Men and women view themselves differently and both men and women are concerned about how others view them. This leads to both genders becoming increasingly conscientious of what they eat, how much they eat, and how often they should exercise. Often times both struggle with making these changes so they look for an easy way to see the results they desire. Advertising agencies have noticed this stigma and taken advantage of both sexes insecurities about self-image. This can be seen in the Hydroxycut ad from 2008, and the SuperPump 250 ad in 2010. These two ads highlight the benefits of the products, while pinpointing the insecurities of the consumers. Although there are similarities between the two genders concerns regarding self-image, ultimately men tend to want a more muscular look and women typically just want to lose weight and look thin.
The Hydroxycut ad features an attractive woman for this product, which claims it is ‘Americas #1 Weight-Loss Supplement.’ The setting is on a tropical beach and the woman is standing in the sand near the ocean in a red two piece bikini. There is a quote that says “I lost 39 pounds. Fast with Hydroxycut!” Below is Gillian Risebury from Collinsville, Illinois’ testimony to the effectiveness of the product. She says before she took the product she felt unhappy and uncomfortable wearing a bikini, but after seeing Hydroxycut’s effectiveness in other users she decided to try it. After she took this supplement she reported losing 39 pounds and seven inches off her waist in 13 weeks. She relates that she is a testament to the effectiveness of the product and now she feels comfortable at the beach and at pool parties. Moving down the page is a before and after picture of her showing her significant pr...
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...the person in question, when in fact the person could look fat or small, but they don’t want to reveal these insecurities to them. In a country marked by its obesity and plethora of fast food chains, people look for the easy way out of the path to becoming overweight. They want these results fast and if they don’t see it they quit. Advertising agencies and multi-million/billion dollar organizations take full advantage of these people and turn it into a business. While men and women have different views of themselves the companies know how to market the items to each gender leading to slanted views of self-image. For Americans conforming and sticking to the norms is a way of life and buying similar products on the basis of shallow ads is normal. This is why advertising is such a lucrative and shady industry that dictates culture and distorts perception of self image.
Advertisers use women that are abnormally thin, and even airbrush them to make them appear thinner. These advertisers promote a body image that is completely unrealistic and impossible to achieve (Dohnt & Tiggemann, 2006b). It has been instilled in these advertisers’ minds that a thinner model will sell more (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2003). Media has a direc...
This is a stereotype, which has been engraved into heads of men, women, and children. By plastering the world with models who seem to have it the genetic jackpot, Dove set out to discredit this cultural cast created by our society. Body image, to some people, is the first part of a person they notice. A study conducted by Janowsky and Pruis compared body image between younger and older women. They found that although older women “may not feel the same societal pressure as younger women to be thin and beautiful…some feel that they need to make themselves look as young as possible” (225). Since women are being faced with pressure to conform in ways that seem almost impossible, Jeffers came to the conclusion “they should create advertising that challenges conventional stereotypes of beauty” (34) after conducting various interviews with feminist scholars. The stance of Figure 1’s model screams confident. She is a voluptuous, curvy and beautiful women standing nearly butt-naked in an ad, plastered on billboards across the globe. Ultimately, she is telling women and girls everywhere that if I can be confident in my body, so can you. Jessica Hopper reveals, “some feel that the ads still rely too heavily on using sex to sell” (1). However, I feel as if these are just criticisms from others who are bitter. With the model’s hands placed assertively placed on her hips, her smile lights up the whole ad. She completely breaks the stereotype that in order to
Every branch of advertising is based on this idea, directly or indirectly. For example, magazines only use pictures of skinny people in the front page to catch reader’s attention. As well as the TV does with the commercials of different products, and most of the time are diet products, presented by celebrities that are really skinny, and good-looking, inviting women to use them to look in the same way. In Julie Mehta’s article “Pretty Unreal,” the author Jessica Weiner states, “If you feel good about yourself, how many products will you buy? So [Advertisers] have to make you feel like you need what they’re selling by using unrealistic images” (2). Unfortunately women still doesn’t notice this fact.
