences. My written

task—an email sent from a marketing firm executive to the owner of clothing company Duncan

Quinn— focuses on how objectification of woman can benefit firms. The email presents a sexist

suit advert for Duncan Quinn’s upcoming marketing campaign, convincing the reader why it is a

good marketing asset. It is this unfiltered communication between executives in industry that

propels misogyny in advertising.

To fulfill the text type, I decided to include features of an email such as the mailing

header, a vertical rule, and a footer including a signature and confidentiality disclaimer. On top

of this, I used bolded/italic words, a disjointed body, and numbered lists to stray from the

conventions of a typical essay. Then, to fulfill the purpose ergo to convince the reader why using

such a racy and controversial advertisement is appropriate, I brought in an opposing expert’s

(Jean Kilbourne) opinion and proceeded to refute it, employing blatant vocabulary such as

“absurd” to render this logic invalid whilst reassuring the reader of my sincerity with phrases

such as “committed to protect [Duncan Quinn’s brand]”. It is very unlikely that any executive

would approve a marketing asset whilst acknowledging its negative harm on society and his/her

firm’s reputation, so using this language to offer such a rationalization is important for Duncan

Quinn to be comfortable publishing this ad. To be absolutely clear, these views are not at all ones

that I personally conform to (rather, the polar opposite).

 Examining the rationale of these campaign producers is an exploration of how

misogynistic adverts come to be. It really is interesting how one email can be the catalyst of a

negative culture

shift.

On Sat, Sep 3, 2016 at 11:43 AM +0800, “First Last" <last@somemarketingcompany.com> wrote:

Dear Mr. Duncan Quinn,

Thank you for working with us in producing an advertising campaign for Duncan Quinn.
The first proposal of the suit advert we discussed is attached in this email via an image;
it displays a man wearing a Duncan Quinn outfit pulling a semi-naked woman, strewn
across the hood of a car, by the neck. What follows is a detailed rationale from our team
on why and how we feel this proposal effectively fulfils the audience and purpose you
were looking for in our services, in essence revolving around the Duncan Quinn suit
being positioned as an instrument for men to attract more women, selling a desirable
lifestyle to men around the world.

Please have your team take a look at the contents of this proposal and let us
know your thoughts on moving forward.

One vital aspect of the advertisement we decided on is obscuring the face of the woman
model used. The connotation of this renders the identity of the woman unknown and
irrelevant, similar to that of an automaton, propelling the dominance of the man against
the woman. Nulling and stripping her of an identity serves many independent purposes:

1.The focus on her sexually attractive figure/body will serve as the center of attention
or focal point of the ad for the observer. Sexual imagery generally captures a lot of
attention from individuals and especially the media, enabling us to increase brand
awareness as much as possible and communicate our other purposes effectively.

2. It allows us to objectify the woman such that the observers sympathize with her less,
especially since her facial—or really any form of conscious expression—cannot be seen
or interpreted.

3. The ad could come off as distasteful if this is not the case; the audience will not
react well to or want to see a distraught facial expression.

This is standard practice in advertising. Of course, many quote-on-quote “activists” have

attempted to brandish this as a statement against women. Expert Jean Kilbourne
comments on this stance when, in her book “Can’t Buy My Love”, she writes “Turning a
human being into a thing…is almost always the first step toward justifying violence
against that person” since “it is very easy to abuse a thing” (278).

Now, this oppression and lack of autonomy on the woman’s part acts as symbolism for
the dominance brought by not just the male model pictured but also, and more
importantly, the Duncan Quinn suit that is being sold. In this way, we are selling to the
demographic of the ad (other men) a lifestyle of self-confidence and popularity from the
other gender. It should not be taken literally.
We are committed to protect Duncan Quinn’s brand and find it absurd to suggest, like
Kilbourne does, that an image in an advertisement will indeed be taken literally by men
and propel violence against women. We men, just like women and almost all other
members of the human race, have rational capacity and will not have our core values from
upbringing be corrupted by one advertisement. In fact, the very notion of men being so
sheeple and unquestioning as to have their mindset warped easily is sexist in itself. Though
we concede the advertisement is racy and perhaps slightly controversial through the use of
sexual dominance, we are confident that it will not cause any negative effects on both
society and the company’s reputation.

Continuing with the rationale, we further convey this sentiment of sexual dominance
through the tie and its role in representing the suit as an all encompassing tool for attracting
women. In particular, the Duncan Quinn model is seen pulling the female model by the
neck with the suit’s tie. Though this clearly expresses physical authority, our intent is for it
to more importantly symbolize the increased attention towards men wearing Duncan Quinn
suits. The tie acts as a metaphor for the strength of attraction between the man and women
(the female model being the representation/metaphor of that group); as the man pulls on it,
the woman, ergo all women, are drawn closer to him.

The tie, however, does not stand alone but is instead a representative article/a metaphor of
the suit and the power of it; instead of the man or the tie drawing women in, the suit as a
whole draws them in. Once again we use the motif that women, in an if-statement and
mechanical manner, surrender their autonomy to the presence of the suit; the model’s lack
of clothes (bar a bra and underwear) conveys the sexual connotation of this attachment and
further suggests the lack of control or resisting of urges that women under the influence of
the suit has.

Ultimately, our advertisement positions the Duncan Quinn suit as an exclusive tool for
succumbing women in a cause and effect fashion (ie. if one has the suit, one can acquire
more power), which is expected to resonate with many male viewers and drive sales or at
the very least brand awareness. We firmly expect only this advertisement to bring Duncan
Quinn more success and an increase in sales.

Please revert to us your thoughts on both the proposal and justification presented as soon
as possible. We will continue to iterate on the design as per your feedback in preparation
for the December marketing push.
Regards,
First Name

—
First Name Last Name / Director of Marketing

last@somemarketingcompany.com / +65 9127 3690

Some Marketing Company

138 Cecil Street, #01-01 Cecil Court, Singapore 069538
www.somemarketingcompany.com

This email contains confidential information and is only for the intended recipient(s). If
you are not the intended recipient(s), please do not disseminate, distribute or copy this
email and delete this email from your system. All intellectual property rights in this email
and attachments therein shall remain vested in Some Marketing Company Group, unless
otherwise provided by law.

 Works Cited

Duncan Quinn Suit Ad. Digital image. Http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/duncan-quinn-

suit-ad-depicting-strangled-woman. N.p., Dec. 2008. Web. 1 Oct. 2016.

Kilbourne, Jean. "Chapter 12." Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the

Way We Think and Feel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. Prin