Critical Viewer Activity

The following activities were adapted with permission from the GO GIRLS! curriculum, produced by the National Eating Disorders Association [1].

In this lesson students will be introduced to some of the hidden tactics often used by advertisers in marketing their products and will discuss their opinions of these tactics. Students will be asked to consider the impact of these tactics on self-esteem and body image and come up with some alternative advertising styles that could send healthier messages.

How Advertisers Create the "Perfect" Woman
Most of the images that we see in magazine ads and fashion layouts involve a tremendous amount of thought, planning and editing. Every element of an advertisement is intentional — every color, every shadow, every hand position.

Every element is within the advertiser’s control and is placed in the scene by choice. Even the smallest item in a scene, seemingly insignificant, was chosen for a reason — to convey a very specific mood, feeling or relationship.

Advertisers use a number of tactics to ensure that their advertising images are "perfect."

Physical Tactics: The clothes used in fashion layouts often come in one size, usually a six (often smaller), provided by the designer. These clothes are worn by many different models, usually ranging in size from a 2 to an 8. In order for different models to fit the same dress they use a variety of "body enhancers" and other "body reducers":

• Bras are stuffed with pads to fill out the front of a dress that is too loose. Padded underwear is also used to fill out the back of a dress.
• Duct-tape is often used to tape breasts together to create cleavage.
• Girdles are used to squeeze the flesh of models into a dress sample size that is too small.
• Excess flesh is duct-taped in the back for a front-angle photograph depicting a taut, streamlined, wrinkle-free body. Models can be taped from the front for a rear or side angle photograph showing tight, firm hips, buttocks, legs and arms.
• Heavy clamps are used to cinch clothing in and weigh it down to create an illusion of the perfect fit.

These physical tactics also help to explain why clothes rarely look the same when we try them on in the store as they do in advertisements, in fashion layouts and on mannequins.

Computer Tactics: Once a photo shoot is complete, images are altered even further through a process called re-imaging. By scanning the photograph into a computer, the image can be altered in thousands of ways. These alterations can cost anywhere from $100-$10,000 and can vary from a simple change to a radical restructuring of the entire scene. Almost every magazine image uses computer re-imaging in some way.

• Colors can be changed. Eye color, hair color, clothing colors can all be easily replaced with the click of a button.
• A smoothing technique can be used to minimize the appearance of wrinkles, lines, blemishes and shadows.
• An erasing tool is very often used to literally eliminate inches from a model's thighs, hips, waist and arms.
• Some advertisements use different parts from different models to create the "perfect woman." Advertisers literally create a woman by using the legs of one model, the head of another and the arms of yet another.
• All of these alterations are nearly undetectable, leading the consumer to believe that these models look this way naturally.

If we are taught that it is normal and desirable to look like the models in ads and fashion layouts, does that imply that it is abnormal, undesirable and even ugly if people do have wrinkles, veins, pores, cellulite, birthmarks, bodily hair and other natural and necessary body characteristics?

Ask students if they think these advertisement tactics have anything to do with the statistic indicating that 75% of American women are dissatisfied with their appearance.

It is important to emphasize that "thin" is not bad. In fact many people are genetically predisposed to a thin body type. But when magazines, advertisements, television shows, etc. portray ONLY thin women — this leads society to believe that thin and ONLY thin is normal and desirable.

Ask your students to bring magazines to class. After they have had time to look through them, ask the following questions:

• What types of bodies are most prevalent?
• Do ANY of the fashion layouts (as opposed to advertisements) have diverse body sizes? (While some product advertisers are beginning to use a few diverse sized models, virtually none of the fashion magazines do so, unless they are magazines targeted specifically toward a "larger" audience.)
• Do the models in the advertisements tell a true story of the natural diversity that exists in the real world with regard to body size and shape, ethnicity or age?
• These messages:
  
  
  • Define for us what is "normal" and "desirable;"
  • Can make people feel inadequate, imperfect and dissatisfied with their bodies;
  • Can convince us that if we buy their product we will look like these models;
  • Tell us that a woman's success has very little to do with her intelligence, competence, compassion or strength, but rather solely with her appearance. Messages such as these are not only untrue, but also damaging;
  • What these messages don't tell us is that what is "desirable" is unattainable for most people;
  • Many young women, dissatisfied with their appearance, turn to dieting, and even to eating disorders, in their attempt to become "normal," "acceptable," or "beautiful."

Being a Critical Viewer [2]: How We Can Still Enjoy Magazines
All of this is not to say that advertisers are evil or that magazines do not contain very important, informative and entertaining articles. Certainly there is nothing wrong with wanting to be fashionable or with purchasing beauty products.

Advertisements can serve a useful purpose and there is nothing wrong with deciding to purchase a product based on the information in an advertisement. What is important is making sure that we are purchasing these products and supporting these advertisers by choice rather than by the manipulation of hidden tactics.

We can choose to purchase a particular type of shampoo for a number of different reasons (the brand is good for curly hair, the brand is good for brown hair, the commercial was funny, the bottle is cute, the brand is inexpensive); all of these reasons depend on personal preference.

What is not acceptable is to be manipulated into purchasing a particular brand because the advertisers of that brand tried to make us feel ugly, inferior, boring, stupid and unpopular — promising to help us become beautiful, perfect, exciting, brilliant and desirable simply by purchasing a bottle of shampoo.

How do we know the difference? By becoming a critical viewer [2] of the media. Read and discuss tips for becoming a critical viewer of the media.

Students can read the second half at home, or use the information later when they are developing peer awareness materials.

Additional Assignments

1. Journal Assignment:

   A. Were you aware of some of the tactics that advertisers use? Which tactics surprised you? What values do these practices promote? Do you think that most people are aware of these tactics? What do you think would happen if people knew that models aren’t necessarily what they appear to be?

   B. Knowing this information, when you now look at advertisements, how do you feel about your own body? How do you feel about wanting or trying to look like these models, knowing that they are never naturally "perfect"?

   C. What more responsible advertising tactics or images could advertisers use to promote their products?

2. Have each student bring at least one sample of an advertisement that sends either a positive or negative message to consumers.

   It is important to emphasize the positive aspect as well as the negative — having a voice doesn't always mean to complain. They should be sure to write the name of the magazine and the date of the issue on the ad (example: Seventeen magazine, July 2002). And be prepared to discuss the persuasive intent of the ad, the truth or realism of what is being shown, and what values are being imparted.