Advertising verses Inner Beauty? How it effects our self-image.

   ("Do I look as good as that woman in that commercial?")

One of the biggest struggles facing young people today, is self-image. Everywhere you look, on TV, on billboards, in magazines, videos, movies, 90% of the time it's all beautiful perfect people. Advertising verses inner beauty and self-image all of the time. This suffocating display of everyone being perfect or beautiful, can be very difficult for young people. Especially during junior high and high school years for both boys and girls. Girls worry about being popular, being pretty enough, having the nice clothes, having the prettiest accessories. Whereas boys, although not shown as much, they have to be worried about being cool, hanging with the coolest guys, and when old enough having the coolest car. It just seems to be all material things and outer image. Of course in reality, eventually, this is not the way it is. Somewhere long ago, someone decided that being the perfect, sexiest, handsomest, prettiest, skinniest, finest looking human being, is the best way to sell things, and it's worked, quite well, all this time. How many times have we thought about buying a product and thinking to ourselves that we will get the same results as what we saw in that advertising? You know you did that too..LOL!

Some advertising has used average people, older folks, mothers with their children, dads with their kids and pets, in an attempt to make the people watching, believe that this advertiser is just like them. The "average folk." That advertising technique works too in a lot of cases. But all in all, these advertising's and commercials are really after one thing, and that is to get the public to buy their product. Some advertising is very funny or have a catchy tune. Those are the ones people seem to remember the most. You can believe these advertisers who create these commercials know this. But just what are these advertisers saying to people that are subjected to the falsity that in order to get the same results or work as well, you have to look as good as those models do on television, have the same great looking car, or beautiful clothes. Sure..everyone wants to look great, but at what price and stress-level does it cost our young people in today's materialistic society? Everyday people are getting ready for work, school, going out and visiting with friends, just being in the public eye. They change outfits, change shoes, put on makeup, spray cologne or perfume and primp, guys do this too, just not as extravagant, to make themselves look as good as possible, all in the effort of being attractive or sexy.

I'm not saying we should all walk around smelly, dirty and grungy looking. Eeeeww! Although for some people that seems to be their way. I just think that in our country, and in many societies, we put way too much emphasis on the outer beauty of things instead of looking inside where beauty is found, is made and lives. There's nothing wrong with having nice things. Things that we've worked for, bought with our hard earned money, built up from nothing. Things that we enjoy, and things that make our lives filled more with gratitude, than vanity. I just think that young people are faced with more materialistic stress then necessary and it's greatly due to the falsehood of advertising and commercials that our children are subjected to on a daily basis. We probably will never get rid of this type of advertising either. So what can we do or how can we help our children? It's up to the parents to teach their children not to be so vain or gullible about what they see advertised. For some young people, they will have to learn this lesson on their own because their own parents are very materialistic. Which makes it even harder for them to learn this life lesson. When we teach our children to believe in themselves, teach them to have good character, to know that they are just as good as anyone else, but not better than everyone else, to be humble, it makes it easier for that child to grow up with a sense of assurance and belief in themselves. Without having to adorn an overpriced, unrealistic result of a product they saw advertised.

Young people that are raised with self-assurance tend to stay in focus as to who they are as an individual all through their lives. Even when people are trying to "find themselves," having been taught self-assurance, will usually lead that person back to their right path. Instead of falling by the wayside trying to keep up with all the falseness in advertising, that they believe may be true. But sad to say, there will be those who will not learn this life lesson. What you will find when people do not learn this life lesson is they become very vain, materialistic and self absorbed. They worry about every little sign that may cause them imperfection. They may even become bitter or angry about the fact that they are no longer able to look like all that false advertising that they grew up believing was true. So the lesson here is, there's nothing wrong with wanting to look good so long as it is not done out of self-serving vanity or being conceited. Being happy and self accepting has always given us an outward glow of beauty, whether we have the most current fashion line or not. Realizing that beauty comes from within, believing in our own abilities and character that is what will shine through from the inside out. That will give us the true beauty within ourselves instead of what we find in all that surface falsehood. That is "true beauty." Food for thought. :)

　

　
Copyright(c)2013. Advertising verses Inner-Beauty? Written by Sherrie Vitello. All Rights Reserved.