positive and negative impacts of advertisements

Example 5 :

Diet Advertisements Promote Stereotypes

Obese People in 'Before & After' Ads Perpetuate Stigmas, Stereotypes.

In newspapers, magazines and on the television programmes, diet or slimming advertisements with "before-and-after" pictures/videos of obese people perpetuate hurtful stereotypes. As these advertisements reach out to millions of people every day, their potential for harm is vast.

Thus, this gives rise to significant social stigma and weight discrimination occuring in many important areas of life, including employment, medical care, and education. In addition; despite no clear relationship between certain character traits and weight, negative judgments are routinely made about those who are overweight. This is because these slimming advertisements normally portray these obese people as less confident/motivated people. Hence, these advertisements portray a negative image of the overweight people.

A major contributor to the stigma is the impression that individual can easily control their weight and that there is a lack of self-discipline and personal failure that are responsible for excess weight. Societal messages can enhance these stigmas and contribute to antifat attitudes.

One set of advertisement was a "before-and-after" diet type of ad with side-by-side pictures of obese people and slim people. Overall, most people found that the slim people are more attractive.
In addition, from a study, it is found out that having a close friend or relative who was obese appeared to have a lessening effect on general antifat attitudes but it did not influence the belief that weight is controllable.

(Adapted from: http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20040312/diet-ads-promote-stereotypes?src=rss_cbsnews)