The Cunning Design of Advertisements

As Americans we are bombarded with advertisements constantly. In modern day society there really is no escaping it. Estimates range greatly in how many ads a person is exposed to daily, with the lower end being 250 and the higher end 3,000 (El-Hady 2013). Regardless of which estimates are more accurate, there really is no denying that the marketing industry has great influence and power in our country. So, what is the end goal of all this advertising? To put it plainly, it is to sell us a product or service and make a profit. This, in and of itself, is not wrong. But, the tactics some marketers use to reach this goal are less than ethical. One common and powerful tactic used is the process of creating insecurities in consumers. The ads are purposefully designed to make you feel bad about yourself or your life. Simply put, marketers create a problem for you, then offer their product or service as the solution to that problem. They do this in many different ways, depending on their target audience. Let's take a look at some of the ways these types of ads target women...

Above, I have posted a magazine ad featuring the very famous Drew Barrymore, with promises that if you buy this particular smoky eye shadow and liner you will be 'smokin' just like her. Look closely at the ad... do you see a single line on her face? Any uneven skin tones? Any zits, moles, freckles? What about her body size? Does that look like Drew Barrymore's natural size? Does her skin really glow like that? How does this picture make you feel about your own skin, your own body, your own face? Are you feeling insecure yet? 

There was a study, conducted in 1995, that showed that 70% of women felt depressed, guilty, and shameful after only 3 minutes of looking through a fashion magazine (Bradley University 2013). How do you feel when you flip through magazines or see certain ads pop-up on your Facebook feed? If they make you feel bad about yourself, I will tell you that it is not by accident. Advertisements targeting women almost always contain models with body types that only 5% of the population possess. Many times the models themselves do not possess that body type either, but are photoshopped to look as though they do. Aside from body types, the models are digitally changed from head to toe until they resemble something that is no longer human, but plastic. We are then told that this is what makes a woman beautiful, this is what will make YOU happy. That's what all marketers are selling really...happiness. If women were happy with their body type, their wrinkles, their natural appearance, and their life    how would they get us to buy products that 'fix' those things? We may not be able to change the advertising industry, but we can choose to look at these ads more critically and see them for what they really are. Start recognizing how certain ads make you feel, then pick those ads apart. Open your eyes to the fact that the women portrayed are not real women. Don't buy into the lie that these fake, digitally enhanced women are beautiful. See that YOU are beautiful. See that ALL women are beautiful.

I wanted to end my post with another photo of Drew Barrymore. Notice the drastic difference between this natural photo and the advertisement photo above. I'm not posting this photo to say, "hey, look Drew Barrymore is really ugly without makeup and digital enhancements." Just the opposite, actually. Drew Barrymore is a beautiful woman and this picture shows it. She is beautiful with her blemishes, and her wrinkles, and her body fat. She is beautiful without layers of makeup and digital alterations...and so are YOU.

Sources

El-Haidy, Z. 2013. The Dogma of Advertising and Consumerism. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ziad-elhady/the-dogma-of-advertising-_b_2540390.html

Bradley University. 2013. The Body Project. Retrieved from: http://www.bradley.edu/sites/bodyproject/