Advertisements Effecting Society

I left speaker Jean Kilbourne's presentation on Thursday satisfied with the topics she went through with such convincing language and relaxing voice. It had me questioning all the advertisements around me that I don't often notice and wonder if they've had any sort of influence on me. For example, I went back on an old SPIN magazine for music, and looked at the ads I had once viewed at the end of each issue. I saw many ads for American Spirit Cigarettes, that casually states it natural additives and declaring it a 100% addictive free tobacco. Unsurprisingly, not too long after I had realized I purchased multiple packs of American Spirit's with no regard to the advertisement but the whole all natural" image the ad made the cigarette out to be stuck in the back of my mind. There was really so much the ad was not covering, but they did a sufficient job getting it's point across that this was one cool brand of cigarette, a "quality"choice for one who wants to try something different. 

Jean Kilbourne spoke of the subliminal impact ads have on society and how big business regulates such things to broaden the market and seek out new potential, young buyers of their product, regardless of what the message might contain. Like, Virginia "slims" to reach out to the females who may be self conscience of their weight, and would care to replace meals with cigarettes. Many of these advertisements speak to you deep down without ever realizing it. This effects everyone, but especially women in society as they tend to be targeted in many alcohol and food advertisements that may suggest that they must look a certain way, and that by consuming their product can help them do so. Many women are sucked in to the phony ads that are out there, targeting almost anything, from their appearance and what accessories would make them seem "cooler". Advertisements could perhaps provoke very risky, unhealthy behavior and even disorders.

To expand a little on some of the topics Jean Kilbourne mentioned, a lot of these ads are subliminal, which tends to produce a discrete sensation that is intense enough to influence the mental process of behavior of the individual. Below happens to be an image of an advertisement for a flooring company with a lady holding a glass in her hand. Random, but if you turn your head, the image upside down appears to be a lady pleasing herself. This could attract people's eye for a number of different reasons.