...representation of body is seamlessly depicted in today’s contemporary culture. Without question, body fat is a controversial aspect to the female population. The ad does this for many purposes as discussed before. Bocock provides evidence that the reason women consume a large amount of goods is because of the multiple ways in which these products can correspond to the way they feel. Women in particular, buy Body Language Sportswear clothing to have a meaning, or emotional attachment to it. The advertiser’s use celebrities as mentioned above to represent these images. In return, the advertising company not only gains profit, but also expands their mass production. Brands such as this will eventually skyrocket through the spread of market. As a result, this ad evidently presents the ideological and theoretical values for marketing strategies intended to mediate people
Given the number of women that appear in advertisements aimed at men, it is possible that the male viewer’s image of himself is affected by the female’s images to which he is exposed. Despite men being generally more satisfied with their body image, the increasing pressure seen in marketing efforts to appear physically attractive and muscular may also result in a change in body image perceptions (Gulas and McKeage, 2000), to strive toward developing a muscular body to appear more masculine (Baird and Grieve, 2006).
Although this commercial is refreshing to see women of different nationalities and body types, it’s still putting women in competition with other women. When they made “This Body” a hashtag, it was supposed to empower women with curves but they neglect the women without curves. This separation is heavily influenced by the media. In today’s society, we encourage advertisements and commercials that promote the “ideal” body type which we perceive as “real beauty”. Fashion designers and advertisers look for models with a slim figure that wear between a size zero and four. As we get used to seeing this type of body image and value it, it becomes the norm. This stereotype controls the way women think of themselves and make them believe that they all need to look that way. This can result in women going on extreme diets, taking pills, or even altering their body. The people that benefit from these women are fashion designers and advertisers because they have fallen into their traps. These companies will continue to target distinct audiences of young ladies and capitalize off of their vulnerability because they believe that being slim is in. Plastic surgeons and fitness centers also benefit from young adults with low self-esteem. They believe that they are able to enhance their overall appearance and provide them with healthier lifestyles. In addition, men also play a huge roll in how ladies of all ages perceive themselves. In most cases, women are altering their bodies to either find a spouse or for their
Women spend more hours watching T.V and movies, more hours on beauty parlous and boutiques in an attempt to keep themselves abreast with fashion trends. This is why most ladies join slim possible programs or develop eating disorders such as anorexia. The popular culture has a preference for thin women. The society also measures beauty regarding body size (thinness and tallness). There is, therefore, a preference for skinny, tall white models and women in general. As a result, fat women develop a negative self-image which leads them to eat less, over-exercising and doing anything that can make them slim despite the health dangers that are involved. However, this is not the case for men. The popular culture emphasizes on well-built men. This emphasis makes some men develop a negative self-image and the feeling of not being handsome. The men with high self-esteem can overcome this, while those with low self-esteem go for the gym to broaden their chests or develop an excessive eating
In the media there are people who view women a certain way, and if we don't hold to the standard that we are not as good as other women who are the size the media says we have to be. In an article it said that "Large women in America are to all intents and purposes invisible in today's thinness-obsessed culture. A big women is neither seen nor heard, and is defined purely in terms of her weight and other people's prejudice." (Goodman par 1) This is a hard thing for women that a heavier to understand because they want the person to think that they are heard. This plays into the way that they think and the way that women look at their bodies. You can see this happening with different types of televisions shows, which put on the show thinner women. "Practically the only television programming that addresses her directly consists of weight-loss ads, the message: lose weight. You're not real women unless you're thin (Goodman)". It is hard to think that this statement could be true, but
People react differently depending on their own traits. Studies have shown that women identify the media as the major source of the perceived social pressure to maintain a thin body image. Male body image suffers as well. When men are exposed to unrealistic male bodies, they can suffer from the same symptoms as females. People should not let the media negatively influence their bodies. The public needs to view the media for what it’s worth…pure entertainment. Media’s depiction of a “normal” body type portrays a standard of beauty that is unattainable. Both women and men are suffering from trying to reach these unattainable goals and are suffering from low self-esteem, depression and eating disorders. This is a huge epidemic and hopefully one day it will change. The media needs to promote healthy lifestyles and show men and women of all shapes and sizes that they can feel good about themselves. The “real size” people in the world, will then be able to stop feeling pressured by the media to obtain a certain standard body
