Common In Large Clothing Companies example essay topic

Spring is coming to the colleges of Portland. The seven-month winter is finally over and students know that new summer clothes are a necessity. The question in people's heads is how they look in those clothes that they are picking out. Does this skirt make me look fat? Would I have more sex appeal if I bought this blouse? It seems as though women and sometimes men are always comparing themselves to the flawless figures that pose for ads that we are constantly exposed to.

After prolonged exposure, it begins to seem normal to compare oneself to the models that grace the pages of magazines, billboards & TV. This is an unfair portrayal of generation X. Expectations to fit this mold of perfection seems to have been put on the shoulders of many young women who are constantly starving themselves in hope of loosing those last five pounds. They feel as though it is their obligation a sexual beings to live up to these images and do so through whatever magical product will keep them temporarily content with themselves. Women have become the focal point of objectification since the dawn of time. The caves of early man feature women with large busts and hips, the ideal for child bearing. Michael Angelo's statue of Venus portrayed the perfect woman of his time.

However, the birth of advertisement has created more objectification and has caused more concern than any other time in our history. Women have become the focal point through the past several decades beginning with conservative skin magazines such as Playboy. Although Playboy didn't begin with anything as risqu'e as what is now common on any billboard that we are currently bombarded with, it did open the doors of acceptance to expose the female body to the general public. The airbrushed and photographically touched up body became the ideal. Once the initial shock factor passed and other magazines such as Penthouse and Hustler entered the fray, they all began to push the envelope further until what was once shocking became commonplace and became our barometer by which to judge women. After so many years of companies and brands advertising their product with sexual connotations, it has become common.

We, the consumer have come to depend on commercial products to try to become the unattainable perfect sexual being. The perfect abs or the perfect breast, define us, instead of allowing our integrity and heart define us. The adage that the clothes make the man is not the 11th commandment. The obvious use of sex and provocative manipulation in fashion advertising yields a lot of power on their target audience, the young. Certain companies such as the ultra trendy Abercrombie & Fitch use numerous tactics to lure their desired audience to what they believe gives their product the edge. For any college student the word Abercrombie means more that what it simply stands for.

It holds an image of power, confidence and sex appeal. Images of young adults in highly sexual situations while sporting the logo to incorporate both fashion and sex appeal create more pressure on consumers to look as good in the clothes as the models do. One of Abercrombie's most recent ad ploys incorporates full nudity of both males and females. Sometimes, they sport the logo, other times they don't.

It has become so common in large clothing companies that sell sex to move the product that they don't even think twice a bout what we as consumers are taking from the ads. Integrity and honesty have been removed from the advertisers equation. Another example of this is a Perry Ellis ad that uses the same tactic to sell what happens to be cologne, which has nothing to do with nudity. This marketing ploy also creates the essence of sexuality and power should you wear this brand of cologne. Tyler, a Political Science major at PSU said, "When I look through magazines like Maxim and see the first 20 pages are ads for either alcohol or clothes and it's all the same thing. Super skinny girls with a massively built guy, both tan and half naked to sell shoes...

". Though he recognizes the unethical practice of advertising, he still wants to attain the unattainable, to look like and be like those ads. One of the main arguments that the public has made against the advertising industry is that they do not always take the possibility into consideration that young people are highly impressionable. Influential images have the ability to not only attract the reader's attention, but might leave them with a distorted self-image. Is this the way I need to present myself to be accepted by my peers?

Is this image necessary to be successful? Will I fail without it? A great deal of evidence indicates that advertising can cause severe damage to adolescents as well as young adults has been argued for a long time, beginning with the onset of bulimia and anorexia. They are believed to be socially-created diseases, meaning our culture plays a direct role in the creation of these problematic diseases that can lead to death if not tended to. Even though they are labeled a disease, they seem to be acquired through the intense pressure from the media and advertising. It is important to stress just how important it is to fit in and no matter the group; there is always advertising to promote it.

When a woman sees these flawless figures that aren't burdened by acne, weight problems, crooked teeth, and pale skin, they get the impression this is what a woman looks like, disregarding their looks as plain and unattractive. Women are constantly obsessing over their looks and imperfections and desperately searching for ways to right these wrongs. Advertising takes these weaknesses for granted and pushes them to the limit with even more beautiful women to pose for magazines and television, which are the two highest viewed forms of media by women. Magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Vogue, which feed off women's insecurities to their benefit, are only making matters worse. Covers clad with slogans such as "Burn that ugly fat in only 5 minutes a day, 50 ways to dress for success, How to look to get the man of your dreams. Etc" all is ploys to either buy products you don't need or make you feel like a failure for not having them.

So women and some men starve themselves in hope of attaining that perfect physique and killing themselves in the process from malnutrition. Men have succumbed to the same pressures from media peers to appear a certain way. Not just clothes, but more importantly, physical appearance. It seems the new trend is to have a killer set of abs and huge biceps. But what isn't shown in advertising is that not all men have the genetic makeup to have such features.

For some, a muscularly built comes naturally and easily. For others, it takes endless hours in the gym to even try and amount to such godlike features that are so readily displayed in advertising. Although traditionally, men don't normally have eating disorders, but they too are starving in order to attain that Greek God look. On the other side of the spectrum, advertising can't constantly be used as a scapegoat for people's decisions and lifestyle adjustments. Although advertising plays an important role in nearly everyone's lives, it is common to see ads for anything to be marketed. It is merely their job to promote and advertise as needed.

Depending on how they go about creating ads and the ethics involved, advertising can be a very respectable profession. I personally believe that while advertising does create some major issues in society and our culture, which can be harmful. I don't think it is the advertising industry's fault entirely for what happens to individuals. Granted, they play a large role in how people behave and lead their lives but that is what they do. Their duty is to draw attention to what they are selling. It is our duty to raise children with self-worth and values at are not just external.

The advertising industry does not tell women to binge and purge. We as society don't raise our daughter to love themselves for who they are; we as a society buy into this type of advertising. If sex didn't sell, advertisers would find another vehicle to sell their products. Our society had become dependant on superficial goals to make us feel whole and complete.

The emptier we feel, the more we buy. We are constantly looking for acquisitions to make us feel content, for the fountain of youth in a bottle to make us feel complete. It is our responsibility as a society to give importance to integrity and honor instead of beauty and popularity, not the advertisers.