Media Meditation #1: Advertising and its flaws

After watching Jean Kilbournes movie 'Killing Us Softly', I was motivated to think and research the topic of how advertising has changed our perception of women's looks and how they should act.

First of all we might think that Advertising is of little importance and that we tune it out easily but in my opinion even if you think you are not paying attention, you are exposed to it 24/7 that you cannot escape it anymore. As our Media & Culture book states that Advertisements are everywhere and in every media form. Ads take up the majority of the space in newspapers and magazines and websites get cluttered by them. How can you not look at them?

Polo Ralph Lauren for example just had a big controversy of why they published this ad. Apparently the model in this picture is a size eight but they edited her body shape so drastically that it does not even look like her anymore.
If young girls or teens look at this photo they might want to look like that too and that is exactly how advertising shapes our thoughts. ( In a bad way)
This is a good example of Reality Construction because what they are not telling you is that the model does not look like this in real life. There are stories that are not being told and to be honest who takes the time to actually research and find out if Ralph Lauren is telling you the truth.
I think it is sad that people (including myself) believe whatever the media or advertising is telling you and without knowing shape your way of thinking.

If you want to read more about the controversy with Polo Ralph Lauren Check it out here



I also found this ad for BMW which I personally thought was funny but again it uses sex appeal and 'perfect women' in the commercial. You might not pick up on it right away because you are so used to it but they obviously show beautiful women in this commercial that act innocent (or not) which somehow shapes our perception of what women should look and act like. But see for yourself.


Again, this ad uses the "Beautiful People" technique to persuade through images of good-looking individuals. But who says that women who do not look like the ones in the ad cant be beautiful? Why do you have to look a certain way to be considered beautiful? What does it even mean to be beautiful? Advertising certainly has an answer for what it means to be beautiful which is to have a perfect body, clear skin and big boobs.

This is an ad for woman's purses showing a naked women with the purse. They could have just had a picture of the purse but instead it had to be paired with again a perfect looking woman. If we can't shop for purses without being exposed to a woman that is edited to have the perfect body, what can we shop for without getting brainwashed?

This ad is using Flattery as a persuasive technique because it implements that this purse can make you look like that too. It is not directly saying that but why else is there a naked woman posing with a purse?


To all the people out there that obsess about their figure, hair or skin remember that you are just as beautiful even if you do not look like the girls in advertisements.