The world we live in today has advertisements everywhere from Facebook to the outside of a bus driving by. Young women in particular can be very impressionable, and insecure. As young girls become women, advertisements that are aimed at their insecurities, such as the way you look, the clothes you wear and even the way you smell. The advertisements that are specifically aimed at women want them to feel insecure about themselves so they will purchase the makeup, shampoo, lotions etc. that the companies are trying to sell in order to make the customer feel good about themselves. The problem is that the product will not make them feel better about themselves because self-confidence comes from within. The women being portrayed on the advertisements have been airbrushed and are not a realistic portrait of the average woman in America. The problem with most ads today is that they are brain washing people into thinking they need to look a certain way and act a certain way.

A good example of an advertisement portraying an unrealistic body image of women is Victoria’s Secret: “The perfect Body.” It shows 10 different supermodels wearing their collection of bras and panties, they are of different ethnicity but the same in body figure. They say that these undergarments will be a perfect fit, perfect comfort and perfectly soft. As well as “giving you the perfect body.” What they want you to think is that once you “explore their collection, “and wear their product, you too will have the perfect body just like these Victoria’s Secret models. By looking at these women it can be assumed that they are a size zero to a size two, and according to WebMD the average size for a woman is a size twelve/ fourteen. So by Victoria secret advertising the perfect body, the consumer women and men, will think who ever wears this collection that they or the person they bought it for will have the perfect body.  Unfortunately many women suffer from self-esteem issues and the pressure society has put on them to look a certain way.

This advertisement by Aussie Bodies is portraying that by eating their low carbohydrate protein bar you are going to have better self-esteem, be skinny just like the model, and be happy on a beautiful beach. They show a petit woman at the beach in a bikini who is smiling and or laughing and having a good time. They have in big words “SELF ESTEEM” and then” powered by protein” then the picture of the protein bar. The picture of the protein bar has low carb and it has only so many carbs and it’s the chocolate one which screams eat me I am tasty because who doesn’t like chocolate.   They are portraying that you will have more self-esteem and look like a happy petit model after you eat their protein bar, and by being skinny and beautiful you will be happy. This company knows that so many women struggle with self-esteem and weight  problems and they are trying to use their weakness by saying they will help them to have better self-esteem with their protein bar by making them skinny. The problem with the ad is that they don’t tell you that you need to have a well-balanced diet with the protein bar to be successful in the weight loss and being happy. So many people including women suffer from the pressure society has put on people to worry about the way they look, act and feel. The sad fact is that the average weight and health of the average American is not what they are portraying in the ads. When we look at ads all the time we can’t stop to think what we look like and is it acceptable or close to those people in the ads.

In this Olay Definity eye illuminator advertisement they show an older model Lesley Lawson, who looks flawless and beautiful with her young looking skin. The writing on her picture says “Olay is my secret to brighter-looking eyes.”  There is also a slogan of “Because Younger looking eyes never go out of fashion,” beside her picture. This ad is saying that if you have wrinkles around your eyes you are not young and fruitful looking. The ad is telling you that with wrinkly eyes you are out of fashion and yesterday’s news. You need to buy this Olay Definity eye illuminator, and you will look young and in style. Olay is saying that your eyes will look flawless just like Lesley Lawson’s (In this picture) if you use their product. By saying “Because younger looking eyes never go out of fashion,” they are implying that older looking eyes are out of fashion and undesired by the people of today. This can cause women to look in the mirror and pick apart their imperfections, which makes them feel bad about themselves because they do not look like the flawless model in the ad. The issue with what Olay is trying to portray in this ad is that women that are of older age need to look younger to feel better about the way they look. That in turn starts the vicious cycle of pointing out ones imperfections and trying to find that miracle cure to fix what society and ads consider to be less than flawless. The thing is, people are not perfect, including the models in the ads and we just need to except the way people are and who they are.

The message in all of these advertisements is that people are not perfect but we have a way to make you perfect. The products they are trying to sell to help women achieve that perfect look or body are actually lies and miss direction of what is true happiness. The way society is going we are all going to have to starve ourselves and where a gallon and a half of make up to be considered attractive. Most people put a lot of judgment in appearance and make decisions on those judgements and the old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” comes to mind. However, these advertisers want only one thing, and that is to make money, even if it means making average women feel inferior to airbrushed, flawless looking supermodels in ads that are full of empty promises. As people get older they age, so does their skin, and that is okay! It’s as if they are constantly telling you that it is not okay to look older, or be bigger than the models. It’s almost as if they don’t want you to realize that it’s okay to grow old and not look like you just walked out of a model shoot. They are bombarding women and men with ads trying to sell something to make the consumer think they are making a good choice by buying their product. The problem with society today is that we have become a people of speediness. We want results on the spot and we want things fixed right now. If we all just took the time to educate ourselves on a healthy diet and living then I personally think we would have no need for these products or mind washing ads.  

Working in groups to analyze and then present our findings to the class has helped me out by opening my eyes to what types of procedures I should follow to help me organize three different commercials to work together. I also have a better idea of how to attack this paper and present my commercials with enough detail that I will let the readers know what I am talking about. Having three other minds helping me dissect this one commercial has given me four points of view that I can now use to help me in my third paper. When we had to present it also taught me about the presentation and organization I will need to be successful in my third paper. When I watched my fellow class mates present their commercials and analysis of it I found myself learning more about the organization of it all for this paper I am working on. The presentations also helped me in trying to make a decision on what type of commercial rather than what the commercial is trying to sell. What I mean is what the commercial is conveying, manliness, and sexiness, what women really want that kind of stuff rather than if the commercial is selling the same type of product.