Negative Effects of Advertising on Body Image: Critical Essay

It is evident that media plays a significant role in many aspects of Western culture. From music to videos, to advertisements, so much of what we do, the things we buy, and the thoughts we think are influenced by the media. This paper outlines several ways in which the media can affect one’s thoughts on body image, and eating through the critical analysis of an advertisement and a music video.

Within Western culture, advertising images are so apparent that they are almost difficult to avoid. Magazines, billboards, and internet ads alike are constantly telling society what to buy, and how to dress, and in the focus of this paper, the way in which our bodies “should” look. A 2015 advertisement published by “Protein World,' a popular supplement company, sparked outrage for featuring a slim, toned, and unrealistic-looking bikini model along with the words “Are you beach body ready?”. The image, advertising the company’s new “Weight-loss Collection” line of supplements, was mass distributed, and almost immediately began to receive backlash for its negative portrayal of the “ideal” female body image. The message sent out through the wording and imaging of the advertisement was implying that unless a woman was excessively slim, toned, and fit, she was not “beach body ready”, and that she must therefore become more skinny in order to fit the unrealistic ideal portrayed by the advertisement. Along with illustrating an unrealistic expectation for a woman/s body image, the company was advertising for its new line of supplements claiming to help the consumer lose weight quickly and effortlessly. Not only is this incorrect, as it is common knowledge that healthy eating and active living are proven ways of maintaining a healthy life and healthy body, but it is also detrimental to the way female body image is portrayed and perceived by society and the media, specifically the “ideal” body shape and size. The company, by way of this advertisement, was spreading a false standard of what women and their bodies should look like, as well as the way in which women, and society, should reach this “standard”, that being by the use of supplements to aid in “quick and easy” weight-loss. It is easy for advertisements, such as the one previously analyzed, to quickly spread these false ideals, leaving women young and old with a distorted perception of what their bodies should look like, and leaving men with unrealistic expectations for women.

This same unrealistic expectation of women’s bodies is seen in many aspects of the media other than just advertising images. The music industry is notorious for its distorted, misogynistic views of what a woman’s body should look like, often over-sexualizing women and their bodies, especially in music videos. The lyrics and music video of the song “Sexy Chick” by David Guetta featuring Akon explicitly portray the over-sexualization of women and unrealistic body image expectations. The video specifically features fully clothed men at a pool party, being danced around and enticed by very slim, fit women wearing quite revealing swimwear. The lyrics of the song spread the message of a “good-looking” young woman, including lyrics such as “The way that booty movin' I can't take no more”, and “Damn you's a sexy bitch”, implying that the body of the woman is some type of trophy/exhibit for men to stare at and take advantage of. By only featuring women in the video who are very slim and fit, and claiming them to be “sexy,' “a diva,' and “every girl wanna be her,' it is promoting a negative body image culture, especially within the targeted age range of the song, that being young women. As humans are a social species who seek belonging and acceptance, it is easy for us to create and fall into societal norms and expectations, especially in regard to the way our bodies look. By viewing this video, released by a popular artist, full of unrealistic expectations of the way women’s bodies should look, young women are receiving the message that in order to be “sexy” and desirable, they too must meet these body image “expectations”, looking slim and fit. This idea can negatively impact the mental well-being of women, especially those who may not typically fall into the category of meeting the unrealistic expectations set out by society and the media in particular, thinking that their bodies are not good enough, not slim enough, or unattractive These intrusive thoughts can quickly develop into negative habits such as over-exercising, under-eating, binge-eating, etc. and thus can further escalate into an eating disorder or other mental illness. It is important for the music industry, and the media as a whole, to acknowledge the necessity of promoting body positivity within the messages of videos and advertisements. Taking advantage of, and profiting off of body shaming, and featuring only those who meet a specific and unrealistic standard in music videos (and throughout the media as a whole) is not only disturbing but can be detrimental to the health and well-being of viewers.

