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Marketing, Ethics and Teenagers

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I do believe that advertisements aimed at teenagers are effective, but they are not always ethical. Studies show that the popularized look of the models in advertisement can lead to depression, body dysmorphic disorders, ad other body image issues and eating disorders. Thus, although effective, advertisements for clothing aimed at teenagers are unethical and unhealthy. There have been various studies conducted that asseverate the claim being that advertising causes various psychological anomalies that can be detrimental both mentally and physically. Such studies have been published in the APA Journal (American Psychological Association) that have linked, with a positive correlation, advertisements that lead to Body Dysmorphic Disorder, and other such Generalized Anxiety Disorders(GAD). Eric Stice and Heather Shaw (1994) conducted one such study whose primary aim was to assess the exposure to the thin-ideal stereotype. After the 157 female participants finished the questionnaire, the researchers found that exposure to the thin-ideal produced depression, stress, guilt, shame, insecurity, and body dissatisfaction. Another of these is a study conducted by Galioto et al. (2013) where the effects of appearance-based comparisons to muscular and slender idealized male bodies and the contribution of internalization and social comparison to change in body dissatisfaction were examined. Their results indicated that both images increased bodily dissatisfaction, and no significant differences in the change of dissatisfaction between the two images. Finally, Cramblitt and Pritchard (2013) conducted another study; their findings were foursome, (a) the more time men and women reported watching television, the higher their reported drive for muscularity (b) total hours of viewing sports-related, image-focused, and entertainment television related to increased drive for muscularity in women (c) drive for muscularity in men related to watching image-focused television and reading men's health magazines, and (d) internalization of athletic attitudes towards appearance mediated the relationship between total television watche

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