Advertising is a large part of both the internet and the real world and is something that one comes across every single day, whether it is a TV ad for the newest BMW, an online ad selling items that no sane person has ever actually needed, or a giant light up billboard advertising their 'superior' TV programme. Advertising is everywhere, whether we like it or not. But should it be? Should we as a people be surrounded with 360-degree marketing from thousands of companies vying for our attention to waste our hard-earned money on the newest trending gadget that nobody will use in a month? I don’t think so. I think we should be able to reclaim our spaces from the perverse advertising that follows us around. We deserve to be free of the psychological and physical harm that certain adverts do to us.
Yes, I am arguing that the advertising industry causes people real, bodily harm. Take the beauty industry and their advertisements as an example. The beauty industry is full of messages and advertisements that narrow the full range of human bodies into just two body types: one for men, and one for women.
They convince us that these are the ‘perfect’ body types and that everyone should be like that, should look like that, when that is not the case. They want us to go on diets, lose weight, wear a full face of makeup every day, to exercise and become muscled or ‘ripped’ when that is simply not possible for a lot of people, due to either time, money, or the physical ability of the consumers. When you look at a Maybelline ad, take a closer look at the models. They are traditionally all thin and white with perfect teeth, staight long hair (a nod to harmful ideas about the 'unprofessionalism' of black hair and they damage they have to do to their own hair in order to be respected within the workplace) you can see and count every one of their ribs and there is no ‘excess fat’ (which is literally just normal body fat). For men this trend appears in body structure, and it emphasises focus on having large muscles and lots of tone, which does indeed have negative impacts on men and boys mental and physical health.
studies show that between 1.25 and 3.4 million people in the UK alone suffer from eating disorders, wether it be anorexia, bulimia, BED and OFSED. Eating disorders also have the highest mortality rates of any psyciatric disorder, which is a horrifying thought. Avertisements aim to either emphasise sexuality and the 'importance' of looking like a victoria secrets model, or they emphasise strenght and physique to an unnatural degree that involves extreme dieting and sometimes steroids, something which is wildly unnatainable for people who aren't celebrities with millions of pounds to spend on getting the 'perfect' body
In conclusion, the 360-degree marketing campaigns that we as a society are exposed to 24/7 have a profoundly negative impact on everyone, and there are known links between adverts and eating disorders and the trauma they cause to people. We deserve the ability to take these spaces back from
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