Advertisements Are Shaping Our Society - 1254 Words

I got a tattoo saying ‘Made in England’ above my foot to represent that, that I felt like a doll for so long.† Said Cara Delevingne, supermodel. Why is the model industry, creating this idea that all females have to look like this ‘doll’ to be beautiful? Society has moulded the ‘ideal’ body image to an unattainable goal fashioned by the criteria established through advertising. Advertisements are enforcing the standards of beauty to encourage our youth to believe and aspire to become this contemporary based view of what beautiful is. This is supported by 45% of women and 23% of men in the healthy weight range think they are overweight and 20% of women who are underweight think they are overweight. (Butterfly, FED) So why do we have such†¦show more content†¦This extends to the idea of society’s rules for the ideal body image and that it isn’t okay to be your true form. But what if the roles were reversed? The degrading, objectification and dismemberment of women in advertising are heavily discussed, whereas for men this controversial topic is mostly dismissed. The ad ‘Old spice – what your man should smell like’ dictates the perfect body image of a man. This ad shows a man showing off all he has to the female popularity because of the deodorant he is wearing. This provides a belief saying that to be a real man you have to follow the rules of manliness; a fit muscular body, tanned, tall and all of this will help you provide all that you need to keep a girl happy and at your feet. With the use of these specific signifiers shows the sign that men are dominating and females crave masculinity. Going alone with this idea, it shows that the woman wants to be with a real man, not a man pretending to be one. The aesthetics tastes and standards of beauty have been stretched to the point where the ideal body is far from reasonable or achievable. In fact, 80% of women feel worse after seeing a beautiful ad and more men are buying grooming products and cosmetics than ever before. (CML,2014) These ads create a sense of achieving a higher social status and self confidence if you fit into society s guidelines. Such as the gold gym ad, with the use of