Advertising & Women

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Recommended: The adverse effect of advertising on women

The word advertisement is defined by something that is shown or presented to the public to help sell a product or to make an announcement according the Merriam Webster dictionary. The purpose of advertising is to attract the viewers attention to the ad, capture their interest to an object, a brand or an idea, stimulate their desire and convince them to take an action oriented to purchase the advertised product. It is obvious, however, that this definition does not completely describe the significance of what the advertising phenomenon really is, or at least not as you may think, because advertising is not only a communication tool that serves to encourage the audience to purchase products and develop our habits as a consumer. It is also, and above all, a very effective tool to transmit ideas, values, and attitudes towards the world. Advertising has impacted the roles and standards in all aspects of women today. The advertisements not only are meant to sale objects but to distort the social identity of the viewer (Fogliasso and Thuo 31).
To start of, “You almost never see a photograph of a woman considered beautiful that hasn’t been Photoshopped,” says the recognized author and speaker Jean Kilbourne. The women that we see in our everyday advertisements go through extensive hours of makeup sessions and digital manipulations that alter their image into the unreal. People in our culture do not realize this and believe that what they are being showed is real when in reality it has gone through many refinements to reach the point of so called “perfection”. Due to the unawareness in the subject women are tricked into thinking that there is something wrong with their physical appearance which produces a feeling of rejection and need to ...

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... Journal Of Food & Nutrition Sciences 63.3 (2013): 133-146. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.

Chacón Gordillo, Pedro. "Woman As Sexual Objects in Advertisement.” Communications 16.31 (2008): 403-409. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

Fogliasso, Christine E., and Esther Muthoni Thuo. "How Changing Social Values Are Reflected In Advertising For Consumer Products." Insights To A Changing World Journal 2013.1(2013): 28-40. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

Griffin, J, and E M Berry. "A Modern Day Holy Anorexia? Religious Language In Advertising And Anorexia Nervosa In The West." European Journal Of Clinical Nutrition 57.1 (2003): 43. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

Jhally, Sut, Jean Kilbourne, and David Rabinovitz. Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising's Image of Women. Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation, 2010.

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