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Importance of self-help
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Self Help Products
Looking into insecure lives and conformity, shows how self-help products have made its way into people's lives by profiting rather than a tool to aid. The self-help business today is a multi-billion dollar industries marketed and promoted with extravagance to target people who wish to self improve. Self-help products have claimed to help people lose their weight, improve their relationships, help relieve their anxiety/depression and show them ways of becoming a millionaire. Self-help products do not serve its purpose as it might have claimed, because it is merely a gimmick or a tool to deceive consumer into buying. Everyone has flaws within themselves that they wish to fix and further improve on; after all, life is about making mistakes and improving from it. However, most of us are victims of marketed products because we want to achieve the perfection; although, perfection is just an illusion. When some of these flaws become an obstacle to our daily lives, we search for help by means of books, advertisements, tapes, and therapeutic remedy.
Self-help books today is a multi-billion dollar industry because they are able to attract readers who seek to self-improve with the promise of delivering recipe's to success and self improvement and this has kept readers reading in vain. Self-help books attract vulnerable people by appealing to their weaknesses, using significant titles like "How to think like a Millionaire, with subtitles, The Success Secrets of Ten millionaires asking Do you really want to be a millionaire? Wealth is not relied upon luck; this remarkable book has captured the essence that has led to success. Now you have the opportunity of achieving your own dreams." (Poissant) We are talkin...
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...person's will and interest that will ensure the improvement in their lives.
Although some of these material claim to be helpful but most of them have not been tested for its validity. These materials are promoted excessively to convince buyers about its benefit. In any case that if these treatments does not work, often consumers blame themselves for not being diligent with the instruction. Its time for consumers to realize the misconception of self-help product and start believing in themselves and their own ability to overcome what life has placed for them as a challenge. After all, breaking the habit, coping with stress and wanting success is all part and parcel of life. Self-help books, aromatherapy and subliminal tapes are all just a gimmick to get as many consumers as possible to believe in the unexplainable and non credible fact of self-help product.
Dove addressed a prominent issue in young girls’ lives today by their use of kairos. Through ethos, Dove develops a strong ethical appeal to their audience. The commercial would not be impactful without the use of pathos to appeal to the audience's emotion. The use of logos gives an argument and a solution to the self-esteem issue. Although the Dove Self-Esteem Project commercial does have native advertising that sells their product indirectly and commits many fallacies, the ethical and emotional appeal in the commercial makes the project not only relatable, but
We hear sayings everyday such as “Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep”, yet we live in a decade that contradicts this very notion. If looks don’t matter, then why are so many women harming themselves because they are not satisfied with how they look? If looks don’t matter, then why is the media using airbrushing to hide any flaws that one has? This is because with the media establishing unattainable standards for body perfection, American Women have taken drastic measures to live up to these impractical societal expectations. “The ‘body image’ construct tends to comprise a mixture of self-perceptions, ideas and feelings about one’s physical attributes. It is linked to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotional stability” (Wykes 2). As portrayed throughout all aspects of our media, whether it is through the television, Internet, or social media, we are exploited to a look that we wish we could have; a toned body, long legs, and nicely delineated six-pack abs. Our society promotes a body image that is “beautiful” and a far cry from the average woman’s size 12, not 2. The effects are overwhelming and we need to make more suitable changes as a way to help women not feel the need to live up to these unrealistic standards that have been self-imposed throughout our society.
The method used by Susan Douglas in her essay “Narcissism as Liberation” to describe the way a particular event to practice might have a deeper meaning seems to differ somewhat with that used by Clifford Greetz in “Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight”. In the former, the author concentrates on the method which would be best described as “direct approach”. In her explanations of the themes behind different advertising practices and their implied meanings she makes it sound as though the ones responsible for the advertisements infuse these subliminal messages on purpose into the context. She describes the play on women’s feelings to cow them into thinking that they are never the ideal and should always be working to perfect their bodies (using the advertiser’s products) is an intentional subliminal message that is infused into every commercial advertisement is done because that method seems to be effective. She stresses that the media and corporations have shaped...
Sure, some of us have this great confidence within ourselves about looking great, but that does not hold true for everyone. I understand the pain or disgust, or even disappointment one feels when they look in the mirror and say, “I wish I could change this or that about myself”. Although this piece is written about the author’s life, it holds meaning and connects with for many people; one only has to dig deep enough to find one. For me, it was to realize what is important in life can change, adapt and that we must explore our inner selves and find our own path in life.
