Media and Advertising

I feel that in society today we are bombarded my media. We are plagued by ads, commercials internet sites, and magazines. The media targets how we view our body. Are we thin enough, curvy enough, and beautiful enough? Is our hair long enough or our lips full enough? We see it every day. It influences what we like, what we do, and how we view ourselves.

Body Image, Let the Circus Begin

My daughters were affected by the perception of having the perfect body as part of acceptance in society, whether that was school, dating, socializing, or jobs.

Body image is how we see ourselves, whether it is true or not. I compare it to looking into a carnival mirror. When we look in the mirror, we see a distorted view and believe that is how we really look.

Dove - Evolution Commercial (higher quality)

The following Dove-Evolution Commercial is approximately one minute long and shows a model in time-lapse photography preparing for a photo shoot. It also shows the computer generated changes that were done to the photo prior publishing.

In our culture, we are preoccupied with beauty and body image. Media and advertising have set very unrealistic expectations for body weight and appearance. Most if not all of the ads we see are retouched and manipulated. Young women and adolescent girls look to magazines, commercials and other media as role models for their body image.

The pursuit of beauty...

In our culture, we are very consumed with beauty and body image. This is not necessarily a bad thing when our perceptions are realistic. The pursuit of beauty and perfection is a billion dollar market.

Love your body...

In today’s society where so much influence is placed on how we look, I think it is very important for us to teach our children the reality of what they actually see in the Media. It is fun to look at ads and read magazines, but we need to keep it all in perspective. Love your body and you will love yourself.

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