¡¡You
could call me a shop-a-holic, as most of my friends do, but
I call myself a lover of fashion. Sitting in my room, I look
in my closet
at all my belongings and wonder what else I want to buy. Abercrombie,
Guess,
J
Crew and Ralph Lauren are just a few of the name-brand
items that clutter
my room. And I want more. I've never stopped to question whether
I'm getting what I'm paying for, though I've always been a
"smart" shopper, a sale shopper. But, as I learn
more about my future field, marketing, I realize that I am
a victim of advertising. All the things I want and buy are
influenced by what magazines, television, and other advertisers
tell me I need to buy. ¡¡
¡¡Everyone
wears clothes. They can be a statement, a style, or a definition
of who you are. They can also be a simple necessity. For me,
clothing has meant different things. As a child, I wore what
my mother gave me or the hand-me-downs from my sister. I never
questioned how I looked, but I liked to dress up. ¡¡
¡¡In
middle school, I became more concerned with my appearance,
like most girls. But as I progressed to high school, advertising
became a big influence. Boys began to notice girls, and all
the girls wanted to look good. The clothing in high school
became something that defined you; it identified you with
a certain group. Wearing Abercrombie jeans meant you were
the preppy
all-American girl, a Guess shirt meant you were the snobby
rich girl, and anything worse or less than that was unacceptable.
¡¡
¡¡In
college, advertising hit me in a different way. College is
a place where typically no one knows you at first, so you
can be whoever you want to be. There are so many students
and such a variety of people that clothing begins to define
you less and less and your personality begins to define you
more and more. Everyone is growing and changing and beginning
to learn who they really are. Yet my friends and I still turn
to advertising, now not only to stay in fashion but more so
to find our own style. In my quest
for identity, the style of clothing I choose reflects me.
It shows my personality and shows what type of person I am.
¡¡
¡¡Despite
my choice to have my clothing reflect and not define me, I
remain a victim of advertising. Although I look to ads for
the upcoming
styles, I am still affected by the underlying
images behind them. Advertising reflects society and also
adds to societal definitions. Advertisers show us people around
us, yet they choose only a certain look. By showing us just
these people, they are defining those few as the beautiful
people. Advertising feeds off human insecurities and makes
us want to be like these beautiful people. Our insecurities
with wanting to be popular and wanting to be loved are used
against us. Society fosters
the fascination that we should not be who we are, and advertisers
use this to influence us to believe certain messages. If we
do not look like the models, we are not beautiful. If we are
not thin and curvy
we are not attractive. Even if we have great personalities,
most people will not like us if we are not physically beautiful.¡¡
¡¡Advertisers
use our weaknesses to tell us what is new, what we should
be like, what is cool, and what is hot. Because human nature
makes us want to be popular and glamorous, we follow the lead
ads give us. Is it the victim's fault for believing, or the
fault of society for allowing advertisers to do so? These
are the questions I often ask myself as I enter the field
of marketing. It is very easy to use human insecurities as
a means of targeting consumption, but is it right? How will
we ever know unless we step back and stop reading magazines
and watching television? Until then, I will remain a victim
of advertising. And so will almost everyone else.¡¡
¡üTOP¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡(683
words)
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