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How does advertising affect young peoples obesity in different ways
Effects of negative body image on individuals
Effects of negative body image on individuals
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This childhood obesity ad expresses itself through color, slander, body type, and loaded language. This ad has more of a negative impact on those who view it rather than a positive one. This ad is effective by encouraging parents to provide their child with a healthy diet, but it is also ineffective because it body shames young children. The photo of the girl on the campaign is pictured in black and white. The background of the photo is blurred and the girl is pictured by herself. Her arms are crossed and she appears to have a serious look on her face as if she is angry or upset. Her long dark hair is parted in the center and tucked behind her ears. She has thin eyebrows, thin lips, and big dark eyes. She is wearing a long-sleeved …show more content…
Photoshop is often used in order to make people look thinner and more athletically built. When people see these photoshopped images online and in magazines, they are unaware that they are comparing themselves and other people to a false and sometimes unrealistic standards. When society sees someone with a thin or athletic figure, they often see them as healthy and attractive. But when people see someone who appears to be overweight, they often assume that they are lazy and unhealthy. When in reality, someone can be overweight and still be perfectly active, attractive, and healthy. In this campaign, there is a slogan stating: “it’s hard being a little girl if you’re not.” This statement implies that it is hard to be a young overweight girl. This ad intends to give the message that all obese young girls are unhealthy and they should be ashamed of their bodies. It wouldn’t be hard to be a young overweight girl if young girls were not constantly ridiculed and looked down upon because of their size. Yes, some children might be put at health risks because of their weight and we should encourage all kids to be healthy. But they shouldn’t be put to shame because of it
In the documentary Killer at Large, former Surgeon General Richard Carmona remarked that “Obesity is a terror within. It’s destroying our society from within and unless we do something about it, the magnitude of the dilemma will dwarf 9/11 or any other terrorist event that you can point out…” Carmona is indeed right, with the rapid increase of obese children, America is on the fast track to producing a generation with a life expectancy shorter than their peers. One of the main factor is the media representation of obesity (Greenstreet 2008). In today’s society parents are not only worrying about televisions influence on their kid’s behavior but their weight and health, too. According to study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, that researched the role of media in childhood obesity, stated the obesity increased by 2% for every hours of television in adolescent’s ages 12 to 17. The advertisement of food and beverages present a very strong influence on the children. Most of the products being advert...
By definition, eating disorders qualify as 'any range of psychological disorders characterized by abnormal or disturbed eating habits’ (Mayo Clinic). Often times, the media, television, movies, and Hollywood, influence this pride of utter perfection through retouching. Photoshop can be used to completely change the appearance of a person though blurring, trimming, and color changing (Extropia.com). This allows the user to completely create a new picture and allow the photograph to look anyway they please. These false images often promote ‘skinny’ and ‘thin’. However this, standard photo editors set is often extremely unattainable. Supermodel Cindy Crawford stated “I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford.” (ABC News), and by this she means that even being described as perfect and one of the most flawless women in the world, she wasn’t. The editing on the photos made her appear that way. These impossible averages are often times what cause those with poor self esteem to turn to eating disorders;...
The overall rate of obesity for children comes in at 17 percent, or about 12.5 million obese children in America today (Doheny 1). The number of children who are obese is growing at a fast rate. Most cases of childhood obesity are caused by eating too much and exercising too little. Extra weight puts children at a risk of serious health problems; such as, diabetes, heart disease, and asthma (Smith 1). Although obesity can be prevented, it has become a growing problem among children due to several factors that lead to health problems.
Americans are constantly facing obstacles to healthy eating. Obesity is something that is growing rapidly in the United States. Some Americans argue that fast-food restaurants play a major role in obesity. In “Preventing Obesity” Barbara Mantel states, “Four of the companies — Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Hershey and Mars — pledge not to advertise any food and beverage products on programming for children younger than 12, and the remaining firms pledge that 100 percent of their children's advertising would be for self-designated ‘better-for-you’ products ” (805-806). Whenever children see a junk-food or candy commercial they are instantly attracted to it, it might be because of how colorful they are or the usual toy they receive when they buy kids
Kelly Brownell and Marion Nestle write that advertisements contribute to the increase of obesity in kids, since “each year kids see more than 10,000 foods ads on TV alone, almost all for items like soft drinks, fast foods and sugared cereals.” Brownell and Nestle fail to see that kids are under the authority of their parents and they decide what their kids eat, so in reality the advertisements target the parents. Kids are the reflection of their parents. Children walk down the same path as their parents, as the image in the article demonstrates. If parents walk towards the path of obesity, then their children will follow their example. Brownell and Nestle also explain, “Humans are hardwired… to like foods high in sugar, fat, and calories.” What Brownell and Nestle are saying is that it is a waste of time to try to eat healthy because it is against our nature. However, if that is the case, then no one would be healthy; everyone would be obese. There is no one to blame but ourselves for our
In this generation, filled with technology, we are surrounded by the media and are constantly seeing commercials for weight loss and billboards covered with extremely fit people that have the bodies we wish we could obtain. We see images in the media all the time and do not even realize the affect that they are having on us. When watching television,about 30% of what you are watching is advertisements that are slowly stimulating your mind. “The media and body image are closely related due to the number of images we see in the media and the excessive amount of exposure we have to those images” (The media and body image, 2015). When people view advertisements they do not think of the effect that it is having on them, it may be small but it can grow as more and more are viewed. Advertisements lead us to believe that we need to be like that, so when a magazine has photo shoot of a woman with a perfect body getting a tan on the beach we strive to be like that. We do know that that body is not achievable but want it so badly we will do whatever the magazine tells us. Photoshopping is also a dangerous thing when it come to body
Youth obesity is an escalating problem which causes harmful, unfavourable effects and can intensify and become fatal when it is carried on into adulthood (Chou, Rashad & Grossman, 2005). Such harmful effects of obesity include various cancers, cardiovascular, orthopaedic and metabolic diseases and several other disorders such as psychiatric complications (Lobstein and Dibb, 2005). From this, it is undeniable that identifying the relationship between the advertising of junk food and the increased rate in youth obesity is essential in order to generate suggestions or methods in which this may be prevented or reduced significantly. Advocates of health have been attentive towards the obesity epidemic and have been meticulously focusing on advertising as a causative factor as advertisements are consistently promoting junk food on television (Harris, Bargh and Bronwell, 2009). Suc...
