Dissertation

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Submitted by: L. JAYASHREE Roll No.: 384 B.A (Hons.) Journalism Kamala Nehru College University of Delhi

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CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY

This is to certify that the project titled “A study of the influence of advertisements on young women‟s attitudes towards physical appearance” has been completed by Ms. L. Jayashree, a student of Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi, for the partial fulfilment of a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Journalism Honours. All the data presented is the first hand material compiled by her during the course of the project.

(Ms. Padmini Jain) Research Mentor Faculty Assistant Professor SOJNMS IGNOU, New Delhi

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DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL WORK

This is to certify that the work that forms the basis of this research, “a study of the influence of advertisements on young women‟s attitudes towards physical appearance” is an original work carried out and analysed by the researcher. The project has not been submitted anywhere else for the award of any degree.

The researcher certifies that all the sources of information and data used are fully acknowledged in the research.

Date:

(L. Jayashree) Roll Number- 384 III year, B.A (Honours) Journalism, Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This dissertation is the culmination of four months of relentless research. I know now that these four months would have been very arduous were it not for the help and support I received from a number of people.

I would like to thank my research mentor and guide for this project, Ms. Padmini Jain. I strongly believe this dissertation would not have been possible without her unrelenting guidance. For clearing up my doubts, for showing me the way to move forward when I had given up on my thinking skills, for motivating and providing tremendous amount of encouragement and for frequent reassurances and so, for being the backbone as well as for constantly putting up with many anxious moments that I had, I thank my mentor.

I would also like to thank my parents for being so understanding in the times I had to make them wait and a special thanks to Ms. Anshu Saluja for being a part of the pilot survey conducted along with another special thanks to Ms. Vidhi Agarwal. The questionnaire formed the bulk of my research and it would not have been possible, had it not been for these timely helping hands.

This section wonâ€&#x;t really be complete till I mention all those people who helped me diligently, and those who kept a reminder of my deadlines even when I had almost forgot. I thank Ms. Jyeshya Murali Krishnan for her weekly reminders in the form of questions about the progress of my research which contributed to hastening my speed of work. There also goes a long list of friends who kept me motivated (sometimes distracted) yet enriched my living with their routine doses of laughter and craziness that indeed, worked a lot. I would also like to thank Ms. Aakanksha Rawat, my colleague and friend who helped me with sound

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technical work. Equally compelling for me is to mention Ms. Shivangi Pathak, who made my work around graphical representations simpler. The combination of all this has led to successful completion of this study. The Delhi University ethics guidelines have been followed.

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INDEX

Content

Page No.

1.

Introduction

8-22

2.

Review of Literature

23-29

3.

Methodology

30-35

4.

Interpretation and Analysis

36-63

5.

Conclusion

64-69

6.

Bibliography/References

70-71

7.

Appendix

72-83

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Preface We live in times when the media dominates our world and creates various perceptions through powerful portrayal of images and ideas that somehow takes the form of the mainstream ideal and contributes to stereotypes that finds immense majority across age groups and so it becomes essential to take that majoritarian voice into accord.

The glamorous and glittery world of advertisements spread across all mediums of news and entertainment finds not only its target audience but influences even the others through playing with the popular images card that subsequently contributes to the humungous influence that advertisements seem to present and publicise in effect, various attitudes especially in young women.

This research is being undertaken to identify and analyse the discourses that advertisements seem to create and sustain through the influence on attitudes and perceptions of young women about their own bodies and the various related ideas of beauty and the solace that they seem to find in regard to attainment of such ideals. My aim is to deconstruct precisely these ideas and thereby consider the physical and psychological underpinnings that seem to hold a significant ground in young womenâ€&#x;s lives and, as such the hold of a few seconds- tominutes works of art seem to give us the various definitions of what it takes to suit the perfect ideal which, in effect, forms the base of the following work.

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DEFINITIONS FOR THE PURPOSE OF THE PRESENT STUDY Advertisements: Paid form of communication in the form of a physical product, service or an idea.

Appearance anxiety: A state of uneasiness and apprehension over physical appearance.

Body Image: Body image refers to a person's feelings of the aesthetics and sexual attractiveness of his or her own body. The phrase body image was first coined by the Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst Paul Schilder in his book The Image and Appearance of the Human Body (1935). Human society has at all times placed great value on beauty of the human body, but a person's perception of their own body may not correspond to society's standards. The concept of body image is used in numerous disciplines, including psychology, medicine, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, philosophy and cultural and feminist studies.

(Wikipedia.org) Instrumental Conditioning: Instrumental conditioning is another term for operant conditioning, a learning process first described by B. F. Skinner. In instrumental conditioning, reinforcement or punishment are used to either increase or decrease the probability that behaviour will occur again in the future. (Wikipedia.org).

Self-esteem: Smith and Mackie define it by saying that self-esteem is the positive or negative evaluations of the self, as in how one feels about it. Self-esteem is the sum of self-confidence (a feeling of personal capacity) and self-respect (a feeling of personal worth).

Self-image: Self-image may consist of three types: -resulting from how the individual sees himself or herself.

-resulting from how others see the individual.

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-resulting from how the individual perceives others see him or her (Wikipedia.org)

Advertising is a form of media in itself that needs no introduction which has been pervasive and for all to see. This pervasive and potent nature of advertisements leads to the fact that it has a certain kind of impact on people from across all age groups but the viability and the probability of that impact varies across age groups and that posits a very interesting juncture.

This particular juncture leads to abundance of ideas and plenty of questions regarding the influences that these advertisements have particularly in reference to Indian markets and to what extent the individual customer is influenced. Advertising draws “heavily on psychological theories” which talk about how to create subjects, enabling advertising and marketing to take on a „more clearly psychological tinge‟ (Miller and Rose, 1997, cited in Thrift, 1999, p-67). Increasingly, the emphasis in advertising has switched gears from providing „factual‟ information to the symbolic connotations of commodities and thus, by altering the context of such representations, there are multiple interpretations that seek the light of the day. These interpretations may project various voices and reflect imbued sociocultural factors that have continued to mark their presence in overt and covert ways and across several age groups including the age of adolescence where the young minds are in the stage of learning and understanding and imbibing those changes in their daily lives. This forms a preface and a blue print of the research study where a person‟s interpretation of oneself has several underlying contexts which are more or less prominent in the age groups

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under consideration. In other words, the age of adolescence is considered a very vulnerable age where attitudes are formed and exposure to various issues- good or bad define the way in which the particular individual is in turn, informed and influenced who for the purpose of this study are adolescent girls and would be referred as young women for establishing the simple fact that the representative sample under consideration grows increasingly susceptible to the messages because of many biological changes that set in with time along with cultural norms that the media including a large chunk of advertisements perpetuate, as „the mass media are the communicators of social and cultural standards‟. Consider, for example, the advertisements of cosmetic products, slimming and beauty products such as Fair and Lovely Cream, Kelloggs Special K, Himalaya Herbal face wash, Olay skin lightening cream, Dove Moisturising cream, White tone powder with a tagline saying „for a spotless skin‟ and many such advertisements that portray certain notions. Many hold that young women are „the prime targets because they are new and inexperienced consumers and as such, in the process of learning their values and roles and developing their self-concepts‟ (Kilbourne, 1999). This emerges from the observation that young women are much keen towards experimenting coupled with inquisitiveness towards concepts about the self, looks and overall physical appearance that contributes to engagement. In addition, the researcher wants to look at the various connotative and denotative meanings attached with transformation from the care-free days of adolescence to the responsibility attached with being an adult. Yet, these changing notions do not seem to change the mandatory requirements of looking and being desirable as a young woman and perhaps, even later in life that seem to form a relationship with advertisements and hence, the need of this question at the first place. Advertisements are not something new. The ancient Chinese used to advertise their circuses and their gladiators. 17th century England advertised the coffee that it had begun to import. At its inception, advertising was merely an announcement which took a modern avatar with the invention of

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printing. Printed advertisements joined other forms of advertising shortly after the printing of Bible by Gutenberg in 1480. The first advertising using movable type was a handbill for a book of ecclesiastical rules, posted on church doors in London by William Caxton.

One might ask about young men and why they do not form a part of this research study, especially in today‟s day and age where young men have become significantly conscious of their appearance if not equally. So, here is the researcher‟s reply: it is time we talk about a young woman‟s notion of herself and what it means to the ever-growing advertising field that thrives on the ideals of perfectness and seems to disregard deviations or rather, ignore them.

This leads us to the question of what entails advertising and it is interesting to note that the first and foremost characteristic of advertising is the most commonly used tool of promotion.

