“Buy This 24-Year-Old and Get All His Friends Free” Kim Novak
As I read through the most recent issue of Shape, I am enticed by ads for magic diet pills, whitening toothpaste, and even miracle cream for my face that promises even though, “it might cost it little bit more,” I’ll know it’s worth it. In “Can’t Buy Me Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel,” written in 1999 by Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D, she explains how deeply advertisers coax themselves into our daily lives, especially women. Kilbourne claims that advertising has become a part of our environment and considering that the average person views over 3,000 advertisements each day, the evidence supporting that is overwhelming. Advertising is everywhere we go; we see and hear advertising in magazines, newspapers, billboards, television, radio, internet, and even the classrooms. In the article, Kilbourne describes how advertising supports almost every communication, not by selling products to us but by selling us to the products’ manufacturers. Advertisers compete against each other for the opportunity to deliver their product to the consumers thru the media and companies are investing excessive amounts of money on psychological research in search of specific words and images necessary to capture the attention and money of consumers. Advertisers primary target audiences are children and women, who are the most effortlessly influenced. Internet marketers are attempting to inscribe “brand loyalty” to children as young as four years old by manipulating them into being customers without their knowledge. Advertisers are collaborating with schools by providing “free” materials or money in exchange for exclusive rights of their products. Media persuades advertisers to focus on kids easily influenced by peer pressure and thus eliminating any personal liability. They claim that advertising does not influence anyone but peer pressure