The more you subtract, the more you add. by Jean Kilbourne

The more you subtract, the more you add.

Jean Kilbourne

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Categorized in : Add

Ads sell more than products. They sell values, they sell images. They sell concepts of love and sexuality, of success and perhaps most important, of normalcy. To a great extent, they tell us who we are and who we should be.

normalcy who-we-are important

Girls get the message from very early on that what's most important is how they look, that their value, their worth depends on that. And boys get the message that this is what's important about girls. We get it from advertising. We get it from films. We get it from television shows, video games, everywhere we look. So no matter what else a woman does, no matter what else her achievements, their value still depends on how they look.

girl games boys

Woman’s bodies continue to be dismembered in advertising. Over and over again just one part of the body is used to sell products, which is one of the most dehumanizing thing you can do to someone. Not only is she a thing, but just one part of that thing is focused on.

womens-bodies advertising body

Turning a human being into a thing is almost always the first step towards justifying violence against that person.

violence steps firsts

Addiction beggins whith the hope that something 'out there' can instantly fill up the emptiness inside.

addicts-in-recovery emptiness addiction

Turning a human being into a thing, an object, is almost always the first step towards justifying violence against that person. It is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to be violent to someone we think of as an equal, someone we have empathy with, but it is very easy to abuse a thing

empathy abuse thinking

The fact is that much of advertising's power comes from this belief that advertising does not affect us. The most effective kind of propaganda is that which is not recognized as propaganda. Because we think advertising is silly and trivial, we are less on guard, less critical, than we might otherwise be. It's all in fun, it's ridiculous. While we're laughing, sometimes sneering, the commercial does its work.

silly fun thinking

Advertising doesn't cause addictions. But it does create a climate of denial and it contributes mightily to a belief in the quick fix, instant gratification, the dreamworld, and escape from all pain and boredom. All of this is part of what addicts believe and what we hope for when we reach for our particular substance.... Addiction begins with the hope that something "out there" can instantly fill up the emptiness inside. Advertising is all about this false hope.

boredom pain believe

The Ideal Consumer is someone who is constantly dissatisfies, constanly needs more and more products in order to feel better.

feel-better order needs

The whole idea was that you can go out and be successful but don't forget to make your man happy. That's the most important thing.

living

When I was starting out, it took a while for me to convince even feminists that this was a serious issue, because feminists would say, 'Look, we're dealing with important issues like violence and equal pay, and we don't have time to worry about the image of women in advertising.' But my point was the image of women in advertising has an impact on all these things. The objectification of women leads to violence, and the stereotyping of women makes it less likely that women will get equal pay and decent jobs.

living

[Ads in the 1970s] were very blatantly sexist, in those days, there was no consciousness about the fact that this might not be a good idea or that this might be offensive. So [advertisers] were able to get away with an ad for a feminine hygiene spray that said, 'Feminine odor is everyone's problem.' Or a cigarette ad where a woman said, 'My boyfriend told me he loved me for my mind. I was never so insulted in my life.' Or an ad for a construction material, which showed a nude woman with a sort of large derriere and thighs, and the copy read, 'She's built like all our products ... heavy where she has to take the strain.'.

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