Killing Us Softly Video Response

I enjoyed watching the video in class. The author/presenter was good at walking the line between funny and serious. In response to the content; I think right now we are beginning to see better TV adds, there are certainly more that have a positive message or use "real women." However, I don't see much changing in print adds. That seems to be a bigger problem maybe in part because the audience is more specific when you are looking at print adds. Either way I don't think the problem will ever go away, because somewhere, somehow, the adds must be working...otherwise why would they keep getting used? One year my sister decorated her bedroom with different ads from magazines. Anything she found interesting, funny, or beautiful. She had an add for jeans using the cast from "That 70's Show" because we were big fans. It was just the cast in "costume" wearing jeans and looking normal. However, I did recognize an Evian water add from the video as being in my sister's room at the time! It was the lady in the bathtub with the Evian bottles all over. It was simple and pretty, I'm not exactly what the problem with this add was. It's a "normal" too skinny model, but that's hard to avoid in most magazine adds. I feel like going back and finding some pictures of her room at that time so I can compare the images she picked to the ideas presented in this video! I know she wasn't picking ads with a critical eye for the types of "messages" presented in the video, but by what she liked at the time either what the add was selling or maybe who was in the add. My interest is piqued!

The following commercial has good points and bad. Yes it shows off "parts" of the woman's body rather than the whole, but it also shows a body that isn't the unattainable crap you normally see. I worked for Lane Bryant for 5 years, it was a great way to earn money and get a great discount on professional clothes that fit! This add came out and caused such a stir because Fox decided not to air it during American Idol, after seeing it. The amount of free press that Lane Bryant got from the controversy, I'm sure they sent Fox a thank you card. But really, I don't see anything wrong with it...judge for yourself. I thought the commercial was nicely done and similar in style to others I had seen on television at the time. I know that some commercials are made for the basic networks and others are made for cable, but I'm pretty sure you can see a lot worse than this on any of the basic network programs, let alone the ads!