false 27499 1 0 female 1943/01/04 49010 0684866005 9780684866000 39 <![CDATA[Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170357103m/49010.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170357103s/49010.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49010.Can_t_Buy_My_Love_How_Advertising_Changes_the_Way_We_Think_and_Feel 4.09 193 "When was the last time you felt this comfortable in a relationship?"
-- An ad for sneakers

"You can love it without getting your heart broken."
-- An ad for a car

"Until I find a real man, I'll settle for a real smoke."
-- A woman in a cigarette ad

Many advertisements these days make us feel as if we have an intimate, even passionate relationship with a product. But as Jean Kilbourne points out in this fascinating and shocking exposé, the dreamlike promise of advertising always leaves us hungry for more. We can never be satisfied, because the products we love cannot love us back.

Drawing upon her knowledge of psychology, media, and women's issues, Kilbourne offers nothing less than a new understanding of a ubiquitous phenomenon in our culture. The average American is exposed to over 3,000 advertisements a day and watches three years' worth of television ads over the course of a lifetime. Kilbourne paints a gripping portrait of how this barrage of advertising drastically affects young people, especially girls, by offering false promises of rebellion, connection, and control. She also offers a surprising analysis of the way advertising creates and then feeds an addictive mentality that often continues throughout adulthood.

]]> 27499 3.93 346 90 2000 2807292 0345505069 9780345505064 47 <![CDATA[So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood, and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/28/292/2807292-m-1255885734.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/28/292/2807292-s-1255885734.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2807292.So_Sexy_So_Soon_The_New_Sexualized_Childhood_and_What_Parents_Can_Do_to_Protect_Their_Kids 3.54 93
Popular culture and technology inundate our children with an onslaught of mixed messages at earlier ages than ever before. Corporations capitalize on this disturbing trend, and without the emotional sophistication to understand what they are doing and seeing, kids are getting into increasing trouble emotionally and socially; some may even to engage in precocious sexual behavior. Parents are left shaking their heads, wondering: How did this happen? What can we do?

So Sexy So Soon is an invaluable and practical guide for parents who are fed up, confused, and even scared by what their kids–or their kids’ friends–do and say. Diane E. Levin, Ph.D., and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D., internationally recognized experts in early childhood development and the impact of the media on children and teens, understand that saying no to commercial culture–TV, movies, toys, Internet access, and video games–isn’t a realistic or viable option for most families. Instead, they offer parents essential, age-appropriate strategies to counter the assault. For instance:

• Help your children expand their imaginations by suggesting new ways for them to play with toys–for example, instead of “playing house” with dolls, they might send their toys on a backyard archeological adventure.
• Counteract the narrow gender stereotypes in today’s media: ask your son to help you cook; get your daughter outside to play ball.
• Share your values and concerns with other adults–relatives, parents of your children’s friends–and agree on how you’ll deal with TV and other media when your children are at one another’s houses.

Filled with savvy suggestions, helpful sample dialogues, and poignant true stories from families dealing with these issues, So Sexy So Soon provides parents with the information, skills, and confidence they need to discuss sensitive topics openly and effectively so their kids can just be kids.]]> 1222562 3.64 110 50 27499 3.93 346 90 2008 424731 0684865998 9780684865997 3 <![CDATA[Deadly Persuasion: Why Women And Girls Must Fight The Addictive Power Of Advertising]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174623253m/424731.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174623253s/424731.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/424731.Deadly_Persuasion_Why_Women_And_Girls_Must_Fight_The_Addictive_Power_Of_Advertising 4.04 52 Killing Us Softly, a documentary that detailed how the images of women in advertising were destructive for women in real life. In the years since, her thesis hasn't changed much, but the evidence supporting it has accumulated at an overwhelming rate. One of the first points that Kilbourne makes clear in Deadly Persuasion is that advertising does influence people, which is why newspapers and magazines engage in cutthroat competition to convince corporations to place ads in their publications, on the principle that their readership consists of the most valuable demographic. What appear in those ads, though, are images that equate emotional well-being with material acquisition; encourage women--beginning in their teenage years--to work at preserving the one "right" look; and associate rebellion and independence with the consumption of alcohol and tobacco.

Kilbourne is militant on these issues, and some readers may find her positions a bit too extreme, as when she lambastes ads that employ surrealism for imitating a drugged state of altered consciousness or when she declares that most sexual imagery in advertising is "pornographic," elaborating in such a way as to denigrate the very idea of casual sex. And, despite several attempts at grim sarcasm, Deadly Persuasion is ultimately rather humorless. Kilbourne's heart, though, is definitely in the right place, and her demonstration of the extent to which we allow corporations to shape our desires is truly eye-opening. --Ron Hogan ]]> 27499 3.93 346 90 1999 3625383 0805051449 9780805051445 0 <![CDATA[Killing Us Softly]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3625383.Killing_Us_Softly 4.00 5 27499 3.93 346 90 1999 7005180 0345509781 9780345509789 0 <![CDATA[So Sexy So Soon]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/70/180/7005180-m-1255885744.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/70/180/7005180-s-1255885744.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7005180-so-sexy-so-soon 5.00 1 364010 5.00 1 1 27499 3.93 346 90 2008