Advertising is defined as an impersonal form of communication, which is paid for by the marketers (sponsors) to promote some goods or services and as such requires careful analysis in the study of the impact and influence of media whether be it newspapers, television, Internet or radio. In general, „advertising is used to convey availability of a “product” and to provide information regarding a product. This can stimulate demand for the product, which is one of the main objectives of advertising‟. More specifically, there are three generic objectives of advertisements: -Communicative function- information about a particular product, service or brand -Induce people to buy the product -And keep the organisation in the public eye (Advertising Management- B.S Sharma and A.C Mittal) Consumption becomes the key where someone‟s or something‟s irresistibility is the ideal way of objects and symbols to enter into a person‟s subjective experience.

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As Frank1 (2011) says, „evidently, in a society in which revenue of attention moves to the fore, consumption is drawn before self-esteem. 1As a result, consumption becomes „work‟ on a person‟s attraction. From the subjective point of view, this „work‟ opens fields of unexpected dimensions for advertising. Advertising takes on the role of a life counsellor in matters of attraction.‟ This leads to making use of associations, emotions (appeal to emotion) and drives dormant in the sub-conscious of people, such as sex drive, herd instinct and of desires such as happiness, health, fitness, appearance, self-esteem, reputation, belonging, social status, identity, adventure, distraction, reward and of fears (appeal to fear) such as illness, weaknesses, loneliness, learned opinions and comforts.

As Mayne (2000) points out that it appears as though the advertising industry thrives on people‟s vulnerability such as the phenomenon to buy into the „beauty myth‟ which people in the media have successfully stereotyped. To take this argument forward, Bandura‟s social cognitive theory (Harrison and Cantor 1997) makes across a further point that people learn and model the behaviours of attractive others. Among these people, as study after study shows, young women are spending more time on the management and discipline of their bodies requiring that women constantly attend to minute and often whimsical changes in fashion as Susan R. Bordo2 says leading to Erving Goffman‟s words „ the appropriate surface presentation of the self‟.

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Young women especially in the age group of 16-22 years are in the process of forming impressions and as such are not told who “a lady” is, rather the rules are learnt directly

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The meaning of pictures in advertising, Photo and Print Journalism, Deepak Kumar, published by Sumit Enterprises, 2011.

2 Susan R. Bordo in The New Social Theory Reader- Routledge Book, Ch-19, 2008, THE BODY AND THE REPRODUCTION OF FEMININITY- A FEMINIST APPROPRIATION OF FOUCAULT where she mentions reconstructing feminist discourse on the body.

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through bodily discourses through images which tell them what clothes, body shape, size, looks, movements and in fact what kind of behaviour is expected of them which encompasses their physical appearance.

The researcher has made an effort to notice the various dilemmas and debates that continue to persist in the advertising field including the argument that advertisements give a false way to look at the self, and, here it is that the researcher wishes to establish, where, precisely falsity lies. To add on to the debate, it could be assumed that falsity does not lie in the individual advertisement.

There is nothing necessarily false about the consumption of individual messages. That is what, draws the prospective consumers in. As already mentioned, individually, each message communicates a certain meaning and each individual advertisement is produced for a certain strategic purpose in terms of communication.

But these very same meanings define perceptions and change attitudes, even bring about changes in the way, one sees their body. Perhaps, to invoke Visual Studies scholar, Laura Mulvey, „analysing pleasure, destroys it‟ becomes a central theme of this research where the researcher through such „destruction‟ adds to the body of knowledge data available in the field.

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The ideal of slenderness, diet and exercise regimens contribute to ideas of achieving a „perfect‟ and „ideal‟ body which forms a significant part of the discourse on body image and what constitutes body image. Body image, in the edited works of Robin Anderson3 (2007) means a person‟s perception of his/her own body size, shape and attractiveness. “It‟s a mental image of the physical self and is not necessarily accurate or consistent”. The body image is “elastic” changing in response to many factors including mood swings and external stimuli.

Thus, the body image has a tendency to be affected by higher frequency of images of others, such as models in advertisements and as such affects young women‟s self-perception and satisfaction with their own bodies. Therefore, becomes the issue of skewed eating in the form of dieting which even Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat had pointed out in the India Today Conclave held in New Delhi in March 2013 in the context of statistics showing Malnutrition on the rise in young women owing to their beauty conscious attitudes. Also, there seems to be a rapid spread in eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia which highlight the self- objectification of young women to satisfy their self-image and increase their selfesteem i.e the notion of appreciation and acknowledgment from others and especially from the opposite sex. That is how, it is interesting to note the idea of an „ever present male‟ in advertisements where a certain level of dressing up, thinness and overall looks become the expectation or a standard measurement of sought for catching the other gender‟s attention and interest at the first place.

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Edited works of Robin Anderson and Jonathan Gray in Battleground- The Media, Vol 1 talk about the concept of the body image in detail where it has been mentioned that beginning in the 1970s, researchers began testing whether dissatisfaction with one‟s body image encouraged women to develop eating disorders in an effort to attain the „thin ideal‟.

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There might not be anything wrong with enhancing oneself in terms of looks and bodily preferences but the issue contemplates into a major attitudinal hindrance where such media images propagate the beauty paradigm i.e. an image that being beautiful is a manifestation of being famous and known leading to rising appearance anxieties where young women tend to view their self-esteem in terms of rewards or punishments as in the study of instrumental conditioning under psychological studies that underlines expectation of appreciation or fear of ignorance from family, peers and society in general.

As a whole, they too become part of the vicious cycle where they put pressure on young women to look their “model best” as they too are exposed to the stereotyping emanating from the socio-cultural existence as mentioned by research scholar A.Poorani4 (2012) in her findings on body image.

The cultural context to interpretation of advertisements also plays an important role in terms of their economic viability where the researcher wants to point out young women‟s economic standing in terms of their drive towards their professional roles and careers. The researcher wants to highlight the role that each of these broader areas relating to the influence of advertisements has to play in young women‟s lives as they are on the path of understanding and exploring themselves.

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A.Poorani, Dept. of women‟s studies, Bharathidasan University, Tamil Nadu, Vol.2 in her research paper titled „Who determines the ideal body? A summary of research findings on body image‟ says that the globalisation of media have paved way for print and television advertisements to use images of thin female bodies to sell products and these advertisements are viewed by women all over the world.

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The researcher has also taken on a journey to explore the aspirations and aspirational value attached to body image expectations which advertisements may or may not specifically targeting the urban young women in the stipulated age group of 16-22 years seem to have been exposed to whether in the print field including fashion and lifestyle magazines or audiovisual media or both that underlie and seem to mould young womenâ€&#x;s attitudes. The value of each woman becomes intrinsically tied to attaining a fair skin tone. The binary notions of the perfect skin versus the imperfect and fairer skin versus darker skin are deliberately set up to promote products which on one hand are deemed as natural, while on the other hand, they bring about the lightening by artificially stopping the natural production of melanin which is a process that defines the skin tone as Goon and Craven, 2003 point out. Furthermore, by presenting “whitenessâ€? as the superior beauty5 type to women worldwide, companies capitalize on a stereotype that allows them to advertise whitening creams that claim to lighten skin colour. Thus, the global beauty standards set by advertising promote a global class system where fair-skinned women are the ideal beauty.

The researcher has been a keen observer of the various advertisements that seem to continue with the portrayal of a story with emphasis on fair skin and physical features that seem to play a more prominent role with the scintillating eye- balls they manage to catch owing to the use of a certain product. The researcher has also observed that these so-called standards become the order of the day over a period of time and even though, the superficial fads go away yet they leave a mark of certain undeniable characteristics beneath the layers of a superfluous society.

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Advertising and Race, Advertising and Societies: Global Issues, 2011. Katherine Toland Frith and Barbara Mueller, Peter Lang publications, New York, Washington, D.C/Baltimore; Bern, Second Edition.

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The idea of beauty and body size have further classifications that seek a prominent place in societies like India where young women tend to prove their superiority and as a matter of fact, their survival in „a man‟s world‟. Although, there is no intention of digression and diversion to the sociological aspects of the issue in consideration, yet it cannot be denied that advertisements cannot be helped without looking at these aspects if we were to consider them as a whole and in totality. Take for example, the view of the socialist feminists6 in the field of theoretical gender studies who „focus on the enormous commercial investment that companies have in creating and maintaining women‟s obsession with size, shape and muscle tone‟ (Brumberg, 1997). They, very much form a part of the society and the culture that young women grow up in and more or less subjugated to the highly omnipresent media which brings us back to the beginning of the first few lines of this chapter and also forms an inseparable part of the next few chapters.

