Freewriting

The advertising of diets: it's all about the image

Diets have become more and more typical in the recient years. There are isles and isles of books about how to diet, what supposedly works and what doesn’t. And while I am interested in what diet is most effective for weight loss, what is more interesting is: why is the general public (especially women) so obsessed with diets. Is it the research in how being healthier makes you live longer? Or is it the fact that we are constantly bombarded with the pictures of the ‘ideal’ human figure. Opening of the paper should contain an in your face statement with shock value like: do you think your fat? Are you fat? Or Do you feel fat?. Something that is catchy like magazine and newspaper headlines are catchy. Every summer magazine, always next to candy bars, has glamour magazines with articles about special diet and exercises for ab and butt toning. All the magazines have something telling you “you should be dieting” and “you should look this way”. There are healthy reasons you should eat certain diets, but it is the image that compels people to follow the diet. There are other reasons people diet than appearance, mostly medical (Anaphylactic shock, high blood pressure, and other specific diseases), However, in my age group, the reason is mostly appearance. In an older age group, the reason is mostly medical. Walking though the grocery store, headlines grab attention. Even if standing in long line, and happen to open up the magazine, then the first paragraph is designed to draw you in. What sells? Peoples’ wants = be thin, have hard muscles, and be pleasing in bed. What I would like to investigate is: how or why advertising makes people desire to go on a special diet? Tentative thesis: advertising uses the ideal image to promote new diets, even in cases that the diet is not for image reasons. Specialized diets have not always been around; the concept is a human invention and idea, but the question remains: why?

To research this topic I will look at magazine covers and articles advertising diets or other weight loss techniques (excluding specific medicines). I will also investigate the history of diets and the evolution of specialized diets to determine how they came about. In addition, I will research articles that look into the psychology of advertising and dieting and how they are related. I plan to focus on American magazines and advertising so that I can also include obesity facts because obesity is a large problem in the United States.

The most difficult part of the assignment may be narrowing down exactly what I would like to write my paper on. It is difficult to answer why questions and so I will try to make my questions more direct and concrete so that I can answer them in my paper. Another difficult area will be finding journal articles specifically about the topic I would like to discuss. There will be many about advertising and diets, but I will be looking for articles specifically about advertising for diets using visuals.