In the reading Beauty and the Beast of Advertising, Jean Kilbourne explains how advertisements not only sell a certain product but also, “values, images and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy.” By doing this ads mold an idea of what the ideal woman is, and it is a concept that we cannot live up to. This type of influence can be detrimental to adolescents who strive to achieve these impossible goals. While researching more about the advertising business I came across an article put out by the AAAA, other wise known as the American Association of Advertising Agencies. This article states, “The vast majority of total respondents, 76 percent, have seen advertising they deem ‘offensive’ to women.” Notice how they put the word offensive in quotes, to demean the women who thought so and also neglect the importance of the word.This study aimed to examine consumers perceptions of how women are portrayed in ads. The poll was run by the AAAA in partnership with the SSRS and these are its further results. “The study found that a whopping 84 percent of female respondents have been offended by sexism in advertising. Further, 82 percent of total respondents have seen ads they find ridiculous in how they portray women, and 85 percent have seen ads that portray women as dumb, helpless or incompetent.” At first I thought that this article was a good thing, but when reading further I was disappointed. In the article, the AAAA state their somewhat obvious findings nonchalantly, but the article does not in anyway state that they are trying to change the way that advertisements are created, or try to monitor them in some way. A quote from the President and CEO of the 4A’s states, “This is an area we’re working to improve within our industry, and I believe that once we make further strides in bringing women into more executive positions and promoting them throughout creative departments, we will see a positive impact on the outputs consumers see.” Survey by AAAA and SSRSAlthough this is a major important step to seek the change that we strive for, this is the only thing that is mentioned in the article. Even so, not much else has been done to change this manipulative point of view that advertisements have. This article and poll was taken in 2016 and to this day advertisements continues to instill horrid motifs and offensive imagery. One could argue that there has been some change in the ads, but that is due to the fact that now ads have taken a subliminal route as well.
When looking into recent advertisements I couldn’t help to think about the ad campaigns for a very famous clothing brand, American Apparel. Before even doing a google search I can think of at least five different AA ads that I’ve seen on the train or scrolling through instagram that have been derogatory. Mostly the ads that I have seen show thin white models in provocative poses. This is nothing new in the media, due to the ‘sex sells’ concept, but a particular ad that I saw really gave me the creeps. It shows a young girl, who looks as if to be a teenager sprawled across a bed with the caption “School’s Out.” Although this is one of their more tame ads, the deeper message was very disturbing to me. What is depicted could be surmised to young girls that being sexy is more important than an education. Another ad with a similar message that states, “New freedom for the student body,” showing another young girl face down on a bed half naked. The photo cuts her body in half, to only show the ‘important’ features, her lips, breasts and butt. These ads not only demean women but they are almost pornographic at times, and not to mention down right cringy. This made me think, who is the person responsible for portraying these products in such a way? With some research I found out his name is Dov Charney, and man what a piece of work this guy is. In 2014 American Apparel fired Charney, who was the founder and CEO of the company, due to alleged misconduct and several sexual harassment lawsuits that were pending against him at the time. Info about Charney being Fired 
An article entitled, “American Apparel founder Dov Charney: 'Sleeping with people you work with is unavoidable',” Hadley Freeman uncovers some not so shocking input from this pig. The litany of crude remarks and the history of this misogynistic swine is too much to go into in detail, but if you are interested see for yourself: Hadley Freeman article
Advertisements and advertising companies are mainly out for one thing, the profit, and that is something that will never change. This money making machine will stop at nothing to gain more riches, and that might mean causing psychological damage to its consumers. One thing that we can do to fight against this machine is to stay aware of these insulting images and words, and Jean Kilbourne has provided us with a way to understand and break down advertisements. In the aforementioned reading, Kilbourne lists out quite blatantly some of the subtle ways ads “reinforce cultural values of subservience, domination and inequality between sexes.” This includes superiority, dismemberment, clowning, canting, and dominance/violence. By recognizing these subconscious cues, one can see through the facade of the advertisement, and really decide if a certain product is worth taking a psychological beating for. As for young women, we need to start teaching them to question the motives of advertisements as well and to take them as a grain of salt. In addition advertising agencies need to create more appropriate and body positive ads to aid in the growth of the youth in a more positive light.
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