Narrowing It Down

When I received the feedback from my presentation, I noticed that a lot of people recommended that I needed to narrow down my topic.  I noticed this too as I started actually writing it, because 8-10 pages really is not long enough to cover everything that I was considering for this paper.  Anyways, there were many directions that I could have gone with my paper, so I have decided to make this post a little summary of what I actually covered.

My thesis is: The approach of using thin models in the media seems to have a negative psychological affect on female viewer's body satisfaction as well as their perception of what is deemed as attractive.
Also, I decided to focus my paper on women because a study that observed a number of women's and men's magazines found 63 advertisements for diet foods in the women's magazines, and only one in the men's magazines (Silverstein et al. 525).  Also, all of the research that I found about the media and body satisfaction were directed toward women.
The Weight Loss and Diet Management market has increased in competition.  This is statistical proof that people are becoming more serious about dieting and losing weight.  A major reason that people are concerned about dieting is that thinness is an important attribute in appearing attractive for women.  The media has a lot to do with this because magazines often praise people for losing weight and appearing attractive.  Also, most models are underweight, and yet they appear to be happy and healthy.  This could give people the misconception that the path to happiness is to be as thin as models, rather than just a healthy weight.
There are legitimate explanations for using thin models in fashion advertisements.  Their bodies are small, so more attention is focused on the clothing.  But, thin models are used in all types of advertisements that have nothing to do with body image.
Companies may use thin and attractive models to promote their products because it may make the product seem more desirable.  Since thin is the ideal, a person may feel positively toward the model, and could then possibly transfer those feelings towards the product.
The increased amount of thin models in the media seems to have a negative affect on viewers.  Women who expose themselves frequently to the media tend to have low body satisfaction, especially when looking at advertisements with thin models (Groesz, Levine, Murnen; Field et al.)
I then talk about diet advertisements in particular.  I had trouble with this section, because this is what I primarily wanted to talk about, but I did not find much research on the topic specifically.  I basically had to make inferences based on all of the research that I covered in the first part of my paper.  The general idea I made was that the increased desire to diet has lead to an increase in advertisements for diet products.  These advertisements are primarily directed at women, and most of them state increased attractiveness as one of the main reasons to lose weight (Guillen & Barr 496).  I think that this could have a negative affect on women.  A woman of an average (and healthy) size that constantly sees advertisements encouraging her to diet in order to become attractive may actually feel the need to do so, especially when the models in the advertisements are extremely thin.  She may believe that because she is not as thin as the models, that she should diet.  Because of this, I think that advertisements to diet should feature women of all healthy sizes, so that women who are healthy but not stick thin are ensured that they do not need to diet.
This is basically what my paper is about.  I provide a lot more analysis of the research that I covered.  I hope that it is enjoyed.

Field, Allison et al. “Exposure to the Mass Media and Weight Concerns Among Girls.” 

Pediatrics 103.36 (1999) : n. pag. Web. 6 July 2011.

Groesz, Lisa, Levine, Michael, and Murnen, Sarah. “The Effect of Experimental Presentation of

Thin Media Images on Body Satisfaction: A Meta-Analytic Review. International 

Journal of Eating Disorders 31.1 (2001) : n. pag. Web. 6 July 2011.

Guillen, Eileen O. and Barr, Susan I. “Nutrition, Dieting, and Fitness Messages in a Magazine 

for Adolescent Women, 1970-1999.” Journal of Adolescent Health 15 (1994) : 464-472.

Web. 20 July 2011.

Silverstein, Brett, Perdue, Lauren, Peterson, Barbara, Kelly, Eileen. “The Role of the Mass 

Media in Promoting a Thin Standard of Bodily Attractiveness for Women. Sex Roles 

14.9/10 (1986) : 519-532. Web. 20 July 2011.

Presentation & Current Progress

I know that it has been well over a week since I gave my presentation, but I thought I would still do a recap on it.  I am very glad that I was required to do a presentation about my topic, it got me thinking about what I was going to cover very early.  It also made me ensure that I was well knowledgeable about my topic so that I could answer any questions that I might get about it.
When I was asked questions about my topic, I realized how broad it was.  There were many different directions that I could have gone in my coverage of the media on body satisfaction. When people asked me questions and provided suggestions about different areas that I could cover in my paper, so many of them sounded like great ideas, and I honestly thought that I would be able to cover most of them.  But when I got to writing my paper, I realized that 8-10 pages is actually really short, and that I would not be able to cover all of the aspects of my topic that I wanted to.
Now that I am working on my paper, I am finding it hard to piece together all of the different areas of my topic that I am covering.  It is coming along though, and when I get a good flow, I will post about it.

Could the diet business be hoping for failure?

I just read an article that posed the question of whether the diet business is hoping for failure.  I never really thought about this idea, but it makes sense.  I will use Jenny Craig as an example, but this idea can be applied to numerous weight loss programs.  Once people lose weight on Jenny Craig, if they are able to keep it off forever, they will never need to go back to Jenny Craig again.  Which means that Jenny Craig will lose a customer.  But, if they lose their desired amount of weight, and gain it back again once they go off Jenny Craig, it is likely that they will choose Jenny Craig again because they know they were were successful on it before.  Jenny Craig has gained itself a loyal customer.

