Love And Beauty In Jean Kiilbourne: The Effects Of Adverts

Nowadays it is almost impossible to avoid from exposure of advertisements. Since most of people are exposed by the advertisements, the society is influences by them and the values sold by them. In Jean Kilbourne’s essay, she asserts that “[i]t sells values, images, and concepts of love and sexuality, romance, success, and, perhaps most important, normalcy” (126). According to Kilbourne, the society is affected by the advertising advertisers not only sell their products but also sell the value and one of the most popular values that the advertisers sell is beauty. In today’s society, the effects of beauty are outrageous as attentions of the people to the physical appearance increases. In the past, beauty was only important for women in general,

The ad has white background and images of two feet which explain the effect of the product at the center of it. One of two feet looks smoother and cleaner than another and it says before and after under the images. It shows the audiences that their skin can be changed if they use the product. Even though it might take a while, maybe few days, few weeks, or few months, the ad only shows audience the positive final effect of the product. Therefore, the people who see this ad would think that their skin would transfer just like the feet on the ads instantly. Kilbourne discusses that “[a]dvertising constantly promotes the core belief of American culture: that we can recreate ourselves, transform ourselves, transcend our circumstances-but with a twist” (122). Even though the transformation generally takes time and effort, in most advertisements, transformations happen simply and instantly. Therefore, people believe that they can change their body, characteristic, or life so easily. Moreover, Kilbourne argues that “[t]he focus of the transformation shifted from the soul to the body” (122). Now, people do not care about the inner side but the physical appearance. People want to make the transformation of their body but not soul because the physical appearance became an important value of the modern society. Another image of the ads is woman’s legs and a hand holding the product of the ads. They look skinny and smooth moreover, they look good and perfect. However, they do not put anything on them and somehow, they look