A prevalent problem in society today is the negative influence the media has on how teenage girls view themselves. It shows and displays an ideal form of beauty that every girl strives to achieve, resulting in the unhealthy habits of eating and dieting. The media has been filled with advertisements for products using very thin women or, the “ideal beauty”, and are sending the wrong message to teenagers. Real people buy the products companies advertise, so my question is, why are not real, averaged sized people playing the roles?

Young, innocent and naive girls are suffering because society tells them to have a specific look. If they think they are not of this “ideal beauty,” they develop unhealthy eating habits and disorders to achieve it. Some become depressed because they feel that they will never become the ideal beauty and therefore giving up and taking their own lives. In order to support that this is a common and realistic problem, I will include facts and statistics about the number of girls who have these disorders and the resulting mortality rate.

In order to successfully support my argument, I plan on thoroughly discussing a study posted in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, titles “The Effect if ‘Thin Ideal’ Television Commercials in Body Dissatisfaction and Schema Activation During Early Adolescence.” The results support the hypothesis that televised images of attractiveness lead to increased body dissatisfaction. Girls even as young as thirteen years old are directly affected and are dissatisfied with their bodies (Duane). I will include additional results along with the procedure and effectiveness.

Why are companies using this “ideal form” of beauty to advertise their products? Advertising psychology and economics are two causes. By presenting an ideal difficult to achieve, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured growth and profit. I will use the programs, Jenny Craig and L.A. Weight Loss as examples. I will explore the two reasons in more depth by going into detail of the motives and reasoning behind why companies chose to advertise this way.

Something should be done to send a new message to girls and change the way they feel about themselves. I am proposing alternate ways of advertising products that will not use women of the ideal beauty. Instead, advertisements should use real, averaged sized women who purchase the products as spokespersons. In order to do so, I will be using examples to support that the media is already beginning to change and improve. These examples consist of a recent Nike ad and the new Dove campaign. My hopes are that this new way of advertising continues to expand throughout the media industry and therefore resulting in teenage girls feeling better about themselves and not feel the pressures of society to be thin in order to be considered beautiful.

Duane Hargreaves, Marika Tiggemann. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. The Effect of “Thin Ideal” Television Commercials on Body Dissatisfaction and Schema Activation During Early Adolescence. New York: Oct. 2003. Vol. 32, Iss 5; pg 367

Rich Thomaselli. Advertising Age (midwest region edition). Beauty New , ER, Face. Chicago: Aug 15, 2005. Vol. 76, Iss 33; pg 1, 2 pgs.

Patricia Morris. Patient Care. Media Pulse: Measuring the Media in Kid’s Lives. Mississauga. Jul 2004. Vol. 15, Iss. 7; pg 26, 3 pgs