Blog Entry 9: Write 2 paragraphs towards Paper 2

http://www.celebritysmackblog.com/2010/04/13/britney-spears-candies-before-after-airbrushing-pics-photos/

Not my blog, but fun if anyone wants to look at it.

When most people hear the word “catering” they often think of a service that brings food to a location and then serves it to the people there, whether it be a party, a wedding, a funeral, or a business meeting. And yet this is not the only type of catering that is being done in our 21st century society and ironically the other type of catering discourages the consumption of food. Advertisements and their catering towards women develop an ideal vision that is virtually unattainable and leads women on a constant search that ends in disappointment, low self-esteem, eating disorders, and on occasion, death. Looking at advertisements that focused on women from the past fifty years shows that ads only portrayed that time period’s “beautiful woman” then as well. This type of targeting has always been present to some extent but it is becoming progressively more out of control and dangerous as time goes by. The role that advertisements play in the daily life of females has become quite a vicious cycle that seems to have no apparent end.

There is no doubt about it that female adolescents take the biggest blow from the advertising world. Being what is referred to now as a “pre-teen” as well as being a teenager is no easy task. Both males and females begin to deal with peer pressure at this age, although it differs by gender. While males are pressured into being big, strong, and muscular and are expected to eat a lot, females begin receiving their first pressures to be small and thin, and to eat quite a lot less than their bodies actually need to stay healthy. Teenagers are very vulnerable and sensitive to the world around them. All of a sudden one of the most important things is suddenly to be “in” and “cool” and what is a better source to determine what is in and cool than the large amounts of advertisements that teenagers are exposed to on a daily basis. Ads that tell girls everything from how to be the girl that that the guys go for, how to pick out the right purse that conveys the right message about you, how to come out on top when competing with other girls for the attention of a boy, and how to lose weight.

The marketing industry has a major impact on the children within our society today. Children are now a target that is manipulated through psychological based marketing. Several negative impacts are affecting the children now more than ever. Marketing is altering the children's train of thought and perception of life as a whole. Children are changing their views and goals in life towards more materialistic objects and money in general. They are psychologically affected through violent images and lack of social exercise. There are also increased health hazards present because of increase influence over children by marketing, such as obesity.
Psychology is a major contributer that is aiding the marketing industries at influencing negative objects to children. Psychological approaches are being used to induce lack of self confidence, social communication and overall a stable formation of a child's moral view of life.By altering all of these factors are children are growing lacking the basic human sensitivities and future possibilities for forming a positive family oriented environment themselves once they grow up to dominate our world.Important steps must be taken to prevent this control that the marketing industry is quickly grasping. Parents are not the only ones capable of fighting this hold over our children. the government needs to contribute to save the human values of life and preserve the future our children hold withing their grasp.

Over the past fifteen years, the rate of child poverty in this nation has fallen by over six percent, but as a whole our country’s youth have become more anxious, unhappy, and impulsive then ever before. It is no coincidence that in this same period of time, marketing to children has ballooned from a small niche into a billion dollar industry whose focus is exploiting the shortcomings and insecurities of modern day kids so that they will purchase certain products. By immersing children in a world that constantly bombards them from all sides with advertisements, consumer society wreaks havoc on many physical and mental aspects of childhood.
As Susan Linn puts it in Consuming Kids “Children are the darlings of corporate America”(73). After all, children now influence the spending of six hundred billion dollars. With this mentality, the focus of modern advertising is to turn children into brand loyal consumers as early as possible so that they can provide a company with the biggest profit throughout their entire lifetime. Though this method benefits the advertiser, children are often exposed to things that they cannot fully comprehend when they are bombarded with advertisements. According to the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics children younger than 8 are prime targets because, “They do not understand the notion of intent to sell and frequently accept advertising claims at face value.” (2563) This creates problems when kids truly believe that Ronald McDonald has their best interests in mind or do not understand that Crunchberries may not be the ideal breakfast food. Children as young as four are specifically asking their parents for the brands that are advertised to them and parents are buying. This early, and distorted, entrance into consumer society directly affects the physical and mental health of children today.

Advertisements had made it hard for children to decipher between what they want and need. Adults can see advertisements for children toys and products and mostly decipher what is practical and what isn’t, what will improve the child’s well being and what will hinder productive growth. This is what advertisements aren’t geared towards adults buying for their children, but rather children to convince the adults. Parents are more weak to their children’s request or nagging, which is why advertisements get straight to children.

Children are not only in control of their own desires, but have the power to manipulate their parents’ spending as well. Schor explains that the more children shop, the more voice they have in parental purchases” (97). Children are targeted by consumerism at the get-go. From hearing and repeating commercial dingles, to recognizing a picture of a product, to learning to read or memorize catch-phrases, it is no wonder that children play an important role in consumer society. Parents use products as a way to commend their kids for behaving, bribe their kids to do well in school, or just get their child to quit nagging for a product they “must” have. No matter the circumstance, parents begin to buy for children at a young age, making “buy me this” and “get me that” a part of their lifestyles and cultures.

If Mattel’s Barbie were an actual human being, she would be over 7 feet tall, weigh about 110 pounds, and her head would be greater in circumference than her hips. A real life Barbie would be unable to menstruate, and even unable to stand up. While researcher’s and scientists agree that Barbie’s figure is physically unattainable, millions of little girls are brought up with the belief that Barbie’s likeness is something to envy and to aspire to. Starting at a very young age, girls are inundated with incredible images of physically flawless models and told that society values a perfection that only 5 percent of the population has managed to achieve. Advertisers and corporations create insecurities among women to sell perfume, clothing, makeup, weight loss supplements, and countless other consumer goods.

In order to sell products to teenagers, advertisers “do not hesitate to take advantage of the insecurities and anxieties of young people, usually in the guise of offering solutions” (Kilbourne, 156). Advertisers create insecurities and anxieties among adolescent girls, an already vulnerable and confused group. More than anything, girls are taught that being pretty and thin are the most important things to achieve. Teenage girls are bombarded by commercial images of thin, beautiful women and wonder why they do not look like that. Since these images have become widely accepted as the cultural norm, many girls have become unsatisfied and even hateful of their bodies. Because of this, adolescent girls are facing increasing rates of eating disorders, binge drinking, teen pregnancy, and sexual violence.

