Truth Beauty in American Society - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1367 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/09/22 Category Advertising Essay Type Argumentative essay Level High school Tags: American Life Essay Did you like this example? Truth Beauty in American Society In the today’s society, Americans, especially women, are eager to be slimmer because thin defines the American standard of beauty. For example, advertisements, called Lipo-6, are used to promote the use of diet pills that burn body fat. Naomi Wolfs Beauty Myth explains about how women are obsessed about their appearance and are dying to look better. â€Å"[C]ontemporary standards of feminine beauty have devolved to a point that can only be described as anorexic, and America’s young women are paying the price through a near-epidemic of bulimia and anorexia† (Wolf 486). Women are struggling to fix themselves, in order to meet the western beauty standards, even though it may lead to eating disorders or health problems. Lipo-6 diet pills help rapid weight loss up to fifty pounds or more. The women in the advertisement say that they got their confidence back by losing weight. Being and feeling slimmer and sexier is now a nec essity in American society. â€Å"[T]hirty-three thousand American women told researchers that they would rather lose ten to fifteen pounds than achieve any other goal† (Wolf 486). This advertisement lures American consumers to be obsessed about their appearance by showing lucid visuals and scientific approvals. In the advertisement, an advertiser represents cultural mythology of the endless desire for American consumers to be slimmer and prettier. Laurence Shames’ article, The More Factor is about how there is no limit to American desire. â€Å"[H]ow the great American hunger for more – more toys, more land, more opportunities – is an essential part of our history and character, stemming from the frontier era when the horizon alone seemed the only limit to American desire† (Shames 76). The role models that women are looking up to are mostly thinner and slimmer than the average women. Women who are perfectly fit and beautiful still want to be slimmer and prettier. There is no end to their satisfaction, which is how Shames describes American cultural mythology. This endless Americans desire of a slimmer body has led to the creation of better diet pills that help Americans lose weight faster and easier rather than choosing to exercise and make healthy choices. In the advertisement, it emphasizes three advantages of speed, strength, and gender specific benefits for its product, Lipo-6. Using red bold texts on grey background in the advertisement radiates the texts stand out more visually to catch consumers’ attention. According to the advertisement, the diet pills guarantee healthy weight loss and rapid weight loss. Rapid is the best way to get the peoples attention. Rapid weight loss and healthy weight loss seem too good to be true. In the advertisement, Melissa Winslow, who obtained the desired results by taking the diet pills, stated that she could never find the time to exercise regularly and her eating habit s were horrible. However, she was able to lose fifty eight pounds within a short period of time by taking these diet pills. This story makes American consumers think that they are also able to be slimmer without exercises. At least, it lures them try the diet pills. By reading bold texts in the advertisement, American consumers easily get tempted to the disillusionment of a slim body after taking the diet pills. Creating confidences in the product has also played a very large role in this diet pill advertisement by representing an award of excellence and saying that it is a rated the number one product for fat loss. The company for the diet pills was awarded Fat Loss Product of the Year 2005 2006 from Bodybuilding. com. By quoting the award, the advertisement builds confidence in its product. It helps American consumers to clear their fear of taking diet pills and to understand that diet pills are â€Å"safe†. In the advertisement, advertisers use the biggest fonts tha t cover an entire page of an advertisement in order to highlight their confidence. A golden emblem of an award also gives American consumers a great confidence of its product. Moreover, the advertisers put texts with using highlighted red text color and white font at the top of the advertisement page. By using contrast colors, red and white, the texts that describe the advantages of the diet pills stand out though their font sizes are not as big as other texts. Throughout the advertisement, advertisers put many lucid texts using different ideas such as contrast font colors and different font sizes to captivate American consumers effectively. By emphasizing the texts, they deliver confidence to American consumers more than words. In addition, an advertisement emphasizes the look of the women after they have lost their weight. In the advertisement, advertisers assume the look of American women consumers on â€Å"before† picture to touch their emotions about their appearan ce and the endless desire of being slimmer and prettier. Then, they show a great appearance change after taking diet pills and remind American consumers of the Cinderella story, magical change in a short time. The models in the advertisement not only lost weight but got a total make-over from head to toe. The â€Å"before† pictures look ugly and grungy, but the â€Å"after† pictures are totally different. Having beautiful hair, make-up and clothes have nothing to do with this diet pills but by making the women look beautiful in the after pictures is a great way to manipulate consumers. Obviously, advertisers do not put chubby models for the after pictures because consumer might misunderstand that the diet pills do not help lose weight. Body language is also used strongly as said in the â€Å"Master of Desire. â€Å"Advertisers have been quick to exploit the status signals that belong to body language as well† (Solomon 412). The models are standing tall, show ing off their bodies and smiling with confidence. This shows how the advertisement makes people think that losing weight makes a person more pretty and happy. A woman quotes, â€Å"I lost 58 pounds and love my new look. † By losing weight it seems like the woman has reached the peak of happiness and desire. Moreover, it makes and satisfies them to feel succeeded in American society. These diet pills are advertised as a perfect package of a total makeover. Jack Solomon says in the Master of Desire that American advertisements manipulate the people instead of persuading them. â€Å"American advertisers use [signs] to manipulate us into buying their wares. ‘Manipulate’ is the word here, not ‘persuade’† (Solomon 410). By telling the people how safe and easy these diet pills are, this advertisement controls the minds of those who are longing for a rapid and easy weight loss solution. Being able to lose weight by taking few pills a day for two months seem like delightful news. American consumers easily fall for these kinds of â€Å"too good to be true† advertisements, especially when they are desperate to lose weight and look better. Today, weight issues apply to both women and men throughout all ages so the target audience is just about everyone. Therefore, according to the advertisement, everybody can become beautiful and slim within a month without having to suffer or stress about losing weight, satisfying the endless desire of American consumers. On the other hand, â€Å"the beauty myth is always actually prescribing behavior and not appearance† (Wolf 489). Before American consumers consider how they look, they first have to think how they behave or treat others because that is the truth beauty in American society. Work Cited Shames, Laurence. â€Å"The More Factor. † The Hunger for More. New York: Times Books, 1989. Rpt. in Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. 5t h ed. Ed. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. 76-82. Solomon, Jack. Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising. † The Signs of Our Time. Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher, 1988. Rpt. in Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. 5th ed. Ed. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. 409-419. Other Reference Wolf, Naomi. â€Å"The Beauty Myth. † The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York: HaperCollins, 1991. Rpt. in Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. 5th ed. Ed. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. 486-494 Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Truth Beauty in American Society" essay for you Create order