The Affects of Advertising on Women Essay Example

In one day a person may see more than a thousand ads. They might see ads on television, in a magazine or on a billboard. However, people never fully realize that these ads seen daily have an effect on our society. Advertisers like to appeal to our fears, desires, vanities, egos, concepts of success, worth, love and sexuality. Advertisers also like to help form notions that we do not already have; what other reason could there be for a condom company to have a model airbrushed like a Jaguar with her arm covering her breasts standing in what appears to be a jungle. The jingle to that ads reads "Release your inner beast". That ad is in the November 2006 edition of Cosmopolitan magazine; the product is Excite Sensual Gel made my Lifestyles, what does releasing ones inner beast have to do with gel that will heighten ones sexual pleasure? Is this company suggesting that by using this gel a woman will act like a beast in bed, ensuring the satisfaction of her partner as well as herself. Though the main purpose of an ad is to inform; ads also persuade concerning ideas of beauty and how women are viewed in our society.

A person's beauty, particularly a woman's, is supposed to come from the inside. Yet many women go to exceptional lengths to change their faces and their bodies. "A woman is conditioned to view her face as a mask and her body as an object, as things separate from and become more important than her real self, constantly in need of alteration, improvement, and disguise" (Kilbourne, 2001, p.292). Advertisers want women to try and achieve whatever look is popular and to fail so women will continually spend money on cosmetics and clothes that are not meant for them and so ultimately the products never get used. Advertisers also want women to feel dissatisfied when they look into the mirror. Lancome has an ad in the September 2001 issue of Glamour magazine. It is an advertisement for a new lipstick; the ad's jingle reads Rouge Absolu Creme; the ad then gives a