According to “Burger Battles” from the Weekly Reader, obesity is defined as a person whose weight is 20 percent higher than recommended for their height (Burger Battles 1). When this condition begins to affect children lives, it is then known as childhood obesity. Within the United States of America, around 15 percent of children are considered to be obese (Holguin 3). Increasing tremendously, this outbreak has actually tripled in the amount of obese teen and doubled in children up to the age of thirteen (Burger Battles 2). One of the factors that is usually overlooked in the cause for obesity is the role of television. Not only does it reduce the amount of physical activity, the advertisements and commercials are targeting innocent viewers. In a survey completed by Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert, the average child watches nearly 19 hours and 40 minutes of television a week (Ruskin 2). With that amount of time spent watching television, advertisements for fast food will be entering the children’s minds.
In today’s society, people are too focused on how celebrities look and their bodies. Children consume multiple types of media such as the computer and television, so they see celebrities very often. Many obese children develop low self-esteem due to this. In the article titled “The Effects of Childhood Obesity” by Lauren Marcus, she states, “Society, culture and the media send children powerful messages about body weight and shape ideals. For girls, these include the ‘thin ideal’ and an urging to diet and exercise. Messages to boys emphasize a muscular, ‘buff’ body and pressure to body build up…” (10). The media affects children that are obese because it makes them think they should look a certain way. The media portrays a body image that is almost unrealistic to any type of children especially that are obese; girls especially want to look like models or celebrities. The media is very powerful; the media can easily mentally affect children because they compare themselves to celebrities and models. Children also do not realize that celebrities are not perfect because most of the time their bodies are photoshopped. In an interview, Sarah Larson, a dietition states, “The average teenagers watches at least 500 hours of commercials not including social media”. So many children view television, and get depressed because they do not look like the celebrities. Also, on television, fast food restaurants ads are being promoted which causes children to want fast
The standard way of thinking while looking through magazines is to compare ourselves to the people we see in them. Innumerable teenage girls assume that the media’s ideal beauty is unrealistically thin women. Looking up to adults as role models, we are constantly influenced to be on a diet, to not eat as much, and to feel poorly about yourself if you aren't thin. Growing up with this expectation to be skinny, some women develop bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating. Americans today tend to believe that we can be as skinny as models if we just eat less, work out more, and get plastic surgery. Consequently, with technology growing, you can now alter a photo using an application called photoshop. Photoshop is a tool commonly used in magazines to enhance a photo to it more appealing to the consumers. The problem is, that many teenage girls don't notice the subtle changes the photo has gone through. Therefore unrealistic beauty standards women have been given are what makes us have negative body images.
Childhood obesity is a serious problem among American children. Some doctors are even calling childhood obesity an epidemic because of the large percentage of children being diagnosed each year as either overweight or obese. “According to DASH sixteen to thirty-three percent of American children each year is being told they are obese.” (Childhood Obesity) There is only a small percentage, approximately one percent, of those children who are obese due to physical or health related issues; although, a condition that is this serious, like obesity, could have been prevented. With close monitoring and choosing a healthier lifestyle there would be no reason to have such a high obesity rate in the United States (Caryn). Unfortunately, for these children that are now considered to be obese, they could possibly be facing some serious health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancers. All of these diseases have been linked to obesity through research. These children never asked for this to happen to them; however, it has happened, and now they will either live their entire life being obese, or they will be forced to reverse what has already been done (Childhood Obesity).
In “Never Just Pictures”, the author Susan Bordo, brings to our attention just how much of an influence advertising in magazines and on television, as well as in the fashion industry, have on teenage girls and older women, but teenage boys and men, too. She makes it a point that “fat is the devil, and we are continually beating him—‘eliminating’ our stomachs, ‘busting’ our thighs...
In today’s society, childhood obesity is a climbing dilemma. According to CDC (centers of disease control and prevention) in the past thirty years obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents. Approximately 72.7 million children and adolescents aged 2-19 years experienced obesity. (CDC) Obesity does not require lab test or imaging; normally a person who is obese is overweight and lives a sedentary lifestyle. In an ad made by a Belgium student, David Lesage the issue of childhood obesity is most appropriately displayed. The caption of the ad reads “L'obésité commence dès le plus jeune âge”. Which can be translated to “obesity begins at a young age”. Lesage successfully persuades the reader to support the battle
I will be attacking the different aspects that the food advertisements have on children, and the health effects sustaining food advertisements. I will also be taking different measures of demonstrating different studies to support my topic. The biggest source of media message is television, and a parent’s best defense against poor nutrition is controlling the power of the television. Even though American children are overweight or obese, fast food companies still continue to offer unhealthy food to children. For the most part, food that is aimed at these children is high in sugar, and fat, and is not beneficial to their developing bodies.
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,