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Popular Culture

"An advertisement is a message printed in a newspaper or magazine, broadcast radio or television sent to individuals through the mail, or sent out in some other fashion that attempts to persuade readers or listeners to buy" (Fite). The question is, do these ads have the ability to shape and change our popular culture or are they simply a reflection of that culture? T. M. Moore suggests that, "To be human is to be a creature of culture." Of culture, not making the culture that surrounds us? I believe that is true, as we are in a time of clashing morals and values, flashes of various images burned onto our brain, snippets of music blaring at us from every venue, and different beliefs every direction we turn. One of the biggest examples supporting this is sex in advertisement.
Does sex really sell? Have Americans become so immune to these images that anything without them seems bland? Fite says, "Sexual advertising is viewed acceptable because it encourages awareness of the products and in some cases increases the desire for the product." Titanic won an Oscar without ads featuring provocative images. American Beauty, however, pictures a naked woman on a bed of red rose petals, strategically covered. Another poster for the movie features a woman's bare stomach, a red rose pressed to it. These provocative images were part of an advertising campaign that netted American Beauty five Academy Awards (Fite). Was sex the deciding factor? These images were on billboards, theater marquees, and in magazines and were not considered "over the top."
But has sex really invaded every aspect of our lives and become acceptable, indeed, the norm? To test this theory, I pulled this month's edition of "Redbook" from my mailbox and flipped through it. There were 212 pages in all, eight of ads featured were of questionable taste, and three articles featured sex: "Get Your Sexercise," "Sexier Sex," and "A Sexier Pregnancy." Of the eight questionable ads only one, in a...