What Now?

As the semester winds down, I've been searching high and low for websites or campaigns that are counter consumer culture. As I'm sure you all can assume, it is a lot harder to find these than it is to find a sexist advertisement in Seventeen.

However, it is more important than ever that we seek out these organizations because it is at the grassroots level where we can make change as consumers and citizens. One website that I particularly like is about-face.org, which focuses on representations of women in advertising. They have a gallery of "winners" and "offenders": ads that are either appropriate or not. I believe they also lead workshops and other awareness campaigns. Another site is mediawatch.com which is a non-profit organization aiming to bring awareness to racist, violent, and sexist advertising. About Face features a laundry list of company addresses in case you are extremely heated about a Calvin Klein ad, for example.

As a class, we know that addressing issues in the media is important. For those not in this class, here are a few more images to shock you. I know I probably come across as a Debby Downer with all of these depressing advertisements-but I myself didn't realize how bad it was until I saw these, and I feel more motivated to make change. I don't know how these ads weren't censored. I considered all of them for my presentation. As you will see, it was really difficult to find an ad to analyze. All of them are full of so many negative messages that NEED to change-Now.

I think the pictures say it all.