We live in a digital era. A recent study have shown that an average american spend about 8 hours a day on digital devices like laptop and smartphone. We spend about 2 years of our life just watching advertisements(Epstein, 2014). Spending this much time online can drastically affect the way we think. It has the power to change our perception from reality to a false certainty. Society tends to put more stress on women especially these days for achieving this false standards of beauty for acceptance (Kilborne, 2010).
The true perception of beauty is often taken directly from movie stars, models, and t. . shows. Many people know that these beauty standards are unattainable but they still pursue it. This compulsive persuasion often result in irreversible damage and does more harm than good. Media creates false sense of beauty in the people’s mind. This paper will discuss how media and false advertising affect people especially women. COURSE OF ACTION: We live in a time in which wherever we look we are influenced by media. Even advertisements play a huge role in affecting the way we think. Many think that they are exempt from the effect of media but it’s far from the truth.
Media affects us in a way that it is quick influential and it is subconscious. Advertising Age is a world famous advertisement company and the editor in chief of that company, Rance Crain once said that “Only 8% of an ad’s message is received by the conscious mind. The rest is worked and reworked deep within the recesses of the brain. ” Our current generation lives in what can be defined as a toxic cultural environment. In this setting we are surrounded by unhealthy images that most times sacrifices our well being, health and causes insecurity among most for attaining profit.
Advertisements sell not just goods but they sell cultural values, concepts of success, happiness, love and sexuality. Research have proven that ideal image of woman affects and alters woman’s self esteem. It also influences the way men feel about women too. Men judges real women harshly when compared to the unrealistic female expectations of media. Women are often turned into things/objects by media. People are well aware of the commercials by Budweiser, Michelob and Heineken that turned a bottle of beer into a woman and vise versa. It is really messed up to turn a human being into an inanimate object.
This kind of objectifying is often the first step of violence towards women. If a person is dehumanized, violence is the next step. No matter what the consequence is, some still chase this fool’s gold known as ideal beauty. Out of all the cosmetic surgeries, 92 % is done on women (Kilborne, 2010). From 1997 there has been a 457 % increase in cosmetic procedures. More than half of these procedures is for non-surgical procedures such as botox, breast implants and liposuction (Kilborne, 2010). Most women who get breast implants mostly lose sensation in their breasts.
Thus it becomes an object of pleasure for someone else than yourself. What you have to ask yourself is whether it is worth it to change yourself that much for someone else’s joy. Advertisements sometimes even shows us what is considered as normal and abnormal. It tells us who to be and it occasionally tries to define we are. Who we are is something we choose and it is subjective. Not everyone abides by the rule of being normal. It is for individuals to decide subjectively and be content with. Advertising affects woman more than anyone else. Fashion trends change over the years but some other factors remain the same.
Female models and supermodels are often portrayed as skinny with a size 0 and good height and often had plastic surgery and make up. Most models have even succumbed to disorders such as Bulimia and Anorexia to maintain their ‘Ideal image’ (Lipey, 2014). But most people are unaware of these methods and they mostly feel dissatisfied with themselves on not achieving the celebrated model physique. Barbie is probably the world’s most renowned toy for girls. What most don’t know is that if Barbie was a real human being she would be 5’11 inches tall and 108 pounds, when the average female is 5’4 inches tall with 168 pounds (Goldstein, 2013).
According to research, if Barbie was real, she would walk on all fours (Goldstein, 2013). At such a young age children are exposed to unrealistic expectations of beauty. Young girls are vulnerable about the way they view themselves from a young age and it is the duty of parents, teachers and society themselves to teach each other that beauty comes from within and learning to love yourselves. Even the case study we discussed earlier talks about the tragedy that happened to a family due to unrealistic media standards of today, vulnerable teens and lack of understanding of the depth of this issue between teachers and family.
