Women S Weight Loss Products - a Century of Sexist Media

Bay 1

Samantha Bay

Ms. Ruccio

ENGL 1101

10 October 2014

Women’s Weight Loss Products - A Century of Sexist Media

There are over one billion overweight people in the world today. According to MarketResearch.com, spending on weight loss products is expected to be more than $134 billion in 2014. Companies selling weight-loss programs have taken advantage of media’s world-wide reach to find potential customers. However, the issue of being healthy and feeling good is not the focus; instead, it’s all about looking good. Advertisements targeting women’s body images instead of healthy lifestyles have been around longer than I imagined. In these sexist and demeaning ads selling diet products, the use of pathos, logos, and ethos are combined to make the reader feel in need of a product to change her appearance, which operates under the assumption that women want nothing more than to be skinny.

In 1904 Dr. Jeanne Walter patented a rubber garment and advertised it in the newspaper under the headline “Reduce Your Flesh.” Sixty three years later, in 1967, the well-known company, Warner’s, came out with its campaign “This is no shape for a girl,” selling girdles and bras to help women who suffered with pear body figures. Then in 1970,Shape came out with an article convincing women they needed to stop eating and start using a new product if they wanted to be confident in a bikini. Jump ahead to 2012 whenQuickTrim stepped up the game by using two of the Kardashian sisters to advertise its diet product by asking the reader, “How Hot Can YOU Be?”

Not much pathos can be found in the 1904 newspaper article advertising Dr. Jeanne Walter’s Famous Medicated Reducing Rubber Garments. The title alone, while eye-catching, does not make the reader feel anything but self-doubt. Ethos is clearly present in the fact that Jeanne Walter is a doctor, therefore she must know what she is doing, so women were likely to believe that putting on the rubber neck and chin reducer and brassiere would obviously make them sweat away the ugly flesh. Walter also offers the address of her store, making the reader feel comfortable with the fact that it is a legitimate company and offer. The logos is fair as well; these products give the average busy woman the opportunity to sweat without having to go through all the hassle of dieting.

From my research, Dr. Walter was quite successful in selling her products to both women and men, which saddens me. While there is genuine credibility in the idea of putting trust in a doctor to help lose weight, Dr. Walter did not convince me to want to look better. My desire to spend money on these products was lost due to the reference to reducing “flesh,” although it seems government officials could look into these torture devices for interrogating terrorists.

In Warner’s 1967 advertisement for girdles and bras, the largely printed, "This is no shape for a girl," over a picture of a pear makes obvious the intended audience. The fine print explains Warner’s Concentrate girdles and Little Fiber bras will help women with unfortunate body shapes; by wearing the garments, any woman could become perfectly proportioned. Ethos can be seen in the bolded company name Warner’s; the reader knows the name and trusts them. The article also states that “any good store” will have the products available to women, perhaps suggesting it is convenient for women to buy the products but only good stores will offer them, which in turn pressures stores to stock the products in order to qualify as one of these “good stores.” The logos is that a woman who wants to be truly considered a woman must be shaped a certain way and these products are how she will achieve that. Unfortunately for Warner’s, the only thing they succeeded in making me buy was an actual pear because reading the article made me crave one. I can only hope after eating so many I will not begin to look like one. No woman should feel the need to force themselves into a girdle or bra that squishes their body to look a certain way, regardless at the amount and persuasiveness of logos, ethos, and pathos at work.

One look at the newspaper article from 1970 by Shape and I had to close the tab before I did anything rash to my beloved computer. In the article the reader is first drawn to the title, “You know why she’s wearing the sweatshirt, don’t you.” Under that lovely statement, a picture is shown of three young women posing on the beach, two in bikinis and one in a sweatshirt. Although they all seem to be about the same size, the image is meant to show the one wearing a sweatshirt was not thin enough to be pictured in a bikini and had to cover up. Throughout the article, four sentences are bolded, most likely so the lazy reader looking for the highlights can get the gist of what Shape has to say about being overweight: “Face it, you’ve got to stop eating,” “Shape. It’s new from Metrecal,” “Shape has no cyclamate, no saccharin,” and “Shape powder or liquid.” Simply by reading these four sentences it is easy to find ethos, logos, and pathos. Pathos is seen in the first statement: they want the reader to understand she is not as good-looking as she could be and Shape can help. The company does not want to make the reader feel good;it wants to provoke sadness and then give an answer to the very confidence and body image problems it has created. The brand name Metrecal, a well known diet company, provides ethos by giving the reader a credible source to make them feel more comfortablewith being insulted so harshly. Finally, logos can be taken from the last statement in that the product is offered in both a liquid and powder form, meaning it is convenient to use.

