Hanadee Abu-Zayed

Melissa Dempsey

English 1200, sec 070

Project II

8 April 2013

                                                   Stop Blaming Hollywood (Rebuttal)

            Media advertisers only give us what we want to see and what catches our attention. They focus solely on business and the amount of products they sell. If they showed us photos of women who are unattractive or everyday people, we would not be inspired or motivated to buy the product and become better versions of ourselves. I know it’s harsh but its true. Whether it pushes us to lose a couple of pounds, try out a new haircut, inspire us with fashion or buy a new makeup product- it always makes us feel better at the end of the day. Advertisements are the blame of extreme depression and eating disorders, which should not be the case. Eating disorders come from biology and psychological and emotional health, which cannot be caused by images you see as you flip through a magazine. Beauty advertisements inspire us to become better versions of ourselves that is achievable and gives us a desire to try out the products being advertised that will make us feel and look great!

          Who minds looking at enjoyable-looking people, even if they are edited to have no flaws? Not me, that’s for sure! Although, I knew I would never be as beautiful as what I see in advertisements, I always received beauty tips and tricks to improve the way I look and it always made me feel like a better person! We should always hear the other side and figure out what the goals of the advertisers are. Fagan stated in the article “Advertisers refute 'beauty industry perpetuates low self-esteem' claim” that “We want all our brand communications to be engaging, inspirational and make people feel good. We don’t want it to be unattainable but want women to think ‘on a good day I could look like that” (Baker, par. 6) L’Oreal group director of communications, Louise Terry, also claimed that the “cosmetics firms advertising are inspirational and sincere” (Baker, par. 2). Louise Terry wants the costumers to know that, “We try to be sincere and try to get the line right between aspirational and going too far.” These L’Oreal advertisements must be actually doing what it says in the advertisements because Terry states, “People are discerning. If they use a product and it doesn’t work, they probably will not use it again. But we get consumers buying our products again and again.” They are obviously not false advertisers because people keep coming back for more!

            Individuals have also blamed Hollywood magazine advertisements for eating disorders occurring in America. If people knew the true meaning of an eating disorder, they would understand that images from Hollywood are not the cause! In a video blog, Melissa Fabello, states “Eating disorders are categorized by a loss of self-control and an inability to think and behave rationally – because it’s a mental illness. The media does not cause eating disorders. Just like it doesn’t cause people to experience any other mental illness.” (Fabello, par. 4) If everyone’s mind worked the same and we thought the same way, we would all be depressed and form eating disorders when we see a thin, beautiful girl on the cover of Vogue. Eating disorders are formed from genes, neurobiology, perfectionism, impulsive behavior or problematic relationships. Arguing that the media causes eating disorders in women only takes away the attention of the real causes, making it impossible for others to receive help. We live in a society where we don’t want to see ordinary girls we see every day on the covers of magazines. We want to something different that will inspire and motivate us to become a better version of ourselves and that is exactly what Hollywood magazine advertisements do for us women!