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The sociology of gender- a brief introduction, Laura Kramer, Rawat Publications, 2001.

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Title of the Study

A STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF ADVERTISEMENTS ON YOUNG WOMEN‟S ATTITUDES TOWARDS PHYSICAL APPEARANCE.

OBJECTIVES Through this research study, the answers to the following questions that emerged from the review of literature and the observations of the society around are sought and are as follows:1.

Is there an ever- present male in advertisements?

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Is there a cultural influence on perceptions of looks and concepts of body shape?

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Do looks and body shapes of young women dominate their professional/ career role?

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Does the „cult of unrealizable beauty‟ lead to appearance anxiety?

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Do Advertisements portray fair skin as beautiful?

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What are the cumulative effects of portrayal of advertisements on women‟s selfesteem?

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Does the obsession with self-image lead to health disorders?

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HYPOTHESES 1. Most of the advertisements bank upon the omnipresent inclusion of a male, whether implicit or explicit.

2. The culture (region/ background) plays a pivotal role in shaping the perceptions and desires of looks- body and face.

3. Most of the advertisements portray good looks and beauty as pre-requisite for success.

4. Young women become anxious when they find themselves tied between unachievable norms of beauty set by ads and the reality.

5. Whiteness of the skin is considered the standard of beauty in advertisements 6. Advertisements strongly influence womenâ€&#x;s self- confidence and self-worth.

7. Advertisements are directly responsible for health disorders connected to enhancing selfimage.

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RESEARCH DESIGN Research design is the conceptual structure within which research would be conducted. This conceptual framework becomes significant for a research aimed at finding out the influence of advertisements on the attitudes of young women towards their physical appearance. The broader framework will mainly comprise of •

Content Analysis where 100 advertisements on Television and Magazines will be

selected using the Simple Random Sampling Method. They will be analysed on the basis of various factors emerging from the objectives of the study including the categories of age, body size, colour of the skin, attire and hair of the women characters in the observed advertisements.

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Survey questionnaire comprising of open ended, close ended and a combination of

both types of questions will be distributed to 100 urban educated young women in the age group of 16-22 years through the use of online domain in the form of a non-probability based Snowball Sampling technique.

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The multi-method approach will be put to use comprising both Qualitative as well

as Quantitative analysis which will form the basis for further research.

Sample: Size and Sampling technique used For Qualitative AnalysisContent analysis of Advertisements in Print and TV 

100 based upon Random Probability Sampling

For Quantitative AnalysisQuestionnaire Survey of young women in the age group of 16-22 years

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100 using Convenient and Snowball Sampling

Delimitations of the study •

The age group of the questionnaire had to be focussed on a specific category of young

adolescent girls (16-22 years) for want of time and as such lead to the inability to seek answers from women in other categories (23-45 years and 45 years and above) for the same.

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One of the most important delimitations to this study was the timeframe within which

it was conducted. The restrictions imposed by time and space prohibited the researcher from conducting Focus Group Discussions with young men as was previously thought off.

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The inability to get to the target of 100 filled questionnaires as the response rate

through the online domain was slow and distracted.

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Also, the responses to the questionnaire were not getting recorded in Google Drive

through emails and as such, had to solely depend on social networking site, Facebook for the same.

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Although, the research aimed at studying the influence of advertisements in the age

group of 16-22 years young women, there were nil responses from 16 year olds.

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Chapter 2 Review of Literature For the purposes of this research, the researcher has studied a few previously published works out of the immense body of work existing on the importance of physical appearances in young women‟s lives. Advertisements are pervasive and have been studied extensively and as such influence people across age groups and especially young women in the age group of 1622 years who have been taken under consideration for the purpose of this study. This review of literature will also concern itself with certain published academic works on the online as well as offline domains studying the various concepts and scope of the work already been done on the subject, and thereby taking the researcher‟s attempts forward. It becomes necessary that the terms in question are studied and understood in detail for further elaboration and in-depth analysis to follow.

Advertising comprises of an „identified sponsor‟ who pays to deliver messages frequently using persuasive appeals, both logical and emotional (as a form of propaganda), sometimes even to the exclusion of any product information (Wikipedia.org). Advertisements capitalise on the deep rooted insecurities of the desire to look good and beautiful being universal among persons of all ages. In the book, Advertising and Socities- Global Issues, authors Katherine Toland Frith and Barbara Mueller7 note that advertisers contribute to this “body-as-object” focus for young women by presenting difficult standards of physical attractiveness in advertisements which increases their guilt, shame, insecurity and body dissatisfaction.

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Advertising and Socities- Global Issues, Peter Lang Publications, 2011, authored by Katherine Toland Frith and Barbara Mueller.

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Globally, there has been substantial academic research work on issues that concern young women particularly, in terms of their physical appearances comprising looks, body sizes etc. which become even more substantial in relation to advertisements portraying and/or targeting young women. For author Sut Jhally8, „the entire media system (television and print) has been developed as a delivery system for marketers.‟ A large portion of advertising deals with promotion of products that pertain to the „ideal body image‟. This is mainly targeted towards women and in the past, while this type of advertising was aimed nearly exclusively at women, the contours have now broadened to include various classifications in the portrayal of women considering whether they are working at home or office. The advertisements in order to attract the prospective customers show women as healthy and good-looking which differs from the actual reality of average women. There is a constant pressure to maintain the standards as portrayed by such advertisements.

A study of Robin Gerber, an author and motivational speaker‟s quote that as the times are changing and as modern we are becoming, the concepts of beauty are perpetuating idealised and perfect body image attitudes which have contributed to the changing notions of young women‟s beauty. “We don‟t need Afghan- style burquas to disappear as women. We disappear in reverse- by revamping and revealing our bodies to meet externally imposed visions of female beauty.”

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Socio-cultural aspects: Sexism, discrimination and stereotyping, pg.226.

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This brings us to the intriguing concept of body image which has its origins in the 1920s in the works of Paul Schilder. Schilder talks not only about the psychological and sociological construct of body image but also the „reflection of attitudes and interactions with others‟ as an important theoretical concept that needs attention.

Gupta et.al.,(2001) in a comparative study on weight-related body image concerns among 1824 year old women in Canada and India found that among Indian women, concerns about the weight of the upper torso (i.e face, neck, shoulders and chest) emerged as a distinct body image construct. Thus, advertising seems to come to the rescue of such image concerns as author and lecturer Jean Kilbourne (1999) recognized people as having been „twice seduced, once by adverts and once by products‟. The appeal from advertisements also plays an important role where Professor Jib Fowles lists 15 appeals in totality called the “inventory of human motives” that advertisers commonly use in their commercials, of which the prominent ones are: Need for sex Need for affiliation Need for nurture Need for guidance Need to be aggressive Need to achieve Need to dominate etc. out of which Need for prominence- admired and respected to have high social status,

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Need for attention- want others to notice us and to be looked at, and Need for autonomy- “a breed apart” in order to look different from the crowd are important parameters that define the overall body image culture that we are continuing to witness over a period of time.

The change in how advertisements are being perceived has also led to what authors Kenway and Bullen9 suggest that the advertisement-audience relationship has changed in terms of the increasing „concentration on style, form and image away from use-value, substance or direct address‟. In order to add to the historical beginnings of the concept of body shape, another eminent author Graeme Burton10 brings out an ideological position where „advertisements for slimming products may be linked to myths and ideologies about body shape, which themselves may have some historical location in Victorian adverts for corsets‟. Also, he talks about the concept of beauty „framed in terms of the natural, when in fact it is constructed and an artifice‟.

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Media and Society-Critical perspectives, Editor advisor Stuart Allan, Rawat Publications, 2005, pg.235-pg.236 10

Advertising and persuasion, Media and Society-Critical perspectives, Editor advisor Stuart Allan, Rawat Publications, 2005,pg.236

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To add more explanation to this concept, a study of 162 women showed that young women who were exhibiting varying levels of self-reported bulimic symptoms were proven to be experiencing lower self-evaluations in terms of their body shapes when exposed to images of thin models regardless of the level of bulimic symptoms. Also, a study by Myers and Biocca11 revealed that even „30 minutes of TV programming and advertising can alter a woman‟s perception of the shape of her body‟.

