Stereotypes In Advertising
Don’t Let Advertisements Affect You
Have you ever been tricked into purchasing merchandise that claims it will make you look more appealing but never really does you any justice? Throughout the years, our nation has been deceived by thousands and thousands of advertisements per year. Advertisers have increased their earnings from $20 billion in 1979 to $180 billion in 1999, which only caused more advertisements to be displayed and more people to become influenced by them (Killing Us Softly). These advertisements do not only influence us to purchase these products, but they cause us to stereotype the classification of "beauty" and "the ideal person" (Sexual Stereotypes in the Media). Advertisements are harmful to society because they portray …show more content…
stereotypical images of self-beauty and self-worth, causing individuals to feel insecure about themselves and consume more products in order to gain self-confidence. The certain individuals that are affected by these ads are women, men, and teenagers. In order for society to refrain from overconsumption and feeling insecure, advertisers must stop setting an ideal image of "true beauty" and providing false information in their advertisements. Although this solution may not be put in effect, society must be aware of these false advertisements and prevent them from affecting their decisions.
Advertisements constantly display images of women that are skinny, tall, and wear a lot of makeup, which causes women to consume more products in order to boost their confidence and look like "the ideal woman". For example, in the film Killing Us Softly, Kilbourne explains that advertisers are constantly utilizing images of women 's breasts, no matter if the ad is relating to beauty products or a product that has nothing to do with the women such as an ad of a fishing net or a sports car. Some business corporations might argue that utilizing women in ads simply catches the audience 's attention and is a creative way to sell a product. However, all this does is cause women to lose their self-esteem and try to look as beautiful as they can to impress the world. These corporations cleverness causes society to purchase certain items because of the model or person in the ad. Humes book Garbology goes hand-in-hand with advertisements because Humes portrays how advertisements also cause overconsumption and waste from society. In addition, O 'barr provides examples of how advertisements use women as a sexual figure by displaying erotic pictures in alcoholic ads, clothing ads, and fragrance ads (O 'barr). He portrays that these advertisements cause men to crave women in the wrong manner and categorize women as "ugly" or "unattractive" if they do not look like the stereotypical girl in the Coca Cola, Heineken, or Chanel Perfume commercials.
Believe it or not, advertisements also affect men 's insecurities just as much as they affect women 's. The reason for this is because all of us as a nation are drawn to advertisements; we see over 50 ads per day. The film "Sexual Stereotypes in the Media" defines the term "stereotype" as effective because they are recognizable symbols and they divide the world into two groups: male and female. Hence, the audience bases their understandings from home, school, or work, and categorizes things from what we see in real life and the images we consume in the media (Sexual Stereotypes in the Media). This shows that women and men’s relationships also become affected from these advertisements and can even be the cause for a breakup. Not only do men categorize women as attractive or unattractive, but women do as well with men. For example, a study of women who were exposed to attractive men in a magazine rated their spouse as less attractive as well as men did with women (Plous 2). This shows that men also feel the need to go out of their way to "look better" for their loved one.
Not only are the ads affecting the adult world, but these images and televised ads are affecting children the most. For example, Cortese states “Unavoidable mass media images of sexually objectified girls can cause psychological and physical harm to adolescents and young women. The pressure to conform to the provocateur image can result in depression, eating disorders, and poor academic performance." ( Cortese 76) Corporations may argue that their advertisements are not to blame for their children 's decisions, rather it is their parent 's fault and they should be responsible for what their kids choose to do. However, advertisements are everywhere. Whether their child is exposed from television, from driving around the city, or even ads from school, parents cannot control everything their children are exposed to. In addition, Cortese also discusses about how a cigarette ad was displayed on a wide screen billboard, which caused children at the age of 13 to start smoking. The image showed a tall, built man with slicked back hair smoking a cigarette while resting on his motorcycle next to a pretty girl. Cortese explains how this is a major problem because children become influenced by this mass media. The adolescent ones are unaware of the consequences for smoking and choose to do so because they think it looks cool and all their other friends are doing it (Cortese 101). Although it 's understandable that corporations need to sell their products, a huge billboard is unnecessary and the characters in these ads cause major damage to our minds and the way we think. If adults become insecure and over consume because of these ads, what on Earth do corporations think the ads are doing to children and young adults?
No matter how much one expresses the major effects mass media is causing society, corporations will continue to argue that the way they create their ads is helping them become more successful.
