Consumption of Ads

Gloria Steinem’s article, “Sex, Lies & Advertising,” discusses the triangular relationship between advertisements, print (newspapers/magazines), and readers.
She primarily focuses on the women’s magazine, Ms, of which she was the founding editor and publisher. Media is too often driven by money and relies on advertisements in order to increase profit. This allows outside entities to exert substantial influence over media. When Ms Magazine started, it wanted to incorporate advertisements from various car companies as well as electronics in order to prove that women, like men, are also substantial consumers in these arenas. This was a task that turned out to be much more difficult than one would initially expect. Ms. Steinem evokes interesting questions near the end of her article. “What could women's magazines be like if they were as ad-free as books? as realistic as newspapers? as creative as films? as diverse as women's lives? We don't know. But we'll only find out if we take women's magazines seriously” (9). The problem is that it is nearly impossible to cover the cost of producing a popular magazine without advertisements. While advertisements and media may share the same vehicle, the ties between the two need to be severed. As newspapers and magazines become less popular and the twentieth-century brings about a society dominated by the Internet, the future of printed advertisements becomes uncertain.

Joan Jacobs Brumberg elaborates on the pressures placed on girls within American Society in his book, The Body Project. Girls of the twentieth and twenty-first century must fit certain stereotypes in order to be considered attractive or desirable. With continuously earlier hormonal maturation, young girls focus on their physical appearance at a consistently younger age. This section of Brumberg’s book focuses on weight, diet, bras and breast size, as well as body piercing. If Mrs. Brumberg wrote her chapter today, it would be likely that she included tattoos as well. What I found most interesting within this section was the discussion of African-American girls. Brumberg explained that some studies show that Africa-American girls are more relaxed with respect to their body images. The author explained that this is probably more closely correlated with economic status instead of cultural differences. There often appears to be a direct correlation between increase in one’s wealth/resources with obsession over one’s appearance. With affluence and concern over one’s body image come eating disorders, such as bulimia and anorexia. It is interesting to note that in poor regions with inadequate food supply, there are minimal eating disorders. Until we as a society re-clarify our priorities and values, this system will continue to perpetuate. The death rate from anorexia nervosa in the 1960s and 70s was between 6 to 20% (Hilde Bruch). The current death rate from this disease is between 5 to 20% (WebMd). In spite of multiple medical advances, limited progress has been made in treating eating disorders, which predominately, but not exclusive, affect women. Relating back to Ms. Steinem’s article, certain advertisements too often encourage this type of behavior.