Women in Advertisement
Women in today's society are influenced by advertisements. These influences could be from being the perfect size four in pants, to a type of fragrance, to a type of cigarette they choose to smoke. This is usually how women are portrayed in most ads. Because of this portrayal, women often become obsessed with becoming the same person they see on television, billboards, and in magazines. In some cases, this becomes a health hazard. Women are "tricked" into thinking that they are obese, not thin enough, not curvy enough, or just not as beautiful as the models in the ads.Having the "perfect" body is often associated with the emaciated supermodel Kate Moss. Moss first started to model on billboards and magazines about four years ago for the popular clothes designer Calvin Klein. When women look at this frail, 105-pound body, they begin to daydream about being this thin. In a study conducted in 1996, 60 percent of sixth graders admitted to dieting at one point. The author of a well known book "For Real: The Uncensored Truth About America's Teenagers," comments that body perception is a "huge, huge, huge problem" for girls and "almo
The perfect body is also a large part of teenage magazines such as Seventeen, 'Teen, Young and Modern, Jump, etc. These magazines tend to "have trouble escaping the 'thin is in' phenomenon" (Leland, 66). The majority of their profit comes from ads for clothes, make up products, and weight-loss programs. Because these magazines are looking for any type of ad for their magazine, almost never reject the advertisement. In the summer of '95, the popular teenage magazine Sassy featured an article about an anorexic girl who weighed a mere 55 pounds. A couple of pages after the article there was an advertisement for a weight-loss program. The ad pictured a slim girl in a bikini with a slogan saying "Now-in only 2 weeks, you can start to have THINNER, FIRMER LEGS & HIPS..." If this doesn't contradict the article of the sick girl, I don't know what would. If a teenage girl were to flip through this issue of Sassy, she would most likely learn the lesson of how to get a firmer body rather than the dangers of over-obsessing about weight and body image. The fashion industry does not see a problem with this. Quotes fashion photographer Raymond Maier "For us it's more on the playful side. It's not a dogma where we're telling people, 'This is the way it should be'" (Moog, 66). Leland, John. "The Body Impolitic: fashion and its critics sell the same stereotypes." Newsweek. 17
Some common words found in the essay are:
People' Moog, Modern Jump, Raymond Maier, Women Women, Obsession Eternity, LEGS HIPS, America's Teenagers, Jane Pratt, Calvin Klein, Body Impolitic, cigarette ads, women cigarette ads, billboards magazines, huge huge, influenced advertisements, weight-loss programs, perfect body, women cigarette, advertising influence, looking type, teenage girl,
Approximate Word count = 932
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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