Killing Us Softly In Advertisement

While first watching Killing Us Softly 4, created by Jean Kilbourne, a documentary discussing the different themes of advertisement seen by the new millenniums that sexualize women and less of men, I was shocked.  My eyes were immediately opened in surprise that I was not aware of the extent of which advertisement agencies go to reach peoples attention.  The intended meaning may be for the product, such as shampoo, but the deeper meaning that arouses the emotions from people is that the product for shampoo is sexualizing a woman who may be unclothed and words that say “even the cleanest need to get dirty sometimes…” or something in that regard.  By having her presented unclothed and having that slogan to go with the product, your attention does not go to the product; it goes to the woman and the slogan, dehumanizing the woman herself.  It sends a message to the audience, mainly women, that they should emulate the women they see in ads.

Killing Us Softly 4

Kilbourne makes it a point to tell her audience that no woman, not even the women featured in the ads, look flawless and have no pores.  It is quite impossible to embody someone of that nature that is “perfect” when in fact no one is perfect.  She discusses the Dove campaign that went viral where it demonstrated a woman being photographed and at the same time, being photo shopped to not look like her.  Some celebrities have taken a stand to tell people that some of the images seen in magazines of themselves are not real.  Kilbourne even mentions one ad that Oprah Winfrey was featured in and without Winfrey’s consent; they used her head on a figure skaters body for a magazine cover.  All of which to portray an unrealistic image to their target audience, which was women.  Kilbourne also goes into the psychological issues that women and some men face, but mainly women.  She mentions that models were getting so skinny that eating disorders began to be the main focus of which people focused on rather then the clothing the model is wearing.  Some designers have taken a stand, just like celebrities have, and are not discriminating against models who represent the “real” and “average” woman, which should be the main target audience the designers are focusing on.  Throughout the documentary, Kilbourne focuses on main points that should be addressed more on, especially for high school girls and boys in their health classes to fully understand that the advertisement world is throwing unrealistic and inappropriate ideas to the younger demographic that they should not embody the ads themselves and should focus on themselves individually as real humans.