You Don't Need It

Advertising is a roughly one hundred billion dollar a year industry that both reflects and creates contemporary ideals for the cultural mentality (Kellner 127). As Jean Kilbourne says in her article The Beauty and the Beast of Advertising "Advertising is the foundation and economic lifeblood of the mass media. The primary purpose of the mass media is to deliver an audience to advertisers" (Kilbourne 121). The industry often creates images of people that are unrealistic. Not to mention often being racist, sexist, ageist etc. Most people, especially girls and young women, are susceptible to the messages that they receive (consciously or not) from advertisements. They can make people feel pressure to buy unnecessary products that they believe will enhance their lives, and can make people also want to look more like the models they see in ads. This can lead to eating disorders and low self esteem. Any way you spin it, advertisements are not good for the public, at least not the way they are always created. 

So why do they work?!?!

As Douglas Kellner states in his article Reading Images Criticallly "Ads work in part by generating dissatisfaction and by offering images of transformation, of a 'new you'"(Kellner 130). Do we as consumers actually even want that though? I don't want to be feeling bad about myself all the time and constantly wanting to change my image. It is costly not only to my wallet but also to my self esteem. As was mentioned in class numerous times, advertisers often claim that they are just giving the people what they want. We want to see ideals so that is what they churn out. But, as we can see below, a heartwarming ad such as this one can be extremely effective without conforming to the classic poisonous formulas.

Yay!

Here is a great advertisement for the Girl Scouts and a perfect example of how advertisements can exist without the plasticity and shame. It is inspirational, powerful and just plain cute. It does not conform to the male gaze. It does not depict someone who looks so perfect that they cannot possibly exist. Finally, it does not make the viewer feel bad about themselves. It does the exact opposite. An ad like this actually shows a real girl like many of the viewers that they can accomplish great things in this world. Young girls need more images like this so that they can feel good about themselves and believe that they can do whatever they set their minds to. When I came across this I actually found a smile on my face. I felt proud of the young girls in America and proud of the Girl Scouts for issuing such a great advertisement. When I look at other ads I often find myself rolling my eyes or scowling so this was a breath of fresh air. 

What we as a society would have to do to change how advertising works would be... wow. A LOT of work. As Gloria Steinem explains in her article Sex, Lies and Advertising, getting companies to advertise in a magazine geared toward breaking away from the sexist and plastic norm is not easy. Ms. Magazine struggled for years, passing through the hands of many companies before it was finally just merged. Not only are advertisers afraid to be associated with a feminist magazine, but they often did not even realize when an ad was offensive or belittling and could therefore not be put in the magazine. Also, companies of products that were typically only advertised to men such as alcohol and cars found it absolutely puzzling that women would want to purchase their products as well (Steinem).

So, there must be a way to challenge these old ways of guilt advertising. Create some alternatives. Well, how does anything get done in the media world without focus groups? The first step would be to find out what types of ads actually appeal to women in a positive way, and not in one that guilts them into buying something that will make them look or feel more like what the model(s) portray. The next would be to create ads that are anti ad. Huh? Making ads that in some clever way or another turns advertising on its head. Here is an example:

This was one of many great ads from the art group The Anti Advertising Agency. Clever huh? Check out their mission and some of their most interesting pieces at their website. 

Advertisements like this would be hard to fund, obviously. So money would have to be raised through community groups and online donations from people who appreciate the work. People are changing their views about ads though. Thankfully, college classes such as Women and the Media allow for critical thinking to occur about something that has permeated our culture and our brains since we were babies. The abundance of advertisements in places like Times Square are cool looking for a few seconds (mainly due to all the lights and shiny things) but after that it just looks like clutter. Advertisers put on a fake show, and its sort of scary how many of us buy tickets to it like product hungry zombies. The more our country's youth is educated, however, the less of a hold advertising will have on us. That is why it starts with you and me. Educate your loved ones and friends, especially your little siblings and other younger relatives. We can raise awareness of the rampant and poisonous consumerism one person at a time. 

Works Cited

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.

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.