Although, discussing the sociological differences at this point of time may make the very genesis of physical- self much more complicated, yet, does remain of consequence when we think about the topic in larger context of women and as such femininity is called into question. „As a result, femininity itself has come to be largely a matter of constructing in the manner described by Erving Goffman, the appropriate surface presentation of the self.‟ The ideals of slenderness, the diet and exercise regimens that have become inseparable from it, offer the illusion of meeting through the body, the contradictory demands of the contemporary ideology of femininity‟. As Miller and Rose have cited in their works that advertising draws “heavily on psychological theories about how to create subjects, enabling advertising and marketing to take on a „more clearly psychological tinge‟”.

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Journal of Communication, September 1992 titled „The elastic body image: the effect of Television advertising and programming on body image distortions in young women‟ 11

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This psychological bend also comes with the notion of the constant presence of a male character in advertisements and as such „portrayal of men as a constant reference point‟ as Burton12 points out. Also, in Advertising Management13, authors B.S Sharma and A.C Mittal observe that the advertisements have been portrayed as being excessively demanding when they set unrealizable standards of beauty and looks leading to young women‟s unhappiness with their own bodies undermining self-confidence and generating other problems.

In the book authored by Englis, Solomon and Ashmore14 sum up the entire subject in these words „ while concepts are culturally constructed, much advertising focuses on physical appearances. Additionally, right or wrong, the mass media consistently reinforce assumed linkages between physical appearances and people‟s feelings of self-worth. This emphasis on body image starts young and it is reinforced via mass media vehicles like advertising.”

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‘Women’s magazines’ in the book Media and Society-Critical perspectives, Editor advisor Stuart Allan, Rawat Publications, 2005.

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Advertising Management , Ankit Publishing House authored by B.S Sharma and A.C Mittal.

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Advertising and Gender- Global issues, 2011

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There have also been several articles written on the subject of women and physical appearances and what they mean in other aspects including health and well-being which function as a sort of a beginner‟s dossier. Prominent among these are Developmental Psychology15 and Lori M Irving‟s research studies16 that talk about the objectification of women‟s bodies and consequently the development of eating disorders.

At this point, it is essential to demarcate the research work from what has been published.

Aside from the chronological genesis, I will also attempt a thematic analysis. The approach has been to base these texts as starting points and branch out to areas that have so far been largely unrelated and therefore, unexplored. All of the above literature and existing data shall be used to further the analysis in the next chapters.

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Body image across the life span in adult women: the role of self-objectification, Tiggermann, Marika, Lynch and Jessica, Developmental Psychology, Vol 37 (2), 2001, pg.243-pg.253 doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.37.2.243 16

Mirror Images: Effects of the standard of beauty on the self and body esteem of women exhibiting varying levels of bulimic symptoms, Journal of Social and Clinical psychology,1990, Vol.9, No.2, pg.230-pg.242. doi: 10.1521/jscp 1990.9.2.230

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Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY Research is “the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions17�. Scientific methods consist of systematic observation, classification and interpretation of data. In other words, research is a structured enquiry that utilises acceptable scientific methodology to solve problems and create new knowledge that is generally applicable. Although, we engage in such process in our daily life, the difference between our casual day-to-day generalisation and the conclusions usually recognized as scientific method lies in the degree of formality, rigorousness, verifiability and general validity of the latter18. Research is undertaken within most professions and more so in advertising and marketing studies where research forms the backbone of the entire study and hence, plays the most crucial role in analysing the various aspects of the concept under consideration.

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Research design is the conceptual structure within which research would be conducted. The function of research design is to provide for the collection of relevant information. Deciding the most important research method and thereby structuring the research thesis is a crucial step, meant to be undertaken at the commencement of the research.

In this regard, the methods of data collection become defined as the methodology of the research project.

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Research Methodology: Motivation for research; Dr. S.N Sridhara

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Research Methodology: Dawson, Kothari, Kumar

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It is also necessary that a combination of research methods produce better and deeper understandings of the subject in question and the subsequent research work. “The aim should always be to choose those methods, or combination of methods, which can light up the most angles and dimensions of what are invariably multidimensional and complex processes and phenomena19”.

For the purpose of this research, a combination of primary and secondary research collection methods have been put to use.

In order to study the influence of advertisements on young women‟s physical appearance, a systematic examination has been attempted. A methodology has been constructed in order to support this thought. The research has been undertaken within the framework of a set of attributes that the physical self in a young woman in the age group of 16-22 years entails.

Therefore, the methodology has been designed to be unbiased and objective.

Selecting Research Methods: The method adopted to pursue this research further was divided into two stages: •

Secondary Research Data: This refers to data that has already been collected and

analysed by someone else. Secondary research data can be used for further analysis.

Secondary research (also known as desk research) involves the summary, collation and/or synthesis of existing research rather than primary research, where data is collected from, for example, research subjects or experiments.

19

19

Mass Communication Research Methods: Anders Hansen, Simon Cottle, Ralph Negrine, Chris Newbold; Macmillian Press Limited, 2004 Reprint

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In the secondary research, the following were evaluated and examined.

1.

Books – Books on various genres related to advertisements, gender and

advertisements in global societies, critical issues of media and society, and also book on advertisement through the eyes of studying images.

2.

Academic Essays – Various academic essays on advertisements and health issues,

representation of women in advertisements and the influence of advertisements on adolescent girls in India and Canada have been used. They have, in fact, formed the bulk of the research and the researcher has used them for further analysis.

3.

Online articles – Various online articles on adolescent girls and their behaviour.

The data listed above has been used to further the researcher‟s understanding of the research topic. The researcher had immersed herself into the research thinking there wouldn‟t be much in terms of secondary data. However, there has been significant scholarly research work published on the representation of physical appearances in advertisements in terms of women and men per se. The researcher has used these relevant academic essays for the review of literature, in the previous chapter.

The books that the researcher referred to helped contextualise the various aspects related to portrayal of advertisements and gender issues. It is only after having an understanding of the various discourses of gender and the sociological aspects of the various issues concerning advertisements, one can attempt to write a systematic analyses of the influence of advertisements on young women‟s physical appearances.

To that end, the many articles and features in the online domain served as useful dossiers in the beginning of the research project. The reports have also been read in the context of the

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cultures that each belong to and thus, all this became the literature that formed the base for further research. •

Primary Research Data: This is the data that has been collected for the first time, i.e.

first-hand that has been collected and will be analysed first- hand by the researcher.

Primary research (also called field research) involves the collection of data that does not already exist, which is research to collect original data. It is often undertaken after the researcher has gained some insight into the issue by collecting secondary data. This can take numerous forms including questionnaires, direct observation and content analysis among others.

In terms of primary research, keeping in mind the nature and objectives of this dissertation, I have chosen the following forms: 1.

Questionnaire

2.

Content Analysis

•

QUESTIONNAIRE

A questionnaire consists of a set of questions presented to a respondent for answers. The respondents read the questions, interpret what is expected and then write down the answers themselves.

Structured surveys employ the use of a questionnaire.

Because there are so many ways to ask the questions and the questionnaire method is very flexible, for this research project, a set of questions were prepared at first by the researcher with multiple inputs through a pilot survey with 5 respondents at first and by keeping the

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questions in line with the objectives of the study and having multiple types of questions including open ended questions, close ended questions and combination of both to proceed forward.

In order to further explain the terms, Open ended questions allow the respondents to answer in their own words.

Close ended questions include pre-written response categories and respondents are asked to choose among them. For example, multiple choice questions and scale questions which have been used for the purpose of this study.

Combination of both have close ended questions at the start and follow up with open ended questions in order to share their experience which have also been used in here.

The questionnaires have been distributed through the online domain of social networking sites and Google mail.

Thus, the use of questionnaire follows the sampling technique of Snowball Sampling.

“Snowball sampling uses a small pool of initial informants to nominate, through their social networks, other participants who meet the eligibility criteria and could potentially contribute to a specific study. The term reflects an analogy to a snowball increasing in size as it rolls downhill.” (Wikipedia.org) •

CONTENT ANALYSIS

Content analysis is used by researchers to investigate the content of mass media. In other words, it is used to explore the content of various media (books, magazines, films, television etc.) in order to discover how particular issues are presented.

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If we wish to describe and analyse media content in a more comprehensive way, a way less prone to subjective selectiveness and idiosyncrasies, then we must employ a systematic method. Content analysis is one such method for the systematic analysis of communications content. It enables researchers to sift through large volumes of data with relative ease in a systematic fashion. It can be a useful technique for allowing us to discover and describe the focus of an individual in the piece of communication being studied. It also allows inferences to be made which can then be analysed further.

