The enemy that dreams are made of?

Advertising does not have to be the enemy! The public as a whole have always been so complacent and willing to let others dictate how they should feel, what they should want, what they should look like and have gone as far as to tell us what our days look like and even further still some have even brought forth higher rates of lung cancer and alcoholism. 

"The ads sell a great deal more than products.  They sell values, images, and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy.  They tell us who we are and who we should be.  Sometimes they sell addictions." (Kilbourne 121)

The problem is that advertising agents, the ones creating these ads are there to do a job and that job is to make the company they are working for as much money as they can.  Their job is not to have a conscience!  If every ad executive had one of those maybe just maybe women would not always be worrying about such petty things as their weight, and their house chores; maybe men would not see women as objects and as human beings that have a voice; maybe not as many people would be dying from lung cancer and speaking of lung cancer tabacco companies were actually willing to expand their ads to women consumers, sure lets kill women too by making cigerettes look beautiful! Readers of Ms. magazine were enraged to say the least.  The asked: "would you show a vlack man picking cotton, the same man in a Cardin suit, and symbolize the antislavery and civil rights movements by smoking (Steinman 116)?" Needless to say Philip Morris pulls their ads from Ms. magazine.


So now we are not out in the fresh air doing house chores but out in the cold destroying our lungs!

Ms. Had a great concept when they started their publication, however their magazine unfortunately did not succeed, maybe because they needed to make it more "user friendly" and by that I mean they needed to find a way to be able to promote to men too.  The ad executives for instance of the car industry in Detroit were men and men did not and still do not quite understand women issues.  Why can't a car manufacturer advertise to women?  "Detroit never quite learned the secret of creating intelligent ads that exclude no one" (Steinman 114).  Cars are not a gendered product, why couldn't they understand that the focal point should be the car itself and the features it offers?  These type of specifics do not speak more to man or woman they simply speak to a consumer in need of an automobile.

Pink trains were a complete failure

girls like trains too and do not need pink ones

Advertising executives like Lionel a toy train company were concerned with trying to market their products to girls and saw their chance with Ms. magazine.  "They made a pink train, and were surprised when it didn't sell.  Lionel bows to consumer pressure with a photograph of a boy and a girl- but only on some of their boxes.  They fear that, if trains are associated with girls, they will be devalued in the mids of boys" (Steinman 115)


America was founded on the belief of freedom, but freedom for whom?  Specific groups have been descriminated against for ages.  Of these groups some continue to be.  However, groups that werent descriminated against earlier are now starting to be.  Is this the answer?  My answer is No!  it perpetuates a visious cycle, one in which no one will ever be happy with who they are, what they have and what they are living for.

Beer ad's have become quite rediculous, using women as bottles, displaying naked women holding beer or painted with the logo.  Why not use an average woman in normal attire to sell beer?  Wouldn't this cater to more women then the skinny, perfectly curved woman dressed as a beer bottle?  Because how many women in the world truly look like that?  How many in the world are truly not offended by that.




Advertising executives would do better to have a conscience.  Companies would do better if they had one too.  Why not listen to the public?  Why not listen to statistics?  "Objectified constantly by others, she learns to objectify herself.  One in five college-age women have an eating disorder" (Kilbourne 123-124). 


The average female body comes in a variety of shapes and sizes from underweight to a few pounds over weight

These women are all beautiful, however ad executives, fashion designers and just humans in general would beg to differ, finding flaws in each and every one of them because for hundreds of years we have been told how to think and feel.  I will hand it to advertisers, they sure do know how to brain wash us.  Advertising agents create ads that "generate dissatisfaction and by offering images of transformation, of a 'new you'" (Kellner 130).  But here is the thing, why can't they brain wash us again so that we can accept who we are. Brain wash us again so that unhealthiness is not what we strive for.  Include minority groups because those minority groups such as African Americans, Hispanics and the LGBT have a large spending power that has yet to be tapped into.  We need to do this right.  We need to attempt to fix the world's view of people in generel and especially of
themselves.


Works Cited:

Kilbourne, Jean. “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising." Gender, Race and Class in Media. Ed. Gail Dines, Jean M. Humez. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc, 2003.

 

Steinem, Gloria. “Sex, Lies and Advertising.” Gender, Race and Class in Media. Ed. Gail Dines, Jean M. Humez. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc, 2003.

 

Kellner, Douglas. “Reading Images Critically Toward a Postmodern Pedagogy.” Gender, Race and Class in Media. Ed. Gail Dines, Jean M. Humez. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc, 2003.

 

Images Cited:

Marlboro Man boots and hat

Marloboro Man

Virginia Slims

Girl with toy train

Bud Girl
Multitude of Normal Women