Ageless or Ageism
So many advertisements today promote the idea of agelessness, but what is that? Why is it there so much emphasis placed on keeping your looks young and what could possibly be gained from doing so? No one can possible be expected to stop their aging process, yet it seems as if you can if you’re willing to pay a price and use a product. Jean Kilbourne, in Killing Us Softly 4, asserts that ads cause a subconscious impact on society, specifically, how women are treated and should feel about themselves. She insinuates that these ads promote the idea that women should be perfect no matter what, that a woman’s value lies in how others perceive her and that woman are often considered less than human. For example an Olay ad for eye cream displays a women leaning towards and looking into the camera in front of a plain dark blue background, a light is shone directly over her brown eyes. She’s wearing light makeup and her dark hair is pulled back tight and neat while her head tilts to the left with her right eyebrow quirked. Her right hand curls around the side of her chin, two fingers resting on her bottom lip as she smiles slightly. Her right hand also completely covers where her shirt strap should be and the picture for the product at the bottom right covers most of the other strap and top of the shirt giving the…show more content… The bold white logo over top of her hand reads, “Wake Up like This.” This clearly exhibits Kilbourne’s concerns by making the case that youthful appearance should be maintained and women should appear to be beautiful as a natural state with no effort, being no more than something to look
