Grass is greener on the other side

It's doesn't matter where I am, I'll always be surrounded with advertisements that either tell me what to buy or how I should look. Everywhere you turn either on the subway, walking down the street, driving on the highway, going to the movies, or even attending school you'll see at least one advertisement. These advertisements according to "Beauty and the Beast of Advertising" by Jean Kilbourne sell more than products "they sell values, images and concepts of success and worth... Sometimes they sell addictions." Advertising becomes a fantasy world for people and the more they try to reach for the impossible which is perfection, the more they will get hurt in the process. Your face becomes a mask and your body is the object. The natural look becomes less natural and takes more time and effort to replicate the look. Jean Kilbourne also mentions how a women is described in advertisements as a "Superwoman" who does all the work tho is also unreasonable to ask of women considering they have other duties to fulfill.

In "Sex, Lies, and Advertising" Gloria Steinem tells us about a magazine named "Ms." which was a magazine "low enough for most women to afford. But the second and almost equal reason was providing a forum where women and advertisers could talk to each other and improve advertising itself." This is one way to improve advertisements by getting average working day people ideas about the advertisements and what they want to see. This magazine at first describes what women are suppose to read and like versus what men are suppose to read and like. "Authority figures were almost always males" comparing how women would rather buy the upholstery instead of the car. The magazine also tries to portray women and men as equals stating that they get letters from "little girls who love toy trains and who ask our help in changing ads."

If we are able to forget all of the stereotypes out there we could be whoever we want to be without being afraid of others judgments. Advertisements only target a specific kind of person they seek out our vulnerabilities and play off that. I never noticed that advertisements with male models on them could target both women and gay mean, however there weren't many advertisements out there for lesbians. According to "Commodity Lesbonism" by Danae Clark lesbians are invisible in the advertisement world. "Advertisers are increasingly striving to create a dual marketing approach that will speak to the homosexual consumer in a way that the straight consumer will not notice". Unlike men who at a glance see these half naked male models in ads as strong and powerful and wants to be them, lesbians on the other hand hate being represented as this slutty woman pictured in the magazines. The only portrayal of lesbians is the term "dyke" or "butch" but why is it that lesbians have to be masculine? Once we open suggestions to the public we could have a better understanding of what makes the public happy without bringing their self confidence down and what products they actually will use and need. I believe real images of real people using products without photoshopping themselves will gain personal satisfaction, and self appreciation. Dove is one of the products that have been using real women in their advertisements showing that their product is made for every age, and body type. "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vilUhBhNnQc"

These advertisements not only tell us how we should look but they tell us how we should act. For example in "Reading Images Critically Toward a Postmodern Pedagogy" Douglas Kellner mentions in an advertisement in 1983 they described smoking as "cool" and made for the "modern" woman. In 1950 Marlboro "associate its cigarette with masculinity, associating smoking its product with being a "real man"." Smoking will not only make you "cool" it'll make you slimmer which will lead people to become jealous of you which will then lead you to happiness. This not only gives people false hope but once people put their hands on their product they feel worthless because they didn't turn into what the advertisement had told they would be, and especially with cigarette and alcohol advertisements it leads to health issues.

That's why it's important to create campaigns against smoking, or even preventing dangerous effects of alcohol by promoting designated driver advertisements with celebrity appearances because we all know that once a celebrity does something it's seen as "cool". According to the truth campaign 12, 000 children were left motherless in just one year, and by 2020 7 million people would had died because of cigarettes alone. We need to make bigger stands against advertisements that promote this kind of behavior. That's why I believe that there should be advertisements that show disadvantages of drinking alcohol, and smoking cigarettes instead of glamorizing it so much. Here are some videos of campaigns that are out there to show the negative impact these drugs could have on our lives. "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuA0yngXWhA&feature=fvsr" and "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4xmFcrJexk"

This video really stood out to me because it shows that everyone has different views on beauty, but we do know when it goes too far. We know that there should be limitations because once we go too far into looking "perfect" our body changes and our health is effected by it. Our mind is too focus on the impossible and some people grow illnesses such as anorexia and bulimia It's a constant battle between the scale and the food you eat. There are so many problems with self image in America and the advertisements that have been going out for centuries haven't been helping with the prevention of attempting to be what we see. "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz1mo-If2UA&feature=related". Whenever I heard the quote "The grass is greener on other side" I didn't really understand it, but now that I'm a student in this women and the media class I've been realizing that the definition of the quote could mean if we stop trying to be someone were not, stop attempting to be on top then maybe we could truly be happy and appreciate what we do have.