Remember the days back when you were a child watching your favorite television show and a commercial came on advertising those perfectly glamorous Barbie dolls or those rugged life-sized Tonka Trucks? All you could think of was how much fun that would be to have it, and then how much you wanted it. After the thirty second child-trap finished playing you would run to mom or dad begging you for them to take you out to go get it, even though you have plenty of suitable toys up in your room? It was a success, for the advertisers that is. They successfully just convinced a naïve child that they needed this product to have tons of fun. It really was not that hard; I mean, thirty seconds of film persuading the helpless child that this toy would make life that much better. Advertising to kids is easy, but it is not even slightly ethical. Advertisers purposely set their commercials for appealing items during popular children’s show because they know targeting them is so simple. Even though children help with the money flow of our troubled economy I believe advertising to kids is unethical because kids are so naïve and do not know what is good or bad for them and there are other aged people to advertise to or other moral ways to sell a product.
Watching television is one of the most popular past times for children. It is entertaining for them and some channels are even beneficial to their education. The only bad things about having kids watch it are the commercials that come on during their television show’s break. Advertisers do not have these young kids’ best interest in mind so they do not feel guilty about selling them violent video games or persuading them to go buy delicious sour sugar that will rot their teeth and cause obesity. Personally attacking kids to get their parent’s money is their priority, and they really do not care what effect it has on their youthful minds.

The estimate size of an average woman is a size 12. However most of the advertisements nowadays show images of woman that are size 2. Why are the numbers so far apart? Advertisements are always showing us pictures of young flawless women portraying them as what every women should want to look like. But is this image accurate? Is it possible for women to have flawless skin, a very slim body, and a natural beauty appearance? The truth is that there are rarely any women who have the features introduced in advertisements. Yet, advertisers only portray an image of very skinny, clear skinned, young ladies, leading every female to think that they should look like that as well.
Jean Kilbourne explains this in her essay “The More You Subtract, the More You Add,” saying that “Girls of all ages get the message that they must be flawlessly beautiful and, above all these days, they must be thin” (Kilbourne pg. 158). Yet to be able to look a certain way, you need to work on it. Thus girls then try to loose weight and buy make-up to cover their real image. Some girls try to eat less so that they would be thin, however there are some girls who struggle with maintaining a slim body. Even if they are thinner, they are rarely the size of the models shown on advertisements. Thus, many girls tend to not be happy with their bodies no matter how they try to change it. This is horrible because many girls turn to bulimia and anorexia which are serious health problems, all because of the images portrayed by advertisements.

Advertising, one of the biggest markets in the world, has and always well be in the business of making money, its by definition in its nature. It has gotten so big and generates so much cash flow that it will stop but nothing to seduce and hypnotize anyone who views it. Children especially fall under its seductive power and fold easiest, "Children aged 2 to 14 years now influence purchases of about $500 billion annually"(Linn). But is this a bad thing. Many say that its immoral to target kids in the effort of making money but i think otherwise.
Children may be more enticed by these products then adults but they don't have the buying capability to actually purchase these items. I find it funny to read that children had the influencing power of about 500 billion dollars because that just tells me that their is not something wrong with consumerism but parenting. People don't understand that its not the commercials or the advertising that makes these kids buy these products its the parents that enable this kind of nagging behavior.

Women across the world all have the ideal image of what they call “beautiful”. For generations, women have been the market of profitable accountability where advertisements, commercials, and magazines have created the ideal “look” for women. While this gives an advantage to the marketing world where, “companies spend more than $200 billion a year on advertising, and the average American is [being] exposed to more than 3,000 ads everyday and will spend 3 years of his or her life watching television…. Advertising is our environment.” (155), indeed, over the years the power of advertisement in which the tall, skinny, flawless looking skin has become the absolute norm. Many women despite their various cultures and values, countries all conclude that women in advertisements have become the “perfect role model”. Women today not only suffer from the ideology of trying to look exactly like the models or celebrities across the world, but have also suffered becoming obsessed with how they want to be portrayed in society, constant reminder of looking thin, and how individuality amongst countries being altered because of advertisements.
Today, celebrities and models are being looked upon based on how they either look or dress. Kilbourne remarks that, “Girls tend to feel fine about themselves when they’re 8, 9, 10, but when they reach adolescence, they hit a wall.” (163). Not only is America being constantly smacked with advertisements telling how each woman should look, countries such as Japan, China, Korea, etc. also being heavily impacted due to many Asians wanting to look “Westernized”. Advertisements negatively portrays the “real beauty” of how a modern woman should look today mainly because, “adolescent girls are especially vulnerable to the obsession with thinness…” (159). Many girls try so hard to become the model like figures advertisements portray and leading causes such as depression, anorexia, and bulimia comes from those advertisements as a result. In Asian countries, girls as young as twelve, get delved into the world of plastic/cosmetic surgery mainly that has to do with double eyelids and a higher nose to look like the European models advertisements call “beautiful”. The prevalence of advertisements and magazines that girls read is difficult to ignore, and many girls tend to forget of how the celebrities/models being portrayed are either photo shopped or ascetically produced. The influence of mass media based on ideal image of beauty negatively effects women one way or another that in the end, they lose their individuality because of the pressure and systematic approach advertisements give out.

The expansive empire that is the marketing industry in America is an entirely necessary limb of the American economy, simply as a means to build product awareness. Fundamentally, the industry seeks to appeal any product to any demographic, and because of this fundamental law, because of the industry's need to appeal, advertisements reflect the desires and needs of the people they are trying to appeal to. However, it seems the line between reflection and dictation has grown distorted with the intent of creating an unrealistic desire, only gratified by progression toward an endless ideal. When did advertisement cease to report the ideals of the American people, and begin to dictate them? But ultimately, what does this mean for a people whose ideal form is unobtainable, and a market who plans for those repercussions? To examine this trend, I will look specifically look at the objectification, and enforced superficiality of women in our modern society.
None have felt the strain of an overpowered advertising industry more than modern women. From the start, advertising targeted women as the "spenders" of the house, and as such, advertisements were geared towards a woman's deep-set wants and desires. Ads targeted all that a woman valued and wanted to incorporate in her life. This was never the problem. The problem is that many of the products that were advertised this way, really couldn't be sold in such a way, under the conventional idea that advertisements spoke purely about the value or functionality of the product. Instead what we began to see was the estranged values of beauty, power, sexuality, and love were being pushed upon products totally independent of such values. The fact was that playing to those universal values sold more units, so advertising companies would have to find a way to sell any product under such values. The way this was done was by creating the need for such products.
(very very rough, just trying to get my ideas down)

