Ideal Body Image Change In Advertising

The media group that retouches images skews the “normal” body image of people through many of its outlets, including models in advertising and magazines, and actors in TV and movie productions. “The average model portrayed in the media is approximately 5’11” and 120 pounds. By contrast, the average American woman is 5’4” and 140 pounds” (Holmstrom, 2004). This statistic shows how the media manipulates consumers into believing that because they are not what the average model looks like, they are not living up to a certain standard which implies that they need to look like that to be beautiful. Another research fact that shows a similar concept is that, “In the United States, 94% of female characters in television programs are thinner than the average American woman, with whom the media frequently associate happiness, desirability, and success in life” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This association of female thinness and happiness, desirability and success makes consumers believe they must achieve this unrealistic thinness to achieve more ultimate goals and fulfillment in life. “The media also explicitly instruct how to attain thin bodies by dieting, exercising, and body-contouring surgery, encouraging female consumers to believe that they can and should be thin” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This idealization of thinness in the media is seen so much, and is extremely harmful to women’s self confidence and is often associated with body image dissatisfaction, which can be a precursor to social anxiety, depression, eating disturbances, and poor self-esteem (Yamamiya et al.,

In the article “Never Just Pictures,” the author, Susan Bordo, addresses the cultural reasons behind the rise in eating disorders. She asserts that modern media and advertising campaigns have played an integral role in this increase. Though unfortunate, the media’s focus is not on the well-being of its viewers, but on the level of cash flow they provide. The advertising moguls use their agencies as double edged swords; they will make ads for McDonalds, then go in the next room and conduct a photo-shoot with a six-foot-two, eighty pound woman. The world of advertising needs to realize their work is being seen by millions of people and is affecting some of those people in extremely negative ways.

This is particularly apparent with the effects of advertising media. Bordo points out that “miracle diet pills and videos promising to turn our body parts into steel have become as commonplace as aspirin ads,” (par.1) which influences an idea of the kind of body one should aim to achieve. Additionally, it presents the notion that, with such products, reaching one’s weight goal will come with more ease. It gives an incentive and makes people accustomed to the belief that losing weight is necessary. By exhibiting this pattern and concept that advertising media is inducing, Bordo gives insight as to why there is an influx in the desire to lose weight and to achieve it by any means necessary. She also suggests that the “ideal of the body beautiful has largely come from fashion designers and models” (par 2).With the exaltation and emphasis on the gratifying physique of a woman’s body, many young women find themselves corresponding to the ideals the fashion industry places on both its fashion and models. Remarkably enough, Borodo conveys that, not only are females following in the fashion industries’ steps, men are falling underway as well as “more ads featuring anorexic-looking young men are appearing too” (par.2). In presenting the fashion industry for what it represents and influences, Bordo effectively reveals a fellow cause of

It is essential to examine the cause of media’s increased influence on self-estem and body dissatisfaction before debating the possible solutions. First of all, as Geissler indicates in the essay, “We live in a fat-fearing and food moralizing culture where magazines, movies, and a multimillion dollar ‘health’ and diet industry all pump out the message ‘thinner is better’.” (330) The ideal of slender

In the article “Distorted Images: Western Cultures are Exporting Their Dangerous Obsession with Thinness,” author Susan McClelland’s mainly focuses on how many young women idolize the women they see on T.V. The media is making many women feel as if they need to look a certain way to fit in with the world. Also the fact the western culture is spreading to other countries is a big issue because sicknesses, like bulimia, were not an issue before. Many women in other countries are starting to look at the women in the United States and want to be just like them. In this article, the author says that television, magazines, and media show

Because idealistic standards of beauty are raised, kids may grow up thinking that they have to look a certain way to be accepted. In their article, “Concurrent And Prospective Analyses Of Peer, Television And Social Media Influences On Body Dissatisfaction, Eating Disorder Symptoms And Life Satisfaction In Adolescent Girls,” Christopher Ferguson et al. mention that “increased incidence of eating disorders across the early and mid-twentieth century seem to coincide with trends in the media toward emphasizing thinness in women,” (2). Additionally, children are constantly exposed to unrealistic body ideals on television, film, and magazines. In fact, “the extent of exposure to magazines that feature and glamorize the thin ideal is positively correlated with disordered eating, even when controlling for the young woman’s level of personal interest in fitness and dieting,” (Levine and Murnen 17). If kids are always being exposed to unhealthy behaviors and ideas, it can make them feel pressured to look like the people they see in mass

