On "Fat is an Advertising Issue"

Susie Orbach and her views on the advertising industries' negative impact on women's body image are very persuasive. Everywhere we look, in any ad we see, and on television, women are depicted as beautiful, skinny, tall with long legs, and with youthful, flawless skin. Due to the large presence and influence of modern advertising, young girls and women are led to believe that they have to be the same as described above. Despite the fact that industries are advertising the “ideal of beauty” through the impossibility of acquiring “ideal beauty” many woman aspire these "ideals,” provoking negative feelings in girls and woman toward their bodies.

Everyone wants to be accepted and everywhere billboards and other visuals claim to the public that self-image is important. However through Dove's campaign for “real” beauty that included “diverse, vibrant, pleasing and sexy images of women of all sizes, ages and physical types”, Orbach conveyed to the public that self-image does not have to be “ideal” but simply “real”. Real beauty is one that comes with every woman through their “magnificent differences, their uniqueness, not their sameness.” “Ideal” beauty is one that is fake and “untouchable”.

Advertising industries are wrongly using beauty to persuade their audience to buy their products. They set up a “relationship of insecurity” in women who are not satisfied with their bodies to keep presenting further areas of the body that need to be touched, “coiffed, painted, plucked, waxed, perfumed, moisturized, conditioned or dyed.” Through this “relationship” women will always desire an impossible ideal body and will be constantly buying new products.

Although most models for beauty advertisements are still “beautiful, skinny, tall with long legs, and have youthful, flawless skin,” slowly but surely there are advertisements with more typical girls and woman who do not necessarily meet the “requirements.” Many television shows host women who are not “beautiful” but have their own unique personalities that allow them to be accepted by the public. Whereas in beautiful models they see an unattainable dream, girls and women see these women and are able to see themselves.