Is Imagery Deadly or Safe?

After reading the pages that were assigned to us, it made me have a stronger dislike towards some advertising. I was never aware of how much structure there was to it. I just thought most would get a semi nude person and take a picture and then BOOM you have an advertisement. I didn’t know that an image or video had so much to it. You have to deal with gender, race, what audience to attract, the lighting, and much more. Everything in an advertisement is to point out what a product should be. One of the readings pointed out that advertisements for cosmetics or clothing weren’t made to have to consumer felt better about themselves but to make the consumer feel worse. They wanted them to feel like they weren’t good enough as they were so by buying the product it would make them even better as a person on the outside. Yes that is a good way of getting money but is that the right thing to do? Many problems with people today have to do with self image, so by constantly showing extremely thin girls, guys on steroids, and the picture perfect person (who is actually is photo shopped) causes these problems. Many females and males change who they are because of crap like this. They change with eating disorders, diet pills, surgery, and over exercising just so they can be feel beautiful. Now not all imagery is like this. Some is to make a reason known. I remember tragedies like September 11th and Hurricane Katrina happening but I remember the imagery that was taken to show people how terrible these events were. Other events like the Holocaust, Pearl Harbor, and the Great Depression are in school books to show students the troubles that happened in the past. Movies are created for a real life experience also. Imagery can not only show people about life but also influence their own.