How the ad on the back of the magazine affects the "top ten tips" inside

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How the ad on the back of the magazine affects the "top ten tips" inside

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Most people don't realize the incredible impact that advertising has on the content of the media. That what kinds of articles appear in a magazine, for example, depend to a great extent on the advertising. For example, a major magazine did a cover story not long ago on women and heart disease. Heart disease is the leading killer of women and smoking is the major cause of heart disease. Didn't mention smoking in this article at all, and on the back cover of the magazine was a cigarette ad aimed at women. So they couldn't really mention smoking because they would have lost the back cover ad. People don't realize the extent to which this happens, so magazines are filled with risks about things like padding your toaster might catch on fire, but they don't talk about the risks of smoking or the dangers of second hand smoke for your children, for example. And most of this is really self censorship. Magazines, TV shows don't need to be told to do this, they do it just because it's been going on for so long, they would know better than to ever put anything into a show or into a magazine that might make the advertiser unhappy. Although people tend to think of advertising as trivial, the truth is that advertising is by far the most important aspect of the mass media is the engine that drives the mass media. The primary purpose of the mass media, of magazines, newspapers, television shows, websites, is to deliver audiences to advertisers. Everything else is secondary. So the truth is we are the product. We are being sold to advertisers every time we pick up a magazine or watch a certain show.
ELEMENTARY, Technology and Media

Watch Jean Kilbourne, EdD's video on How the ad on the back of the magazine affects the "top ten tips" inside...

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Jean Kilbourne, EdD

Author & Social Theorist

Jean Kilbourne is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking work on the image of women in advertising and her critical studies of alcohol and tobacco advertising. Her films, lectures, and television appearances have been seen by millions of people throughout the world. She was named by The New York Times Magazine as one of the three most popular speakers on college campuses...

She is the author of the award-winning book Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel and So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids. The prize-winning films based on her lectures include Killing Us Softly, Spin the Bottle, and Slim Hopes. She is a frequent guest on radio and television programs, including “The Today Show” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” She has served as an advisor to the Surgeon General and has testified for the U.S. Congress. She holds an honorary position as Senior Scholar at the Wellesley Centers for Women.

According to Susan Faludi, “Jean Kilbourne’s work is pioneering and crucial to the dialogue of one of the most underexplored, yet most powerful, realms of American culture —advertising. We owe her a great debt.” A member of the Italian Parliament said, “Hearing Jean Kilbourne is a profound experience. Audiences leave her feeling that they have heard much more than another lecture, for she teaches them to see themselves and their world differently.”

She has received many awards, including the Lecturer of the Year award from the National Association for Campus Activities. A more unusual tribute was paid when an all-female rock group in Canada named itself Kilbourne in her honor.

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