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THE PERSUASIVE POWER OF ADVERTISING IN SHAPING BODY-IMAGE AND SELF-ESTEEM
women advertisements and body image
THE PERSUASIVE POWER OF ADVERTISING IN SHAPING BODY-IMAGE AND SELF-ESTEEM
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All women desire beauty. As myriads of women seek a perfect body shape and attractiveness, they will have interest in having weight loss treatment. In fact, losing weight has come into a vogue. People, especially female, do not take their weight into serious account but follow the others blindly and participate in weight loss programmes. Patently, the main culprit of this phenomenon is the omnipresent weight loss advertisements. The slimming companies use advertising as a tool to inculcate the concept that being thin is equal to beauty into people’ minds. The repetitive weight loss advertisements seem to be successful in conveying the wrong message to every citizen. Some girls who are of tender age may easily be susceptible to the advertisements and participate in the weight loss treatment without a second thought. The weight loss advertising has definitely caused adverse effects on the youngsters and women. The adverse effects are in threefold. They are giving an illusion to women, coercing them into losing weight and providing a wrong means to lose weight. The first adverse effect of weight loss advertising is that it gives an illusion to women that being thin means beauty. The slimming companies recruit many beautiful celebrities to be the spokespersons. They post the photos before and after having treatment of those celebrities. Then, they made a comparison of those photos and exaggerated the beauty of after losing weight. In this case, women who are satisfied about their body initially may lose their confidence when comparing to those celebrities. They may find themselves imperfect and would consider the need of having those treatments. In fact, being thin is beautiful is partly correct only. It cannot apply to all females... ... middle of paper ... ... about the practical and useful ways to lose weight rather than believing all the words mentioned in advertisements. In short, the weight loss advertising has definitely caused several adverse effects that most women are already misled by the advertisements that being thin is equal to beauty. In order to redeem this undesirable situation, Government must take the initiative in educating people about the useful means of losing weight and what is real beauty. Furthermore, they should try to regulate the message that the weight loss advertisements try to convey to the citizens. They should avoid any consciousness of discrimination against fat people appeared in the advertisements. Only if the above measures are being taken, can the atmosphere of losing weight stops eventually and less women will fall victim to the weight loss advertisements. Works Cited my work
However, Kilbourne’s statement surprised me when she claimed, “dieting doesn’t work.” Although Kilbourne’s intention with this statement was to encourage young women to accept their bodies, it creates leeway for laziness and obesity. Advertisements at times can be used as inspiration or motivation for those who try to sculpt their own body through fitness and healthy dieting. Dieting in today’s society is often associated with depriving oneself from the food they love. However, dieting is simply eating food in moderation and not splurging excessively. Furthermore, advertisements displaying women who are overly skinny from an eating disorder such as Anorexia, is not helping the current and future generations of women. In fact, companies should advertise women that have dedicated their lives to a healthy diet along with a vigorous routine of fitness and have achieved a healthy and achievable body.
Advertisers use women that are abnormally thin, and even airbrush them to make them appear thinner. These advertisers promote a body image that is completely unrealistic and impossible to achieve (Dohnt & Tiggemann, 2006b). It has been instilled in these advertisers’ minds that a thinner model will sell more (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2003). Media has a direc...
North America is seeing a rise in death due to obesity in recent years. In America alone, 300 000 individuals die of obesity per year and is the second leading cause of preventable death. A large number of health issues arise from being overweight and obese such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Health risks are not the only reason for people to strive to lose weight, the idea of having a lean, muscular, and fit body considered attractive by the media have also driven fat people to take active steps towards weight loss. When people see advertisements like "lose 10 pounds in 10 days" or "25 pounds in only two weeks" makes their hearts skip a beat at the possibility of dropping pounds without any pain or bother. These advertisements target
According to EASO.org, 65% of the world’s population live in the countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight. Overweight and obesity are the fifth leading risk for global deaths. At least 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. Everyone struggles with dieting and weight loss. Weight Watchers is a program designed to help people lose weight. Weight Watchers also let you eat the foods you love while living a full life. In the January/ February 2017 Weight Watchers magazine, Oprah Winfrey inspires women to lose weight with an enjoyment. The Weight Watcher's ad helps the viewer look at losing weight as a positive motivation instead of a negative insecurity. The advertisement grasps the audience’ s
The effects of the exposure to the idealized images presented in advertisements have been an area for extensive media research for a long time. Many researchers suggest that watching repetitive messages presented in advertisements influence people’s behaviors, attitudes and perception. One area that many researchers are concerned about is how the idealized model figures in advertisements affects women’s perception of the ideal body weight. Some researches claim that when women watch skinny models who are perceived in the society as the ideal feminine figures intentionally or unintentionally they compare themselves to those models. This comparison can cause insecurities, body dissatisfactions and it also can affect women’s confidence and self-esteem. Some researchers suggest that this may eventually cause women to engage in unhealthy eating behaviors or excessive exercising to lose weight; moreover it may cause eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.
The media’s depiction of female bodies has a detrimental influence on women’s perception of themselves and has come under fire in recent years. Girls growing up in our media soaked culture internalize society’s ever-thinning standard of beauty, believing that they can never be slender enough. The negative effect of the media has been linked to the spread of eating disorders (“Never Just Pictures”, Thompson). This has led to a public outcry against impossibly thin, airbrushed models and a demand for more honest advertising.
After analysing and comparing both media sources, it is clear that the perspectives, language and images of the media texts, play a major role in reflecting its purpose to the viewers. Although both media texts serve totally different purposes, there are still some similarities relating to their topic “blushing beauty” and Body dissatisfaction. In conjunction with the media tools, it is clear that over time the media has become more and more provocative. This also makes it clear that, the pressure to achieve an unrealistic "body ideal" is now an underlying cause of serious health and relationship problems. However, to avoid body dissatisfaction from spreading further in society, cosmetic advertisements must use more realistic images.