This research entails the categories of age (16-22 years, 23-45 years and 45 years and above), body size (Fat/Moderate/Thin), colour (Fair/Moderate or Wheatish /Dark), attire (Western or Indian further divided into formals or casuals) and hair (Open(Long or Short) /Tied) that the women characters have been portrayed in advertisements in television channels and weekly lifestyle magazines named Brunch (Hindustan times) and monthly issue of Femina (Worldwide Media Pvt. Ltd) which forms the basis of further interpretation in attributes pertaining to physical appearances of young women including body sizes and looks.

These advertisements have been chosen at random using the Simple Random Sampling technique which means in a sample of given size, each element of the frame has an equal probability of selection and have been, thus been observed for further analysis.

(Wikipedia.org) Thus, in sum, a multi-method approach comprising of both Qualitative and Quantitative analysis entailing the use of linguistic features and expressions in the form of Images and signs beyond the narrow analytical paradigm of graphs and statistical charts also forms a part of the methodological approach to the research study. In any case, as Schmied (1993) notes, a stage of qualitative research is often a precursor for quantitative analysis, since before

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linguistic phenomena can be classified and counted, the categories for classification must first be identified.

Chapter 4 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS This section of the analysis and interpretation has been divided into 3 categories 1.

Analysis of evolution of the characteristics that frame the perceptions of physical

appearances among young women 2.

The portrayal of advertisements in reference to psychological factors influencing

young women 3.

The inherent sociological factors that form the contemporary reality of advertisements

All of these categories have been analysed vis-Ă -vis content analysis of various advertisements and responses to survey questionnaires pertaining to relevant questions in the field of study. The researcher has also included the answers of the respondents methodologically which have been put to the best use of the researcherâ€&#x;s interpretative skills.

37 Table 1- Content analysis- ADVERTISEMENTS ON TELEVISION

38 Table 2- Content analysis- ADVERTISEMENTS IN MAGAZINES

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Content analysis of the advertisements becomes a very significant part of the research as revealed by the results. Out of the 100 advertisements sampled using Simple Random Sampling method, the research study entailed 50 advertisements each from magazines and television channels that form the bulk of the research findings.

The results show that in most advertisements (Graph 1), the female character portrayed is in the age group of 23-45 years (63%) followed by 33% in the age- group of 16-22 years with the lowest percentage of 4% accorded to 46 years and above females. This reveals the fact that most of the advertisements target the age group of 23-45 years women and might not be directly affecting the preferences of young women.

GRAPH 1 AGES OF FEMALE CHARACTERS IN ADVERTISEMENTS

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The study reveals the fact that most women characters portrayed in advertisements have thin body sizes (Graph 2) with 81% being thin compared to 5% being fat and 7% with average body sizes. This can, in turn be related to the fact of the need to feel good through attaining a particular body size and shape that stems from the very same notions of physical appearance that these advertisements perpetuate. The contemporary advertisements have started showing women as working professionals in the purview of the home and familial ties that subsequently becomes a common drawer of consumer numbers.

GRAPH 2 BODY SIZES OF FEMALE CHARACTERS IN ADVERTISEMENTS

Another factor that seems to influence young women and their attitudes towards their physical appearance remain the notions of beauty in terms of being fair that circumscribes the advertising platter. This is clearly revealed through the results that show 90% of the advertisements having fair skinned women characters (Graph 3) with negligible probability of encountering darker skin tones. The problem persists deep when they seem to suggest that skin tones can magically change only with the purchase of a certain product and/or service.

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GRAPH 3 SKIN COLOUR OF FEMALE CHARACTERS IN ADVERTISEMENTS

GRAPH 4 ATTIRES OF FEMALE CHARCATERS IN ADVERTISEMENTS

Over the period of time, as the society around has undergone changes, so have the numerous definitions of physical appearance that also includes how one looks and what one wears. The

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results of the collected content (Graph 4) reveal that western casuals with 60% of footing were the most visible on television and magazine advertisements that also go with the contemporary West influenced cultural-settings that we are in the process of undergoing and as such, young women, who are open to experimenting tend to persevere these changes to the optimum level.

Young women are always taught to give prominence to their hair. Open hair that is long, silky and shiny has always been contemplated as defining beauty at its best and the results of the content drawn (Graph 5) also seem to agree with such ideas. Long and open hair is the most preferred with 55% followed by 32% showing tied hair especially when it comes to demonstrative advertisements. Take for instance, Veet Hair removal cream where the character is shown with tied hair as only the hair on the body becomes a matter of concern and as such desirability in the form of opened long hair retrocedes to be of prominence.

GRAPH 5 PROMINENCE OF HAIR OF FEMALE CHARACTERS IN ADVERTISEMENTS

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Keeping this content analysis and other observations around in mind, a questionnaire was framed. It was pilot tested and eventually administered to 66 respondents. The responses therein, cover the rest of this analysis chapter.

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1.

Analysis of evolution of the characteristics that frame the perceptions of physical

appearances among young women The notions pertaining to ideals of womanhood find resonance in the context of the „Global Indiaâ€&#x; in the post-liberalisation period where the ideas of beauty and physical attributes came to be talked about openly and to a widespread audience owing to the Miss World pageant, 1996 that turned out to be one gala sparkling extravaganza that started the debates surrounding the idealised forms of beauty and how much the market can consume with constant invocation of traditional norms of presentation of the body and as such the systematic construction of nostalgia putting the cultural change more explicitly on display not just in the host city of Bangalore, (India) but throughout the country.

Figure 1 Miss World Pageant Advertisement

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Figure 2 'The Crown'

According to Fisher (1973:52), the body provides „a persistent frame of reference into which other experiences are assimilated and accordingly modified‟. „Persistence‟ within the frame of the body contributed to continuously providing the necessary continuity for identity. Thus, the body in the contemporary global cultural space of a fashion regime (Appadurai, 1997) became both „the Consumer‟ and „the Consumed‟. Here, the reference to a question in the questionnaire (Figure 3) put to the respondents indicates that 56% (37 respondents) of the 66 respondents trust their „common sense‟ while making their buying decisions and as such, it is difficult to ignore the stronghold that defines the person‟s capability to be a consumer and at the same time, to be „consumed‟ by or to be persevered into buying by advertisements accords the next possibility with 18% (12 respondents) of the total.

Figure 3

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To further the discourse, „identity becomes closely interlinked as an ideal, one move towards using the consumption of products as the building blocks, underpinned by notions of freedom of choice, self-improvement and self-expression‟. This idea culminates with Mc Cracken‟s suggestion that products, physical or visual, are projected into mythic, utopian times and places, in which they become “fixed points” and material carriers for “displaced meaning” (1988:105). Advertising would appear as a good example of this technology of displacement where the body as an object of consumption and representation, desired and imitated, becomes a perfection towards which the individual can move in the hope of reaching that state, whether of the „good woman‟, the „modern woman‟ or the „beautiful woman‟. This appears to be the purpose of the question asked in the questionnaire (Figure 4) pertaining to what defines physical appearance for young women and the most staggering replies came with the pre-emptive acceptance of the notion of physical appearance where they had much of a significance defined in standards of „comfort‟ and „confidence‟ and an emphasis on presentable outward appearance counted as the initial point of evaluating someone‟s personality and as such, were also evaluated in the context of why salon/beauty parlour (Figure 5) have had 76% (50 respondents) paying regular monthly visits.

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Figure 4

Figure 5

While trying to scientifically measure ideal beauty more objectively may prove to be challenging, many scholars (Sypeck, Gray and Ahrens,2004; Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe

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and Tantleff-Dunn,1999) suggest that the media contribute to the development and reinforcement of ideal beauty and attractiveness through the repetition of appearance oriented norms and values as the Content Analysis (Tables 1 and 2) of 100 advertisements covered randomly on Television and in magazines comprising of lifestyle and fashion show that body shape and size are defined in terms of being thin where models in as many as 75 out of the total i.e three fourth advertisements had slim and trim young women irrespective of the brand or product or the target audience that the product aims to capture. In contrast, the questionnaire (Figure 6) directed at young women had 47% (31 respondents) saying that they donâ€&#x;t connect with advertisements that portray such body size ideal.

Figure 6

In the same line, fairness of the skin continued to be one of the main factors that advertisements played with in as many as 84 out of 85 advertisements observed of the sample size of 100. The interesting idea that was noted here were the responses to the questionnaire, which also varied saying that 67% (44 respondents) clearly do not agree with advertisements saying „fair is beautifulâ€&#x;. (Figure 7)

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Figure 7

The length of hair also seems to portray many different denotations in the signification of the politics of hair where in demonstrative advertisements for instance, Godrej Soap, Lakme eyeconic Kajal among others had their modelâ€&#x;s hair tied, whereas in others including non-hair care brands had characters with long and open hair which seems to gel well with 53% (35 respondents) agreeing to the ideal that long and open hair creates desirability.

