Diet Drink Puppets

Knowing that I have better things to be occupying my time with I offer you this question. Do you ever find yourself insulted or even just generally concerned by advertisements?

I tend to find certain advertisements sexist, something I painfully admit. Normally I let it go because my sense of duty to take my outrage further is usually halted by the simple fact that there is not much I can do about it. There are a few occasions however I find certain advertisements so offensive that I have to speak up. On many forms of media at the moment, there is an advertisement in regard to a certain diet version of a drink that I cannot let pass me by.

You will not find a much of a description of the advertisement here as I find this will be beside the point. The advertisers found the means to their end. As much as I may blame them for their actions, they are but one of many sexist advertisements in our current spot in history. It is not this one advertisement that is the problem but the accumulation of many more ads made in the same vein that is having a negative effect on the perception of women in modern society.

That familiar feeling of readers finding themselves ‘bored now’ of this rant and switching to something else pops into my brain. Unfortunately, this type of reaction is an apathy prevalent in our generation. We cannot complain if we are too busy to bother with a protest of any kind.

Despite the usual problems I have with these ads of the seemingly underweight model drinking the diet drink (with this particular diet drink they have made the models into puppets). They are perfectly sized, beautiful dolls in what is implied to be very expensive clothing and handbags.

Now although I find them offensive, I can see other views on the subject. Why would or how could anyone be bothered to be that offended by puppets? My brain refuses, as usual, to take what it sees at face value and I see deeper implications, different causes and effects. Advertising is so incredibly clever as an industry that is dominated by incredibly clever people. In my opinion the general public either doesn’t understand the harmful effects or they simply choose to be ignorant on the subject. People believe they have their own mind and will not be affected by advertisements unless they so choose. I can be quite certain in my declaration that they are incorrect in this thinking.

No matter how hard we argue that we remain unchanged by them, advertisements are one of the most influential entities in existence. They have wormed their way into every form of media. The pandering is so severe that I can only surmise they know us on a deeper level. For me though there is a certain aspect of advertisement we don’t consider, which most people would label as merely influence. In my own mind, I label as determining, especially when we consider the younger viewer.

Now the ads I’ve mentioned are on every form of media going at the moment. You’ll find them on television, popular websites, and radio. Young girls can see them and they absorb them more than any adult would care to realise. There are the usual outcries from advertising companies when they are accused,  they just go with the party line of, “Don’t let your children be exposed to the ads if you don’t want them affected by them.”

Excellent point, but what about the mother, aunt, grandmother, older sister etc… in their lives holding the diet drink? They are just as responsible as the big advertisement companies for the development of the child. If they say nothing, they cannot passively blame the ads.

Are we becoming Diet Drink Puppets?

If I have not said it quite clearly enough I will say it now, I do not enjoy the way women are portrayed in the media. It puts me ill at ease. These ads have a hand in shaping the future generations of women. The younger the child the easier it is for advertisements to influence their development. I truly believe that as people grow up, a part of them becomes what they have seen in the media. How much of us really belong to our own subconscious?

This is the danger I see. Are we allowing a generation of girls to grow up thinking they should be like the diet drink puppets? If this is true we are creating a generation of girls who think that their sole purpose in life is to be beautiful and possess expensive clothing.

That is enough of my ranting for now. I am also not that woman who says it’s not ok to be happy being like the diet drink puppets. I would just hope that it was the woman’s choice and not because a boardroom in an advertising company made her that way.

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