However, there are other methods to advertise more accurately. For example, in the book The End of Advertising as We Know it, the author lists key points a corporation can do in order to preach about their ad truthfully and righteously in the following quote: "Tell the truth, tell it all, and tell it fast. Do something to make things better. Have a theme and stick to the product and only the product. Know when to shut up.” (Zyman 140) Zyman 's advice may be helpful for advertisements in selling their products, but it still does not provide a solution to the cause of society 's insecurity of their self-image. A solution to this however, can be for advertisements to stop spreading negative ideas into their ads and provide positive influences to the audience. For example, in the Special K commercial, it shows several women standing on a scale to see how much they weigh and instead of a number, the scale reads: "Amazing, Free, Beautiful, Confident, Charismatic, etc." This portrays a helpful idea to women, men and teens all around the world to feel beautiful in their own skin. Advertisements can be beneficial to us, the corporations are just the ones who choose to spread negative ideas rather than the positive …show more content…
expressions.
Overall, one can see that advertisements have created a huge impact in our everyday lives and decisions of what we consume.
We as a nation have to be aware of the false advertisements and aid each other into what to and what not to buy. We also should encourage one another and make our loved ones feel better about themselves. A compliment a day can truly make a difference in a person 's life and can aid teens to not buy in to advertising. Although it is not an easy task, if society takes this process one step at a time, we can change the views of advertising and slowly discard our insecurities.
Works Cited
1. Balasubrahmanyan, Vimal. "Hidden Power of Sexism in Media." Rev of Women and Media: Analysis, Alternatives and Action. Kamla Bhasin; Bina Agarwal. Economic and Political Weekly, 13 April 1985. 641. Web
2. Cortese, Anthony Joseph Paul.Provocateur : Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004. Web.
3. Humes, Edward. Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash. New York: Avery, 2012. 53-74.
Print.
4. Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising 's Image of Women. Kilbounre, Jean. Northampton, MA: Media EducationFoundation, 2002. Film.
5. O’Barr, William. “Sex and Advertising." Advertising & Society Review. December 2, 2011. Web.
6. Plous, S, and Dominique Neptune. "Racial and Gender Biases in Magazine Advertising: A Content-Analytic Study."Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21.4 (1997): 627-644. PDF File.
7. Sexual Stereotypes in the Media. New York, N.Y.: Films Media Group, 2007. Film.
Have you ever been tricked into purchasing merchandise that claims it will make you look more appealing but never really does you any justice? Throughout the years, our nation has been deceived by thousands and thousands of advertisements per year. Advertisers have increased their earnings from $20 billion in 1979 to $180 billion in 1999, which only caused more advertisements to be displayed and more people to become influenced by them (Killing Us Softly). These advertisements do not only influence us to purchase these products, but they cause us to stereotype the classification of "beauty" and "the ideal person" (Sexual Stereotypes in the Media). Advertisements are harmful to society because they portray …show more content…
stereotypical images of self-beauty and self-worth, causing individuals to feel insecure about themselves and consume more products in order to gain self-confidence. The certain individuals that are affected by these ads are women, men, and teenagers. In order for society to refrain from overconsumption and feeling insecure, advertisers must stop setting an ideal image of "true beauty" and providing false information in their advertisements. Although this solution may not be put in effect, society must be aware of these false advertisements and prevent them from affecting their decisions.
Advertisements constantly display images of women that are skinny, tall, and wear a lot of makeup, which causes women to consume more products in order to boost their confidence and look like "the ideal woman". For example, in the film Killing Us Softly, Kilbourne explains that advertisers are constantly utilizing images of women 's breasts, no matter if the ad is relating to beauty products or a product that has nothing to do with the women such as an ad of a fishing net or a sports car. Some business corporations might argue that utilizing women in ads simply catches the audience 's attention and is a creative way to sell a product. However, all this does is cause women to lose their self-esteem and try to look as beautiful as they can to impress the world. These corporations cleverness causes society to purchase certain items because of the model or person in the ad. Humes book Garbology goes hand-in-hand with advertisements because Humes portrays how advertisements also cause overconsumption and waste from society. In addition, O 'barr provides examples of how advertisements use women as a sexual figure by displaying erotic pictures in alcoholic ads, clothing ads, and fragrance ads (O 'barr). He portrays that these advertisements cause men to crave women in the wrong manner and categorize women as "ugly" or "unattractive" if they do not look like the stereotypical girl in the Coca Cola, Heineken, or Chanel Perfume commercials.
