Does advertising influence our self image and self esteem?

Question

Just give your opinion, some facts and why oyu siad what you said thanks!!

Answer 1

Yes, it does. One of the reasons of low self-esteem is comparing ourselves to unrealistic standards. One example from India - Creams that claim to make your skin fairer. The ads for these products increasingly convey that dark skin colour is not beautiful. When people start believing this, they compare themselves to fairer people and start feeling unattractive.

Answer 2

Advertising And Self Image

Answer 3

I believe it does. Have you not been able to sleep and click on the TV. Look at the commercials they have.... weight lose pills....excersize equipment....beauty aids....bust ehancement clothing....get it up with viagra...how to make money quick. Here is a funny thing about all these commercials.....now you are seeing advertisements for selling pills that will make you feel better about yourself and not so depressed. There are tons of advertising products for each of the categories I have mentioned above. Magazines are the same way too. They are making people believe that this is what you need to be happy. Happiness doesn't come from a slim body or any of the other things they are trying to sell. They are just playing the "grass is always greener on the other side" game. Heck, turn off the tv, don't read the magazines and you wouldn't need anything that these people are trying to sell.

Women have had this happening to them for a long time and we are buying into it. Just look at the women now-a-days....they are beginning to look like skeletons.

But hey...business is booming for the products that the advertisers are selling. They are just sucking us in. It starts really early as kids....Barbie. Barbie is suppose to be every girls dream. They make little girls believe that that is the size they are to be. That is the face and hair girls should have. That is the house/car that every girl should have. They make girls want everything Barbie has. It starts really early.

Advertising has added another victum. They are now starting on the men........lose weight....get that six-pack-abs....bald isn't beautiful, so try air hair plugs or creme to create new hair....glasses are attractive, so get contacts or surgery....you need viagra because that is what makes women happy and satisfied. If only guys knew the truth...just do the darn dishes (hehehehe)

Anyway...we are become a society of worry. We worry what everybody thinks and advertising is telling us what everyone thinks. It is a sad life to worry that we are not "up to par" with others. The other sad thing is that when you achieve "the look of the elite", there will be something else that "you are not" and the advertisers will convey that you have to get it.

It is a vicious cycle.

Answer 4

Yes it does. In advertisements they always use perfect looking woman. They make peole feel they are not good enough because they don't look perfect. (neither do the models though. They are touched up) Anyway, the perfect little figures didn't bother me when I was a size 5 but now, after 4 kids, I'm a ten and I feel so ugly and I long to look like the perfect models I see on t.v. or in magazines. Maybe I wouldn't feel this way if we weren't made to think being a size 5 was the only acceptable body image.

Answer 5

Absolutely. The media floods our brains with tons and tons of information, appearing to represent "Things as they are". The power of the media, television, magazines and movies are very powerful. They appear to represent reality and often claim to be reality. I am a certified personal trainer and very dedicated to the proper maintenance and nourishment of my body. Not only that, I consider myself to be a fairly efficient critical thinker. Knowing that about myself and knowing that advertising targets people's mind the way it does, I even ask myself sometimes "Shouldn't I look like this?" or "Isnt this whats supposed to happen in this situation". So from personal experience, being a person who thinks of himself as strong willed and critically minded, find myself sometimes checking in with that the media portrays...I say that advertising has a large influence on self image/esteem.

Answer 6

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