Will this end?

The Del Monte ad from 1962

Jean Kilbourn wrote, "The average adult will spend one and one-half years of his/her life watching television commercials. But the ads sell a great deal more than products. They sell values, images, and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy. They tell us who we are and who we should be. Sometimes they sell addictions." (121)

I believe that is very true. Every day we are bombarded with ads; on facebook, YouTube, newspaper, magazine, television, etc. How can we protect ourselves from all these ads and know not to fall for their traps, which lead to self-doubt. Today we see many kids, teens, and even adult become victim of advertisement. I forgot which reading it came from, but the reading mentioned how kids now think they are fat when they are actually just the right size. They would see advertisement of women flawless on the cover. These women, according to Kilbourn, have "no lines or wrinkles, no scars, no blemishes--indeed, she has no pores. She is thin, generally tall and long-legged, and above all, she is young." (122)

So how can we avoid advertisements like this?

Nikon

Sometime you just can't. I mean you can make them put on clothes and pose normally and not sexually, since this is about the camera recognize people's face...but the fact is, someone will always get offended by something. I don't think we can please everybody. Overweight women would feel bad when looking at an advertisement with women that are thin and sexy, but what about women who are thin and looking at an advertisement promoting plus-size women as the "healthy" body. I bet the skinny women would feel just as bad. I know someone who is a living example. She is around 5'4'' and only weights about 85 pounds, but she eats normal just like anybody else. She just can't seem to gain weight, and she's been to many doctors and none can find a problem. Once, when she was walking pass some people, they would make fun of her, calling out "oh my god! Ew! She's so skinny!" or think that she is anorexic. People would judge her and she would get upset.

The bottom line is, we cannot please everybody and that these kinds of advertisements will always be here. It might improve little by little, but sex will always sell. The only solution that I see is that we educate ourselves on these problems so we can be well informed. Once we are well informed, we can pass it down to others and our future kids. We can teach them to be self-confident, to not feel threaten by these advertisements. Even in this class, we've read so many articles about beauty and advertisements, with the technology of the internet, we can search whatever we want. They can go to sites like Guerrilla Girls to get more information.