Believe it or not, advertisements also affect men 's insecurities just as much as they affect women 's. The reason for this is because all of us as a nation are drawn to advertisements; we see over 50 ads per day. The film "Sexual Stereotypes in the Media" defines the term "stereotype" as effective because they are recognizable symbols and they divide the world into two groups: male and female. Hence, the audience bases their understandings from home, school, or work, and categorizes things from what we see in real life and the images we consume in the media (Sexual Stereotypes in the Media). This shows that women and men’s relationships also become affected from these advertisements and can even be the cause for a breakup. Not only do men categorize women as attractive or unattractive, but women do as well with men. For example, a study of women who were exposed to attractive men in a magazine rated their spouse as less attractive as well as men did with women (Plous 2). This shows that men also feel the need to go out of their way to "look better" for their loved one.
Not only are the ads affecting the adult world, but these images and televised ads are affecting children the most. For example, Cortese states “Unavoidable mass media images of sexually objectified girls can cause psychological and physical harm to adolescents and young women. The pressure to conform to the provocateur image can result in depression, eating disorders, and poor academic performance." ( Cortese 76) Corporations may argue that their advertisements are not to blame for their children 's decisions, rather it is their parent 's fault and they should be responsible for what their kids choose to do. However, advertisements are everywhere. Whether their child is exposed from television, from driving around the city, or even ads from school, parents cannot control everything their children are exposed to. In addition, Cortese also discusses about how a cigarette ad was displayed on a wide screen billboard, which caused children at the age of 13 to start smoking. The image showed a tall, built man with slicked back hair smoking a cigarette while resting on his motorcycle next to a pretty girl. Cortese explains how this is a major problem because children become influenced by this mass media. The adolescent ones are unaware of the consequences for smoking and choose to do so because they think it looks cool and all their other friends are doing it (Cortese 101). Although it 's understandable that corporations need to sell their products, a huge billboard is unnecessary and the characters in these ads cause major damage to our minds and the way we think. If adults become insecure and over consume because of these ads, what on Earth do corporations think the ads are doing to children and young adults?
No matter how much one expresses the major effects mass media is causing society, corporations will continue to argue that the way they create their ads is helping them become more successful.
However, there are other methods to advertise more accurately. For example, in the book The End of Advertising as We Know it, the author lists key points a corporation can do in order to preach about their ad truthfully and righteously in the following quote: "Tell the truth, tell it all, and tell it fast. Do something to make things better. Have a theme and stick to the product and only the product. Know when to shut up.” (Zyman 140) Zyman 's advice may be helpful for advertisements in selling their products, but it still does not provide a solution to the cause of society 's insecurity of their self-image. A solution to this however, can be for advertisements to stop spreading negative ideas into their ads and provide positive influences to the audience. For example, in the Special K commercial, it shows several women standing on a scale to see how much they weigh and instead of a number, the scale reads: "Amazing, Free, Beautiful, Confident, Charismatic, etc." This portrays a helpful idea to women, men and teens all around the world to feel beautiful in their own skin. Advertisements can be beneficial to us, the corporations are just the ones who choose to spread negative ideas rather than the positive …show more content…
expressions.
Overall, one can see that advertisements have created a huge impact in our everyday lives and decisions of what we consume.
We as a nation have to be aware of the false advertisements and aid each other into what to and what not to buy. We also should encourage one another and make our loved ones feel better about themselves. A compliment a day can truly make a difference in a person 's life and can aid teens to not buy in to advertising. Although it is not an easy task, if society takes this process one step at a time, we can change the views of advertising and slowly discard our insecurities.
Works Cited
1. Balasubrahmanyan, Vimal. "Hidden Power of Sexism in Media." Rev of Women and Media: Analysis, Alternatives and Action. Kamla Bhasin; Bina Agarwal. Economic and Political Weekly, 13 April 1985. 641. Web
2. Cortese, Anthony Joseph Paul.Provocateur : Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004. Web.
3. Humes, Edward. Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash. New York: Avery, 2012. 53-74.
Print.
4. Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising 's Image of Women. Kilbounre, Jean. Northampton, MA: Media EducationFoundation, 2002. Film.
5. O’Barr, William. “Sex and Advertising." Advertising & Society Review. December 2, 2011. Web.
6. Plous, S, and Dominique Neptune. "Racial and Gender Biases in Magazine Advertising: A Content-Analytic Study."Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21.4 (1997): 627-644. PDF File.
7. Sexual Stereotypes in the Media. New York, N.Y.: Films Media Group, 2007. Film.