Ads and Culture

For those of you who think that this is a harmless Victoria Secret's ad, you would be wrong! In fact, it is because of images like this one, that entire culture has been  negatively impacted. 

For the past several years the Fijian culture has been greatly influenced by western media.  I came across an article from Harvard News that discussed how in the Fijian culture, food is a sign of wealth and the larger you are (man or woman) the more you are respected in their culture. However, due to the consumption of Western TV shows and other media, the younger generations of women are altering their appearances to form to the women they see in their TV shows.  According to the article, "In 1995, without television, the girls in Fiji appeared to be free of eating disorders common in the West.  But by 1998, after just  a few years of sexy sop operas and seductive commercials, 11.3% of adolescent girls reported they at least once had purged to lose weight,"(Ireland, 2009).

I want you to be aware of the tricks advertisers use to make these ads attractive to viewers.  I want you to see these gorgeous women with their perfect bodies and perfect hair and be able to say to your self "THIS ISN'T REAL!" Yes these women are on the slimmer side in real life, but thanks to air brushing they can become breathtaking super models.  It is important to know that these size 2-0 women are apart of the very small population of women around the world and that the images you see in magazines and on TV do not accurately represent women areound the world.  This image does not define beauty, you define beauty!