My opinion of Metrecal, for the article and the product Shape in general, is very low. I am offended by the product. I am appalled by the idea that I should be persuaded to buy something from someone who tells me to stop eating because I am too fat to be seen in a bathing suit. Ethos and Logos are completely wiped away by the seemingly intentional and insulting pathos shown by Metrecal.

If we fast forwardto the twenty-first century, dieting in media has become something women relish in relating to celebrities. It is fashionable to say I lost twenty pounds using the same product that helped Kim Kardashian keep her perfect figure. QuickTrim took this into consideration when they used Kim and Khloe Kardashian, popular from their reality television show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” to advertise its newest dieting product. What is most interesting about its ad is that it doesn't even say what the product is. All they need the reader to see is the picture of the two beautiful women in bikinis to evoke pathos and ethos, showing what its product can do. Logos is also present in that any woman would want to keep up with the trends of celebrities, and QuickTrimis the answer.

Although I do not approve of the advertisements that objectify women and make body image seem to be the most important thing in a woman’s life, it is interesting how advertisers have used persuasion to convince women to buy weight loss products over time. In 1904 the article for Dr. Jeanne Walter’s rubber garments simply told the reader to buy the product to stop being fat. QuickTrim took a less direct approach, persuading women they need to be trendy and use their product because these beautiful women everyone is so familiar with do so.

My opinion of these ads and their makers aside, weight-loss is an issue that needs attention. Companies creating products with the potential to reduce the ever-growing number of overweight and obese people in the world need to realize that in the twenty-first century women who are upset by an ad are more likely to go to the doctor and be prescribed depression pills than invest in a diet or exercise plan. Education in health, while provided by public schooling, is minimal in the United States and obesity continues to rise. Losing weight in order to be healthy reduces the risk of heart disease, of becoming diabetic, and the price of flying if one wishes to purchase only one seat. Focusing on the good instead of the bad is the direction media needs to go when approaching weight-loss. Dove is a perfect example of positively advertising to women because it uses“real” women. Its models are the average woman, much like its customers, offering women a realistic way to feel good about themselves.

The weight loss industry in the United States is bigger than $100 billion (MarketResearch). Celebrities, like the Kardashian sisters, earn anywhere from $500,000 to $3 million for endorsing a weight loss program. And, 85% of people purchasing weight-loss products are women. The popularity of women’s magazines has increased the opportunities for advertisers to reach women, and the media seem to want women to believe that buying products can help them look like supermodels. Some might believe sexism in media is fading. However, I believe it is only becoming more and more devious. It’s hard to believe that a century ago Dr. Jeanne Walter was calling women fat straight to their faces, but at least she was selling her product with honesty. There was no secret message behind a famous face as products are advertised today. I could not choose which I would rather be subjected to, but there is a growing force behind ridding these evils from media and for me it cannot be done soon enough.

Bay 6

Works Cited

Andersen, Charlotte. "The 20 Best (Worst) Vintage Diet Ads [Part 2 - Because I Just Love These Things SO Much]." Charlotte Hilton Andersen. N.p., 27 Mar. 2013. Mon. 06 Oct. 2014.

MarketResearch."Spending on Weight Loss Products to Reach More Than $134 Billion in 2014."Marketwire.N.p., 16 Nov. 2010. Mon. 06 Oct. 2014.

Momgrind. "Truth In Advertising: Does It Exist?" Blogger For Hire RSS. N.p. n/a, n.d. Mon. 08 Oct. 2014.

News Staff, ABC. "100 Million Dieters, $20 Billion: The Weight-Loss Industry by the Numbers." ABC News.N.p., 8 May 2012. Mon. 6 Oct. 2014.

Usmar, Jo. "Kardashian Sisters' Response to $5million Lawsuit: 'QuickTrim Diet Pills Don't Work? Not Our Problem'" Mirror. N.p., 9 June 2012. Mon. 06 Oct. 2014.

Vivanco, Laura. "Teach Me Tonight." : Advertising Women. N.p., 22 Mar. 2011. Mon. 06 Oct. 2014.

Worldometers.“Weight Loss Statistics - Worldometers.”Weight Loss Statistics - Worldometers. N.p. continuous, n.d. Mon. 06 Oct. 2014.