Ideas for Sale

As we discussed in class, advertisement can have a huge impact upon literacy. For example, if young girls buy the message of advertisers that outward beauty is of paramount importance, they will most likely invest their energies into improving their physical appearance rather than to developing their minds, or trying to get good grades. Or they may be smart, but feel pressure from society or their peers to play down their intellect while playing up their looks in order to find acceptance. And while advertising can affect many people without them even realizing how they are being impacted, those who have not had the chance to develop critical thinking skills are possibly the most vulnerable to unconsciously absorbing the messages of advertisers. With masterful subtlety, advertisers can influence not only what people buy, but how they think about some of the most important issues in life.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of advertising is how much of it objectifies women and uses sex to sell everything from deodorant, to breath mints, to beer. These advertisements subtlety (and sometimes blatantly) send the message that a woman's value is in being sexy and appealing to a man. Women and young girls are not the only victims of this message, however; young boys are continually bombarded with these advertisements and the images that they see impact how they see the opposite sex. Our society is saturated with sexual images and then we wonder why teen pregnancies are so high, why there is an epidemic of date rape, or why sexual harassment at school and the workplace is a problem. I am not saying that advertisement is the only thing to blame for all of this, but how can young people continually absorb messages that glorify sex and objectify women without those messages impacting how they see the world and how they act?The first step to changing one's actions is to change one's belief system. That's how powerfully what we think affects what we do. If young people are not taught to think critically about what they are seeing in commercials and ads (or to develop different literacies), they will be puppets in the hands of companies who sell not just products, but ideas.