Advertising or Brainwashing?

In response to the Iron Maiden, I first want to say that it is so apparent that advertising has an overwhelming impact on women of our time. From hair, to weight, to how to dress, females definitely feel the effects of advertising and feel more obliged to follow what advertising portrays. I agree with just about the entire essay and found the statistics staggering. For example, just the fact that women pay a whopping $33 billion on weight loss, $7 billion on cosmetics, and $300 million on cosmetic surgery. That is nuts! I am especially bothered by the cosmetic surgery fact; I really believe that people need to find the strength to be happy with themselves and to not choose to go under the knife. I believe Americans need to look at themselves in a better light and stop putting so much pressure on themselves to be so visually perfect. What ever happened to inner beauty? I am a very big fan of those dove commercials where woman of all shapes and sizes strip down to their undergarments to advertise not only the dove products, but also their beauty and womanly strength. It makes me sick to hear stories about teenagers becoming anorexic or bulimic because of their desire to become skinny. The fact is that these high fashion super models are too skinny and they look downright unhealthy. It really made me mad when the fashion world believes professional models are considered over the hill by the time they are twenty-four. Now that is just disturbing, age does not determine your beauty, the person determines their own beauty and inner being. The visual essay really made me look at ads in a different light. I feel almost brainwashed because as I looked at the pictures I realized how much advertising influences young minds and in most cases the hidden message the advertisement is presenting. Sex is everywhere in advertising and it is disgusting how much women are the targets. I just really hope women of our time can step up and be stronger and not focus on the visual aspects of themselves but on who they are a as a person. People should be influenced by their own decisions, not by what a magazine tells them to do.