Research has also shown that the advertisements enlisting Himalaya Herbal Cream, Fair & Lovely among others have two dominant themes which are most evident: -Beauty is a requirement -Beauty is achieved through products which, in turn, significantly predicts a belief in beauty as a societal norm.

Although, when the respondents were asked about the importance of looks and physical appearance as a measure of success, 68% (45 respondents) clearly stated that they do not agree but at the same time, 56% (37 respondents) felt like changing their look „sometimesâ€&#x; after watching an advertisement even as 77% (51 respondents) completely quashed the idea that advertisements portray realistically perfect images of female beauty. (Figure 8,9,10)

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Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10

A glance at the above facts would reveal that although, at the very outset, young women almost negate the influence of advertisements, yet, they seem to want to reach those very same ideals as they also reasonably understand that physical appearance canâ€&#x;t make success happen or the right male partner fall for oneself as respondents had a mixed reaction with 38% (26 respondents) being neutral in answering the question that whether „dressing up was

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essential to attract a male?â€&#x; As many as 26% (18 respondents) had an affirmative response in comparison to 21% (14 respondents) disagreeing. (Figure 11)

Figure 11

Physical attributes have had a role to play in how advertisements mask certain reality of the skin and as such, have significantly various interpretations.

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2.

The portrayal of advertisements in reference to psychological factors influencing

young women Over the past few decades, an overwhelming amount of research has been devoted to studying young women, the nature of their development and the factors influencing their ability to grow into well-adjusted, healthy individuals. These scholarly studies emanate from cases of such young women suffering from anorexia, bulimia and other forms of disordered eating and appearance anxiety. These illnesses and harmful patterns of behaviour typically result from negative or low self-esteem and a desire to exhibit the societal and cultural standards of ideal form of physical beauty.

It becomes essential to understand the underlying factors that embody such behaviour and in this context, Pipher (1994) says that „young girls are said to lose confidence, self-esteem, and independence at an early point in adolescence, largely due to harmful cultural messages and societal pressuresâ€&#x;. During this critical period, they experience a loss of self-image and develop skewed attitudes about their competence and image (Gilligan, Rogers, and Tolman, 1991). These concerns may not be so new owing to the media rich culture that we have, yet there have been empirical studies which have documented a rise in appearance anxiety and body image disturbance in increasingly many young women. Female adolescents seem often to use popular media to help them construct self-identities and make sense of their world (Butler and Zaslow, 2002). The use of Fair & Lovely fairness cream, Garnier light cream, Olay spot reduction cream among others as mentioned by the respondents seem to present a picture that goes to show the creation of such self-image perpetrates the link between fairness and beauty ideals. Also, 97% (64 respondents) agreed that presenting oneself well adds to high self-esteem. (Figure 12)

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Figure 12

In his description of „mental capitalism‟, Andre Gunder Frank (1967) says “the promise of consumption making someone irresistible is the ideal way of objects and symbols into a person‟s subjective experience”. Evidently, in a society in which revenue of attention moves to the fore, consumption is drawn by one‟s self-esteem. As a result, consumption becomes „work‟ on a person‟s attraction. From the subjective point of view, this „work‟ opens fields of unexpected dimensions for advertising. Advertising takes on a role of a life counsellor in matters of attraction.

A large portion of advertising deals with promotion of products that pertain to the “ideal body image” as the content analysis shows more than half of the advertisements pertaining to direct or indirect references to such ideals of beauty (Refer Tables 1 and 2). These advertisements are mainly targeted towards young women. It also becomes interesting and essential to define body image in a coherent way at this juncture. Body image is a person‟s perception of his/her own body size, shape and attractiveness. It is a mental image of one‟s physical self and not necessarily accurate or consistent with greater probability of change in response to external stimuli considering the fact that 97% (64 respondents) watch advertisements on a regular basis and more than three fourth of the respondents had been told to reduce or gain weight over a period of time by family and also out of their own desire of what it means to attain a „perfect body‟. (Figure 13)

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Figure 13

Figure 14

Considering the fact that around half of the respondents (Figure 15) had already tried methods like dieting, gymming, and hard core exercises to cater to their aspirations of

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attaining a particular body figure, the hold and influence of the image of the body can only be underestimated.

Figure 15

Women in advertisements are generally portrayed as good-looking women who are in good health. This, however, is not the case of the average woman. Consequently, they give a negative message of body image to the average women. Because of the media, young women who are overweight and otherwise “normal” feel almost obligated to take care of themselves and stay fit. Although, this fact is very well accepted as the basis for understanding the psychological underpinnings, yet the very same pressure to maintain an acceptable body weight and take care of one‟s health does not seem to reflect on the respondents‟ state of mind. The whole point becomes clear when more than 35 respondents say that they are happy with how they look and so 85% (56 respondents) responded that they do not get anxious about how they look after watching an advertisement. (Figure 16, 17)

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Figure 16

Figure 17

The sample studied also had an interesting trait to reveal in terms of the expectation that young women had from their own selves in terms of their “body image” that was reminiscent of finding ways intended to boost their confidence and replace eating healthier foods rather than resorting to excessive disordered eating behaviours like Bulimia and Anorexia that it seems as if they never had really believed in the ultimate ideal of the „perfect figure‟ even as

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the advertisements seem to perpetrate widely held beliefs of the standard body size , young women, seem to be content with a certain level of comfortable presentation of one- self focussing precisely on how they carry themselves based on the levels of confidence and inner will they exhibit.

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3.

The inherent sociological factors that form the contemporary reality of

advertisements This section would be interesting to start with what comprises the contemporary reality of advertisements. Advertising is a very powerful form of social communication in modern society. It offers the most sustained and most concentrated set of images anywhere in the media system. These set if images become powerful owing to the cultural and sociological factors rather than merely technical. While people worldwide generally all hope for health and happiness, culture shapes consumers‟ needs and wants, their methods of satisfying them, and how they respond to advertising messages. Therefore, it can be contended that advertising reshapes social interactions by popularizing the way people communicate.

The shift in boundaries, between the marketable and inalienable commodity, between acceptable and non-acceptable representations, between what Pellow (1992) cites as the „universal phenomenon‟ of an inner/outer division to compensate for social restrictions imposed on behaviour is a marker of cultural change. The body in this sense is also a site of struggle between „being‟ (the persistent body) and „becoming‟ (the possibility). The advertising visuals mean different things to different people if we were to invoke cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall. His work is quite well known for demonstrating how the viewer can choose the “preferred” or surface meaning from a picture or could take an “oppositional” reading to uncover the hidden ideological and cultural meanings. Since the research (Figure 18) here contends that 42% (53 respondents) watched advertisements on television and so on a regular basis, they were exposed to 30- seconds visuals on an average followed by 25% (31 respondents) who spent four or five seconds on each page of a magazine, the analysis stands that advertising campaigns are predominantly visual. But research has also shown that culture shapes the way consumers view advertising messages.

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Figure 19 Fair and Lovely Advertisement

Figure 20 Clean & Clear Face Wash

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Consider, the above pictures, here the advertisements portray fairness to be natural and yet at the same time, capable of attainment with the help of a certain cosmetic brand, thus in a way stopping the natural production of melanin in the body. This type of analysis reveals the deeper social structures that often go unnoticed in advertising. The method‟s rationale is that exposure to cultural differences depends on one‟s ability to engage in self-conscious introspection, for only by viewing what appears “normal” from this perspective, one can decipher the inherent cultural roles and cultural values that advertising messages about goods and services have embedded in them. Advertisements referred in the research analysis has a category called the roles/profession that the women were shown portraying in them and more or less, the characters were shown as multi-taskers with active involvement in home and work and the whole idea of the westernised concept of „Super mom‟, a woman managing all the tasks in a well-balanced way, comes to mind when we think on these lines.

There is nothing wrong with such portrayal but the fact that most of the content analysed (Refer Tables 1 and 2) advertisements‟ female actors who were essaying their character role in the age group of 23-45 years were shown to be desirable or atleast seeking desirability with use of a certain product which seems to overshadow their capabilities and makes their dreams intertwined with the pre-existing stereotypes.

Figure 21 Clean and Dry wash Advertisement

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The Indian setting also has various shades of skin colour that forms the basic part of its identity, yet all the advertisements had fair skinned women with few exceptions of moderate/wheatish complexions. This clearly stems from the fact of the obsession with Western colonial ideals of femininity and infact, on close scrutiny, through its use of verisimilitude, that is, through its evocation of familiar commonsense roles, we enter into the discourses of advertising unthinkingly, enfolding both the product and ourselves within a structure of power relations.

