The Effect Of Advertising On Women's Body Image

The Effect of Advertising on Women's Body Image Looking beautiful and having a thin body has become a norm today, which everyone wants to

achieve it today. People are bombarded with amazing beautiful images from watching television,

surfing the internet and reading magazines, which forces people emotionally to become like

them. People believe today that perfect beauty and thinness is a norm and it is achievable by

wearing beautiful clothes, applying makeup and by reshaping the body. Media has taken over

people’s minds by pressuring them to look like celebrities and one of those images sticking on

those beauty and health

Jean Kilbourne (2010) says that women in advertisings are more like an object rather than the

human beings. Companies also show women’s body on nonsexual products, such as food,

jewelries and furnitures. For example, in one of the BMW used car advertisement objectifies

Fereidouni 2

women into sex objects for men to use at their disposal. Beautiful naked woman laying down on

a bed. There is a quote next to her that it says, "You know you're not the first. But do you really

care?" over the image of an attractive seemingly naked woman gives the consumer the idea that

beautiful women can and should be used for sex and it shouldn't matter how many people they

may have slept with before. In this car advertisement, the woman is no longer a human, she

In fact, today's fashion models weigh 23% less than the average female, and a young woman

between the ages of 18-34 has a 7% chance of being as slim as a catwalk model and a 1% chance

of being as thin as a supermodel. These information shows us that how many girls wish to be like

supermodels and models on magazines and billboards All of of these feelings are the result of

using body image on advertisements.”(2003). Marketing companies use different ways to sell

their product to us and unfortunately they had a great impact on consumers. In reality, people are

still getting encouraged by the media to consume such life threatening diet and diet pills to make

them look like celebrities or models on advertisings.

As mentioned above, using body image in advertisements, has so many disadvantages and

brings unhappiness for the most of the people. Therefore, marketers and advertisers, should

consider the ethical aspects of the abuse of women in marketing practices. They should take into

account the possible negative consequences and avoid violating ethical principles.