Cass Herrington's presentation regarding the media was very interesting and informative. Among the things she spoke on, one thing that was both disturbing and telling about our society was the picture of a girl in a Target ad. It wasn't that she was slightly photo-shopped to make her slightly more curve, but that she was changed so much that just after a little bit critical review, it was obvious she wasn't even proportionally possible. I think this sums up our society's media, and to an extent capitalism. People who have an influence over others and use it for financial gain is a destructive yet common practice in the US. Companies known for "making girls beautiful" set the standard too high for the average consumer. Suddenly, in order to be beautiful like the girls in advertisements, girls have to buy those clothes from that store. This ability to influence people's opinions about themselves causes companies to push limits further, yielding in greater sale and lower self esteems. This continuous and vicious cycle has led us to where we are today: finally noticing the problem on a larger scale.
Even though it seems that the media generally sucks, there is a slow growing movement to tear down the unrealistic expectations vs. reality. Because people are starting to notice the issue, efforts have been made to attempt to reverse the effects and limit the continuation of such practices. And this tactic isn't used just in clothing and appearance. Almost any advertisement involves some type of stretching of reality. For instance, because of this fact, Dominoes Pizza started a commercial that advertised with only pictures of pizza that were sent in by customers. I think this is an excellent example of where the media should head and how advertisement specifically should behave.
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