The Flawed Consumer: Advertising to Women
by
Megan Stemm-Wade

Advertising is the basic tool of capitalism in America.  It is the vehicle through which companies introduce, sell, and induce loyalty for their products.  In our culture, ads have become as ubiquitous as green grass and blue skies, literally popping up almost everywhere and anywhere we rest our eyes, from our web browsers to the check out line at the market to the sides of buses.  Understanding the messages presented to us in advertising is an important skill; understanding the messages behind the ads is even more essential to a balanced realistic view of one’s image in the world.

While advertising can be viewed as simply a necessary part of the capitalism machine, theories are being formed that it can also affect the culture, and in particular the women of a culture, in some very negative ways.  This paper will explore how these advertising messages advertising impacts the emotional and physical health of women in America in powerfully harmful ways and is designed to do just that, in service of selling more products.  It will do this by first reviewing the existing academic research on the subject of advertising and women’s self-esteem and body image, and the evidence presented within this research that advertising has  a direct negative impact on how women feel about themselves. Next, a small sample of ten advertisements from woman-targeted magazines will be analyzed, further revealing the negative body-image attitudes employed by advertisers to motivate women to buy their products. Lastly, this paper will explore the role of education in preventing and reversing the damage advertising can do to women’s views of themselves.

 Women have an especially difficult job in decoding the meaning behind the advertisements they see. As they have moved into the workforce and become major spenders in American culture, advertisers have targeted specialized messages right to women, to motivate brand loyalty and purchase of products. The type of message used to sell to women and the meanings which often hide in the layers of ad copy and images send consistent negative information to the women who read them: you lack in some fundamental way. You are flawed. Buying our products will “fix” your flaws, or at least offer you the hope of fixing them.  Because of this trend in negative messaging, which reaches back decades, advertising impacts the emotional and physical health of women in America in powerfully harmful ways and is designed to do just that, in service of selling more products.  

Much research has been completed on the role of advertising in shaping the attitudes of women toward their bodies.  The mass marketing of body images through print and televised media has been documented as a powerful force in creating the tall, super-thin ideal for women (Rabak-Wagener 29). Further, fashion and clothing advertisements have been found to have a negative effect on body image attitudes.  A study of women exposed to advertisements featuring ideally thin models found that this exposure negatively affected their concerns about weight, mood, self-esteem and depression (Bessenhoff 247).  Another researcher surveyed young women who regularly read fashion magazines and found that 70% of women surveyed considered the magazines an “important source” of beauty and fitness information (Rabak-Wagener 29). These two studies are very telling in terms of the impact of advertisements on women and American culture.  With such a large majority of women who read fashion magazines relying upon them as an “important source” of their body image information, and with that information affecting them negatively, the stage is set for those women to need solutions for the perceived “problems” they have with their bodies as suggested by advertising.  The solutions are easy enough to find: the products themselves.

Further research indicates that media influence on body image in affecting younger women and girls.  One 2005 study of adolescent girls, aged 11-16, established that viewing ultra-thin or average size models in advertising led to decreases in both body satisfaction and self-esteem as in studies with older females (Clay 468).   Judith Rabak-Wagener, in her 1998 study of 105 adolescent women, determined that two-thirds of young women are “significantly dissatisfied” with their bodies after exposure to advertisements featuring thin women.  Further, she and her colleagues determined that after classroom instruction in media analysis and decoding media messages, these same young women reported changed beliefs about their bodies, dieting, and exercising.  They reported that dieting and exercise behaviors should be “based on health status, rather than appearance,” the opposite of their beliefs before media literacy instruction (Rabak-Wagener 29). Studies like this and others would seem to suggest that chronic, repeated exposure to media images likely has longer-term negative effects, therefore positive results from this type of intervention are encouraging in their potential for change in American culture.

