You are only allowed to love yourself with capitalism’s consent.
Did you know you’re in a
toxic relationship? No, I’m not talking about your significant other. I’m
talking about the signs on the walls of the subway. I’m talking about the
Instagram posts that have invaded our feeds. I’m talking about the whispers in
your ear that tell you to buy! Buy! Buy!
We’re all being gaslit by
capitalism. We’re being told any positive perceptions of ourselves don’t exist
and our realities are altered and negated before our eyes. Happy with how you
look? No, you aren’t. Happy with how
your family and friends perceive you? …are you really?
Both as active consumers and
as passive partakers in society, we are constantly being barraged with media
images telling us we’re not enough. Capitalism fights for control. It creates a
need for products or lifestyles where previously there was contentment or maybe
just ambivalence. It isn’t outright (although sometimes it is), it’s usually
disgustingly and sneakily subtle as it is coming at us through the media we
consume. Advertisers are the foot
soldiers of capitalism. They look to target very specific demographics and
these groups aren’t chosen arbitrarily. The target group must have four
critical qualities: identifiable, accessible, measurable, profitable (Clark).
Advertising images are then
created to appeal to these demographics in a way that batters at their self-esteem.
Most advertising seeks to prey on people’s insecurities, but the demographic
that advertising preys upon insistently is women. Berger notes that these
images “…steal her love for herself as she is, and offer it back to her for the
price of the product.” (Berger). What advertising sells is “values, images and
concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy”
(Kilbourne). Women and non-cis people are constantly targeted because they are
perceived as vulnerable. And advertising works to solidify and convince them
that they are weak and in need of material assistant. Advertising doesn’t sell
products – it sells a lifestyle. It is a faulty education, conditioning women
to think they are ‘less than’ and leading them to purchase and contribute to
the capitalist economy.
An example of photo retouching done to ads to create unrealistic expectations. From The Lash Strend, ADWEEK |
Over consumption is then
normalized as we buy things that are unnecessary to our health or perception of
ourselves. If you want control, you use advertising (Steinem). Advertising also works to create stereotypes when targeting very
specific groups – as someone raised and socialized as a woman, the second I
turned 13 I turned to the make-up aisle in Rite-Aid in search of womanhood,
adulthood, and maturity. Young boys are not turned toward the make-up aisle. We
see this in popular culture, we see this among our friends and family. We see
influencers on Instagram getting paid to post about clothing or drinks. We see
product placement in our favorite films and television shows. Advertising is
truly everywhere.
I, myself, see advertising
everyday in my favorite forms of media. I am a consumer of the podcast
Hannahlyze This , a self-help podcast produced by Youtube star and author
Hannah Hart and her good friend Hannah Gelb. To fund their podcast - record it
and get paid for the labor that goes into creating it - the Hannahs advertise
for different products by giving their own personal recommendation and then
offering their public a discount when they purchase an online order. The
content of their podcast is not altered from their endorsements of products but
the inclusion of these advertisements does make for a different experience when
listening. The funding is necessary but the jovial and congruous way in which
they seamlessly include ads has a somewhat disrupting affect, ironically. While listening to a self help podcast featuring people I admire, I don't expect to be sold something.
Another form of media with
an advertising in my daily consumption is Instagram. Instagram is a social
media platform that did not used to have much advertising. Now it is both in
their regular posts and in their stories. When I want to watch my friend’s Instagram
stories and see what is going on in their day to day lives, there are not
advertisements that are targeted towards me and my interests. Through the data
collecting of Facebook, who owns Instagram, I am constantly seeing ads for
things that I recently searched for or talked about with friends. I also see ads
when watching Snapchat stories now. Snapchat did not used to have
advertisements. Advertising among Instagram stories and Snapchat stories are frustrating.
They are easy to skip but still annoying.
News outlets also have forms
of advertising. The online magazine outlet Bustle also uses advertisements
interspersed throughout their articles. Since Bustle is a women’s issues-oriented
magazine, mostly the advertisements have to do with situations and products in
that realm. Some articles are even directly sponsored by events or products. Buzzfeed also had an interesting advertising model in that they
create articles in tandem with advertising for products. These articles are
usually quizzes, that end up telling the reader what product to buy – instantly
matching a user with a product that will fit them and “change their life.”
Advertising and degradation
of self esteem – telling people that they need
to buy something to improve their life or be like their role models, go
hand in hand. This model in and of itself is dangerous to everyone.
Citations:
Clark, Danae "Commodity Lesbian" Camera Obscura, Vol. 25 (1991)
Kilbourne, Jean "Beauty and the Beast of Advertising" Media&Values (Winter 1989)
Steinem, Gloria "Sex, Lies & Advertising" MS Magazine, July/August 1990
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