In regard to Susan Bordo’s, “Never Just Pictures”, I agree with the points she makes in her essay about what is being projected through advertisements and fashion modeling and the negative effects that these have on developing a healthy self-esteem and body image. Everyone, without gender as a factor, should openly embrace the good points of their body, flaws included. But still, we are surrounded by everything from commercials about diet pills, to articles on celebrities who are doing anything to become thinner and thinner, and the bizarre concept that a plus-size model is as small as a size 6 or 8. The saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words” rings very true to the emphasis put on what is seen when someone looks at an advertisement for something because it acknowledges something much deeper than the image that is seen. Besides the company selling the product that is shown, they are in some ways, sending subliminal messages of what a person who would buy or wear the product should look and act like. Even though advertisers and the media would be quick to deny that their work has anything to do with young women turning to eating disorders to look like what they see all around them, it is evident that this obsession with self-image and being as thin as humanly possible is clearly a result from none other than what is depicted in those very ads.
Approximately 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies and resort to dieting to achieve their ideal body shape. Unfortunately, only 5% of women naturally possess the body type often portrayed by Americans in the media (DoSomething.org). Based off the statistic given by dosomething.org, that means around 7 million women living in Illinois about 6 million are unhappy with their bodies and only 330,000 fit the body image that the media portrays. Protein World and Victoria Secret are just two ads that portray a stereotypical body image for women. After deeply reviewing two ads it is clear that they are promoting sexism after giving a specific image of what a female’s body should look like
One could argue advertisements with ultra thin models helps motivate those who are at an unhealthy weight, however, the measures these overweight people take to achieve a “perfect bod” are often dangerous and fatal. It is just as unhealthy to be underweight as it is to be overweight, except society tends to brush the health hazards regarding the former under the rug. Additionally, it is possible that companies, such as Victoria’s Secret, are capitalizing on American’s obsession with “the supposed desirability of thinness” by marketing a certain body type that meets a standard of glamorized thinness (Campos). Furthermore, one should not mistaken the outcry from this advertisement as skinny shamming. Due to thinness being perceived as “a kind of privilege” that stems from beauty ideals, overtly representing thinness is not required, as it already occurs frequently.
The popular media; being television, movies and magazines, have increasingly held up a thinner and thinner body image as the ideal for women and masculine bodies for men. This is a problem caused by social media’s portrayal of ‘the ideal appear’, however this is only one aspect of the body image issue; others include the advertising company’s photo-shopping every picture to construct people desire to purchase their merchandise. The majority of these companies is promoting their clothes, accessories, fitness and cosmetics. This has affected people all around the world for the reason that human beings deem that it is crucial to be such as every photo-shopped figure that is advertised in the majority of every fitness, beauty or clothing product. The last point that will be discussed in this essay will be
Some people do not know all that much about exercise and dieting. They do not know healthy ways to eat, and they don’t realize that one can’t get the “Perfect Body” in just a few days. These people are possibly victims of Fitness Myths. “In 2002, the Federal Trade Commission released a report that shared a review of 300 weight-loss ads promoting 218 different products. They found the rampant use of false or misleading claims” (FTC, 2003) Misleading fitness products can be particularly damaging. If one is mislead into purchasing a product and the product doesn’t work as it was advertised, not only have you wasted your money, but also the product may have physically hurt your body. FTC chairman Timothy Muris talks about the advertising and promotion tactics of the fitness industry “ads that make claims and promises that are clearly implausible and patently false run in all forms of media, with the notable exception of network TV” (FTC, 2003). Misleading advertisements are common among all forms of media. Although TV commercials may be more powerful in their persuasion, an obvious reason for this is that TV advertisements show more misleading commercials. A technique frequently used in commercials to make them seem credible is that “many deceptive ads run in highly respected publications and they are perceived to be credible”(FTC, 2003). Therefore if the TV program you are watching, while the commercial is being played, seems credible, consumers tend to believe that the products advertised during the episode are also trustworthy.
This advertisement has also globalised in other countries that being slim is considered beautiful and that other body type is unacceptable. A research conducted by YouGov UK found out that “55% of the British female population felt that this advertisement is offensive and that it made them self-aware about their body, while 55% of male agrees that the company is making money by helping people losing weight.” (Dahlgreen,
Advertising creates a mythical dream world where there are no problems, everyone is beautiful, and has money to spare. Advertisements depict the way in which people think women and men are “supposed to be” (Cortese 52). Women are shown all these images as role models, which are unattainable. Females are not able to be happy with their bodies because everyday in the media they are told that they are not beautiful. The average American woman is 5 feet tall and weighs 142 pounds. When is the last time you saw a women meeting these qualifications in any advertisement? The truth is most people don't have the genetic potential to be the idealized shape and size in our culture (“Every”). Women are doomed from the beginning.
To sum up, Advertisement is one of the important ways to help the marketers as well as consumers. It is good for the companies as they can attract more consumers and as a result increase the profit of the company. It also has many benefits for the consumers as they can raise their knowledge and awareness and accordingly improve their lifestyle. Conversely, it may have negative effects on consumer behavior by creating unhealthy behavior such as alcohol consumption and lowering self-confidence by beauty advertisement. According to what has been written above, obviously, advertisement may have both positive and negative effects on consumer behavior. However, the positives are more noticeable than negative effects. Consequently, advertisement may be one of the best tools to distribute information to public.