Advertising doesn’t just sell us products. It tells us who we are. It tells us what’s desirable. What’s NORMAL. So says Jean Kilbourne who is internationally recognised for her pioneering work on the image of women in advertising. Her award-winning Killing us Softly films look at the image of women in advertising .

I have been known to bang on a bit about body image, photoshopping andretouching. And I never intend to stop. Watch this clip from Killing us Softly 4 and then watch it again. Now send it to everyone that you know and insist that they watch it too.

[youtube PTlmho_RovY 640 390]

[Thank you Nik Howe for sending me this]

*UPDATE: For those men who genuinely don’t understand why women like me and Jean Kilbourne bang on about this stuff and wonder why we can’t just ACCEPT that magazine images are re-touched and get over it, read this. It may help you to understand where we’re coming from.