Roxane Gay, an American feminist writer and author of “My Body is Wildly Undisciplined” writes about a reality television show of people making sacrifices to reduce their body weight. Roxane Gay is successful in persuading her audience due to the evidence and persuasive personal anecdotes. Roxane focuses on “The Biggest Loser” too much in her article. She uses many examples to explain her argument which were “The Biggest Loser” and “Weight Watchers”, and herself. Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. She only talks about the issues that may have a negative effect of these television shows to persuasive her audience to agree with her. For an example, she uses “The Biggest Loser” to confirm her opinion to explain to her audience that harming your body to feel better is not okay at all. There are other suggestions to reduce your body weight, instead of harming your body. Additional, she gives vivid description on how she felt which made a connection between the author and her audience. The summary of the overall text was satisfying because her audience had better understanding on how she
This section discusses health psychology and behavioral medicine, making positive life changes, resources for effective life change, controlling stress, behaving, and your good life. Health psychology emphasizes psychology’s role in establishing and maintaining health and preventing and treating illness. It reflects the belief that lifestyle choices, behaviors, and psychological characteristics can play important roles in health. The mind is responsible for much of what happens in the body, it is not the only factor, the body may influence the mind as well. Making positive life changes include health behaviors- practices that have an impact on physical well being. The stages of change model describes the process by which individuals give up bad habits and adopt healthier lifestyles. The model has five stages: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation/ determination, action/ willpower, and
Today, our culture demands us to be perfect, thin, powerful, successful, smart, extraordinary, but when people begin to try achieving them, we start labeling them as narcissists. The problem is that it is impossible for anyone to please everyone. Brown defines narcissism as simply a “fear of never feeling extraordinary enough to be noticed, to be lovable, to belong, or to cultivate a sense of purpose” (22). Before giving out labels, it is wise to practice asking ourselves questions to clear the intentions and reasons of someone’s behavior. For example, teenagers posting pictures of themselves online to gain some attention reveals that the culture has taught them that they are as lovable as the number of likes and comments they get on social media. Negative feedback roots into negative thinking about vulnerability and causes them to shut themselves down and never show their real selves again. Encouraging others to believe that they are perfect as themselves, will plant a positive attitude in them and push them to pursue their goals and visions to fulfill their dream of a happy
In conclusion it is possible to see how the media promotes a physical and psychological disease among women through the usage of unrealistic body images as it urges them to change their bodies, buy “enhancing” products, and redefine their opinions. Such statements may appear to be ridiculous, but for young women who are seeking to perfect their body according to how the media portrays “good looks” it is the basis for corruption. Confidence, contentment and healthy living are the keys to a perfect and unique body image and no amount of money can advertise or sell as genuine a treatment as this.
Since the early 2000s, Dove has invested millions of dollars into creating advertisements targeting women who lack the understanding of their everyday beauty. They have invested and partnered with Boys & Girls Club of America, Girls Scouts, and Girls Inc. in hopes of making a difference in society (Huffington) . Their goal is to empower women to understand that they are beautiful in their own individual way. That in order for females in society to find themselves attractive they must first find the beauty in themselves and gain confidence in themselves in order for the future generations to do so as well. In this article I will be arguing that Dove is making a positive difference in the female community with their advertisements. Advertisements
Dworkin, Shari L. and Faye L. Wachs. 2009. Body Panic : Gender, Health, and the Selling of Fitness.New York: New York University Press.
Greenblatt, Alan “Can Americans change their self-destructive habits?” CQ Researcher Online- Entire Report. January 31, 2003. Volume 13, Issue 4
The concept of a weight lost product is to help people improve their self-esteem and image. Regular exercise increases stamina and promotes better sleep. The world will embrace this product because the writer uses ethos, pathos, logos in their advertisement. Ethos is the credibility of the author. An example of effective appeal to ethos would be the one- hundred percent of consumers becoming self- motivated. The crea...
The average American is exposed to hundreds of advertisements per day. Advertisements targeted toward females have an enormous effect on women's thoughts, attitudes, perceptions, and actions. Most of the time, women don't even realize these advertisements are formulating self-image issues. These ideals surround them daily and they become naturalized to the ads. Advertising creates an entire worldview persuading women to emulate the images they see all around them. In order to create a market for their products, companies constantly prey upon women's self esteem, to feel like they aren't good enough just the way they are. This makes women constantly feel stressed out about their appearance (Moore). Advertising has a negative effect on women's body image, health, and self-esteem.
While people care too much on their physical beauty and seek different ways to change, they unconsciously ignore their health issues. It was found that American women have the most negative body image of any culture studied by Faludi (1991). When the feeling of dissatisfaction of body image becomes more serious and affected the daily lives, this concern has turned into a psychological illness.
How can people who live in a world surrounded by weight loss commercials, TV shows with beautiful men and women, super models with picture perfect bodies, and magazines covered with shirtless men and women in bikinis not feel fat or insecure about their body? Dontatelle (2015) discusses how the influence of media makes society feel as though their body looks different and that makes them different from everyone else in the world. Or when a person is surrounded by friends and family who have the latest technology or the newest iPhone why wouldn’t they feel pressured to buy it? Lee (2015) talks about how the people and media who make up society, make people feel pressured into buying the latest technology, by making people feel like if they don’t have