Advertisements affect everyone, all of the time, whether you are aware of it or not. More specifically, advertisements are aimed to paint women in a particular light. Often times that light is one that depicts women as thin, beautiful, and powerless. Most of what we have been going over in class and reading use examples to show this with paper advertisements but I think looking at a music video sheds a different light on the same issues with advertisement to women.
Music videos promote negative advertisements for women. First of all the women in the music videos are usually gorgeous. This reaffirms to the young girls watching these videos that thin, well-built bodies, and beauty are desired and wanted. The problem with these videos though is that they are promoting women who are objectified. This form of media portrays women as physical objects that can be looked at and acted upon, thus failing to portray women as subjective beings with feelings, experiences, and emotions. When you fail to portray women as subjective beings the women are seen as submissive, powerless beings in the control of men. This relates to a topic on fear of female power. “Real freedom for women would change the very basis of our male-dominated society” (pg 162). Music videos are evidence of this. Take Ludacris’ “Money Maker” for example. In this video women are portrayed as submissive who are objectified by powerful, dominant men who just view these women as sex toys. This sends a message to women that they should accept being dominated by men in a male dominated society and that they should diminish themselves and be less then who they are. In this sense they are being less than themselves by selling themselves in a sense for sex.

Many believe advertisement targeted directly at children is wrong. They believe that children are too young and too easily manipulated. Children, especially younger ones, are incapable of understanding the concept of persuasive intent. They cannot understand that the advertisement’s purpose is to convince people to buy it. But I have no qualms about advertisement targeted directly at children. It is the parent’s responsibility for what their children watch on TV and what their children buy. Living in a modern consumerist society, advertisements are everywhere and unavoidable, so why should we protect our kids from what they eventually would have to deal with? It is much easier for the parent to speak to their children and explain to them what is important and what is unnecessary.

Children in essence have absolutely no buying power by themselves. They are incapable of making a purchase because they have no money. Ultimately, parents are responsible for everything they buy for their children. Just because a child asks for something does not mean the parents are required to buy it for them. The parents are in charge and in control. Parents must learn to regulate and teach their children and to stop blaming society for their lack of parenting. It is important to teach a child restraint when they are young. Teach them that they won’t get everything they want and soon they’ll learn what is truly important in life.

Since children are targets of advertising from such a young age, it is becoming more and more difficult to grow up without being affected by consumerism. Corporations are gradually gaining more control over what children wear, eat and play with. Complex toys and videogames seem more fun and attract more attention, but they require less thought and creativity. Therefore, unstructured play time, which stimulates the imagination, is diminishing. Children are also audiences of ads promoting alcohol or tobacco products, which encourage dangerous life-threatening behaviors from such an early age. How do corporations have such control? Advertising plays on the vulnerability and gullibility of children. Not having a fully developed sense of self, a child is more susceptible to feeling insecure. Although this seems to be the main reason why critics question the ethics behind advertising to children, we mus also consider the values they suggest. When all children see in movies and television shows, let alone commercials, are consumer icons and products, they learn to value materialistic items rather than understand the importance of irreplaceable things, like family. With these values imprinted in them so early on, children would go on to seek happiness through consumerism, and hence, are more likely to be unhappy later on in life.

“Parents aren’t losing control, they’re giving up.” Peter Reynolds, once the CEO of the Wisconsin-based Brio Company, blames parents, rather than advertisers for the consumers their children become. (Linn 93) Yes, parents fund their children’s materialism by purchasing the latest fads they nag for, but as advertisers understand, it is not easy for all parents to say “no 72 times a day for three or four weeks.” Most parents have a weak spot for their children - children who do not know or understand what is best for them but whine and nag for it anyway. Of course, parents can talk to their children and help them process these commercials as promoting unnecessary products for the sake of money. However, even if kids understand the true intent of advertising or you take away their television and magazines, they will still feel pressured to buy certain toys or wear specific clothing to feel accepted by their peers. More influence probably comes from fellow classmates or friends today than ever before. The earliest commercials aimed towards children, for instance, were for cereal or candy, which is typically eaten at home with the family. When kids are bringing their cell phones and iPods to school these days, the pressure to buy is greater and more expensive than ever.

Perfect. What an unnatural human notion: to be entirely without any flaws, defects, or shortcomings. Is there really such a thing in any aspect of our lives? Rather than being taught that this idea is inconceivable and nonexistent, we are led to believe the opposite from an early age, especially about our bodies. American children, young girls in particular, are convinced by the advertising industry that they are not beautiful naturally, but that with enough effort and the right consumer products perfection is just around the corner. Sadly, this desire is unattainable for most and more often than not leads to a self-destructive, unhealthy lifestyle.

Digital retouching and Photoshop are two of the biggest factors to blame for the obsession with thinness. Photograph after photograph of retouched celebrities are shoved in our faces where either their necks have been elongated, their arms have been thinned, or the bags under their eyes lightened, sometimes even without their consent. Nowhere is the reader informed that the images have been tampered with and are not realistic. Not only do girls see these retouched images and think that they need to look a certain way, but boys also see this depiction of women as standard and tangible. Failure to achieve the thin body type is more inevitable now than ever before due to the flawless quality of these pictures.

Many of the youth in our society today are facing increasing difficult obstacles to leading healthy, fulfilling and happy lives. All of these difficulties, such as obesity, over-sexualization and eating disorders, seem to stem from our culture of overconsumption and material focus. Children learn from surroundings and naturally adopt attitudes and habits that they see around them. However, today children’s absorption into the consumer society has greatly accelerated and their involvement in it has deepened.

Children have not naturally evolved in this direction; they have been pushed here by advertisers and their clients. A young underdeveloped brain is no match for teams of fully developed advertisers equipped with studies of children’s psychology. Even with the help of parents, children cannot escape the consumer and brand messages that have completely permeated our society. The effects of this can clearly be seen with children’s rising obsession with material objects and brands. They are increasingly defining themselves by consumer goods, which will not only encourage low self-esteem, but will also set them up for disappointments now and in the future. Children’s infatuation with material items is also particularly sad because it distracts them away from the more natural and carefree childhood activities and experiences, which, besides being crucial for development, are a lot of fun.

Advertising has the ability to show altered images to please the consumers. Throughout the decades, women have become a main source of people who are affected by the altered image. the parallel relationship between women and advertising has allowed us to understand gender and sexual issues. Also, it has given us the ability to understand why women think they should act, dress, and behave a certain way.
Throughout the past one hundred years, women have transformed from people to objects via advertising. also, advertising shows off how a typical women should look, or what is fashionable. for example, Daniel Delise Hill, in "Advertising to the American Women" states, ".. the.glamour queens of Hollywood made short hair look fashionable and modern." Personally, What I see women wear on television, in magazines, or on billboards makes me want to go out and buy that because it looks cool.

