The age old question of “Does sex really sell?” is one that I have been pondering a lot lately. So when I first watched this clip from the documentary “Cover Girl Culture” about whether sexy jeans adds really sell the product, I was a little more than amused to find out other people feel the same way as I do. Sexy ads really don’t sell the product and some of them are borderline porn.
How many people over the age of 21 have been walking through the mall and go past certain stores and see posters of half naked men and girls (because let’s face it, most of those girls look about 14) baring way too much skin and inside the store you see a 10- or 11-year-old girl looking at the clothes? I know I see this at least two or three times every time I go to the small mall in the next town over from me. What about in places like New York and Los Angeles where image is everything?
After first watching the clip where a young woman talks about a sexy jeans billboard, which in my opinion was something I’m sure would have made a great spread in Playboy, I sat on my couch and just was completely intrigued by the whole idea of the film. Then to find out more about this film I went to watch the trailer. It was something that, for lack of a better term, was depressing. It shows how pathetic and materialistic the world has become (and I count myself among those pathetic and materialistic masses) and what effect it’s having on the next generation of young girls.
Hearing these girls — who I easily could have babysat for when I was in high school — talk about hating their bodies made me genuinely sad.
This is a document every mother, friend and sister should watch and think “that could be… (insert loved one’s name here)” when you hear those young women talk about their fears about their bodies. This is a topic that has been touched on in the media, but needs to be brought to more attention because more and more girls are developing eating disorders every single day — because they want to be “pretty” and “popular.”
So watch this movie and think about what it’s saying and how it’s all affecting the young girls (and even boys) who just want to be like the people on TV.
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Follow Tierney Butler on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LadyJane666.
Great little trailer – Calvin Klein has always been just about sex – and I agree that many of his adds are in tremendous bad taste – I’ve seen these mammoth billboards in NYC that just embarrass me.