Advertisement's Influence on the Need for a Youthful Appearance

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Society today is constantly emphasizing the importance of maintaining a youthful image throughout life. People will go to great lengths in order to fight ageing that is bound to happen regardless. Advertisers take advantage of this desire to fight ageing by making people believe they need to look a certain way, and in order to achieve this, buy a certain product. The need for anti ageing products is seen in advertisements, making women and even men believe they need to fight their age and stay youthful forever. There have also been advertising campaigns that have gone against the norm of making people believe they must look a certain way. By examining ageing ads involving women and men, as well as ads that have gone against this norm one will understand how advertising does determine ones view of ageing to a certain extent. Advertising is constantly driving into peoples minds that in order to be accepted by society, one must go through a constant battle against ageing.
For women especially, advertisements have them denying ageing, and going to great lengths to continue to look like the ideal of a youthful woman. There are hundreds of anti ageing products that are advertised to convince women that ageing is undeniably a bad thing. These advertisements for anti ageing products often show a youthful woman without any flaws as the ideal woman to become. In order to become this youthful woman, fight your ageing and buy the product to prevent or fix any flaws you may have. In figure 1 below for an Olay regenerist anti ageing product, the advertisement shows a youthful woman with no flaws using the product. The product is being applied to the woman’s face similarly to the way a doctor would draw on your face before plastic surgery. The ...

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...accepting the ageing process everyone goes through, and that women specifically have a hard time accepting.
Media portrays ageing as largely negative, which in turn affects the way society views ageing. According to Milner et al. (2011), “Advertising contributes to a culture where people are both consciously and subconsciously primed to follow the negative ageing story and do everything in their power to fight it.” Advertisements affect the way people see themselves and the way they are viewed and treated by society. The way ageing is portrayed in advertisements has an affect on women, and men who want to change the way they are, avoid becoming a certain way, or slow down the process of ageing. This constant battle against ageing is a fight that cannot be won and the fact that advertisements determine the view society and individuals have on ageing is unfortunate.

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