Zettai Ryouiki: The Use of Female Body Parts in Japanese Advertising

Abstract

Advertising developes its creative process attract the public to new innovations and products. One recent chane is the use of female body as advertising media. An advertising agency in Tokyo, Japan, called Zettai Ryouiki Koukoku, has made female body parts an advertising media. This phenomenon in Japan is called zettai ryouiki. This research collected data by conducting a literature review to identify, explore, and analyze the role of advertising media using the female body and the changing values that apply to young women as subjects of the zettai ryouiki phenomenon. The first part of this study focuses on the role of advertising media, based on Foucault's bio-power theory to explain how a media controlled female body becomes a docile body. The second part of the study focuses on changes in values that apply to women as subjects of the zettai ryouiki phenomenon. This research shows how women as subjects of zettai ryouiki present themselves by showing their thighs as a representation of female sexuality, which is both created and consumed by a desire unique self-expression. Keywords—Female Body, New Japanese Advertising Phenomenon, Zettai Ryouiki, Subculture