J.Y.
Safe to Say She Loves Her Socks. Photograph. American Apparel, Los Angeles.
The one difference that I can see between the populations of victims of physical sexual abuse and those of media print psychological influence, is the lack of trust in adults as a result of pedophilia. It’s been documented that sexual abuse victims have been so obviously betrayed by a prominent adult figure, that trust in any adult figure can be a life long issue (Dailey 6). I have found no documentation on that being a lasting effect from the result of influence of print media. This may be due to the fact that adults are never actually portrayed in the ads so the fact that they created. Kids don’t take into consideration that they are obeying the message of adult advertisers through sexual teen advertising. I wonder if each ad had a warning under it, similar to the cigarette ads, would make any difference. “Warning, this ad was created by adults for the sole purpose of convincing you to believe that you are inadequate until you purchase this product.” Or if they actually got to see a picture of the people behind the ad and in the process of creating the ad would lessen the created enthusiasm. It affects how kids trust adults as well.
Cling Fits. Photograph. Levi’s, San Francisco.