The long-term effects of diet programs and chronic dieting present even more serious consequences of disturbed body image in women.  Research findings indicate that women with increased levels of body dissatisfaction were more likely to use chronically diet and to use severe forms of weight control, such as forced vomiting and laxatives (Stephens et al. 143).   A decade ago, the number of women undergoing gastric bypass surgery in order to lose weight was growing and now continues to grow exponentially along with decreasing attitudes in body image (Stephens et al. 149).  This would be disturbing enough in and of itself, but the list of complications of these intestinal surgeries is long, with a mortality rate of nine times that of an identical person who decided against the procedure; two-to-four percent die within days (Wolf  261). 

When one considers how the overwhelming research evidence demonstrates that a woman’s body image is negatively impacted by images in advertising, the question of why such negatively themed advertising is so widely used must be asked.  The most compelling answer is a simple and age-old one: profit. Women who are unhappy with their bodies, and who are sent messages that buying products with possibly offer them the answer to their problems will indeed buy.   In 2005, purchases by women totaled trillions of dollars, accounting for 85% of all consumer expenditures (Dangel 23).  Add to the equation the idea that research shows that negative body image is an attitude that is highly resistant to change.   Formerly overweight women report as much dissatisfaction with their bodies as those currently considered overweight (Cash 60).  Thus, even if a woman achieves something approaching her imaged “ideal” body, chances are good that she will remain unhappy with her looks, and therefore will continue to seek product “solutions” for her dissatisfaction. And keep spending she will, to the tune of, $315 billion in 2006, nearly 3 percent of the overall U.S. economy, on such doubtful “solutions” to alleged body flaws as commercial weight-loss programs, weight-loss drugs and bariatric surgery, according to William L. Weis, a professor at Seattle University (Rosenwald F01).

So, how bad are the ads that lead women into this labyrinth of false hopes? My very small sample suggests that advertisements are all the academic research portrays them to be.  Print ads in seven magazines with target audiences of women and teen girls aged 10 -55 years were analyzed.  Ten ads for a variety of products, from acne creams to denim jeans, were chosen and rated on their overall tone and the perceived type of consumer motivation to buy the products depicted (Table 1).  Though the overwhelming message of the ads was indeed negative, the ads loosely fell into three groups; ads which motivated the consumer by pointing out, subtly or directly, a flaw in the consumer’s appearance; ad which used the “flaw” motivation coupled with a message of shame; and ads that urged women to be “beautiful but silent,” expressing themselves only through their outward appearance.

Five of the advertisements fell squarely into the first category, promoting a message of a solution to a perceived lack on the part of the consumer.  Lee Jeans’ ad promised their jeans would “instantly slim[s] you” (Ad 1), sending the message that “you” are too big. More direct was a NutriSystem advertisement in which a husband, “got his wife back,” leading one to infer then that fatness somehow made her disappear (Ad 2).  It was there in hair care ads that assume the consumer’s hair is flat, frizzy and lifeless, and that all of those things are objectionable (Infusium, Herbal Essences, Paul Mitchell, Ads 3, 4, and 5) and two of these ads even use terms such as “super skinny” and “the perfect body” to remind women and girls of the body ideal to keep in mind.  A sixth ads was more subtle. The ad for Dressbarn retail stores states, “My life changes for the better every time I’m open to new ideas,” suggesting that a new fishnet poncho will certainly bring about this “life change” that the consumer definitely needs (Ad 6). 

Ads for acne cream and maxi-pads worked from a slightly different angle, shame, with the motivation being the same, to fix flaws. BenzaClin acne medication shows a lovely blonde girl with her arm around a handsome boy, both with clear, glowing complexions (Ad 7). The copy reads, “Picture this!” and implies that a great date to the prom hinges on getting rid of that ugly acne.  Always pads declare their product, “Most likely to protect your reputation” warning girls to hide their periods at all costs (Ad 8).  An advertisement for Ocean Spray Light Cranberry juice used an image of a small string bikini to remind women that they are obligated to diet for “swimsuit season” (Ad 9). 

