Advertisments

In today's day and age, advertisements are constantly surrounding individuals throughout everyday activities. The simplest activities are plagued with massive amounts of advertisements in the hope that the public can be intrigued by the product and will go out and purchase it. The internet, television, newspapers, and other social mediums use many forms of advertisement. However, most commonly we see the sexualization of women in these ads. Jean Killbourne's Killing Us Softly depicts the message of overly sexualized women in advertisement. Women are constantly objectified by men and media, to the point where the younger generation has come to create an ideal of the perfect woman. She brings to light the issue of photoshop, as well as the fact that women are seen as objects.

These women are objectified to be desired by men and in turn have these men buy the product. Sex sells and women are what is used to target these males. The emphasis that is placed on perfection have driven todays generation to pay for surgery, makeup, creams, and clothes. A lot of the time women are presented with barely any clothes on or naked in order to attract attention to the product. This advertisement is trying to sell a sneaker that the woman is holding.

Photoshop is an important tool in creating the perfect advertisement with the perfect woman. Killbourne explains the fact the this program is used to perfect every part of a woman's body, but does nothing for the real woman, the woman who is not perfect but beautiful regardless. Many men view these types of ads and feel that woman supposed to look like these photoshopped versions.

However, there are advertisements out there that have tried to change the image of this perfect, beautiful woman. Fruit of the Loom released a commercial this year that deals with the women of every shape size and color. Commercials like this are necessary in order for the young women in the world to understand that they are beautiful regardless. The industry has the power to change the type of 'beauty' that people seem to think is the only type of beautiful. By showing different woman comfortable in their own skin, acceptance of everyone would occur, as well as the realization that every woman is beautiful.

Ultimately, there is no need for woman to be belittled or portrayed as submissive to males. There is no need to have naked photoshopped women to sell sneakers, as this nike ad did. Woman do not need to be portrayed as sexual objects for men in order to sell a product, and by things such as this fruit of the loom commercial, there is a chance for change.

Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTlmho_RovY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05Lm44y81zg