The Effects of Advertising on Body Image and Health
Over the years the size of female models in advertising has decreased significantly. According to the National Eating Disorder Association the average model ways up to 23% less than an average women(qtd. in MediaSmarts). The use of Photoshop adds to this by creating perfect skin unattainable even with makeup, along with making the models appear even thinner. Given that these women often set the standard for beauty wouldn’t this lower women’s self-esteem. These “perfect” and unrealistic models in advertising negatively affect body image (the way we see our own body) and distort our idea of beauty. Negative body image can lead to depression, the development of eating disorders, or the abuse …show more content…
One theory used to explain the link between skinny models and how we feel about our own body is the social comparison theory. This states that we measure ourselves against others to determine how we rank in comparison to them (Social Comparison Theory). While this theory applies to more areas than body image it easily explains how the use of excessively thin models could lower a woman's self-confidence. In this way advertising changes our idea of how we should look to an almost unattainable idea. Although women are often the ones who feel the pressure to conform to this standard of beauty men also suffer from body image problems. The pressure for men to be exceedingly fit has led some men to the use of steroids in order to meet that standard. Men may also suffer from an eating disorder …show more content…
There are now countless clinics and support groups dedicated to people with eating disorders. Eating disorders are treated in many different ways depending on the patient. Some of these methods include counseling, nutrition monitoring, prescription antidepressants, or most often a combination of several or all of these options. There have recently been several advertising campaigns featuring health sized models in an attempt to change our perception of beauty. The foremost of these is dove's campaign for real beauty. Dove began its campaign in 2003 with a series of billboards featuring women who would not be considered conventionally beautiful. Two options were presented with the basic interpretation of beautiful or not. Some examples include grey/gorgeous, fat/fit, flawed/flawless, withered/wonderful, or big/beautiful. These encouraged people to widen our perspective of beauty. Over the last twelve years dove has continued to produce ads that encourage women to think of themselves as beautiful. It has received lots of criticism in the process. Opposers of the dove campaign argue that the advertisements are merely for profit, while this is most likely true does it really affect the overall message of the ads. The purpose of all ads is to reel in a profit, while other companies may do this by using extremely thin models, Dove is doing while helping women to feel confident in their
Over the years the size of female models in advertising has decreased significantly. According to the National Eating Disorder Association the average model ways up to 23% less than an average women(qtd. in MediaSmarts). The use of Photoshop adds to this by creating perfect skin unattainable even with makeup, along with making the models appear even thinner. Given that these women often set the standard for beauty wouldn’t this lower women’s self-esteem. These “perfect” and unrealistic models in advertising negatively affect body image (the way we see our own body) and distort our idea of beauty. Negative body image can lead to depression, the development of eating disorders, or the abuse …show more content…
One theory used to explain the link between skinny models and how we feel about our own body is the social comparison theory. This states that we measure ourselves against others to determine how we rank in comparison to them (Social Comparison Theory). While this theory applies to more areas than body image it easily explains how the use of excessively thin models could lower a woman's self-confidence. In this way advertising changes our idea of how we should look to an almost unattainable idea. Although women are often the ones who feel the pressure to conform to this standard of beauty men also suffer from body image problems. The pressure for men to be exceedingly fit has led some men to the use of steroids in order to meet that standard. Men may also suffer from an eating disorder …show more content…
There are now countless clinics and support groups dedicated to people with eating disorders. Eating disorders are treated in many different ways depending on the patient. Some of these methods include counseling, nutrition monitoring, prescription antidepressants, or most often a combination of several or all of these options. There have recently been several advertising campaigns featuring health sized models in an attempt to change our perception of beauty. The foremost of these is dove's campaign for real beauty. Dove began its campaign in 2003 with a series of billboards featuring women who would not be considered conventionally beautiful. Two options were presented with the basic interpretation of beautiful or not. Some examples include grey/gorgeous, fat/fit, flawed/flawless, withered/wonderful, or big/beautiful. These encouraged people to widen our perspective of beauty. Over the last twelve years dove has continued to produce ads that encourage women to think of themselves as beautiful. It has received lots of criticism in the process. Opposers of the dove campaign argue that the advertisements are merely for profit, while this is most likely true does it really affect the overall message of the ads. The purpose of all ads is to reel in a profit, while other companies may do this by using extremely thin models, Dove is doing while helping women to feel confident in their