Perhaps the most active aspect of the media leading to body dissatisfaction and/or eating disorders is advertisements.  Even in food advertisements, the media presents countless thin-body images and gives an unrealistic portrayal of both men and women’s bodies.  Though the media insists that everyone should attain the perfect body, it sells food products, even high caloric food products, using thin models, a seemingly inconsistent technique.  Similarly, Jennifer Nardozzi claims that because the media employs thin-body images to sell food, people “seem bombarded by contradictory media influences” (37).  As with most media ideals, women are the most affected by media exploitation and contradiction.  Though women are targeted to constantly improve their body image, Silverstein et al conducted a study of the forty-eight most popular magazines for males and females and concluded that the women’s magazines had almost ten times as many food advertisements as the men’s (Wilson 2).  Furthermore, these advertisements consistently portray an unrealistic picture of women and oftentimes “reflect [body dissatisfaction] by depicting women as perpetually obsessed and dissatisfied with their body weight, size, and shape” (Wilson 3).  For example, Fitness magazine published an advertisement for Jarlsberg Lite Cheese which showed a thin model in a short dress with the caption “Everybody could use a little less fat.”  In addition, one of the former milk campaigns featured female celebrities like Daisy Fuentes and Neve Campbell with the patented milk moustaches and the caption “Guilty or not?  Do you cross out the waist size on your jeans?” (Wilson 3).  Though critics contend that products would not sell if advertised by overweight models, there is no reason that curvy or athletic models would not be as effective as an overly thin model.  These advertisements are blatant examples of the media attempting to make women feel bad about their bodies; both portray already-thin models who are not fully satisfied with their bodies.  Advertisements such as these rarely depict fat men or women directly but instead subtly represent the thin ideal. 

            Another type of advertisement that the media uses to convey false body ideals is dieting products.  Dieting plays an important role in present society; one in three women and one in four men are currently on a diet, and diet or diet-related products constitute a thirty-three billion dollar industry in America (Media and).  Dieting advertisements often invoke a feeling of guilt and make people, especially women, fear or even loathe fat.  Furthermore, because diet-related advertisements are often for low-fat or fat-free foods, they imply that high calorie foods are forbidden or should be avoided at all costs.  One strategy that the media employs when selling low-fat foods is marketing the product as boring or tasteless, which seems to suggest that one cannot eat flavorsome foods while on a diet or that attaining the perfect body comes at a cost.  For example, Molly McButter sells a fat-free, butter-like powder, and the latest campaign for this product states, “So healthy food actually tastes good.”  Advertisements like this merely enhance body dissatisfaction and ultimately lead to something even more serious:  eating disorders.

            American society is consistently gaining weight, which is posing a health problem, and the dieting industry has taken advantage of this.  Unfortunately, dieting advertisements rarely appeal to overweight people and usually depict incredibly thin women or men.  However, obese people or other people who need to diet for health reasons cannot relate to these thin images.  Instead, the people who can relate are those of normal body weight who see an even thinner, more perfect image.  For this reason, dieting has become rampant among varying ages and sizes, and there is no distinction in dieting advertisements about who truly needs to diet.

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