Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Advertising on
Body Image Disorder
among Young
Adolescent Girls
The media plays a significant role in the way young girls feel about themselves,
referred to as “tweens,” are subjected to 400 – 600 advertisements per day. By the time an
adolescent reaches age 17, she has seen 250, 000 advertisements (mediascope, nd).
The amount of advertisements an adolescent sees can have an impact on how she
views herself, and thus affect the important task of identity formation (Frost, 2001). As a
young woman creates a sense of herself as well as her vision of the structure of her life,
identity formation becomes one of the most important developmental tasks of her
beginning to think about their appearance, and according to Frost (2001), they are
beginning to wonder if they meet society’s beauty standards. Studies show that early in
life, girls begin to view their bodies as objects and boys begin to view their bodies as
power. Girls’ objectification of their bodies typically leads them to the conclusion that
physical beauty is the most important aspect of their value as an individual (Gentry &
Martin, 1997).
Advertisements are salient to adolescent girls as they begin to notice and adhere to
society’s beauty standards. Magazine advertisements reinforce a beautiful and thin body
ideal, and research indicates that models in magazines are the standard to which
many adolescent girls hold themselves when picturing the ideal body (Groesz, Levine &
Murnen, 2002). This is disturbing in many ways, because it can lead to body image
dissatisfaction. Body image dissatisfaction occurs when females become unhappy with
their appearance, specifically their weight. It encourages adolescent girls to strive for an
mediascope “seventy-five percent of "normal" weight women think they are overweight
The mass media have a history of using female beauty to sell products by linking
appearance to self worth. Englis, Solomon, and Ashmore (1994) found that advertisements
Self, Seventeen, Vogue) highlighted a select set of beauty ideals, with thinness being one of
Seventeen, and Young Miss) found that the 46% of the magazine content was devoted to
were dominated by photos of slim white girls with blonde hair and blue eyes (Evans,
Sather, Rutberg, & Turner, 1992). Since advertisements make up almost half of the space
in teen girl magazines, they can be very influential. Many of these ads depict women as
beautiful, thin, and sexy. If young girls see these same images over and over, they may
begin to think that they too should be beautiful, thin, and sexy to meet society’s beauty
supermodel” (mediascope, nd). When these images are prevalent in a young girl’s life,
she will begin to make comparisons between herself and the models (Gentry & Martin,
1997).
individual’s comparison of themselves to those who are more beautiful, have more money,
and have more material possessions than that individual. It holds that people have a drive to
evaluate themselves by comparisons with others. Since 69% of girls in one study said that
magazine models influence their idea of the perfect body shape, social comparison theory
attempts to explain why females compare themselves to the models in magazines, possibly
decreasing their body images satisfaction (mediascope, nd; Gentry & Martin, 1997).
Another study found that females who saw slides of thin models had lower
body image evaluations than females who had seen average and heavy models, and girls
reported in a Body Image Survey that very thin models made them feel insecure. More
specifically, a study of Stanford undergraduates found that 68% of the females that
participated felt significantly worse about their bodies after looking through women’s
The trend of increasing body image dissatisfaction is alarming because it can lead
to more serious disorders, such as depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and even
drug use (Groez, Levine & Murnen, 2002; mediascope, nd). More common effects of body
dissatisfaction, such as excessive dieting and low self- esteem are now common
among middle school girls (6th-8th grade). In the past, these issues were almost exclusively
a problem for high school and college females. Even worse, 80% of 10-yearold girls have
actually tried dieting. It seems that advertisements in teen magazines are now affecting
younger girls as well. Since teen magazines account for more than one-half of all reported
adolescent reading, advertisements in these magazines may be one source of the body
need to know that the models featured in advertisements are not what most girls look like.
Adolescents are more susceptible to body image dissatisfaction than college students and
older women (Josselson, 1987), so it is imperative that they realize that being “model
thin” is not normal, and very few girls naturally have that physique. If they learn the
importance of finding and maintaining a healthy weight, they will not feel as badly about
their own body. Perhaps, as they learn, they will be less likely to succumb to low self
esteem or the next miracle diet. This could prevent them from becoming depressed,
The effectiveness of this project can be assessed by viewing the number of visitors
to the site. Also, an email link to the author might encourage visitors to email and ask
further questions about the topic, so the author can see how many people are reading the
site.
Bibliography
Englis, B.G., Solomon, M.R., & Ashmore, R.D. (1994) Beauty before the eyes of the
aaaaaabeholder: The cultural encoding of beauty types in magazine advertising and music
aaaaaatelevision. Journal of Advertising, 23 (2), 49-65.
Evans, E., Rutberg, J., Sather, C, & Turner, C. (1992). Content analysis of
aaaaacontemporary teen magazines for adolescent females. Youth and Society, 23,
99-aaaaa120.
Frost, L. (2001). Young women and the body: A feminist sociology. New York:
aaaaaPalgrave.
Gentry, J., and Martin, M. (1997) Stuck in the model trap: The effects of beautiful
aaaaaamodels in ads on female pre-adolescents and adolescents. The Journal of
aaaaaaAdvertising, 26 (2), 19-33.
Groesz, L., Levine, M.P., & Murnen, S.K. (2002) The effects of experimental
aaaaaapresentation of thin media images on body satisfaction: A meta-analysis.
aaaaaaInternational Journal of Eating Disorders, 31 (1), 1-16.
Media Scope. Body image and advertising (n.d.) Retrieved March 21, 2004 from
aaaaaahttp://www.mediascope.org/pubs/ibriefs/bia.htm
Englis, B.G., Solomon, M.R., & Ashmore, R.D. (1994) Beauty before the eyes of the
aaaaaabeholder: The cultural encoding of beauty types in magazine advertising and music
aaaaaatelevision. Journal of Advertising, 23 (2), 49-65.
