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Essay of Analysis

In the video Killing Us Softly creator Jean Kilbourne focuses on how women are portrayed in advertising, with a special focus on tobacco and alcohol advertisements. She doesn’t only limit herself to women she does include men in her lecture as well. Kilbourne makes a lot of hypothesis throughout the movie including how advertising to children is becoming sexualized, advertising and addiction to alcohol and tobacco, and advertising and obesity. She backs up all her hypothesis with visual images and researched data she is done. Throughout her videos/lectures she puts up a lot of examples of real images that are in the media today. These images really help to solidify her points. Therefore, I think actually showing visuals to back up her statistics would be important. Hearing statistics is great but seeing them and seeing proof could only be beneficial. For example, she makes a hypothesis about children become sexualized and although there is no argument that this is portrayed in the ad I think it would be important to do a case study to see if these ads have an influence throughout the kids lives.

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My Reflections

            After looking through my media journal I chose to write about some themes I have noticed throughout the videos we have watched. A reoccurring aspect from the videos is that advertising has a lot of negative connotations associated with it and we, as consumers tend to be oblivious as to what advertising is doing to us.

            In the pharma marketing video we learned how easily as consumers we can be manipulated into either a) purchasing drugs we don’t need or b) purchasing drugs that were obsolete in their current form so they were used for another.

            The marketing to children video reinforced how negative our advertising has become. Our children are being so influenced by the ads they see on TV that it is changing the culture of our children. One of the facts I wrote down in my media journal was the fact that the Marlboro Camel is more recognizable than Mickey Mouse.

            Another video, which resonated these ideas, was the Killing Us Softly video. In this video Jean Kilbourne really speaks to the fact that advertising has negative connotations for the consumer. Although she mainly focuses on women her overall idea that the bodies, and couples, and beauty standards we see on TV are impractical and aspiring to be those people is a battle we will never win.

            These videos just reiterate the common theme of this class that we as consumers are extremely influenced by the advertisements we see. In addition, many of these influences are negative. The idealized stuff we see on TV and in print is impractical in real life and yet because of how glamourized it is we all aspire to emanate what we see.

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Elana Cocke: Informal Letter

Dear ADV 475 Students,

For me the most disturbing video we watched was the pharma video. It is very alarming to me that drug companies are taking advantage of advertising to consumers. After watching the video i was very happy that i am not currently on any prescription drugs because for all i know they could be an obsolete formula of another drug. 

I fact i found most interesting in the marketing to children video was how one sided the arguments seemed to be that advertising was corrupting girls more than boys. I'm not saying this in a negative light because i think that it is a real statement. Ads for girls toys or clothing seemed to use the same tactics of sexuality that should be saved for older, more mature women.

I found the consumerism video to be the most relating. Although it did just reiterate facts i already knew i was able to think of specific examples in my life where they held true. For example; a friend and i saw a KFC commercial on TV for a new product. Upon seeing the ad we both decided that although we were not hungry we "wanted/needed" this product and therefore we went out to purchase it.

Overall, i think these videos are helpful and disturbing at the same time. We have all chosen careers in a world where the line between good and bad is very thin.

Sincerely,

Elana Cocke