After reading many of my classmate’s blogs, I found a HUGE commonality in the theme of each one. All the blogs that I read talked about self image, no matter if it was a male or female author. Most of the girl’s blogs talked about commercials for lingerie, and all but one of the boy’s blogs I read talked about commercials for Axe body spray, saying that the media portrays images of our (I’m assuming we are around the same age group) demographic as ‘beautiful’.

Tara Wilken chose an ad for a Swedish eating disorder clinic that shows an image of a girl who is looking in the mirror and sees herself as overweight, when she is actually underweight. Tara goes on to talk about how the media portrays a beautiful body image and how that image makes money. She feels that “this advertisement conveys an accurate portrayal of the tennaged mindset and the need to be perfect”. As an 18 year old girl in this society I have experienced these feelings before, as I’m sure many others have.

Somaya Kalla chose an ad for the Victoria’s Secret fashion show. I think you can figure that one out for yourself. Somaya points out that the ad is trying to convey an ideal body shape, which she disagrees with. She talks about how “the superficiality…allows women to believe the ideology of having a slim body and a pretty face”, which is common in most of the ads chosen. I doubt Somaya believes that the ad was successful in hailing her, as she also says that she doesn’t think that the body shape portrayed is the ideal body for a woman. This is her opinion, however I agree. Just because a woman portrays society’s ‘ideal body image’ doesn’t mean she isn’t beautiful.

As I said before, I saw some male representations of ideal body image in the blogs that I read. Hunter Lackey chose a commercial for Axe Apollo Body Spray that shows a woman in a burning building who is rescued by a firefighter. However, after they are outside the woman sees a man dressed in an astronaut costume and chooses to go with him while the slogan “Nothing beats an astronaut…ever” is seen. Hunter believes that while the commercial is unrealistic, it is effective. He said that “it is obviously most appealing towards the young male audience”, which is agreeable because every heterosexual male wants a woman running toward him in a fit of love or attraction. He also speaks about the degradation of women in this commercial, and how they are wrongly portrayed. I noticed that this is a very common worry of many people in our demographic, and rightly so.

Overall, I believe that my classmates feel that the ads directed to our demographic are effective, but unrealistic. Body image is a big indicator of what is portrayed in the media, and most of the blogs I read took the opinion that it is the wrong portrayal. I agree, as what society deems as ‘beautiful’ is essentially unattainable. In order to properly hail people that are partially impervious to these types of ads because they know that no one actually looks like the portrayal in the advertisement.