Advertisers have an ideal image of beauty that force women to believe that looks mean everything. To be accepted in today’s society, women must keep up with the attitudes of the media about thinness and what constitutes a pretty face. A women’s vulnerability to be persuaded about the definition of beauty is what consumer society uses to be successful. There is no doubt that advertisement affects everyone on a subconscious level, and we are psychologically affected to think whatever they want us to think. This process begins in the early years of adolescence and continues throughout the entirety of a women’s life.
Advertisements affect women the most in the years of adolescence because we are inexperienced consumers and will believe anything they tell us. As girls discover their own self-concept and roles in society, we try to become as socially acceptable as possible through what the media portrays is cool. In Jean Kilbourne’s article “The More You Subtract The More You Add”, she states that “Most teenagers are sensitive to peer pressure and find it difficult to resist or even to question the dominant cultural messages perpetuated and reinforced by the media.” Children today are influenced more by the mass media than their own parents. This compels girls to develop insecurities that can be fixed by products.

One of the main issues regarding women and the image they are supposed to portray is in their looks. Our society has split us into categories with different qualities associated with each of the sexes. Women are supposed to be thin and gentle while men are supposed to be big and strong. The way ads portray food to men and women is vastly different as well. Food and sex, Mans two favorite things. Well at least that is what ads tell us. And ads have so deeply engrained these ideals into our society that they seem to be accepted as truth. And Women, we aren’t supposed to care about food. And if we do then its low calorie yogurt eaten daintily. And children, they are shown junk food/fast food ads like they are going out of style, and “oh my gosh”, the meals come with a toy! While growing up young kids are advertised junk foods and unhealthy, sugary goods, which can lead to obesity. But once they hit a certain age they are somehow supposed to be thin and maintain a “perfect” body through dieting. How are people supposed to deal with these double messages that follow us around our whole lives? First they want us to eat a happy meal and play with their toys, and then they want us to eat a fast food salad while remaining perfectly thin. This is for women of course. Men are allowed to devour their food and to be big, but not fat. This idea of being two different people in one person is the dilemma that advertising creates for women.
How can a young girl know what is right when she is told to be nice, innocent and submissive, but that to attract boys and be powerful she must be sexually active and uncommitted. As Jean Kilbourne says in The More You Subtract the More You Add, “Women have long been divided into virgins and whores. What is new is that girls are now supposed to embody both within themselves." (165). Advertisements constantly play with the notion that “innocence is sexy” with ads portraying older women doing childish things or wearing childish clothing while still looking sexual. These ads are placed in teen magazines whose actual audience includes children as young as ten. Kilbourne makes a statement that advertisers know and use to their advantage, that “Adolescence is a time of doubt and insecurity for most young people, but a particular kind of insecurity afflicts adolescent girls.” (156). This particular insecurity is because young girls are stuck in a place where they are told to be two different kinds of people. Even with nurturing parents it is impossible for young people to escape the effects of advertising. And some kids don't have any strong adult mentors in their lives so to help them interpret these messages. Boys are influenced by ads on how to view girls. Boys want to get in a girls pants, but then if you give in too easily they do not want to date you because you are a "whore" but sometimes when you don't "permit sexual activity" they can lose interest. Because of this it is hard to discover a simple solution to such a deep rooted issue. Ads instill values and judgments within us even if we do say we do not pay attention to the ads and commercials.

Advertising is designed to create artificial needs, and young consumers, especially young females, are among its primary targets. Clever advertisers manage to manipulate their youthful consumers by manipulating their emotional appeals and insecurities, and thus profits are made. Advertising in today's market- driven culture has perpetuated feelings of self- consciousness and inefficiency, especially among the young generation. Advertisers manipulate girl’s emotions by making them believe that there is something wrong with them, and only by purchasing a certain material commodity can such a pertinent ailment be corrected.
"Advertising does promote abusive and abnormal attitudes about eating, drinking, and thinness. It thus provides fertile soil for these obsessions to take root in and creates a climate of denial in which these diseases flourish" (161). The subliminal messages and unrealistic body images found in daily ad campaigns are catered at brainwashing adolescent females. They generate a number of negative images and highlight individual’s flaws. By doing so, young women everywhere are forced in a sense to correct their flaws by purchasing what the advertisers deem necessary.

Marketing to children is an expanding industry that purposely takes advantage of child-like innocence for its own material gain. Its dominant presence in commercials and advertisements makes it inevitable that most kids will be exposed to these messages throughout their childhood. The ongoing efforts of these marketers to promote their products directly to children often interferes with the values that parents try to teach to their offspring. Advertisers encourage bad behavior in kids, such as nagging, that parents must either be ready to combat, or eventually give in to. The efforts of these marketers in aiming at kids promotes the idea of consumerism as a value and a key component to happiness. Parents and marketers are engaged in a never-ending battle for their child's attention, in which only the former opponent has the child's best interests in mind.

When advertisers sell their products to children, they focus on appealing to their vulnerabilities. One example is their use of older kids to represent their product with the intention of selling to younger children that will think that they look "cool." Advertisers are well aware that children cannot grasp the concept of persuasive intent in marketing messages until roughly around the age of eight, and they use this knowledge for their own profit. The intent of marketers is for kids to say, "I need this product. I want this product. I love this product" (Notes From the Underground, 81). They simply want kids to buy their product, no matter what positive or negative connotation the product itself denotes.

As children grow, they are surrounded by gender learning enforced by the media and entertainment industry. This “gender learning” is confined in a forced black and white spectrum: femininity and masculinity. There is no in-betweens, no levels of gray, only pure, “natural” black or white. Children are attacked through their cognitive vulnerability and early development; as they grow, people are gradually bombarded by the media based on self-conscious vulnerabilities. Gender roles have been engrained into the minds of people at an early age and then continued into adulthood through these weak spots, creating a clone of strictly women and men—different sexes with no accepting overlaps. Through the years, the opposite sexes have changed in definition through the media, but still have remained in their opposing sides of black and white.

