The Skinny On Advertising

7 Pages 1725 Words

The Skinny on Advertising
"The average woman sees 400 600 advertisements per day, and by the time that she is 17 years old, she has received 250,000 commercial messages through the media." (Media Scope 1) This quote emphasizes the main strategy of all advertising companies; to cram everything they can into the heads of vulnerable targets in an attempt to sell a product. Due to the onset of bodily changes, adolescent women are the most susceptible victims to give in to this type of advertising ploy. During adolescence, the increased production of hormones develops child like figures into childbearing figures. This includes noticeable weight gain associated with the widening of the hips and thighs, and other physical and chemical changes of which I will discuss later. Such profound changes might leave young woman with feelings of insecurity about their new body. (Implications 1) Unfortunately, around the same time all of these changes are taking place, the young woman is bombarded with media images full of beautiful, thin models. It is only a part of human nature that young girls will look up to these women as their role models; striving to be like them in every way. (Media Scope 2) Advertising companies target the vulnerability of a young women's low self esteem in an attempt to sell products. These ads are a huge cause in this low sense of self-esteem.
These companies use the innocence and lack of individuality of young girls as a target to break them down and then proceed to build them back up by pushing diet pills, sexy clothes and 'must have' make up. The seller instead of the consumer almost solely gains the benefits of these products. Whether or not the product works or provides the expected outcome is irrelevant, because the merchant still gets the money.
Media advertising places too much emphasis on physical appearance as a way to increase production. (Implications 1) Everywhere one goes there are billboards and...