Lester contends that we learn certain attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge which emphasize and define not just the target audience but a much broader audience that is inscribed in larger social discourses about the self and “the other”. Further, advertisements that promote whiteness through the use of fairness creams sell the idea that one needs to be „white‟, in response to the looks of others: a reaction to a gaze, which is “colonizing”. Through the promotion of such products, the value of each woman becomes intrinsically tied to attaining a fair skin tone. Binary oppositions are deliberately set up with the promotion of these creams, such as perfect skin versus imperfect skin, and fairer versus darker (Goon and Craven, 2003).

The result is a “hybrid creature”, a doll with Asian features and Caucasian skin, which seems as the reconstitution of the colonized values through the application of the state-of -the-art scientific modification (Goon and Craven, 2003).

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Figure 22 LUX soap Advertisement

Even the attire worn in the analysed advertisements (Refer Tables 1 and 2) had the cultural setting intact in order to gain maximum ground, that is, connect with the consumers and create a perception of a basic identity of the portrayed character and the consumer to share certain traits alongwith their disability to not share certain other characteristics which therefore, creates a market for their products. The western casuals were inherently more visible in the mise-en-scene of advertised products, showcasing the consumer-oriented marketing in the disguise of the societyâ€&#x;s needs in the backdrop of the contemporary cultural settings.

Also, what was interesting to note was that when asked about the emphasis of advertisements in reference to attracting men, the entire sample of respondents had their piece of mind to offer where they completely opposed such perceptions and portrayals that worked against the individual identity of a woman as well as acknowledged and accepted socially predominant norms. They viewed advertisements like Kelloggs Special K, Himalaya Herbals, Vaseline Body lotion, Parachute Moisturizer among others as highly patriarchal and living in the age old rendition of the female sex as trapped in the restraints of beauty and looks and hence highly derogatory to sound the least. This analysis holds strong ground in the words of

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O‟Barr (1994) who says that „the most frequently depicted qualities of social relationships in advertising are: hierarchy, dominance and subordination‟.

Figure 23 Himalaya Herbal Purifying Face Wash Product

This analysis and interpretation surely brings out the fact that the power that advertisements wield on young women‟s lives is immense with their historically placed contexts that insists on the deep rooted notions of physical, psychological and sociological aspects of the bodily discourses encompassing several characteristics of beauty, body shape and size and desirability in extremely delicate details.

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Chapter 5 CONCLUSION Through this research, the researcher has taken some steps in a relatively much talked about subject in today‟s times considering the fact that media has been the ground for debate and discussion as well as confessions and catharsis. While gauging the significance of physical appearances in young women through the advertising medium which seems to be pervasive and as such perceived by various people and cultures differently, some very interesting ideas found space to be explored and analysed and hence conclusions drawn.

This study was conducted in order to trace the influence of advertisements on attitudes of young women, thematically covering the visible stereotypes that become the standard of portrayal of the mainstream. Considering the fact that the young women in the designated age group are constantly bombarded with images of the concept of the „ideal‟ or perfect women in terms of an overemphasis on physical appearance that has various perceptions interlocked with the other factors of the psychological and sociological underpinnings that eventually become the focal narrative through which this intriguing subject is dealt with.

It would not be wrong to say that the concerns about one‟s body have persisted through centuries whether or not, such concerns surfaced in textual or visual records and artefacts, the fact of the matter remains that „the body is the site of struggle‟ as already mentioned and as such becomes an essential part of the being itself. One could surely vouch for the fact that presentation of the body according to socially accepted standards becomes a substructure or the groundwork which determines the larger scheme of things to come and as such cannot be negated. Yet, these same notions of bodily discourse and external presentation of one-self comes to the fore owing to increasing and undue levels of importance being showered which do not seem to abate and advertisements seem to have their influence intact as they create and

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reinforce certain stereotypical behaviour. In fact, such shaping of attitudes especially in young women plays with the idea of being vulnerable to the notions of slenderness, ideal body weight, shape and size, fairness of the skin, the length of the hair are all factors that underlie such portrayal and unapologetically mark the beginning of the contemporary theme and thought.

This chapter is meant to give a summary of the entire research findings with all the mention of the observations that the researcher has come across in reference to the Objectives that had been set with their Hypotheses. In other words, this juncture brings to limelight the time to answer the respective questions that had been posed by the researcher at the beginning and to do full justice with the journey of the research itself.

The journey of the research started with exploring the ideals of beauty and body size and shape as it started in India in regard to the Miss World pageant that triggered not just modernization of the Indian woman but also the basis for the researcher to unlock the idea of the „cult of unrealizable beauty‟, the „obsession of women with their physical appearances to attract a male‟, the „the cultural influence on concepts of looks and body shapes, „fairness as beautiful‟, „slenderness ideal‟, „the cumulative effects of such comparisons on their selfesteem leading to appearance anxiety and other health disorders‟ and the „ideal of desirability in professional success‟. The „face‟ is regarded as being responsible for improving the image of India globally (Manchanda,1996). Such has been the impact that there has been an increased need for the „face‟ in television programming, the creation of the celebrity and so, in advertising as well. The liberalisation of the economy and media landscape has resulted in the increased circulation and presentation of the body in spaces that were formerly considered non-permissible. The impact was such that the market found a footing with the sense of a new and westernized picture of anticipation as consumers that now “we diet, we exercise, we consume haircuts, nail colour, off the rack imitations of the designer gown”. These were

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manifestations of the acts of communion with the image and what it represents and this is where the whole discourse about the body image assumes significance owing to deep-seated insecurities within young women, the desire to be good-looking and beautiful and this is where the advertisers cash in on the beauty angle and at the same time, works the other way around with advertisers in turn, influencing choices. At the same time, when we are stating the ideals that continue to be studied across countries, the results of the analysis make some very startling disclosures regarding the objectives that found pursuance.

The idea of the „perfect body‟ existed in the minds of young women who were very „idealistic‟ in terms of their responses that make one ponder about the feasibility of the essential idea of the unrealizable beauty. The fact remains, in simple words that majority of young women struggle to achieve their levels of mentally built physical appearance with only a slight amount of attention paid to advertisements on the audio-visual medium of Television followed by lifestyle and specific interest magazines like fashion magazine. There‟s a greater emphasis on satisfying their inner desire of carrying themselves well with high levels of confidence and aura that make them look presentable, while at the same time, adding to their self-esteem. Here, the self-esteem seems to complement the self-image and hence, not specifically dependent upon catching the attention of the male, but with acceptance and acknowledgement of the self. Although, the level of psychological satisfaction took its own time to bear fruits, yet the struggle did not lead to extreme health disorders and had more of a societal and familial pressure to look and follow certain ways of being a young woman. Also, the desirability seems to play on the minds of advertisers as they show desirability ahead of capability but the analysed results clearly negate the notion of achieving success on the basis of physical attributes and hence, the hypothesis stands rejected from the point of view of the respondents but continues to pervade the reality of advertisements.

In a nutshell,

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1.

Most of the advertisements have references to appeasing the male partner as analysed

by the content analysis method which stands to completely being quashed by young women as respondents in the survey questionnaire who view this mindset as completely degrading and de-individualising the identity of a woman and as such, reinforcing the stronghold of patriarchy to the core. This makes the hypothesis stand accepted but with limitations as there are also advertisements that work on the flip side of having a „female gaze‟.

2.

The cultural settings that one is part of has an influence on not only how the

advertisements turn out with emphasis on looks and beauty as analyses show but also, in turn, gets influenced by the societal and familial pressures that young women often encounter which determines their attitudes towards physical appearance and so the hypothesis is accepted.

3.

The advertisements have been observed to reveal that they encourage thoughts that

rank desirability more than capability with constant reference to being good looking whether in the role of a mother/sister or in the professional workplace but which at the same time, does not find many takers in reference to young women stating that physical attributes cannot form the pre-requisite for success which creates a certain standoff between the two and as such hypothesis stands rejected.

4.

The advertisements plant the ideas of „perfect beauty ideals‟ that are not only hard to

reach but in fact, impossible to attain and so advertisers supposedly come to the rescue of appearance anxiety by providing the appropriate remedy for their anxiousness. This point becomes all the more essential when we interpret the results in terms of the respondents negating the whole idea of blindly believing in the notions of appearance anxiety but at the same time reported to show rapid urge (56% of 66 respondents) to change their look after watching an advertisement which makes this hypothesis stand accepted.