Susan Bordo, in her article “Hunger as Ideology,” presents a perfect example of the early manipulation of gender roles on the young. In her beginning argument, she writes about “two little French girls…exquisite…flawless and innocent” in a commercial that “affronts with its suggestion that young girls begin early in learning to control their weight” (Bordo, 145). In the commercial, one girl reveals the secret of her mom’s slimness and beauty: FibreThin, a diet pill product. The commercial expresses the young girl’s knowledge—even at her young age—of womanhood secrets and one of the counterparts of beauty in the modern age: thinness. Other little girls are taught, like the little girls in the commercial, that one of the ultimate secrets for every women to k now is thin equals beautiful and that anything otherwise equals unattractive. This is exclusive to the feminine sex; while girls are taught to control their meal portions, little boys learn to have healthy, filling diets. Products like “’Manwich,’ ‘Hungry Man Dinners,’ ‘Manhandlers’” reinforce this large appetite ideal for strong, powerful men. The repetition of “man” in these products produces a sense of sex egotism, of masculinity equaling strength and domination. This is in keen opposition to women products, which demand the need for small, graceful bodies, separating the sexes into obvious roles of bulk and frailty.

One of the most successful marketing industries is the one that advertises to children. This is an industry that can easily be seen as manipulative and conniving because they deliberately force themselves and their products into the lives of the families of the children they are advertising to. They purposely create conflicts between the ways the parents are attempting to raise their children and the products they are selling to take advantage of the "nag factor". There is no doubt that this scheme places parents at a disadvantage in a world where one cannot escape from being advertised to. Billboards, television, school, magazines, the sides of buses, window displays; the pressures of the media are everywhere we look. The fact is that every time we encounter these pressures, we are viewing them through the filter of our knowledge and experience. This especially applies to young children, who are the most influential of us all. So it makes sense that if the filters through which they view the world of advertising are structured in the right way, they would be less susceptible to be manipulated by the industry. This is the thought process through which I conclude that the advertising industry cannot be the only one to blame for the rise in consumerism among children. Parents play a significantly large part in this as well.

Parents and guardians are the ones responsible for raising a child. Their jobs include filling their children with the knowledge and experience they need to protect and steer them in the right direction later in life. Parents are supposed to prepare children for all of the negative and contrasting influences of the world inside and outside of the home. But it is obvious that it is getting more difficult for parents to remain the primary source of influence among their children. The negative influences of the world, such as the pressures created by the media, continue to get smarter and more sophisticated. Therefore, it is necessary for the parent's methods of influencing their children to advance in the same manner. It is as much the advertising industries fault for manipulating children into wanting their products as it is the fault of the parents for not adequately protecting and preparing them for such manipulation

I feel that one of the most prevalent issues in today’s society in terms of the welfare and health of the women population comes from the public’s obsession with thinness. “The tendency to view ones’ body from the outside in- regarding physical attractiveness…and weight as more central to one’s physical identity than health, strength, energy level…” (159). Women are being taught from a very young age that to be able to feel comfortable in society we must be thin. “Men…are likely to view long, slim legs, a flat stomach, and a firm rear end as essentials of female beauty” (147). Just the other day I was walking by a poster with one of my friends that showed a celebrity wearing highwaisted pants and to tell you the truth I was shocked and appalled. Not by the clothing itself, but by the reality that pants this season are becoming more high waisted. For girls like my friend and I who have curvy hips, this look is impossible, no it’s just completely unfeasible, as we will never look attractive (In terms of societal norms) in them. To wear pants that are higher waisted one must be very slim hipped unless you want to look like you have an ass the size of Pluto.
We all can look back in time where women were appreciated and loved by their curves. In the Victorian ages if one was thin, as the body ideal was voluptuous, one was thought unattractive. Just look at Michelangelo sculptures as examples, Venus is a beautiful curvy woman who has sex appeal because of her round thighs, apple shaped breasts, and bubble bottom. One of the most beautiful images of a woman I have ever seen is a famous picture from Woodstock, shot in the daisy days of flower children, where a woman is shown dancing nude. Her wonderfully perfect curvy body is sensual and divine. I do not understand why this abominable allowance for girls to be so insecure of their bodies has become a part of our culture. “Teenage women today are engaging in far riskier health behavior in greater numbers than any prior generation” (Pg 157). This chilling addiction of starvation is damaging to women of all ages, body types, and race. A girl in one article described her hunger as “Black hole that I had to fill up” (pg 149). We need to make a stand and change this obsession with emaciated women. Our society needs more role models for young girls who are in places of power and central in our media that have bodies of the normal woman.

I feel that one of the most prevalent issues in today’s society in terms of the welfare and health of the women population comes from the public’s obsession with thinness. “The tendency to view ones’ body from the outside in- regarding physical attractiveness…and weight as more central to one’s physical identity than health, strength, energy level…” (159). Women are being taught from a very young age that to be able to feel comfortable in society we must be thin. “Men…are likely to view long, slim legs, a flat stomach, and a firm rear end as essentials of female beauty” (147). Just the other day I was walking by a poster with one of my friends that showed a celebrity wearing highwaisted pants and to tell you the truth I was shocked and appalled. Not by the clothing itself, but by the reality that pants this season are becoming more high waisted. For girls like my friend and I who have curvy hips, this look is impossible, no it’s just completely unfeasible, as we will never look attractive (In terms of societal norms) in them. To wear pants that are higher waisted one must be very slim hipped unless you want to look like you have an ass the size of Pluto.

We all can look back in time where women were appreciated and loved by their curves. In the Victorian ages if one was thin, as the body ideal was voluptuous, one was thought unattractive. Just look at Michelangelo sculptures as examples, Venus is a beautiful curvy woman who has sex appeal because of her round thighs, apple shaped breasts, and bubble bottom. One of the most beautiful images of a woman I have ever seen is a famous picture from Woodstock, shot in the daisy days of flower children, where a woman is shown dancing nude. Her wonderfully perfect curvy body is sensual and divine. I do not understand why this abominable allowance for girls to be so insecure of their bodies has become a part of our culture. “Teenage women today are engaging in far riskier health behavior in greater numbers than any prior generation” (Pg 157). This chilling addiction of starvation is damaging to women of all ages, body types, and race. A girl in one article described her hunger as “Black hole that I had to fill up” (pg 149). We need to make a stand and change this obsession with emaciated women. Our society needs more role models for young girls who are in places of power and central in our media that have bodies of the normal woman.

