Day 7

Today we shared the ads that we created to market salads to various audiences. This was a fun project and a great way to illustrate the way that the same product can be marketed to a wide range of audiences. This ties in with what we started talking about today: how different people can look at the same image, product, video, etc. and have very different reactions. It was interesting to see the different ways that we all reacted to the painting that was shown in class. I also think it goes to show that we all bring our own personal experiences to the way that we see things. We all have personal histories that lead us to react in very different ways to looking at the same thing. Even at the very basic level, men will have very different reactions than women to perfume ad picturing a woman in a bikini. Men may find it sexy, some women may find it offensive and yet other women may see it as something that they can attain if they wear that perfume. Perspective is easy to overlook but it's something that advertisers must spend countless hours considering and brining to their advertising campaigns.

I also wanted to reflect a bit on the article that we were assigned to read on Monday night: Girls Dieting, Then and Now. I think this is a topic that is so overwhelming that it is too easily pushed to the back burner as far as hot button issues go. We all know that the way young women are represented in advertisements, magazines and on TV is a big problem. It creates all sorts of body image and self-esteem issues. The scary part is, how on earth can we go about making a change? I personally have no control over what magazines are going to publish and how they decide to edit their photos. I will have a daughter someday and I don't even know how to begin going about protecting her from those images. I guess the stance I can take is to talk about body image and self-esteem often with my daughter or daughters. It's scary to think that young girls can be so easily influenced by the images all around them and that there's not much we can do about it. I would like to think that I have a great body image and good self-esteem but I'll be the first to admit that I can't help but feel like most of my problems would be solved if I were model thin. I know it's not a rational though. How on earth would weighing less fix all of my problems? The media must do a fantastic job of perpetuating this feeling though because I can rationalize it in my own head. For the most part I go about my days feeling very confident and happy with the way I look. However, I work in a women's clothing store and seeing countless pairs of jeans come in that don't fit me begins to wear on my confidence. It contributes to this idea that I have that if I were that smaller size I could wear the cute clothes and life would be effortlessly easy.