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5.

The whiteness of the skin ideal finds absolute takers in advertisements where

irrespective of the products advertised, has unquestioned portrayal of fairness. The responses seem to not really be influenced by such advertisements and view such portrayal as highly biased and unfair. This leads to rejection of the hypothesis.

6.

All the advertisements call on the consumers through using the emotional or

psychological appeal where their mental image is deconstructed to give way to the idealistic form of beauty and as such, the advertisements have the power to influence a young womanâ€&#x;s levels of self- confidence and make her constantly question her self- worth by setting fresh standards. This stands in contrast to the responses that show more than 85% respondents to be happy with their looks and negate the notion of anxiety (35 of 66 respondents) whenever it comes to the physical self. Thus, the hypothesis stands rejected.

7.

Advertisements do not seem to be directly responsible for creating extreme health

disorders whereby, other factors including cultural and familial set ups along with contemporary entertainment forums like Cinema also play a key role. Also, the respondents did not seem to undergo any rigorous form of health concerns namely Bulimia and Anorexia and had mostly resorted to undertake dieting and healthy balanced diets as more favourable options. Hence, the hypothesis stands rejected.

The question that we, as scholars of advertising studies, must ask now is whether the means really justify the end?

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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY As the field of Advertising seems to grow with much vigour on one hand, it also does not seem to cease being studied with all its impacts and influences in a coherent and comprehensible way on the other and so, it becomes rather necessary to look at the ideas that advertisements seem to portray and whether, in turn, they manage to bridge the gap between „demand and supplyâ€&#x; or broaden it laying the foundation for multiple narratives and discourses that raise interesting observations along with substantiated results. Hence, there is a lot of scope and suggestions for further research.

This study provides some information regarding the influences that advertising has on young women. Thus, the following recommendations for further research and study are offered: -This study should be replicated by using a more diverse population to determine a more accurate opinion of the population of young women.

-A study should be conducted to determine the influence of advertisements on young women through Radio and online media.

-Further study on the influence of young women as consumers in advertising should be conducted to add more depth to concurrent research.

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Chapter 6 BIBLIOGRAPHY/REFERENCES Beck Mark Dom and Jolyn Wells. 3 July 2006. Psychological self-tools-online self-help book. Learning theory.

Biagi, Shirley. 2005, 2007. Media/Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media. Eighth Edition.

Holly J. Allen. Thomson Learning Inc. United States.

Burton, Graeme. 2005. Media and Society- Critical Perspectives. Womenâ€&#x;s magazines. Stuart Allan. Rawat publications. New Delhi.

Butcher, Melissa. 2003. Transnational Television, Cultural Identity and Change: When STAR Came to India, Sage Publications, New Delhi.

Clay Daniel, Vivian L. Vignotes and Helga Dittmar. 3 Nov 2005. Journal of research on adolescence. Body image and self-esteem among adolescent girls: Testing the influence of sociocultural factors.

Frith, Katherine Toland & Mueller, Barabara. 2011. Advertising and Societies- Global Issues.

Advertising and Gender, Advertising and Race. Second Edition. Peter Lang publications.

New York, Washington DC/Baltimore; Bern.

Irving, Lori M. 1990. Journal of social and clinical psychology vol.9, no.2, pp-230-242. doi:10.1521/iscp 1990.9.2.230. Mirror images: effects of the standard of beauty on the self and body esteem of women exhibiting varying levels of bulimic symptoms. University of Kansas.

Myers Philip N Jr and Frank A. Biocca. 7 Feb 2006. Journal of communication Vol 42, Issue 3, pp. - 108-133, Sept 1992. doi: 10.1111/1. 1460-2466.1992.tb00802.x. The elastic body

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image: the effect of TV advertising and programming on body image distortions in young women. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Poorani, A. 2012.New media and mass communication ISSN 2224-3275 (Online) VOL 2 Who determines the ideal body? A summary of research findings on body image. Dept. of women‟s studies Tamil Nadu.

Sanders, Lauren Erica. 2009. The influence of media marketing on adolescent girls. The Master‟s College.

Shaw Julie and Glenn Waller. 13 Jun 2007. Eating disorders: The Journal of treatment and prevention Vol 3, Issue 2, 1995 pp. - 115-123. doi: 10.1080/10640269508249154. The media‟s impact on body image: Implications for prevention and treatment.

Tiggemann, Marika, Lynch, Jessica. 2001. Developmental psychology, Vol 37 (2), 243-253. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.37.2.24. Body image across the life span in adult woman: the role of self-objectification. www.lancs.ac.uk/fss/courses/ling/corpus/Corpus3/3QUAL.HTM- Qualitative vs Quantitative Analysis www.Googlebooks.com www.Googleimages.com www.Google.com www.Wikipedia.org

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Chapter 7 APPENDIX Questionnaire for Research Dissertation This is a survey being conducted by the researcher, Jayashree, who is currently pursuing Journalism Honours from Delhi University. The resercher intends to know the influence of advertisements on young women's attitudes towards physical appearance which is in turn, part of the academic research purposes only.

The researcher is thankful to you for taking out 10 minutes of your time and filling up the questionnaire. The data (information) would be kept confidential.

You can share your experience wherever necessary. * Required Q1- On what basis do you make your buying decisions? * o Word of mouth o Common sense o Peers o Family o Advertisements o Other: _______________ Q2- Do you watch advertisements? * o Yes o No

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Q3- Where do you enjoy advertisements? *Can tick more than one option. o Television o Magazines o Internet o Newspapers o Nowhere Q4- What is physical appearance for you? * ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ Q5- Are you happy with how you look? If yes, how? if no, What do you plan to change? * ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ Q6- Do you think looks and physical appearance should be taken as a measure of success? * o Yes o No o Can't say

Q7- Do you think advertisements portray realistically perfect images of female beauty? *

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o Yes at times o No o Can't say Q8- Dressing up is essential to attract a male? * o Strongly agree o Agree o Neutral o Disagree o Strongly disagree Q9- How often do you visit a Salon/Beauty Parlour? * o Alternate days o Once a fortnight o Once a month o Never Q10- How do you find advertisements constantly referring to ways of attracting men? * Example 'Clean and Clear Fairness Cream' or 'Kelloggs Special K'. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ Q11- Do you think presenting yourself well adds to your self-esteem? * o Yes o No

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Q12- Has anyone told you to reduce/gain weight? If yes, Who says so often? * ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ Q13- Have you ever tried any methods to attain a particular body figure? If yes, what? * ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ Q14- Do you connect with advertisements saying 'Thin is beautiful'? * o Strongly agree o Agree o Neutral o Disagree o Strongly disagree Q15- If you are unable to look as beautiful or as slim as the advertisements show, do you tend to get anxious? * o Yes o No

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Q16- Have you had any unpleasant experience by using an advertised product? If yes, what and how? * ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ Q17- Do you connect with advertisements saying „fair is beautifulâ€&#x;? * o Mostly o Sometimes o Never Q18- Have you or anyone you know used/using beauty products to get fairer? If yes, Please specify the cosmetic brand. * ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ Q19- Long and open hair makes young women desirable. Do you agree? * o Yes o No

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Q20- After watching an advertisement, do you feel like changing your look? * o Sometimes o Often o Never

Full Name: * Age: * Hometown: * Career/Profession: * Annual Income of family: *

o 50000-1 LAKHS o 1 LAKHS- 5 LAKHS o 5 LAKHS- 10 LAKHS o 10 LAKHS & ABOVE Thankyou!

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CONTENT ANALYSIS SHEET FOR TELEVISION AND MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENTS

AGE FEMALE BODY SIZE SKIN COLOUR PROFESSION/ROLE ATTIRE HAIR 16-22 YEARS 23-4546YEARS ANDPRESENT ABOVE EVIDENT/SUGGESTIVE ABSENT FAT MODERATE THINFAIR MODERATE/WHEATISH DARK WESTERN INDIAN OPEN TIED FORMAL FORMAL LONG CASUAL SHORT CASUAL

BRAND/PRODUCT

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ARTCLE 1 HINDUSTAN TIMES FEBRUARY 2013

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ADVERTISEMENT 1 Comphing Dining set- Femina Magazine, December 2012

ADVERTISEMENT 2 Hidesign bags- Femina Magazine, December 2012

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ADVERTISEMENT 3 Kelloggs Special K- Brunch HT, January 2013

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ADVERTISEMENT 4 Hobnobs Mcvites Biscuits- Brunch HT, February 2013

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ADVERTISEMENT 5 Lotus Herbals White Glow- Brunch HT, February, 2013

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