The feminist advertising that stereotypes. A semiotic analysis of the representation of women in the advertisement of Lindex and Victoria's Secrets

Advertising constantly surrounds us in different ways and it affects us in our everyday lives. The underwear industry has often been criticized for sexist and excluding advertisements and women has often been depicted in a stereotyped way. Today marketing has become more inclusive, as diversity of people in advertisements has become a hot topic of discussion. It is interesting to examine this topic out of a Swedish context as it in many ways is a country that is on the cutting edge when it comes to inclusion and diversity. This study aims to, based on images and commercials from Victoria’s Secret Sweden and Lindex, examine how and in what ways inclusion and exclusion depicts in female underwear advertising. Our theoretical framework consists of following theories: representation, stereotyping, intersectionality, and following terms: norm, norm creativity and femininity. Our analysis is made with semiotic image analysis as the chosen method. The main conclusion of this study is that our material included women with different skin colors and ethnicities, and partly women with varying body types and ages. People with visible disabilities was excluded from the advertisements. Factors such as class, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, gender identity and invisible disabilities we could not distinguish, which made it impossible for us to assess whether these groups was included or excluded in the advertisements. Thus, the advertisements was both including and excluding, however we question whether it is possible for companies to include all types of groups and people in their advertisements