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It is clear that the media can greatly affect societal norms within a culture. These norms can appear, change, and dissipate quickly, with the rise of social media over the last several years helping them to spread widely in just short periods of time. Social media has an even larger advertising outreach than traditional advertising methods such as billboards, flyers, and newspaper and magazine advertisements, thus making social media the go-to place for many companies looking to advertise. The use of pop-ups, sponsored ads, and side banner advertisements makes it easy for companies to gain a higher view rate and reach a larger audience, with the idea of thus creating a higher profit for the company. The media and advertising become an issue when controversial advertisements, pictures, news articles, and videos begin to circulate on the internet (or on more traditional advertising sources). As the internet has a large population of very young users, many of whom are in the self-discovery stage of their life, it can quickly become a place where these young viewers receive a lot of influence, especially towards body image and eating habits. For many years, the societal norm and “expectation” for people’s bodies is to be as thin as possible. The internet is crawling with advertisements, websites, and videos promoting supplements, workouts, diets, technology, and more to help people lose weight, become skinny, and “look good”. This spreads a negative culture and sends negative body-image thoughts spiraling into the minds of men and women alike, especially those in their younger years. These thoughts and mindsets can quickly turn into distorted habits, especially those directly relating to body image, such as eating and exercising. In today’s society, while the social norm still remains for men and women to look slim and fit, there is slowly becoming a growing movement of body positivity and acceptance of all body shapes and sizes. However, while larger, more curvy body sizes are becoming more accepted within Western society, it has become more of an appreciation rather than a full integration, with slim and fit still being the ultimate goal, and big and curvy being more of an “accepted style”. Over the past few years the internet has seen and spread many songs and advertising campaigns directed specifically toward the positive acceptance of those who may not fit into societal norms in regard to body image. While singers, songwriters, and companies are aiming to decrease the stigma towards people with larger body sizes and “fat-shaming”, this sometimes causes society to react with occasional backlash, claiming the campaign, advertisement, song, etc., are not promoting full-body positivity, but are doing the reverse of the original intention and “skinny-shaming”. This backlash was seen in 2014 with the release of Meghan Trainor’s song “All About That Bass”. The intention of the message in this song was to promote body positivity and that “big is beautiful”, but by featuring lyrics such as “I'm bringing booty back, go 'head and tell them skinny bitches that” and “You know I won't be no stick figure, silicone Barbie doll”, it began to receive backlash claiming the song to be indirectly “skinny-shaming”, and looking down upon people who are very slim, whether naturally having a petite frame, or those struggling with an eating disorder. Therefore, we can see that it is evident that the internet and social media together play a large role in how Western culture shapes its views of body image, easily able to skew the current norms to fit society. When we look around us, influences from the media are all around us, both online and in person.

Much like its digital counterpart, analog advertising (billboards, magazines, flyers, etc.) also greatly influences the way society views standards and norms. Nowadays, people are taught from a young age the expression “don’t believe everything you hear on the internet,' yet humans are still very quick to believe things they see and read on the street. Where we are taught the idea that “anyone can post anything online” we are still left with the underlying thought of “someone had to approve this” when we see advertisements in public places. The ads however are designed typically by a marketing team within a company with specific intentions as to their target audience, knowing the exact ways in which they will design the advertisement in order to reach that audience. In instances such as the “Protein World” advertisement controversy as previously mentioned in the paper, everything from the colors, font, picture, and layout was carefully selected to create the most impact (and therefore profit) from the target audience, which in this case, were women looking to lose weight, possibly “overweight” women. These advertisements when posted publicly on surfaces from billboards, to bus stops, to subway trains, are seen by members of the public, and can easily create false ideas in the minds of the viewers, with potentially detrimental effects on their mental and physical health and wellbeing. Having the “ideal” body image is a such strong focus of society everything from the foods restaurants make, to the way clothing is sized is designed around the way we want our bodies to look and feel. Women’s clothing uses a different scale for sizing in order for the size numbers to appear lower than that of men’s clothing. Restaurants will charge two times the price for a dish that is deemed “healthy” versus “unhealthy”, simply because they know that people are willing to pay those prices in order to stay skinny and to “not get fat”. We live in a world with a such twisted view of what it means to truly be healthy, thinking that to be healthy is s synonym for being as skinny as possible. This shift in our thinking, caused in part by the media, has led many people to fall into patterns of distorted eating and eating disorders, which still today are faced with many stigmas present in Western culture.

It is not uncommon to hear people say that people who struggle with eating disorders “just need to eat something”, that the way they behave is “just for attention”, and that eating disorders are “not real illnesses.” Eating disorders, body image, and the stigmas surrounding each are heavily affected by the media, as well as the reverse, where the media heavily affects the way society views eating and body image. The relationship between the two is bidirectional and interconnected. The media will always have an impact on the way society views our bodies. While societal norms will always exist, rather than take advantage of its role, the media could better be using its voice and its position to integrate all body shapes and sizes into marketing and advertising and within the music industry to break the stigma society has created surrounding body image, eating, and eating disorders. If the media were to feed into acceptance and positivity, stigma and unrealistic body expectations would starve.