It is doubtful that anyone really has the desire to diet for their entire life.  But the diet market is a business, that needs a large percent of the population to be dieting in order to succeed.  Paula Franklin, a medical practitioner claims, "Dieting is a business with enormous financial interest in making sure it continues" ("The Diet Business: Banking on Failure").  This could be the explanation for the countless amount of diet advertisements that can be found on the television, billboards, or in magazines.  The idea to diet could get to anyone, including people who do not need to diet, and even people who it would be unhealthy for them to diet.  If these messages get to the wrong people, it could be very harmful to that person, but the only thing that it would do to the diet company is make them more money.

Cummings, Laura. "The Diet Business: Banking on Failure." BBC News (2003) : n. pag. Web. 25 July 

     2011.

1950's Ad

I was browsing the internet when I came across a picture of this 1955 Pepsi-Cola advertisement that I thought was relevant to my topic:

The advertisement reads:

"One look at this modern hostess’s sillhouette and you can just about guess the kind of thing she keeps in that refrigerator.

You’d know it must be stocked with the lighter, less filling foods that make up the diet of the world’s most attractive people today.

That’s how they keep those slender waistlines. How they stay so young-looking year after year. Why they feel so good, so fit for all the activities, all the fun modern living has to offer.

And it is to suit their modern taste that today’s Pepsi-Cola is reduced in calories. Never heavy, never too sweet, it refreshes without filling.

Have a Pepsi, the modern, the light refreshment."

It is basically saying that the ideal for woman never lets herself be full in order to stay thin (which sounds like a horrible life).  I find this ad so ridiculous that it is almost worth laughing at.  It would be so interesting to see if this advertisement had an impact on its viewers.  

This shows that the thin ideal dates back to at least the fifties, if not before.  I am still doing research on what has caused this desire in women.  So far, I have found that the thin models used in the media are a major cause for the desire for women to be thin (Park 2005).  So I guess that leaves me to question why so many advertisements require models to be thin.  I assumed that it was because the average person views thinness as desirable, so it would make the product being advertised seem positive.  My next step in research is to find the real reason that models need to be thin, rather than going off my assumptions.

Culk, Matt. "The 16 Most Hilariously Dishonest Old School Advertisements." Cracked.com. Demand Media, Inc., 18 July 2011. Web. 19 July 2011. 

Park, Sung-Yeon. "The Influence of Presumed Media Influence on Women;s Desire to be Thin. Communication Research 32.5 (2005) : 594-614. Web. 19 July 2011.

Impact of Product Name on Dieters

It seems like almost every food product available has at least two separate versions: "Original" and "Light" (or diet).  Given this distinction, I wanted to find out how this affected the average consumer's choice.  I came across an article called "The Impact of Product Name on Dieter's and Non-dieter's Food Evaluations and Consumption" that somewhat helped answer my question.  The author's of this article found that dieter's were more likely to be influenced by nutritional information than non-dieters.  They also found that even when provided with information that might be used to more accurately infer healthfulness (like ingredients, fat content, calories, sodium), dieters still continued to make their choice based on the classification of the product.  For example, if Product A was actually "healthier" than Product B (taking all of the nutritional information into account), but Product B was classified as "Light," "Diet," or some other health-based claim, and Product A was not, dieters would be more likely to purchase Product B.  The authors of this article encourage consumers to evaluate all of the attributes of a food item's nutritional information in a systematic manner, and not just to read the front of the label which tells them that it is a "diet food."
This calls for improved education to the public on what actually is healthy.  Many times people read the nutrition facts, but do not actually know what makes a certain food healthy.  For instance, many people do not realize that the average diet does need some fat in it, and are more likely to choose the nonfat alternative to a product when dieting.  Also, people with different health conditions should be looking at different categories in the nutrition label, and not just calories or fat content.  For example, the amount of carbohydrates in a product is helpful for people with diabetes.  Maybe high school Health classes could be required to incorporate education about nutrition labels into their curriculum.
It would be nice if advertisers did not need to classify their products as a diet alternative, and consumers could figure out what was actually healthy just by reading the nutrition facts.  This might be very difficult to accomplish, but it could possibly lead to a healthier and more knowledgeable population.

Irmark, Caglar, Vallen, Beth, and Rosen Robinson, Stephanie. "The Impact of Product Name on Dieters' and Nondieters' Food Evaluations and Consumption." The Journal of Consumer Research 38. 2 (2011) : 390-405. Web. 6 July 2011.  

Advertising Techniques

I was doing research on marketing, and I came across an interesting blog written by Psychology and Marketing professor, Art Markman in the magazine Psychology Today.  In this blog, Markman writes about what advertisements do to their viewers.  Advertisements do not simply inform their audience about the good qualities of the product being sold, they work off of a technique called affective conditioning.  Through this technique, advertisements pair the product being sold with other objects or ideas that most consumers already find enjoyable.  For example, a commercial for a car might show the car being driven by a happy family, on a sunny day, and in beautiful scenery.  By doing this, viewers generally transfer their good feelings to the product that is being sold to them, and are likely to have a positive opinion about the product.  This could be problematic though when a person buys a product mainly because of their good feelings towards it, and end up being disappointed when they actually use it.

The way in which this article ties in with my paper is that it explains why many advertisements use thin models.  It seems that being thin is what is generally thought of as attractive, so marketers pair their product with a person that the general public will have a positive opinion toward.

What I would like to do further research on is how being thin became the ideal for the United States population.