Individuals Are Inundated With Countless

¶ … individuals are inundated with countless numbers of advertisements in a variety of formats. As we surf the web we see advertisements posted on websites, receive advertisements in our email, and see personalized advertisements on social networking sites. These types of ads are not really new, they are just presented in a new medium, and have not by any means replaced the more traditional advertising formats seen in magazines, in commercials and displayed on billboards. A large number of these advertisements target and manipulate women and young girls.

From dictating the latest fashions, to providing normative information about body structure, to convincing women that one brand of cleaning product is better than another; many advertisements are designed to speak directly to women. To some extent one might see advertising as useful, as it helps one to understand the various products that are available, but advertising can also be harmful. A great deal of research has established that advertising is often misleading and that it has contributed greatly to distortion of normalized body image among women of all ages.

This paper examines one particular ad that is intended to help women select a specific product that will help their with their battle to lose weight and get in shape. The ad displays a series of pictures of a young lady posed to mimic the 'evolution of man from ape' image that is familiar to everyone.

As the pictures evolve, the young lady in the ad becomes more physically fit and the small text of the ad states that these pictures are untouched photos taken of the same girl over a period of 12 weeks. The ad is promoting a specific form of fitness supplements to aide in the weight loss and fitness programs of women.

The ad is clearly targeted to an audience of women who are in one way or another dissatisfied with their current body image and would like to see changes in their body. The purpose of the ad is to get women to purchase the EAS fitness program, which combines the use of shakes and bars and a special exercise routine to help women lose weight.

The ad suggests that if women use the EAS fitness program they may see results similar to those shown in the ad, leading to an improved body over a period of 12 weeks. There are a number of features in this ad that make it misleading and that play on the normalization of an ideal female body type that may not be a realistic goal for all women.

According to Kathleen Firth (1998), a good way to analysis a visual advertisement is to look at it from three different levels: the surface level, the intended message, and the cultural message. This paper will examine three different elements of the advertisement from these three levels in order to demonstrate that the ad is misleading.

The analysis of this ad will show that it is an advertisement aimed at women that presents women with a normalized version of an ideal body image that is not realistic and that contributes to women's impossible expectations through the provision of empty advertising promises. The EAS ad uses an allusion to the evolution of man to make a deregulatory statement about the relative size of women's bodies. On the surface, the ad shows us four pictures of the same woman, wearing the same bikini workout outfit.

In the first image the woman has very poor posture and is hunched over and has a bit of a belly, with sagging breasts. As the images progress the woman's posture improves, her body becomes more contoured, her facial expression becomes happier and her hair gains more volume. The poses are intended to mimic the poses shown in the well-known image of apes evolving into cavemen evolving into modern day human beings.

Beneath the image is the statement "The New Theory of Evolution," just in case the visual comparison was not obvious to some readers. With respect to the intended message, the advertisers are attempting to state that if you engage in their fitness nutritional program, your body's fitness will evolve over a 12-week period into a more sculpted and more attractive body type.

At a cultural level, however, the message is using the comparison to evolutionary theory to imply that the original image of the model is a 'lesser' form or 'less evolved' version of the same person shown in the fourth picture. Thus, the advertisement is contributing to the notion that women who do not meet a specific ideal body type are in someway less valuable than those who do, a notion that is wholly unjustified.

The facial expressions on the model change from depressed and sourly to happy and confident as the pictures progress. These changes in facial expression imply that participation in the EAS fitness program will not only have an impact on one's body type and form, but will also contribute to a greater sense of well-being and overall happiness. On the surface, the ad simply shows the facial expressions changing over the 12-week period. At the intended message level, the advertisers are showing that as fitness improves, so does happiness and confidence.

At the cultural level, however, this ad is implying that an individual similar in body type to the first image should not be happy or confident. The advertising is implying that the only women who have the right to be happy and feel a sense of self-confidence are those who meet the idealized version of how a woman should appear.

While research does show that improved fitness can be linked to greater senses of well-being and happiness (Hammett, 1967), in this particular ad the message seems to be overstated such that it is implying that individuals who are not fit should not be happy, and must not be happy. This reinforces the fear that women have of becoming out of shape.

Advertising works both on those who want to lose weight as well as on those who do not want to gain weight, and a common misconception among women who are normal to small in size is that women who are larger are inherently depressed and unhappy. By implying that this is true, it creates a level of fear associated with not being physically fit and attractive, in that it threatens that if you do not maintain an ideal body type you may become depressed and lack confidence in yourself.

This is not an accurate representation of how happiness and confidence are achieved. Perhaps the most pressing blow to this advertisement with respect to its presentation of misinformation is the actual selection of photos. While the first image does display a model who is larger than the remaining three images, this image is by no means of an individual in need of losing weight or having a serious concern for how they appear. There is nothing medically concerning about this individual's appearance.

On the surface, the ad is showing four images of the same person with the size and contours of the body changing over the course of the four images. The intended message of this is to show that by participating in the EAS fitness program, body structure and contouring can change over a 12-week period. The cultural message however is emphasizing the need and desire to change, underlying that the initial photo is not of an acceptable body type.

This is emphasized and exaggerated by the posing of the body with poor posture. As the images improve, the posture also improves, thereby naturally improving the image of the individual in the photo. This distorts the actual progress made over the 12 weeks, as the image shown at each stage is not an equal image.

If the model were in the same pose in the first image as she is in the last image, this would reduce the amount of visible change noticeable in her body structure and contouring, as the poor posture is likely contributing significantly to how her body is appearing in the first picture. Posture can change the appearance of a person significantly, and thus this ad is distorting the impact of their actual fitness and nutritional program by mixing the results.