Infact failure is inevitable since they are chasing something unattainable for almost all naturally. The ideal beauty is created by airbrushing, cosmetics, plastic surgery and computer editing (John,2012). What I found baffling through my research is that sometimes the models we see aren’t even real. Computer editing is used to alter and create a new human being. Even though the image isn’t real, real women and girls compare and measure themselves to these art projects of a woman every day.
RATIONALE: One position on advertisements is that Advertising leads to many people being overwhelmed by the endless need to decide between competing demands on their attention. We cannot even walk down the street without being overwhelmed by facts about various products. People cannot just choose to ignore advertising, because advertisers use many underhand methods to get their message across. Posters have attention grabbing words, or provocative pictures. Some try to make people feel inferior if they don’t have the product, or if they have something which the product would change.
Perceptions of beauty and fashion in particular have been terribly distorted. Many young people have low-self esteem, and lead unhealthy lifestyles because they feel they should be thinner and more attractive like the models they see in adverts. This leads to serious problems like eating-disorders and self-harm. ETHICAL APPROACH: Ethically speaking the controversy of advertising is considered as an act of wrongdoing by the consequentialists. The Consequentialist theory of value judges the rightness or wrongness of an action based on the consequences that action has (Sullivan, 2009). The most familiar example would be utilitarianism.
Famous philosopher Jeremy Bentham said that an action is best that produces the greatest good for the greatest number”(Sullivan ,2009). A Consequentialist would say that there is no morality behind promoting these false standards and it is only done to promote profit for the seller. Non-consequentialists focus more on the character and reasoning behind an act to decide whether the action is ethically right or wrong. Since these advertisements are created merely to sell products that in the end don’t cause any major changes to whoever using it, It is wrong to have advertisements like this.
Consequentialists would say that since these advertisements and false claims made by the media is not benefitting the world in the long run. It’s true that a few greedy men make some money off of selling their goods most times but looking at the topic ethically happiness and content is worth more than money. Consequentialists believe lying is wrong because the consequences are generally negative. These advertisements are constantly lying to the customer’s subconscious mind. Utilitarianism would say the right choice is the one that promotes the most happiness. Not all advertisements are bad.
Dove recently been producing commercials with women of all body types and they are all considered beautiful. This is a small step in a long journey. This advertisement by Dove have been getting all kind of positive support from woman and men all over the world. So we now know that we can promote a product without lying to the consumer mind. One position on advertisements is that it can be used to spread facts quickly, whether it’s positive or negative. Advertisements have been used to bring awareness to important things like risk factors of smoking, using drugs and drinking and driving.
Advertisements aren’t all bad. But when we look at the big picture they are doing more damage to our society than good, that’s why the consequentialists don’t support the idea of advertisements. Advertisements even forced people to change their natural form, just for the satisfaction of others. Plastic surgery is often seen as a shortcut to ideal beauty these days and many successful people ruined their career and their beauty chasing this ideality, Jocelyn Wildenstein is a key example. The rationale for doing unnatural things to change yourself has a psychological reason.
Many often feel insecure living in today’s world and are not satisfied with the natural beauty. It is imperative that we learn to love ourselves for who we are. We need to live a lifestyle to promote health and wellbeing. We need to view media as entertainment and know that the standards and expectations are not realistic. Beauty is only skin deep in many cases and we don’t know the truth/secret behind what is happening behind the scenes. Consequentialists believe in actions that bring the most good in the society is the right course of action. It is a norm for celebrities to perform plastic surgery to enhance physical aspects.
Many average folks tend to replicate their favorite celebrity’s appearance and completely ruined their facial structure and beauty. Making huge mistakes like this can ruin someone’s whole life. Since nobody is benefiting from courses of actions like these, consequentialists would be against this idea. Consequentialism is a theory of right. It is based on actions to make the world a better place. Better in most cases mean happiness. Happiness is finding joy in who you are and being satisfied with who you are. The advertisements nowadays plays tricks on the human mind and makes us chase unnatural and unattainable things.
