Bad Messages of Magazine Advertisements

Every time you flip a magazine, change channels, or go online, you are struck with images of models who are super skinny with flashy outfits and have excessive make-up on. Ads not only try to sell their products, but also promote how females should look like. These models are airbrushed and photo shopped which is false advertisement. The media progressively encourages a thinner body image as the ideal for women. We see advertisements every day. Some of these ads use manipulative strategies that influence our choices and spending habits. For example, “One in every three articles in leading teen girl magazines included a focus on appearance, and most advertisements used appeal to beauty to sell their products.”(Teen Health) To grab the viewers’ attention, especially females, they include

As a wise man once said, “To love yourself is to understand you don't need to be perfect to be good.” However young girls have so much pressure put on them to look in a way that is not only unrealistic but also unhealthy. As a result of this, young girls have a very negative body image and self-confidence.The problem is the unrealistic body standards that media and society have set for girls. According to SSCC, the average American woman is 5’4 and 140 pounds. There is a clear problem when the media is only advertising women that are 5’11 and 117 pounds, which is the average American model. Even though the body of a model is very rare and uncommon,girls are expected to look like they do. However, by promoting a positive body campaign, stopping the portrayal of fake and photoshopped models in the media, and expanding the diversity of models, we could lift unrealistic body standards and start accepting everybody as beautiful.

The average number of teens watch almost three hours of television per day, which reveals them to thousands of images of violence, sexuality, from advertisements, according to the research done by scientists, by the time today's teens reach their old age, they would have watched between seven to 10 years worth of television during the trajectory of their lives. The content and the amount of television that teens watch substitutes other activities and could have a negative influence.Brands fascinating to teens take advantage of their particular vulnerabilities, the desire to fit in, to be apprehended as attractive. Teenagers have become the main target for advertisers. Teenagers are impulsive and invariably want the latest and greatest things. Advertisers see teenagers as great gateways to persuade themselves into buying their product. Teenagers come across over 40,000 advertisements per year whether on the Internet, TV or in their schools. Ads are constantly telling teenagers to buy this, look like that, or act a certain way. There are negative sides to advertisements harnessed towards teenagers. Teens are extremely accustomed to their place in the peer ranking, and advertising acts as a kind of "super peer" in leading them toward what's cool, what's satisfactory and what’s acceptable.Many teens are highly resistant to messages around body image, and marketers use this to their advantage with their

Under society’s customs for decades, young women have found themselves immersed in the pressure and anticipation to have exemplary bodies. Nearly every young woman prefers to be slim, have a perfectly shaped body, that is beautified by applying pounds of makeup to their face but does not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these measures imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model on the cover of Vogue being called flawless, naturally it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the that model. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough, our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a surging subject for young girls. Advertisements and pictures of lean female models are all over. Young women are measured and perplexed by their physical appearances with attire intended to raise their physical structures; social media, magazines, the society, marketing campaigns, advertisements, and the fashion gurus add to a strand of excellence.

Women’s Body Image (www.wellesley.edu/Health/BodyImage) helped demonstrates the young influence of magazines. Those days when girls strive to be something they weren’t, were probably the most crucial days in body imaging. They succumbed into the pressure of looking how everyone else wants them to look. Such teeny bopper magazines sell to many young girls the idea of beauty. Teen Magazine is the princess of that royal court. In every young woman, or man’s mind, there is this longing to be desired. To be desired, you must be attractive. To be attractive, you have to look like that girl on page seventy-one in the latest Teen Magazine (Women’s Body Image).

While these cases were obviously false, neither impacted the self-esteem of impressionable teenage girls like some of the advertisements of today. Many false advertising cases, which heavily impact teens, come from cosmetics and weight-loss supplement companies which promise immediate results. These results are fueled by the desire to have flawless skin and to be extremely thin, like the models are portrayed as in the advertisements, but what these susceptible young girls do not see is the airbrushing and photoshopping and intense editing that happens before any photos are published. The desire to be like the models in these false advertising cases has caused a spike in depression, eating disorders, and hyper-sexism in teen girls.

Furthermore, media surrounds teenage girls in today’s culture. It is impossible to escape the sight of media. The media’s constant idealistic beauty is ever present to a vast amount of self-conscious girls. This image of beauty causes girls to have low self-esteem (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar). Media defining this perfect body image causes many adolescent girls to feel dissatisfied with their bodies and become depressed. “Viewing ultra-thin or average-size models led to decreases in both body satisfaction and self-esteem in adolescent girls aged eleven to sixteen, with changes in self-esteem fully mediated by changes in body satisfaction” (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar).

