Advertising's toxic effect on eating and body image

OBESITY IN WOMEN in America IT’S NOT BY OSMOSIS

Emotion in Advertising 1

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April 10, 2017

Sharon M. Burke

Team D – Melissa Carter, Courtney Kelly, Stephanie Justice-Johnson, Mo Shamseldin and Kam Thomas

Emotion in Advertising 1 –

RQ - What are the effects of weight loss advertisements on Women in America?

H1: - Due to the effect of Mass Media in America, Women suffer from anxiety with their self-esteem and body shape.

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The average American encounters 3,000 advertisements every day, and spends a total of two years watching TV commercials in their lifetime, Kilbourne said. At the center of many of these ads is an image of idealized female beauty. Models are tall, slim, of lighter or tan complexion, and digitally altered to ever-more unrealistic proportions.

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“Women and girls compare themselves to these images every day,” Kilbourne said. “And failure to live up to them is inevitable because they are based on a flawlessness that doesn’t exist.” The American ideal of beauty has become so pervasive that 50% of three- to six-year-old girls worry about their weight (Advertising’s toxic effect on eating and body image, 2015). .

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/advertisings-toxic-effect-on-eating-and-body-image/

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The diet industry produces $33 billion in revenue; advertisers may portray atypically thin models to help promote the diet industry.

In recent survey by Teen People magazine, 27% of the girls felt that the media pressures them to have a perfect body and a poll conducted in 1996 by the international ad agency Saatchi and Saatchi found that ads made women fear being unattractive or old. Researchers suggest advertising media may adversely impact women's body image, which can lead to unhealthy behavior as women and girls strive for the ultra-thin body idealized by the media.

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Some researchers believe that advertisers purposely normalize unrealistically thin bodies, in order to create an unattainable desire that can drive product consumption (Eating Disorders, 2014).

http://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders/articles/eating-disorders-body-image-and-advertising/

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REFERENCES

Advertising’s toxic effect on eating and body image. (2015, March). Harvard, (), . Retrieved from:

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/advertisings-toxic-effect-on-eating-and-body-image/

Eating Disorders: Body Image and Advertising. (2014, January). Healthy Place, (), . Retrieved from:

http://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders/articles/eating-disorders-body-image-and-advertising/

http://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders/articles/eating-disorders-body-image-and-advertising/#sthash.Ab39C4kx.dpuf

- See more at: http://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders/articles/eating-disorders-body-image-and-advertising/#sthash.Ab39C4kx.dpuf