Magazine advertisements cause eating disorders. In the article “Skinny models 'send unhealthy message'”, it states ”In 1998, a survey by the Bread for Life campaign, cited by the Eating Disorders Association, showed that 89% of women between 18 and 24 wanted more "average sized" models used in magazines.” It also says, “"Advertising, in particular, may influence young people's perception of fashion and beauty and attitudes towards food. Young women may compare themselves to extremely thin models,

From the mid nineteen hundreds to present times the media has greatly influenced society's acceptance on body image. Even today, women are still mocked for being obese. Heavier women are a continued target in today's society by magazines containing headlines such as "How to lose weight." and "How to be skinner". The number of dieting and exercise articles in popular women's magazine increase every year. (Wykes & Gunter pg.67) These magazine articles may be helpful to some people but to an adolescent it leaves them

Advertisement and media in today’s world leave most people unsatisfied about their bodies, and can lead to drastic measures just to be like certain images portrayed in the media. These drastic measures may be unhealthy and can have negative effect on our health. (Drastic measures like following some forms of dieting to lose a lot of weight within a

“To be happy and successful, you must be thin,” is a message women are given at a very young age (Society and Eating Disorders). In fact, eating disorders are still continuously growing because of the value society places on being thin. There are many influences in society that pressures females to strive for the “ideal” figure. According to Sheldon’s research on, “Pressure to be Perfect: Influences on College Students’ Body Esteem,” the ideal figure of an average female portrayed in the media is 5’11” and 120 pounds. In reality, the average American woman weighs 140 pounds at 5’4”. The societal pressures come from television shows, diet commercials, social media, peers, magazines and models. However, most females do not take into account of the beauty photo-shop and airbrushing. This ongoing issue is to always be a concern because of the increase in eating disorders.

Therefore, the commendation of such look and shape commercializes unhealthy body image and procreates eating disorders. Unfortunately, at present the commercialism of a perfect body is encountered by almost everyone on everyday basis. The public is bombarded daily with images of glamorously thin women in commercials, on billboards, in movies in magazines and etc?According to Melanie Katzman, a consultant psychologist from New York, the media has actively defined the thin ideal as success and treats the body as a commodity. (Rhona MacDonald, 2001) It is evident that the persistent advocating of the media and the society produced a constant pursuit of thinness, which became a new religion. A study conducted by Harvard researchers has revealed the effect of media and magazines on adolescent girls in high schools. The children were exposed to fashion magazines and television commercials, and a while after were given self-rating surveys. The study found that sixty-nine percent of the girls said that magazine pictures

Basically, the media is doing nothing but using subliminal messages. The way they portray the models in magazines, it only confuses a human’s mind. This makes them believe that they must look like them to be considered beautiful. Often in magazines, when positive values, success, love, and happiness, a thin person is shown. This not only completely lowers a “healthy”, or a plus sized person’s self-esteem, but the media also tries to make it seem as if in order to be happy and successful, a person must be skinny (Piazza). Every day, companies come up with a new beauty product, or a new diet product to leer someone into buying it to make themselves beautiful. New products every day completely sets aside the idea that natural beauty is already beautiful enough. According to the media, though, people need these products to look more humane, or look younger and thinner. The media also using editing and

With obesity skyrocketing throughout our country, striving to lose weight to suit the ideal body image is what’s in. The media constantly throws images of what women “should” look like while the diet market fiends on women trying to fit in and feel better about themselves. In this market people are moving towards products like SlimFast to prepare them for their battle against the bulge. Imagine, while laying by the pool in your one piece, trying to hide your curves, a small, fit teen strolls by effortlessly. Simultaneously you flip the page of your Cosmo Magazine and the weight loss never looked so good. Introducing, SlimFast, the easier way to shed pounds

Have you ever compared your body to a magazine advertisement? If so you are not alone. In today's society women have been forced to believe in body image as if it were a god. Woman look up to an image that they believe is the ¨perfect body¨. Sadly this perfect body is impossible to find, but the ads of these perfect body images were far from impossible to find. A simple google search of ¨perfect body image ads¨, gives you thousands of results, almost all have a skinny model standing half naked larger than anything else on the page. Other body types only make the cut to be included into the ad to be degraded and torn down. But why? Woman do not deserve this treatment, all body types should be accepted into advertisements. If women are not even capable of meeting the standards of advertisements, why do we have these standards?

Accompanying unrealistic images of women, the media spends billions of dollars yearly to advertise the various techniques that eliminate body discontents such as dieting pills and exercising machines, and exploits female magazine reader’s insecurities. Whether magazine advertisements aid in the gradual depletion of body image or fail to impact it at all will be the purpose of this investigation, supplemented by a literature review and organized by a theoretical framework, to support a firm analysis.