Essay On The Effects Of Advertising On American Youth

Improved Essays
In today’s world, advertisement has more of an effect on American youth all across the globe than any other method simply due to the broadcast of the internet, television, and magazines. It’s amazing how advertisers can spread the message of their products, such as tobacco, body image, make-up, clothes, and alcohol, yet one does not hear or see the message of self-worth or uplifting men and women. As a living, advertisers make their living through promotion, however, their promotion is affecting American youth through the vices of magazines which entails self-esteem, body image, and unrealistic ideologies.
Many advertisers are objectifying or creating a false sense of reality- a utopia if you will to their audience. Many teens see and believe that they must look a certain way in order to be notice or feel securely about themselves. Unknowingly, they start to consciously compare themselves to another girl or boy while inadvertently losing their entire
…show more content…
First, body image is the main focus for advertisements specifically in magazines. According to the Center for Young Women 's Health, "body image is based on your thoughts and feelings about the way your body looks." Advertisers persuades teens to want to look like the ideal size 2 image, unknowingly, it can lead to eating disorders and teens withdrawing from their normal lifestyle.
Lastly, another cause of how advertisers affect or correlate with American youth is the main factor which is peer pressure. Peer pressure comes in all shapes and sizes whether it is through the vices of television, the internet, magazines, and our environment. Advertisements effects American youth in a variety of ways, such as through grades, bullying, acne, popularity, adolescence, alcohol, pregnancies, depression etc. Overall, these particular social and internal struggles effect youth, people, and results in some form of

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    In the video, Killing us Softly 4, Jean Kilbourne talks about the gender inequality in advertisements and how women are portrayed as objects and things rather than people. The theoretical paradigm Kilbourne is using would be the social-conflict approach. In this theory, a society generates conflict and change when they see inequality; this is exactly when Kilbourne does in the video. Kilbourne fights for feminism and race equality by voicing out against media and the images media portrays.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is everywhere, an always present force that comes from every direction. It often appears fast, catching one’s attention, then vanishing just as quick; many think they are left unscaved, yet they fail to realize its true effect works like a shadow, following a person, slowly creeping into his or her thoughts, working its mind control. It is neither flying fowl or airborne aircraft, but rather something much more mundane and overlooked. It is advertising. Some may see this as being a malevolent force, having powers too great, powers that could corrupt the minds of the unsuspecting masses.…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Media Influence On Women

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Although teenagers’ body seems slim and thin enough, they are not satisfied with their bodies. Thus, teenagers are not confident about their looks because they believe that they also need to be artificial images…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As a result, this goes to show consumers pay attention to the symbolic values (Law, Wong & Yip, 2012). Moreover, in a recent study (Budgeon 2003; Davis, 2002; Kimmel and Messner, 2004; Vigorito and Curry, 1998) found advertisements have made males more self-conscious about their bodies and appearance and influencing their self-identification through their bodies such as by their fashion, level of fitness, and how they evaluate themselves (Tan, Shaw, Cheng, & Kim, 2013). Advertisements are more detailed for women than for men. Furthermore, women notice the diminutive details in the ads, while men focus on the actual product itself. Magazine advertisements have an understanding men do not want to be perceived by other man as caring too much about their fashion or how they dress.…

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Peer pressure influences teens by making teens want to fit in with other people. Laurie Anderson, the author of “Speak,”Melinda's Counselor is saying not to give into Peer Pressure and just be yourself. In the book, Melinda is influenced into Drinking by her so called friends. I have experienced Peer pressure in 8th grade to smoke weed.…

    • 183 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The advertisements allows children to seek the intentions of how to think rather than what to think and be yourself. Marketing to children has become a huge social problem since the 1980’s (Schor, 2008). As marketing to children created a major issue, no action has been made to eliminate this tragedy.…

    • 1865 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To begin with, advertisements that are aimed towards teenagers, are both effective and ethical means of persuading a teenager to do something. Nonetheless, studies show that teenagers that were exposed to advertisements, caused an adverse effect on the daily choices that they made each day. According to Jeffrey Carey, author of How are Teenagers Affected by Advertisements for Fast Food, teens who spent more than two hours watching commercial TV were likely to indulge in eating unhealthy foods like fats foods, sugary drinks and snacks than those who did not (23-25). In addition to that, teenagers that were shown clothing advertisements, were more likely to buy more clothes, due to the pressure of fashion trends and friends. According to Erica…

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Brand Of Jeans

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The children of today’s world are taught that your self-worth is not determined by who you are as a human, but what brand of clothes you where or if you drink alcohol or not, it is not about who you are anymore rather than who you are wearing. Today’s youth is so influenced by advertisements now days because they see them more than any other age group does. Social media is such a big part of the everyday lives of today’s children that their constantly seeing what their favorite actor or athlete just posted on their Instagram about the new product they are promoting when they might not even use it…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In this world, ads take over the populations life. Mist body advertisements have a negative impact on how society thinks about themselves. Advertisements that show the "perfect body" cause pessimistic thoughts on personal body image. People will believe their bodies shown on t.v. are the only body that will be accepted as beautiful in our society, when it's not.…

    • 200 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Advertisements do not directly reflected teen culture. What it does is influence it, then it becomes a reflection of what teen culture is for a short time. This can be bad and sometimes good. Censoring it would take away the right to freedom of speech but on the other hand some is the things advertisements get people to buy can be harmful to them and sometimes other. So it really depends on what they are selling if it should be censored or not.…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Magazine advertisements are sending unhealthy images to young men and women. These images are unhealthy for young men and women because these kids and young adults will grow up thinking they have to look like a model to be pretty which causes them to do harmful things to themselves. This has become a problem in our society since social media has taken over and kids are seeing models on these programs.…

    • 71 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Teen Culture

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Pages

    What do billboards, magazine ads, tv commercials and pop-ups on websites all have in common? They are each a form of advertisements the same ones that teens are exposed to in everyday aspects of life. It is not a surprise to many that advertisements can influence teen culture but the extent of their influence has reached new found heights. Companies of all different types target teens because they are easy to market to and are in a vulnerable time of their lives. Aspects like drinking and smoking have become synonymous with teen culture through things like movies and tv shows but an even larger reason why teens drink and smoke is because companies set them up to think that such behavior is equivalent with being cool.…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Identity In Advertising

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages

    TOPIC: How does advertising shape the youth’s identity? THESIS: _ Advertising in today’s media present their product as the needed essential in a youth’s life to fit in society? TOPIC SENTENCE (1st major argument): Advertisements know that they’re the main component in a youth’s life in forming their identity.…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Killing Us Softly: Reflection Paper Jennifer R. Livingston Utah State University Killing Us Softly: A Reflection Paper In our modern world, advertising is always present. Marketers use every possible source of media to get their message through – internet, television, print, radio, mail, product packaging, sponsorships, etc. With consumers being constantly bombarded by advertisements, how does a company ensure that their message is the one that sticks? What makes an advertisement successful? One might say that a good advertisement is entertaining, memorable, and improves product sales.…

    • 1376 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Advertisements are a means of selling and promoting a product for a better profit. Content within advertisements is often a topic of debate. In a lecture on October 17, 2016, to a COMM 1100 class, Professor Braithwaite stated that ideologies are an encouraged way of thinking and often demonstrated in advertisements. This Calvin Klein advertisement specifically demonstrates an ideology of male domination and female subordination to the audience. This is a common trope seen in advertisements.…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays