Women's Power To Combat Harmful Advertisements
Elise Galgano
Elise Galgano
Selling stereotypes is a huge issue surrounding commercial advertising today. We constantly see examples of stereotyping in television and print ads. These advertising agencies have a huge influence on the young women of today. It has been witnessed countless times that young girls suffer from low self-esteem and depression because they feel like they can't compete with advertisements unrealistic expectations. According to the Dove Foundation, " 75% of girls with low self-esteem reported engaging in negative activities such as disordered eating, cutting, bullying, smoking, or drinking when feeling badly about themselves " ("Real girls, real," 2008). In order to avoid harmful media manipulation induced by ad agencies, women need to become more aware of said manipulation and learn how to combat it.
Because the media surrounds us daily, the first step to change their harmful tactics is to become familiar with and recognize it. Women need to realize that the media is built to manipulate us. Designers create products in order to make us "better" consumers. " Through market research, companies gather insight into the needs of a specific target group...[This] product development process has an important disadvantage: It produces 'one-size-fits-all' products that should appeal to many consumers "(Mugge, Schoormans, Schifferstein, 2009, p.79). The key word here is "should." Not all women are the same, but the agencies will try to generalize them into a category they find suitable. The same goes for media advertisements, if inappropriate images aren't being challenged they just become a standard statistic. How many covers on female oriented magazines can you find that haven't been airbrushed?
Our commercial culture is growing and as time elapses ad agencies come up with new ways to trick consumers into confusing what is true and what is false. For example, women always hear "beauty is skin deep" or "comes from the inside." However, if those statements were true cosmetic advertisements would cease to exist. Professor Brian Moeran stated that, "[t]he structure of beauty advertisements closely parallels that of magical spells used in healing rituals"(Moeran, 2010, p.492). We see this idea of "healing" with anti-aging creams. Keeping a young and sexy face forever is appealing to women, but they have to realize it's unrealistic and unnatural. Women also need to take into consideration that the models in a number of these ads are airbrushed by computer technology. There are a few things to look for in determining if an image has been manipulated: Are there any obvious Photoshop errors? Does it lower your self-esteem? and finally, Does it display harmful stereotyping? It takes time to be able to recognize media manipulation and that's how the agencies get you to accept their messages. Women need to take the time to learn and recognize that they're being targeted.
The side effects related to harmful advertising are greater than those mentioned at the beginning. Some results found that emotional distress, feelings of shame, low self-esteem, chronic emotional problems, clinical depression, social phobia, eating disorders are all examples of side-effects from advertisements (Bessenoff, 2006, p.240). Women continuously compare themselves to others; it is built into the human genes. We compare ourselves to others to "determine our own levels of abilities" (Bessenoff, 2006, p.239-240). The most common issues among women are related to the ominous "thin-body imagery" plastered all over the media. "Within the media, fashion and beauty magazines in particular have been identified as a prime source and disseminator of inordinately [unrealistic] ideals" (Tiggemann & Polivy, 2010, p.356). The goal for many women is to look sexy, but sexy has been reduced to a size zero. "One characteristic of this beauty ideal, as represented by the media, is extreme thinness, which in many cases is well below the medically recommended weight for women" (Engeln-Maddox, 2006, p.258). When a woman sees her favorite actress with a teeny tiny waistline, she compares herself and often feels inferior to the actress. When an average paid woman can't afford a 24/7 health trainer and make-up artist the results they are hoping for won't come along easily. For some, dangerous eating habits seem like an easier and faster route.
Another issue surround women in ads is the fact that, "women are treated to a barrage of stories in the media suggesting that women who successfully pursue careers to become part of that minority of women in politics or business will pay a high price in lost opportunities for motherhood or in lost relationships because they have over-emphasized the development of their non-family talents and interests" (Piety, 2009, p.51). Although men and women are considered equal, the anxiety of a life without love or family still exists. Even if the world is accepting of women with high end jobs, they aren't always portrayed as sexy. Instead they're viewed as uptight and no fun. It's suggested that, "men and women in society are attributable to some essential, eradicable "difference" that justifies disparate treatment"(Piety, 2009, p.54). What is that difference? Is it justifiable if it's affecting women's health? When women finally begin to see how detrimental these messages are to themselves and upcoming younger generations, they need to take a stand and disable harmful advertisements.
One suggested solution in favor of disabling these ads is a tough one. Comparison is natural; however, "If women and girls can be persuaded or educated not to compare themselves with the media images, then some of the negative impact of media exposure might be ameliorated" (Tiggemann & Polivy, 2010, p.362). In order for this tactic to work, this education would need to be recognized world wide and have a basic structure. Advertising conveys a reoccurring message that a woman's appearance is key to the importance of her success as person, so teaching women that they can be successful without looking airbrushed would be a key factor. Words aren't always successful in getting a message across however, so the girls confidence would need to be high in order for them to believe in what they're hearing. It may be possible for this to work if this education was incorporated into health classes. That way girls would be introduced to the negative effects of advertising and focus on becoming more comfortable with themselves.
Another way to combat these agencies is to complain to them personally. At adstandards.com under clause 14 titled "Unacceptable Depictions and Portrayals", there are lists of complaints surrounding women's portrayal in advertisements. One example from 2010 was surrounding "an advertisement on the back cover of a free-distribution newspaper,[where] a young woman on her hands and knees was posed in very revealing undergarments" ("Asc," 2010). The complaint was that the woman was being portrayed as a sex object and the council found their complaint to be legitimate. They said that "the depiction of the young woman in this advertisement degraded and objectified women"("Asc," 2010). When offensive content is found Under Clause 10 (Safety) or Clause 14 (Unacceptable Depictions and Portrayals): "The advertisement is forwarded to the advertiser who is given the opportunity to respond directly to the consumer about the complaint. If after receiving the advertiser's response, the consumer is not satisfied, the consumer can request a review by a Consumer Response Council. Councils are made up of senior representatives from the advertising industry and the public, who volunteer their time to support the consumer complaints process"("Asc," 2010). The best ways to reach the agencies is to send a complaint directly to the agency itself or send a complaint to a business who handles complaints about ads (like the Advertising Standards Council).
Finally, we must put women to work in higher positions involved in advertising. As I mentioned before, women and men are supposed to be considered equal in the work force; however, There are currently only fifteen Fortune five-hundred companies run by women. The Fortune five-hundred companies are America's largest corporations. This means that, women only represent three percent of Fortune five-hundred CEOs (Stroope & Hagemann, 2011, p.51). Not all of these companies are advertisement agencies, but are all affiliated with media in some way. Some examples of the Fortune five-hundred are Walmart, Target, and Macys. "Unlike the earlier part of the past century, when agencies recognized the usefulness of having women craft sales messages for women most of the decision makers and creative people in agencies today are men in their 20's and early 30's" (Parks, 2009, p.27). If men are running the show, they're just running statistics. This means that they're only making ads and products that they think will appeal to women, they can't pull in personal experience. Men don't understand how cosmetic products work on women. It is apparent that there still exits an under-representation of women in the workforce. One suggestion to help women reach this level is for them to be more assertive. According to Saundra Stroope and Bonnie Hagemann, "Women can't make it in leadership if they are too soft but they come across as overly aggressive if they try to lead as a man might" (Stroope & Hagemann, 2011, p.52).
The road to abolishing stereotypes and harmful media images is a tough one, but one that should be taken nonetheless. Building confidence among women isn't going to happen in one day, which is why the media messages need to change. If women were to see more realistic portrayals of themselves on magazines, newspapers, posters, billboards, television and other mass mediums, they would become more comfortable in their own skin. Women need to be more assertive with their opinions and not suffer as victims of media abuse. In order to induce a change there needs to be a universal ideal surrounding an advertising revolution.