Under society’s norms for decades, young women have been put under the pressure and anticipation to have perfect bodies. That is, thin and curved, beautified by applying pounds of the makeup to their face but not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these standards imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model along the cover of Vogue being called flawless, it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the photocopy. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a pressing issue for young women. Advertisements and posters of skinny female models are all over. Young girls not only could be better but need to be more upright and feel driven to throw the perfect figure. Moreover, girls are evaluated and oppressed by their physical appearances. With supplements and apparel designed to enhance a facial expression; social media, magazines, and marketing campaigns and advertisements add to the burden of perfection. The fashion industry is a prime object of body image issues, as they believe clothes look better on tall and svelte women. Established on a survey participated by 13 to 17-year-old in the U.S., 90% “felt pressured by fashion and media industries to be skinny”, with more than 60% routinely compares themselves to models, while 46%

The media is one of the leading causes of self esteem and body image issues in not only women but men as well. This is due to the fact that thousands of advertisements contain messages about physical attractiveness and beauty. Examples include: commercials for clothes, cosmetics, weight loss, hair removal, laser surgery and physical fitness. The effects of advertising on body image have been studied by researchers, psychologists, marketing professionals and more. Researchers, Mary Martin and James Gentry found that teen directed advertising negatively impacts self-esteem. The advertising industry is setting unrealistic expectations for teens about their physical appearances by using models with "perfect bodies." The modeling industry today has put many pressures on models, causing them disorders of both mental and physical illness. These disorders then creating the look of the “perfect body” have now lead to unrealistic expectations of body image for society.

The media is questioned if their presenting a healthy structure of body image for teenagers. The Majority of images portrayed on social media consists of slim, bright and/or flawless people which is known to impact teenagers personally and will feel different due to their difference in weight and appearance. This preview will indicate whether most body images shown online stand as a respectable size to teenagers viewing the image or impersonates a low point of view for the young audience. Over the decades’ social media has produced a substantial indication of how your body must look. The issue is where if this depiction is a healthy or unhealthy circumstance for the teenage perception.

The text references when girls mature early that they often lack self-confidence and many teens that reach puberty early have a dissatisfaction with there body image.( Berk 206) The advice that was given was good, but if it was given by an adult they might have went a step further to talk about eating disorders and warning against unhealthy habits such as over exercising or not eating just as an example. “M” magazine depicts unrealistic images of thin women that have perfectly trimmed bodies and even the ones that are mentioned as being “curvy” are in shape and thin. Teens see images of males and females that have these “perfect” bodies, make-up, hair, and fashion and want to imitate that person and they become that teens new role model. None of the articles in the magazine shows the work that goes into preparing these teens for these articles. Many of the people depicted in the magazine have rigorous work out routines, strict diets, a personal trainer, make-up artists, and access to all the latest fashion because of there fame. As adults we realize that no one wakes up in the morning looking like Taylor Swift or Joe Jonas without a lot of hard work. These stars are depicted in this magazine though and it circulates half way around the world and teens look up to these stars and die trying to look like them or spend there lives loathing themselves because they can not. These images are not supportive of a healthy

Magazines advertisements portray beauty using models that are usually abnormally thin. This makes most woman, especially those who are young, feel inferior and insecure about their own bodies. They believe they will only be beautiful if they look like the women in the magazines. Most women will try going on a crazy diets like the tapeworm diet, or the baby food diet, just to try to look like the models on the cover of magazines. Even young girls see the magazines as a reflection of what they should look like when they get older. Woman will stare at themselves in the mirror and find all kinds of things wrong with their body, face, and clothing. They will compare anything and everything from their weight to their hair to the models on

Social media has a huge impact on a teen’s impressionable minds, since teens are bombarded with the pressures of buying the newest devices and apps; But not only does social media pressure teen’s to buy these items, it also pressures them to have the “Perfect Body”. In today’s society we have been influenced by celebrities and the media’s ideas of what the “Perfect Body” is. Whenever we go on our favorite apps, you are bound to find an ad featuring a popular celebrity (or model), posing with a waist shapers (or FitTea) (and/or photoshopped to a point where they are unrecognizable); (When teens see this, this makes teens think differently about

For some teens, striving for perfection has led to harming their own health and wellbeing such as living with depression and suicide. Teenagers today are relying on what they see in ads, T.V., magazines and on the internet for their input on appearances, the way they think not only comes from media sources, but from family and friends.

The problem I am addressing is how to help teenage girls resist pressure from advertisers to look thin. I will be proposing ways to change people’s specific attitudes and behaviors that will potentially close a gap between what is happening and what should be happening. The goal is not to educate or increase awareness about this issue because it is a very widely talked about topic. The ‘problem’ is that teenage girls (who) should not be peer pressured to look thin (what) in today’s (when) society (where). What is happening today is that teenage girls have this societal pressure to look thin. This is mostly due to companies and advertisers putting out campaigns with smaller, thinner models and celebrities. With the rise of technology, people are becoming more and more influenced by what they see on television, the Internet, and social media. Teenage girls see these beautiful, thin celebrities and aspire to look like that. Girls are more vulnerable than ever today and some will do just about anything to give in to the pressure and try to look like someone else. What should be happening is that companies and advertisers should use a more diverse group of woman when putting out campaigns. Beauty comes in all shapes, sizes and colors. They should be embracing the diversity throughout the world and show that off when advertising. This is impacting mostly teenage girls as their bodies are changing and as they are trying to figure out who they are. However, this pressure is not just