Nearly anyone can tell you, relationships are not easy. There is a reason that as a society we are obsessed with reading about, watching, participating in, and trying to find, a good relationship. To steal some lyrics from a popular song by Jason Derulo, “Everybody's looking for love. Oh. Oh./ Aint that the reason you're at this club. Oh. Oh.” But, modern advertising has sunk its claws into our culture and more and more the potential for healthy, happy relationships slips out of our grasp. In particular, the effect of advertising on female body image has created a culture which worships an unattainable ideal that is harmful both to women, and anyone looking to find success in the terms that are given to the population through advertising.
Women are taught from a very young age that the most important tool necessary for attracting a suitable mate is physical beauty. This is problematic. It becomes even more problematic because as they say, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This indicates, and history shows, that what is considered beautiful is malleable. Technically this could be a good thing. If a natural, average woman became the image of beauty in a society, then we could say this changeability is a a good thing. Unfortunately in the United States the exact opposite has occurred. The standard of beauty has been set to accommodate only a small percentage of women. Furthermore, even that small percent most likely diets, in order to maintain the thin, tall physique that our society prizes. As if that wasn't bad enough for the woman with a more typical body type, these thinner women are often photoshopped when they are present in advertisements—thus their beauty is even more unnatural, even more unattainable.

In today's consumer society it is getting harder and harder for children. The marketing industry has become increasingly powerful in exerting influence over people's lives, especially children. Kids are an easy target for marketers because, unlike adults, children are not very experienced in being able to pick out what is right from what is wrong. Through psychological means advertisers target young minds, manipulating them into wanting certain products, such as toys or junk food. Children grow up with so many controlling images around them that it is hard to monitor all of the things that they take in on a daily basis. Although this makes parenting more difficult, parents still have the ability to teach their children right from wrong so that they make the right decisions.

Growing up in a world where the marketing industry hold so much power has a great influence in a child's life. No matter where they go they are probably very likely to encounter an advertisement of some sort. Watching television is not just about enjoying your favorite shows but it is also about being exposed to new products and things that advertisers want you to buy. When children are young its usually toy or fast food advertisements that catch their eye.

Women are constantly being force-fed the ideal feminine persona through television, movies, magazines, and so on. The advertisement industry has found it to be most profitable to represent as their figure of beauty a very rare women; she is tall, very skinny, usually white, and big breasted. Does she exist in reality? Since we see them in ads we can say that there must be at least a few of them in the world.

But the truth of the matter is that advertising is focused on making an individual want something enough to spend money to get it, not on representing a fair distribution of the population and it is because of this that men are indirectly forced to seek out type of women who few can possess, statistically speaking. Most men will end up being with a woman who does not necessarily fit their idea of their ideal mate because they have repeatedly been exposed to, and told that, the women in the ads in the form they should want. This has the effect of lowering a man's overall satisfaction with his partner and their relationship together.

In today’s society, advertisements constantly surround society in a harmful manner. Companies of the present day society have brainwashed people to believe the lies that they create in order to manipulate their purchasing decisions. Advertisements have created a loss in judgments concerning the consumption of goods. Stemming from childhood, advertising tells individuals what products they should buy as well as which specific brands they should invest in. The biggest problem that exists is when companies target children as their prime consumer. When companies aim their advertising towards children, they ultimately affect the foundations in which our society is formed. The lethal strategies that advertising companies execute towards children fabricates unsound foundations which in turn lead to more problems that extend further throughout society.

At the core of the issue stands the detrimental effect advertising has towards children. Today’s children influence more than $600 billion in spending a year (Linn 73). Youngsters are the prime target for toy, clothing and even food companies. They help purchase and influence for corporate America’s benefit. Children of today have grown up in a materialistic world blinded by the materialistic values that advertising puts forward. Youngsters are constantly taught to develop loyalties towards specific brand names. For example, children would rather have the brand name “Oreo” rather than Trader Joe’s indistinguishable “Joe Joe’s”. Marketers do this hoping to invest in long time relationships with the consumer. These lifetime relationships with individual brands also incorporate unacceptable morals towards minors. Susan Linn, author of Consuming Kids, states that “of equal concern are the sheer volume of advertising to which children are exposed, the values embedded in the marketing messages, and the behaviors that inspire those messages.” These advertisements surround kids constantly. Advertisements follow children to school, while they are enjoying themselves shopping with their parents, and even at home on television and in magazines. As these ads constantly surround them, at the same time they imply other detrimental aspects of violence, sexuality, poor eating habits, and unattainable fantasies.

Advertising today is an unavoidable part of our daily routine. Even without watching TV advertisements creep in through billboards, vehicles, newspapers, the internet, among other inconspicuous places. Americans are exposed to an astounding 3,000 advertisements per day(find citation. Advertisement is the main vehicle for companies to spread consumerism to anyone and everyone. From an early age children grow up knowing only a world filled by commercials for an endless amount of products. Advertisers attempt to lead us to believe, that commercials are harmless pieces of media that hold little sway over its targets. However, if this were true advertisers would not spend $15 billion annually for marketing alone (Linn, 73 (2005)). The most dangerous aspect of advertising is when it exploits our emotions, instills confusing messages with product based solutions, or targets those incapable of rationalizing the value or consequences of consuming a product. Advertisers are largely un-regulated, and they unfairly solicit their products to children, and take advantage of woman by creating an unattainable image of perfection.
In the United States, advertising to children is unregulated. This means there is no minimum age to target a product towards, and advertisements may air at any time. U.S. policy decisions reflect that television is not intended for education purposes, but solely for entertainment, and must therefore be ran as a sustainable business with advertisement based profits. There was one point however when restrictions were in existence for advertising to children in the United states. In the 1790s the Federal Trade Commission held the power to regulate deceptive or unfair advertising, and the ability to limit on the number of advertising minutes per hour (Levien and Linn 107). However, after a backlash from corporations in the 1980s, congress deregulated advertisement, and the market of advertising to children began its rapid growth into the force in is today. Non-regulated advertisements are not the norm across the world. In Sweden, Norway, and Quebec, television advertising to children below the respective ages of 12 and 13 is banned (Levin and Linn 106). Is the United States correct in maintain the policy that advertising to children should be largely unregulated?

What is beauty? Let me tell you what advertisers define beauty as. They tell us that to be beautiful you must be tall, skinny, tan, and maintain perfect flawless skin. Today women do everything they possibly can to achieve this look. They turn to plastic surgery, tanning beds, liposuction. If you have a flaw do not worry it can be fixed. This is what advertisers want you to believe. Advertising to women must be their favorite thing because they are so gullible. If women hear about a cream that makes their legs look longer they would believe it, and then rush to the store and buy it. Not only is this a problem for women but an even bigger problem for young teenage girls.
Teenage girls are a huge target when it comes to advertisements. In Jean Kilbourne’s article The More You Subtract the More You Add, she says “As most of us know so well by now, when a girl enters adolescence, she faces a series of losses-loss of self confidence, loss of a sense of efficacy and ambition, and the loss of her ‘voice,’ the sense of being a unique and powerful self that she had in childhood.” Once girls hit a certain age they feel like everyone is judging them. This is caused by advertisers and the image they put out as what young teenage girls are supposed to look like. Juliet B Schor says, “Even cosmetic surgery has begun to reach down into childhood…the year between elementary and middle school is becoming a popular time for aesthetic enhancements for eyes, lips, chins, and ears.” It is insane how far girls and women go just to achieve this image advertisers want us to believe represents beauty.