People may think that men should be cool and handsome and should look and be a certain why like having a lot of muscles. McClure Stewart is the managing of editor of Women’s Quarterly Journal and Kate Kennedy is the campus project more important, our inner Women’s Forum, stated, “Again, this one features a corpulent guy’s guy lounging on his sofa in his dirty undershirt, which barely covers his beer gut” (1).Why is it that males are always stereotyped as the ones that cannot take care of themselves. Females are not the only ones that care about body image. So do males because like women they too try to attract the opposite sex. Many males find this offensive because it’s like we are not all slobs and they all would not want to be categorized like that too. At the same time, females worry about body image more because of the many advertisements that make women just look like sex objects. Katherine Toland Frith an associate professor at the School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Barbara Muller coordinator of the Media Studies Program at San Diego State University stated that Gentry found that female college students who were repeatedly exposed to thin models in ads feel increased guilt, shame, insecurity, and body dissatisfaction (5). Women tend to be more sensitive than a male which is already a good reason that females have it worse than males. Not to
Advertising is always about appearance. It is also about information and what really satisfies people. Undoubtedly that advertisement of woman has been increased dramatically and obviously in such a way that turn out to be an important part of people’s lives. Recently, with advertising developments, there are more and more prospective is shown to the public. It cannot be denied that advertisement consist of negative scenes that shape females identity. Nevertheless, majority of individuals in modern societies deem that, such advertisements can caused so many harmful effects to women gender identity, such as low self-esteem. Also, it can cause depression to the women advertising due to the lack of confidence. Whereas, minority of people believes that, it is all about the women own decision whether to be exposed in such kinds of images or not. As well, it may benefit both parties, women who advertise and the advertising companies organizing them. It can be assumed that, this issue so-called advertising shapes female gender identity, has both benefits and damages, and damages can occurred more than advantages. This essay will attempt briefly to argue the damages and benefits of how advertising shapes women gender identity.
The first adverse effect of weight loss advertising is that it gives an illusion to women that being thin means beauty. The slimming companies recruit many beautiful celebrities to be the spokespersons. They post the photos before and after having treatment of those celebrities. Then, they made a comparison of those photos and exaggerated the beauty of after losing weight. In this case, women who are satisfied about their body initially may lose their confidence when comparing to those celebrities. They may find themselves imperfect and would consider the need of having those treatments. In fact, being thin is beautiful is partly correct only. It cannot apply to all females...
As mentioned before, unrealistic media images are very prevalent. This creates the illusion that females who match the ideal seem like the norm rather than the exception. These perceptions and the constant comparisons lead to the cultivation theory which is known as the contributions media exposure makes to the viewer’s perceptions of social reality (Von Vonderen and Kinnally 53). The repetitiveness of these images influences the individual’s ability to understand that the images are unrealistic. Over time the nearly impossible standard of beauty is adopted and perceived as “reality.” People who watch heavy amounts of TV are more likely to see the real world according to what they have watched. Viewers often seek out programming that reinforces their beliefs, further strengthening their attitudes. If a woman has low self-esteem and views media that portrays emaciated models as beautiful, those negative attitudes will only be reinforced. A person’s level of awareness of the characteristics portrayed by the media is an indicator on how they will internalize these images. Females that are more aware of the media’s effects are more likely to be resilient to body image concerns and females that are unaware are more likely to show symptoms of body disturbance (Serdar). Therefore, if a woman is unable to determine that the media is unrealistic she will be more likely to internalize the images and be more prone to body dissatisfaction.
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,
Susan Bordo states in her article “Never Just Pictures”, that children grow up knowing that they can never be thin enough. They are thought that being fat is the worst thing ever. The ones responsible for this are the media, celebrities, models, and fashion designers. All of these factors play a big role on the development of the standard and how people view themselves. Everyone at one dreams about being the best they can in any aspect. But to achieve that most believe that one of the big factors is outer beauty. So people look at celebrities and fashion designers, and believe that to be accepted they have to look like them. That’s when they take drastic measures to change their appearance because they’ve been influenced by the Medias idea of “beautiful.” This feeling mostly happens in women but in recent years the gender gap has become smaller. Now men also feel the need to look good because of the media. On the TV, instead of having infomercials ...