The one ad that differed greatly was one for Jergens shea butter lotion (Ad 10). While it promised to make skin “radiantly soft,” thereby assuming that anything other than radiantly soft skin is not acceptable, it used a different message to catch consumer attention. This ad fell within the “beautiful but silent” message scheme in advertising suggested by media analyst Jean Kilbourne (Deadly Persuasion 138). The copy reads, “my skin just discovered its voice” and goes on to note that skin that was once “timid” went “unnoticed” but now it “screams soft.”  The last line of the ad urges consumers (women) to “put your best skin out there” - not their talents, nor voices, nor true selves.  This ad is doubly interesting in that the model featured is an African-American woman, a group who has historically been silenced in American culture.

In gathering this research sample and evaluating their messages, I found ads that fit my hypothesis that the overall negative tone of ads would motivate women to purchase through presenting a perceived lack in their appearance to be an easy task.  Indeed, I set out to find six samples and settled on ten; finding more would not have posed a problem.  Searching the magazines and choosing the samples left me feeling somewhat affected emotionally – as earlier stated, this is an experience common for many women who read women-targeted magazines. Indeed, in talking with other women, I repeatedly hear that they have come to regard feeling bad about their bodies as a new normal, and continue to read magazines that support this feeling because they do not feel any urgency to change their feelings, only their bodies.    Overwhelmingly, I felt a sense of powerlessness over an industry that has no motivation to change its enormously successful strategies that inevitably harm women.  Certainly, the research itself offers little hope that positive social change in this area lies with the advertisers. Daniel Clay and his colleagues contend that even though a governmental body image summit was held in the U.K. in 2000 to discuss policies surrounding the use of ultra-thin models in advertising, “there remains little sign of any policy changes forthcoming in the near future” (473).  Their study findings imply that early childhood education in media analysis is the key to protecting the self-esteem and body image of women.  This call is echoed in Judith Rabak-Wagener, Gayle Bessenhoff and Jean Kilbourne, among others. That researchers place the burden on the “victim,” as it were, to protect herself from this continued assault is telling.  Advertising to women is big business; motivating her to buy products by convincing her that she is fundamentally lacking makes it a hugely profitable business.  While women continue to believe this harmful message, ad strategies are not likely to change.  It is important for women to first believe and then take responsibility for their role in this continued process of harm to their self-image and purchasing false solutions to perceived problems.  Educating her –and especially her daughter – to turn off the messages and avoid their damage is the only way to begin to effect change

Table 1

Analysis of Ten Magazine Ads from Woman-Targeted Publications

List of Sources Cited and Consulted

Bessenhoff, Gayle R. (2006). Can the media affect us? Social comparison, self-discrepancy, and the thin ideal. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30, 239-251.

Cash, Thomas F. (1990). “The Psychology of Physical Appearance: Aesthetics, Attributes, and Images.” Body Images: Development, Deviance, and Change,
Thomas F. Cash and Thomas Pruzinsky (eds). New York: Guilford Press: 51-71.

Clay, Daniel, Vivian L. Vignoles and Helga Dittmar. (2005) Body image and self-esteem among adolescent girls: testing the influence of sociocultural factors. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 15 (4), 451-477.

Dangel, Leslie. (2005). Don’t think pink: what really makes women buy - and how to increase your share of this crucial market. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 22 (4/5) , 291-292.

Kilbourne, Jean. (1999). Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight The Addictive Power of Advertising,  New York: The Free Press.

Rabak-Wagener, Judith, JoAnn Eickhoff-Shemek, and Lisa Kelly-Vance. (1998). Journal of American College Health, 47(1), 29.

Rosenwald, Michael S. Why America Has to Be Fat: A Side Effect of Economic Expansion Shows Up in Front. (2006, January 22). The Washington Post, p. F01. Retrieved October 26, 2006, from Academic Search Premier database.

Silverblatt, Art. (2001) Media Literacy: Keys in Interpreting Media Messages, London : Praeger Paperback.

Stephens, Debra Lynn, Ronald Paul Hill and Cynthia Hanson. (1994). The beauty myth and female consumers: the controversial role of advertising. The Journal of Consumer Affairs, 28 (1), 137-153.

Wolf, Naomi. (1991). The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, New York: Anchor Books.

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