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| An ad that just screams "EAT ME AND YOU WILL LOOK LIKE THIS FAKE MANNEQUIN OF A MODEL!" or something to that effect. Credit: Digital America blog |
Advertising. Wow. What a subject! So prevalent, and yet so undeniably sinister. They are everywhere. Not just physically, but mentally as well. Jean Kilbourne writes “…ads sell a great deal more than just products. They sell values, images, and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy. They tell us who we are and who we should be.” (Kilbourne, p.121) Because of this people should be more aware of the effects of advertisements. Advertising is the single largest educating force to anyone consuming mainstream media. Starting from being a way for the mass media and the content creators to support themselves and what they create, to being the reason mass media is around at all. This evolution sees advertisements, conventionally a way to market products to consumers, combining with the universal access that mass media provides to take on a life of their own, taking advantage of unassuming and impressionable human targets.
Speaking of impressionable targets… Teenagers. Ugh. I’ll get to my personal experiences later, but teenagers are a very insecure group who are just starting to gain disposable incomes (on a personal note, I despise the term “disposable income”) making them a prime target for advertisers. Not only are they easily influenced (read “peer pressure”) but they also are at a time in their lives where the choices they make now will define their lives for years to come. This is a prospect that advertisers just drool over (it’s kind of funny/sad bringing the image of ad execs actually drooling over this concept). Not only can they easily win over people who will buy their products with any spare cash they have, they might have someone who will become loyal to their brand and continue to purchase their products for years. Because of this irresistible prospect, corporations spare little expense to create advertising to target impressionable teenagers. Unfortunately, teenagers are not just impressionable as far as what cosmetic products or technology they have to own, they are trying to form an identity for themselves, and that is precisely why the advertising methods discussed below are so damaging.
Speaking of impressionable targets… Teenagers. Ugh. I’ll get to my personal experiences later, but teenagers are a very insecure group who are just starting to gain disposable incomes (on a personal note, I despise the term “disposable income”) making them a prime target for advertisers. Not only are they easily influenced (read “peer pressure”) but they also are at a time in their lives where the choices they make now will define their lives for years to come. This is a prospect that advertisers just drool over (it’s kind of funny/sad bringing the image of ad execs actually drooling over this concept). Not only can they easily win over people who will buy their products with any spare cash they have, they might have someone who will become loyal to their brand and continue to purchase their products for years. Because of this irresistible prospect, corporations spare little expense to create advertising to target impressionable teenagers. Unfortunately, teenagers are not just impressionable as far as what cosmetic products or technology they have to own, they are trying to form an identity for themselves, and that is precisely why the advertising methods discussed below are so damaging.
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| Parody of a Women's magazine front cover which lampoons the messages presented. Credit: Huffington Post |
Kilbourne continues on how advertisements adversely affect teenagers. “On the most obvious level, they learn the stereotypes. Advertising creates a mythical, WASP-oriented world in which no one is ever ugly, overweight, poor, struggling, or disabled either physically or mentally.” (Kilbourne, p.122) Reading those descriptions of the world portrayed in advertisements, it’s easy to see how they create an unrealistic self and world-view within teenagers. But let’s focus on one particular part of the demographic here, teenage girls and subsequently women. Advertising especially preys on the insecurities of women and girls who, from a very young age, have been instilled with the expectations of the male gaze. John Birger explains that even when the girls or women themselves are not being looked at and judged by others at a given point in time (when they are "alone"), they are reflexing the male gaze upon themselves by imagining how they will be seen and judged by their peers and strangers alike. (Birger, p.46) Using the effective industry standard tool of the trade, Photoshop, ad agencies create an idealized image of a woman that, if effective, will instill an impossible ideal that women will force themselves to achieve. The message they transmit is one of hopefulness that through the product they are selling, that ideal image will be achieved and the customer will be recognized as the ideal when she is next judged. That message (read "myth") of an ideal becomes even stronger when advertising and media aimed towards men displays this ideal image to influence his expectations, making his gaze even stronger and more impossible to appease. This vicious cycle also extends to the media that is supported by this advertising. Magazines and health/beauty oriented media give "advice" to consumers because their advertisers pay them ad revenue to do so, furthering the agenda of the male gaze.
Now, what to do about it... That question might be easy to answer, but the implementation of a solution is nearly impossible because of the constant reinforcement of the beauty myth being forced into our psyche every waking moment through society and media as a whole. It all starts with the oppositional gaze. Girls and women should understand that the beauty myth is exactly that. A myth (Wolf, "Culture"). Look at the advertisements through a critical lens. What response is the ad eliciting? Yes, it is just trying to sell a product, but it comes down to the choices of the individual. This is a very basic and obviously flawed solution, it does little to tackle the efforts of the advertising engine, but little by little, even that will have to bend if people stop responding to it. A bigger victory happens when advertisers themselves start tackling the tropes of advertisements within their own material. Not only will that broadcast a more positive message to the public, it will force other companies to capitulate if the campaign is a success. This is already just starting to happen with companies running "Like a Girl" ads that empower instead of enforcing a myth (and during the Super Bowl no less!). Some detractors will argue that "biological engineering" will get in the way (read "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"), but when the will to change is strong enough, I'm sure stranger things have happened!
I'll leave this off with that positive message that encourages strength and success during the formative developing years.
Sources:
Berger, John. "Ways of Seeing". London: British Broadcasting,
1973. Print.
Kilbourne, Jean.
"Beauty and the Beast of Advertising". Media & Values 1989. Print.
Wolf, Naomi. "Culture". The Beauty Myth: How
Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York: W. Morrow, 1991. Print.
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