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| The Beautiful People | |||||
| Television is one of the most powerful media tools that advertisers use to sell their products. Viewers are bombarded with at least fifteen minutes of advertisement commercials for every hour of television they watch. There are commercials that advertise everything from candy bars to household products to automobiles. Several manufacturers have long histories of memorable and influential commercials. Pepsi, Cover Girl and The Gap are three prime examples of companies that use sex appeal in their commercials to sell their products. These commercials are often targeted at teenagers and young adults. | |||||
| For many years, Pepsi has been running commercials featuring famous celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Michael J. Fox, Lionel Ritchie, Gloria Estefan, Faith Hill, Cindy Crawford. The more recent commercials, such as those featuring Brittany Spears, Shakira and Beyonce Knowles have been driven by sex appeal. Impressionable adolescent females want to drink Pepsi to be like them and young males want to drink it because the sexy singers say it is good. The target marketing here is no secret, everyone knows Pepsi is the youthful drink, the drink of the new generation. Would so many teenagers be drinking it if Sean Connery was advertising it? Advertisers know if they get the youth to like it, then adults will most likely buy it for their children which will get the parents to drink it as well. | |||||
| Cover Girl is one of the leading cosmetic companies. Most American women who use make up have, at one time or another, used a Cover Girl product. Their commercials feature models and celebrities such as Faith Hill, Monica, Brandy, Nikki Taylor, Sarah Thomas, and Tyra Banks. Cover Girl puts them on television and basically says, "If you use our products, you can look like these women." Unfortunately, unless a plastic surgeon comes with the product, there is no way the consumer is going to look like the celebrities just because they use the products. These celebrities are being used by Cover Girl to seduce teenagers and young women into buying their products with promises of beauty and sensuality, something no cosmetic product can provide. | |||||
| The Gap is another company that is misleading our youth.The Gap is a very popular clothing store chain that has been running television commercials for several years. They have featured celebrities such as Madonna, Christina Ricci, Angelica Huston, and Missy Elliot. They fit these women with tight, low-rise jeans and revealing shirts. Again, the message is sent out that if you wear their clothing you will be popular, fashionable and attractive. These commercials are largely targeted at adolescents and young adults. Although the commercials are targeted at a specific age group, they do not seem to be targeting a specific ethnicity or race. | |||||
| Although many of the commercials on television these days are targeted at youthful generation, I do not detect any outstanding efforts to further divide our society. It may be that the companies I researched benefit from marketing their products to anyone with enough money to buy them. I am certain that some companies do follow the "divide and conquer" mentality, but Pepsi, Cover Girl, and The Gap just seem to want to get people to buy their products. They know that by using sex appeal and beautiful women they are likely to gain the business of insecure adolescents who naively believe they will be as beautiful as the celebrities in the commercials if they use the products. Is it sad that these companies are preying on the insecurities of adolescents? Of course, but we all know it is also effective. Those greedy executives sitting in their offices are worried about the money not about the thousands of adolescents who?s insecurities they generate that money from. | |||||
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