The current emphasis on excessive thinness for women is one of the clearest examples of advertisings power to influence us. Both culturally and individually. Now I’m certainly not saying that advertising is solely to be blamed for all of these. These stereotypes exist in every aspects of our lifes but there’s no aspect more pervasive or more persuasive than advertising. Research indicates that self esteem of girls in America plummets when they reach adolescence. This doesn’t happen to boys but it does to girls. Girls tend to feel fine about themselves when they are 8, 9, 10yo. But they reach adolescence and they hit a wall. And at least part of that wall seems to be this relentless emphasis on physical perfection that starts so early for girls.

You cannot diet yourself to achieve the “acceptable” body type. Ladies Home Journal Issue: What are being sold here are the readers of the ladies Home Journal who are made to feel anxious about their weight and they are being sold to the diet industry. Obsession with thinness is used not only to sell diet products but also cigarettes. Educating that they should smoke instead of eat -> a way to avoid gain weight.
Business of getting children addicted to nicotine to replace thousands of people who died.

Images in advertising affect the reality of our lives. There is a tremendous amount of contempt for women who don’t measure up to the advertisers’ ideal of beauty. This is particularly true for women who are overweight. Media images of female beauty influence everyone. They influence how women feel about themselves, and they influence how men feel about the actual women in their lives. Changes in advertising will depend on an aware, active, educated public that thinks of itself primarily as citizens rather than as consumers.