The ideal image of a woman is hard to keep up with nowadays. Magazines, models, television, and even the Internet have advertisements that portrays certain images that women now must abide by. To gain acceptance women tend to purchase things in order to create the perfect image, but only because of advertisers influences. The technological age that we live in welcomes younger women to use these things which means they now see these advertisements and feel as if they need to have exactly what they have. These young women feel ashamed at a young age and causing them to grow up and be insecure young women. These advertisers have hidden messages that appeal to women and not only change their views on products by wanting to be like the models; but they cause the woman body to become an object rather than a living person.
Advertisers have sky-high limits on what they can show to the world. But why is it necessary to show women as being sexual perfect human beings. Men are rarely found posing in sexual positions to sell a t-shirt, or shoes, handbags, cars, or even cheeseburgers. Why do women conform to these advertisements? Advertisers have become professionals in influencing women to consume goods with the appeal of the model, and the surroundings in the advertisement. Advertisers start targeting young girls to want what are in the magazines, and making them want to be sexy yet innocent. There are hidden subliminal messages that are sent to give power to the man, which causes violence in the woman. Women tend to have psychological problems, and get involved with eating disorders, and plastic surgery to be picture perfect. The mass media is effecting women very negatively and causing problems for those in the future.

Neon lights and the digging of bells surround me. The continuous clinking of coins in exchange for dollar bills tickles my ears. Contestants scurry down the isles of gambling machines, carrying their coins in cups, eager to try their luck and win big. I hear a wailing siren as one of the lucky toddlers yells, smiling from ear to ear, “Mommy, I won the jackpot!”
No, I'm not at the Golden Nugget casino. I’m at Chuckie Cheese. Everything about it is the same as a modern day casino; however, rather than the musty odor of cigarettes, I smell processed pizza and dirty diapers. And rather than seeing the old lady who spends hours dropping quarters into the slot machine, I see children glued to and mesmerized by the money-sucking contraptions. The American “consumer” society targeted at children is slowly but surely materializing its victims, ridding them of their creativity and innocence.

A trend that has currently captured western media is an obsession with thinness that goes beyond not being fat. Advertisers in particular are utilizing a very small percentage of the population to represent everyone as a whole, which coupled with the fact that, "each individual is exposed to over 3000 advertisements per day" (class 5/5) can lead to nation-wide problems. Women are subjected to even harsher criticisms in general than men are, particularly with regards to body image. From a young age women are bred to believe that looks are the most important part of a woman. Unfortunately, because the ideal body image that all women are exposed to is a body-type that only five percent of all people have, most women are striving to look a certain shape that is literally physically unattainable.
There are many negative effects of this societal idealism that permeates our media, but some of the most detrimental are the psychological side-effects. Teenagers, girls especially, go through traumas due to these social constructs of what men and women should look like, and how they should act.

Is beauty looking like the model on the cover of a Victoria’s Secret catalogue or a starved girl walking down a Paris runway? In today’s society, women have different ideas of what it means to be beautiful, but many are influenced by images marketers advertise as beauty. These ads are showing the “average” woman has flawless skin and a tall, slender body. This image is unrealistic since less than 5% of the women’s population actually look like the models in advertisements. Even then, those women look that way based on genetics and all other women could never have that body type unless they wanted to lead a very unhealthy lifestyle. So why do advertisers use such thin women to sell products? As Kilbourne mentioned in her article, “The More you Subtract, the More you Add”, in a world where the average American sees more than 3,000 ads per day and companies spend over $200 billion dollars a year on advertising, we are “powerfully influenced, mostly on an unconscious level” by the people we see portrayed in those ads (155). Because of this, it is understandable why so many women strive to look like the skinny women in fashion magazines and try to achieve those looks by buying the products advertised.

Since a great number of women today will go as far as it takes to look beautiful, that is, beautiful by advertising standards, they have started to lead very unhealthy lifestyles. This is a very serious issue and it does not help that advertising “urges girls to adopt a false self, to bury alive their real selves, to become feminine, which means to be nice and kind and sweet, to compete with other girls for the attention of buys and to value romantic relationships with boys above all else” (Kilbourne 157). It is a scary thought to think advertising is a main contributor to why so many girls are pressured into looking and acting a certain way, especially when they already feel the pressure from peers. When a girl reaches her pre-teens, she loses her self-esteem and starts to question her body and compares it to others around her. This doubt leads to many problems like eating disorders, teen pregnancy, alcohol and drug abuse, and dating violence. The desire to look beautiful can be so overwhelming that it alters how women view themselves, both internally and externally, and advertising only exacerbates this issue.

Advertising not only promotes product but it also promotes popular culture. Advertising sets standards and made us feel we have to live up to it. If we don’t live up to those standards we are view as outcasts and make us feel uncomfortable in our own skin. Women are easily prone to the trickery of advertising. Advertising industry set standards that are so outrageous and unattainable to most women to trick them by implying that their products would magically transform an ordinary woman into a super model. Ads not only sell products but also sell popularity, values, images, and concepts of success of worth. Advertising industry has been exploiting women insecurities since the early 20th century.
The first successful advertising to woman was made in the 1928 to persuade women to pick up a cigarette and start smoking. The Tobacco Company was losing half of it market, to reach the women market they asked Edward Bernays to come up with a scheme.

Advertising is a leading force in shaping our society. Through advertising corporations show us a fantasy and convince us that we can make this fantasy a reality through buying their product. The advertisement industries most easily manipulated target is younger women. According to a quote in the hill article, “the formula that the industry has counted on for many years_ aggravating woman's low self-esteem and high anxiety about a 'feminine' appearance- has always served them well(128)”. It appears women in their youth become obsessed with their appearance and the advertisement companies skillfully manipulate this situation and turn it into profit for their company.
Selfishly, the advertisement companies are so concerned about promoting their product they are not concerned with their targeted populations will. Advertisements belittle women and prevent them from gaining power and control. In most dieting ads they promote women to become unnecessarily skinny. Advertising and promoting the skinny model body type has caused many health complications in women such as anorexia. Kilbourne expresses, “these images certainly contribute to the body-hatred so many young women feel and to some of the resulting eating problems, which range from bulimia to compulsive overeating to simply being obsessed.”(257) It is not necessary for women to be forced by advertising to want to become this skinny but it allows for companies to have control over women and control on what they consume.

