Media blues

Media Blues

Advertisements work so well precisely because so few people understand how they work. By reducing a complex argument to a single unit (a catchphrase or a jingle), ads make it difficult to not accept their message. While a well-constructed argument can be broken into sections and analyzed, a slogan is impossible to argue with.

Even more important, labels are difficult to fight. Nobody wants to be associated with a label that has negative overtones, therefore, a person may distance themselves from views or actions that seem to be associated with those negative labels. Even negative labels of a similar sound can affect the perception of a particular label.

As an example, let's take that familiar label 'feminist.' Most college-level females of my acquaintance say that they are not feminists when their actions and beliefs suggest that they in fact are. When the actual beliefs of feminism are explained to them, many of them are surprised to find how far that creed is from the perception of feminists as man-hating matriarchs who want an overthrow of society.

How did 'feminism' become a dirty word? Partly it is because of the perception that feminism has done its job� a perception fueled by popular magazines such as Time declaring that 'feminism is dead.' (Incidentally, though many of the goals of feminism have been met, there's reason to believe it is not dead� especially when the problems of thousands of teenage girls still go largely unnoticed. But that's the subject of another paper.) Partly it is the 'reverse discrimination' argument, and partly it is because the problems of thousands of women who are trying to juggle work and traditional responsibilities are reduced to the question "Well, what do women want, anyway?" (I can give you my opinion, but which 'women' are you talking about?)

And, of course, the other labels appended to the feminist movement, such as 'bra-burners' and my particular favorite, 'femi-nazi', affect the popular perception of that movement. Nobody wants to be accused of being radical.

"The meteoric speed with which values are made and changed by television is unprecedented in history, reaching all social levels and all geographic corners." (1)

American media have been called 'the biggest propaganda machine in history.' Most Americans find their lives saturated by continual messages, 24-7, telling them to do this or be that. The radio or the television must always be on, and air is free� except that the 'free' air is paid for by advertisements, messages that become more and more refined as time goes by. Foreigners are sometimes surprised by how Americans cannot seem to allow silence into their lives.

What is more frightening than that is the fact that these Americans, 'consumers' in advertising speech, do not have even the basic mental tools to deal with this inundation of messages. Simple analysis of an advertisement will tell you exactly how the sale is made and can expose some of the flawed premises, but there are very few classes that deal with how to analyze a message� and many of those are advertising classes!

"Cultural images are all the more powerful because they are not arbitrary inventions of the media. They reflect the changing times they emerge out of. Fashion designers and ad agencies and program developers invest a great deal of money in sniffing out cultural currents, in figuring out what will appeal to people of various groups. The images that they come up with don't just imprint themselves on us as though we were blank slates ready to be manipulated. No, these images are created to feed into powerful feelings that already exist. Insecurities. Fears. And Fantasies." (2)

The movement towards thinness as the ultimate ideal has a great deal of momentum. The idea that 'thin is in' has been around for at least thirty years in its current incarnation� or at least a decade longer than many of the teenagers suffering from eating disorders today. It has been around long enough for those girls' mothers to be affected, and many mothers and daughters share their diets.

Most advertisers don't deliberately perpetuate an unhealthy lifestyle. They work off the principle of what works. What works, unfortunately, gets more and more extreme as time goes by because Americans are exposed to so many commercials that it is harder to get their attention. So the models must be more and more beautiful (read thinner) just to sell the product.

In the end, only the thinnest are shown, presenting the rest with an impossible task: look like them, or be considered fat.

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(1)Hutchinson, Marcia Germaine. "Imagining Ourselves Whole: A Feminist Approach to Treating Body Image Disorders." Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders. Fallon, Patricia, et al., eds. (New York: The Guilford Press, 1994) p. 154.

(2)Bordo, Susan. Love, Lies, and Fantasy: a Cultural Analysis.

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	Advertisements work so well precisely because so few people understand how they work. By reducing a complex argument to a single unit (a catchphrase or a jingle), ads make it difficult to not accept their message. While a well-constructed argument can be broken into sections and analyzed, a slogan is impossible to argue with. Even more important, labels are difficult to fight. Nobody wants to be associated with a label that has negative overtones, therefore, a person may distance themselves from views or actions that seem to be associated with those negative labels. Even negative labels of a similar sound can affect the perception of a particular label. As an example, let's take that familiar label 'feminist.' Most college-level females of my acquaintance say that they are not feminists when their actions and beliefs suggest that they in fact are. When the actual beliefs of feminism are explained to them, many of them are surprised to find how far that creed is from the perception of feminists as man-hating matriarchs who want an overthrow of society. How did 'feminism' become a dirty word? Partly it is because of the perception that feminism has done its job� a perception fueled by popular magazines such as Time declaring that 'feminism is dead.' (Incidentally, though many of the goals of feminism have been met, there's reason to believe it is not dead� especially when the problems of thousands of teenage girls still go largely unnoticed. But that's the subject of another paper.) Partly it is the 'reverse discrimination' argument, and partly it is because the problems of thousands of women who are trying to juggle work and traditional responsibilities are reduced to the question "Well, what do women want, anyway?" (I can give you my opinion, but which 'women' are you talking about?) And, of course, the other labels appended to the feminist movement, such as 'bra-burners' and my particular favorite, 'femi-nazi', affect the popular perception of that movement. Nobody wants to be accused of being radical.
"The meteoric speed with which values are made and changed by television is unprecedented in history, reaching all social levels and all geographic corners." (1)	American media have been called 'the biggest propaganda machine in history.' Most Americans find their lives saturated by continual messages, 24-7, telling them to do this or be that. The radio or the television must always be on, and air is free� except that the 'free' air is paid for by advertisements, messages that become more and more refined as time goes by. Foreigners are sometimes surprised by how Americans cannot seem to allow silence into their lives. What is more frightening than that is the fact that these Americans, 'consumers' in advertising speech, do not have even the basic mental tools to deal with this inundation of messages. Simple analysis of an advertisement will tell you exactly how the sale is made and can expose some of the flawed premises, but there are very few classes that deal with how to analyze a message� and many of those are advertising classes!
"Cultural images are all the more powerful because they are not arbitrary inventions of the media. They reflect the changing times they emerge out of. Fashion designers and ad agencies and program developers invest a great deal of money in sniffing out cultural currents, in figuring out what will appeal to people of various groups. The images that they come up with don't just imprint themselves on us as though we were blank slates ready to be manipulated. No, these images are created to feed into powerful feelings that already exist. Insecurities. Fears. And Fantasies." (2)	The movement towards thinness as the ultimate ideal has a great deal of momentum. The idea that 'thin is in' has been around for at least thirty years in its current incarnation� or at least a decade longer than many of the teenagers suffering from eating disorders today. It has been around long enough for those girls' mothers to be affected, and many mothers and daughters share their diets. Most advertisers don't deliberately perpetuate an unhealthy lifestyle. They work off the principle of what works. What works, unfortunately, gets more and more extreme as time goes by because Americans are exposed to so many commercials that it is harder to get their attention. So the models must be more and more beautiful (read thinner) just to sell the product. In the end, only the thinnest are shown, presenting the rest with an impossible task: look like them, or be considered fat.