Body image Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Body image - Essay Example Joseph’s Turrow’s article entitled Targeting a New World shows how firms use target marketing in order to reach their markets and propagate their message. On the other hand, the detrimental effects of the marketing in people’s mind are shown in Dan Cook’s Lunchbox. Hegemony. These two articles reflect how marketers shape the body image of customers through the use of advertising and how advertising leads to the deterioration of our self-worth. Joseph Turrow describes how marketers are diverting their efforts from mass marketing to target marketing where specific advertising messages are geared to capture a specific audience. This is done by tailoring a program which is suited only for the target market while signaling the wrong people to go away. Target advertising, which aims to separate individuals in different media communities, equates the purchasing power of customers to their self worth. It can be seen that in this type of community, only those who can pay will be provided for while those who cannot afford to pay will be treated as outcasts. The separation of communities according to their lifestyle will also encourage individuals to discriminate those who do not belong to same media community. This individual will perceive that his â€Å"lifestyle† is superior while other people are inferior, hampering the possibility of knowing other people outside their circles. According to Turrow, â€Å"It will allow individuals in their personally constructed worlds, separated from the people and issues the y don’t care about or don’t want to be bothered with† (18). This separation also erodes mutual dependence and appreciation of other people. Lunchbox Hegemony proves how marketers have succeeded in promoting a consumer culture among the children. This article shows how targeted marketing as described by Turrow really works. Cook acknowledged how