The Effects of Advertising and Media on Society

The Effects of Advertising and Media on Society

Advertising is an important social phenomenon. It both stimulates consumption,

economic activity models, life-styles and a certain value orientation. Consumers

are confronted with extensive daily doses of advertising in multiple media. With

the continual attack of marketing media, it is presumable that it will affect

our individualism and society as a whole. Consumer minds' can be changed,

opinions molded.

Images of men influence the gender role attitudes that men express soon after

exposure to the images. “Men view magazine advertisements containing images of

men that varied in terms of how traditionally masculine versus neutral they were

and whether the models were the same age or much older than the viewers. Men who

had initially been less traditional espoused more traditional attitudes than any

other group after exposure to traditionally masculine models, although they

continued to approve relatively nontraditional views after exposure to neutral

models.” This suggests that nontraditional men's gender role attitudes may be

rather unstable and susceptible to momentary influences such as those found in

advertising.

Commercials are a way that gender roles are displayed in society. When you see

a car commercial for a mechanic most of the time the mechanic is a man. But when

you see a commercial about cleaning products for the house, normally a woman is

the face you see. In other words, the media can help break the barriers on how

gender roles are portrayed in society. The more that women represent strength on

TV will also encourage them to build their self-confidence.

A person’s environment has a big influence on the roles deemed accurately for

men and women. Media also plays an important role in the socialization process

for young and old people. Gender roles are as apparent in movies and TV sitcoms,

as they are in commercials. For example, in the early days of TV, most sitcoms

portrayed women as housewives that cooked and cleaned and men as the

breadwinners(the worker that brought home the money to support the family). An

example of this structure is the sitcom Leave It To Beaver. June Cleaver(the

mother) stayed at home all times and never disciplined the children, where as

Ward Cleaver (the father) was the dominant one who worked and disciplined the

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...sical appearance. This can lead to eating disorders such as bulimia

and anorexia. Although, the media promotes this outlook on self image, it seems

as if it tries to correct the “negative images” by making people aware of the

dangers of them. They do this by creating after-school specials that expose the

risks and dangers involved in eating disorders.

Ironically, while writing this paper, I happened to view a program, “Mysteries

and Scandals”, on the TV network E!. The program exposed the lives of popular

actresses that died through drug and alcohol dependencies. The segment on Judy

Garland especially drew my attention. At the age of 16, while taping The Wizard

of Oz, her drug addiction started. The producers required Judy to be thinner to

play the part of Dorothy, so they demanded that she started taking diet

pills(speed), to up her metabolism. Her drug and alcohol dependency only

increased in the years to come, leading to the overdose that took her life.

Advertising is an essential part of our society, as is the role of the media.

They help us define and break gender roles. However, apparent or not, they

effect our individualism and influence our lives.