Killing Us Softly 3

Crest toothpaste, Listerine, Nike, Jordan, Adidas, Vans, these are just a few of the brands that I use and wear daily that are found throughout my closet. There are other brands as well, such as a variety of dress shirts and pants by brands such as Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Alfani.
When I use these products I feel confident with myself. However if I did not use these products daily, I would still maintain a sense of self-confidence, but also would not feel presentable if I were in public, which I would be somewhat ashamed of. Therefore the necessity of using these products is a detrimental aspect of my everyday life and part of what makes me and how I carry myself.
There are messages in advertising that sometimes purpose a distorted view of what is normal in society. Beauty and athletic advertisements are notorious for this type of propaganda. The desire to be the best athlete or the most beautiful model is represented in commercials by professional athletes or celebrities. Which essentially makes people have concerns with themselves.
Advertiser’s responsibility to society is a great one non-the less, however it all depends on how you perceive these perfected images of advertising. If one sees the advertisements as something that sets the bar for society instead of seeing it for what it is, then one will become infatuated with the unreal world and perfections in advertising techniques.
I am honestly not sure of the ways the ideal image of beauty in advertisements benefits women. Society should be more concerned about the ways these advertisements destructively affect some women. Eating disorders are common amongst women primarily because of the fact that they want to look like the women on the covers of your common beauty magazines, and I quite frankly find it to be sad.
Jean Kilbourne asserts her opinion by saying that “women of color are disproportionately shown as animalistic and exotic”. To me models are all the same, it makes no difference weather or not they are black, white, or purple. However a common problem amongst all models haunts society when they see how the media portrays true beauty. Twenty years ago the average model was 5’4’’ and 140lbs. Today the average model is 5’11’’ and 117lbs. The changes in average height and weight of models over a period of twenty years is astonishing. To put it into perspective imagine a basketball player twenty years ago being 6’0’’ 200lbs, fast-forward twenty years, now basketball players are 6’11’’ and 167 lbs! It is common knowledge knowing that being this skinny and this tall is considered unhealthy so why would models risk their lives being this small in order to advertise clothing. The message that models send is horrendous in my opinion.