Advertisements Help Women Make Informed Decisions Essays -- Advertisi

Do advertisements give us a false sense of reality? Advertisements aren’t supposed to portray real life. Feminists exaggerate when criticizing advertisements and the power they have on culture. The sole purpose of advertisements is to sell products, not to change society’s values, and marketers are less likely to shape our nation’s culture than to be shaped by it (Makin www.digitas). Advertising simply serves to inform us of the choices that we have as consumers, and leaves us to make rational decisions based on what we need (Ingham www.aber). Most women are relatively satisfied with their appearance and advertisements impact them minimally. Women are not affected negatively by the images they see in advertisements. Women don’t want to be attractive because advertisers tell them that they should be. Advertisers put attractive women in ads because that it is what men want to see and what women naturally aspire to be. Advertisements don’t tell us what we should want to look like. Rather, they show what we already want to be. They are not intended to â€Å"brainwash† individuals into purchasing their products over others. Jean Kilbourne states, â€Å"Eighty percent of American women think that they are over weight.† Of course, that’s because many of them are – according to the Framingham Heart Study, Seventy percent of women over forty years of age are indeed above their optimal weight (Makin www.digitas). People don’t want to buy products demonstrated by overweight models, because they associate being overweight with negative connotation. Advertisers use images that are pleasing to the human eye, thus showing the models we aim to be like. When we watch an advertisement on television, or look at one... ... The world of advertising is not the real world and is much different. Since we know this, we are able to look at the various aspects of how advertisements work and look at them with open eyes as well as an open mind. We understand how and why advertisements use specific techniques to sell products and that they are not out to make women self-conscious or to strive to live in this imaginary, perfect world. Advertisements help give us a better understanding of ourselves (Ingham www.aber). All things considered, advertisements help us more than they hurt us. They help us make informed decisions about the products we choose to purchase. By purchasing the best for us we are able achieve our goals and become the successful, beautiful woman that we strive to be. Sources Cited www.aber.com www.digitas.com www.social.com www.teenink.com