Most people strive to attain ideals of beauty that are relevant to their culture. There
is a long history of using female beauty to sell products, and the mass media has a history
of linking appearance and self worth. “Media gatekeepers” (fashion/beauty editors, film
directors, etc) play a pivotal role in what certain cultures perceive as beautiful. Fashion
magazines are important means of socializing young consumers about beauty and fashion
and for advertising beauty and fashion related products. The idea of media gatekeepers is
really interesting, and it takes blame away from the advertising industry.
Evans, E., Rutberg, J., Sather, & C., Turner, C. (1992). Content analysis of
aaaaacontemporary teen magazines for adolescent females. Youth and Society, 23,
99-aaaaa120.
This study analyzed 30 issues off three major teen magazines (Sassy, Seventeen,
and Young Miss) from January of 1988 through March of 1989. Ten issues of each
magazine were chosen. The researchers found that articles focused mostly of beauty,
fashion, entertainment, health and dating/relationships. The types of advertisements in the
magazines focused on similar topics and were 46% of the magazine content on average.
This is a great content analysis, but unfortunately it is over 10 years old. Sassy magazine is
not even in print anymore, and Young Miss has changed its name to Your Magazine. No
one has done an analysis like this recently, so this is the most current information that
society has on the percentage of advertisements in magazines.
Frost, L. (2001). Young women and the body: A feminist sociology. New York:
aaaaaPalgrave.
Commercial consumption is seen as a form of constructing and expressing identity,
especially adolescents, who for the first time have a disposable income and the freedom to
spend as they please. Images and advertisements can reinforce this version of self by
targeting their product to a certain type of person, thus helping a convincing adolescent
who wants to be that type of person to buy the product. Frost does not cite other authors in
her book, so the information comes just from her viewpoint. Again, the information is
interesting, but Frost is writing from a feminist standpoint, so the information could be
biased.
Gentry, J., & Martin, M. (1997) Stuck in the model trap: The effects of beautiful
aaaaaamodels in ads on female pre-adolescents and adolescents. The Journal of
aaaaaaAdvertising, 26 (2), 19-33.
A growing concern in society is the role of advertising in convincing young girls
that their goal in life is to be thin and beautiful by continuing to reinforce an unattainable
standard of physical attractiveness. This raises concerns of advertising ethics.
Advertisements often use the social comparison theory which states that “people have a
drive to evaluate their opinions and abilities which can be satisfied by social comparisons
with other people.” This theory basically holds that females compare themselves to the
models in magazines. The information on social comparison theory gets complicated, but
the article is targeted toward professionals in the field. However, the theory really helps
explain why advertising can be dangerous to young girls.
Groesz, L., Levine, M.P., & Murnen, S.K. (2002) The effects of experimental
aaaaapresentation of thin media images on body satisfaction: A meta-analysis.
aaaaaInternational Journal of Eating Disorders, 31 (1), 1-16.
A thin body ideal is reinforced by the mass media, but mostly by magazine
advertisements. Research indicates that models in magazine advertisements are the
standard that many girls hold themselves to when picturing the ideal body. However,
some studies show that girls viewing models in magazines have no more body
dissatisfaction than the girls viewing cars. This article is great resource. It provides
contrasting viewpoints, results of many different studies, and reasons that the studies were
or were not valid. It also appears in a scholarly journal, which is more accurate than a
Website.
Pierce, Kate. (1995). In C Lont (Ed.), Socialization messages in seventeen and teen
aaaaaamagazines. Women and media: Content, careers and critisicm (pp. 79-66).
aaaaaaCalifornia: Wadsworth Publishing Co.
Teen magazines have not been extensively researched, but through what little we
do know, it seems that they are encouraging girls to focus on “traditional” girl problems,
such as fashion, beauty, romance, and pop stars. This is troubling because teen girls are
often dependent on teen magazines for information, and this is the largest medium
targeted solely to teen girls. The information here should be accurate because Kate Pierce
has written extensively on this topic in other publications. However, she writes from a
very liberal standpoint, so her information is presented in a biased way.
MediaScope. Body image and advertising (n.d.) Retrieved March 21, 2004 from
aaaaaahttp://www.mediascope.org/pubs/ibriefs/bia.htm
Advertisers often portray an unrealistically thin body image. Studies have shown
that girls shown thin models felt more insecure about themselves than girls shown pictures
of average or heavy models. Health professionals are concerned that these idealized
images are causing a distorted body image among young women, and leading them to
believe that are overweight when they are normal or even underweight. This is a
Website, so it may not be as accurate as a scholarly journal, but it is a .org, so the
information should be more accurate than a personal homepage. Also, the article cites
scholarly journals, so it must be somewhat accurate.
Chang, C. (2002, Dec. 12). Stereotypical influence on ideal body images. Retrieved
aaaaaaMarch 21, 2004 from http:/www.clearinghouse.mwsc.edu/manuscripts/370.asp
It has been suggested that Caucasian adolescent females are more susceptible to
body image dissatisfaction than adolescent females of other races. Studies show that the
media in societies shape the way adolescents think about their bodies, and different
societies portray the ideal body differently. American media portray the ideal body image as
very thin. This study suggests that African Americans are not as strongly affected by the
American beauty ideal as Caucasian women. Again, this is a Website, but it is a .edu,
which is more accurate than a personal homepage. Again, this article cites many scholarly
journals and experimental studies done in this field.