I can agree with the opinion that advertisers could incorporate a more ethical way to advertise certain products meant for kids. Since there are so many types of advertising, it is hard to generalize all advertisers as unethical or ethical because some companies’ principles seem to be very immoral while other companies’ products are truly helpful and beneficial to the child consumer.

Advertising tactics in general will always be debatable, just like all the other aspects in life that have no wrong or right answer. Advertisements have had a huge, positive impact on the economy and led to many improvements in people’s everyday lives.
One major problem with many advertisements seen in our modern society is that wealth is exemplified by only money, giving kids the picture that if you don't have a lot of money to buy all these different products then you will not be considered successful in life. It is very difficult to change the mind sets of the new generations however, advertisers could help with this materialistic change by rethinking their methods and using their morals rather than focusing only on profit. The cost outweighs the benefit when it comes to advertising to children and I believe that is what advertisers need to be reminded of in order to make any positive change in our society.

Advertising affects our lives in so many ways, and I feel like I’ve barely begun to recognize the magnitude of its influence. Advertising has reinforced and even created some of the public’s opinion about social conduct and view on the “model” American citizen. They influence our relationships with our families, or the relationships we believe we should have with our families. For example, the idea of the brother and the sister’s relationship, with one is the annoying troublemaker. This created an idea in my family that siblings are supposed to fight and be annoying. I remember one advertisement from a Disney commercial stating “Brothers…can’t live with them, can’t live without them.” As true as this statement maybe for some people, I personally felt like I had to be annoyed with my younger siblings and that their “job” was to make my life a living nightmare. This isn’t the way things have to be or should be, but the media seems to make it out like this is the typical life of a normal family. My parents really didn’t benefit from that idea either and they had their hand full with five squabbling kids. Advertising and the media have an impact on what we view as normal in society. Many people want to be normal, so the base their lives off what they learn from the media as well. One of the most important relationships that the media has influenced as well is the American’s relationship with food. Food is very important in all human cultures and is important to each individual as well. What we eat, how we eat it, and why we eat what we do are just a few of the important questions for understanding our relationship with food. What we eat corresponds to our physical well-being; how we eat it is affected by our social implications and why we eat the food can, in America, is mostly due to emotional reasons. Perhaps this reasoning may be different for each person, but for me, this is how I classified them. And advertising has affected our views on each section of this relationship.
Many of the eating disorders that afflict American woman have come from the negative feelings they feel about their own body type as compared to the “model” idea of how woman should look and also because of their unhealthy relationship with food. Both of these issues have been heavily influenced by the media and public opinion, specifically advertising. Advertising itself was used to portray something that the observer “wanted” and could have if they spent the money. But the advertisers also focus on why people should want something. Many advertising companies use the methods of anthropologist and psychologist when creating ideas on how to target groups of people (sources). My doing this, they are tapping in to the psyche of the individual, altering ideas they have about what is “ideal” in this society to achieve what they want. For example, people want to be attractive to the opposite sex (or same sex). To do this, most people know from pop culture that you have to have certain qualities, such as physical features and personality types that would be best for this. Advertising reinforces and even create some of these ideas in the public.

Advertising, it seems, is the scapegoat of the twenty first century. Whenever there is something wrong, its advertising’s fault, whether its obesity, anorexia, undisciplined children or racial and class tension. And the main thing that’s pinned on the advertising community is the responsibility of looking after and nurturing children. It has somehow become McDonald’s job, not the parent’s job, to cuckold children into their adult years with educational and supportive messages. When Coke suddenly tries to actually sell products to children, the company is suddenly totally evil. I’m here to say that it is the responsibility of parents to watch over their children and make sure they are taught good values, not corporations.
Children are extremely vulnerable to manipulation of all kinds. They believe what they hear and see almost always, and have little understanding of consequences or when someone is trying to manipulate them. It makes sense that they would be targeted in many different ways, for many different reasons. Advertising for companies is one of the ways in which children are targeted. But there are many others. Political groups target children by telling them certain candidates will help their family members etc. Sexual predators target and manipulate children routinely. Religious institutions recruit as young as they can. There are so many dangers out there for young children, and it is the parent’s responsibility to protect them, and teach them how to deal with manipulation on their own.

The media affects children’s physical development. When violence in movies and television shows are shown, it is usually an important or exciting event in the plot, which therefore teaches children that violence is exciting and entertaining rather than harmful and dangerous. Diane E. Levin and Susan Linn, authors of The Commercialization of Childhood: Understanding the Problem and Finding Solutions, agree that children “are easily seduced into paying attention to the dramatic images and actions that violence on the screen provides… they also have a hard time sorting out fantasy from reality” (113). The struggle between fantasy and reality is tormenting and altering the developing minds of young children. Levin and Linn add, “violence is a learned behavior, and aggressive behavior at age 8 is predictive of levels of aggression in adulthood… violence children see in the media is harming them and contributing to the high levels of youth violence in society” (113). This violence has a potential of reaching many children across the globe and can eventually turn our nation into a harmful environment.
The messages in the media about violence also conflicts with the messages parents are giving their kids. Parents are supposed to teach children that hitting, punching and any other violent acts on another person are wrong. Therefore, it is contradicting in a young person’s mind to watch such dramatic fighting scenes on the television screen, be handed army toys and listen to their parents saying fighting is bad. Levin and Linn explain that “the powerful messages from the salient images of an advertisement can be more compelling than parents’ arguments against either the tactics of the ad or the nature of the product, potentially undermining parental authority and increasing stress on parent-child relationships” (110). Levin and Linn are explaining that the draw of advertisements and television lure children into being more clued into its message than that of a parent. It is more fun to watch the good guy on the screen winning battles and killing people than it is to listen to your parent explain why it is not okay to physically hurt other people. Advertisers have simultaneously intrigued a young audience and began manipulating children into believing violence can be something positive in the world. This is a problem because although it is fun for the children to watch the action packed films, they are being raised as fighters when physical fighting is not the way to solve issues. In future endeavors, these children will have a hard time interacting with their peers and compromising on issues whether in the work place or between friends.

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