Deadly Persuasion - Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising by Jean Kilbourne
![handle is hein.journals/worts22 and id is 117 raw text is: BOOK SUMMARY*
Deadly Persuasion - Why Women
and Girls Must Fight the Addictive
Power of Advertising By
Jean Kilbourne**
Everywhere we turn we see and hear ad-
vertisements: magazines, newspapers, bill-
boards, television, clothing, public radio and
classrooms. Most Americans view more than
3000 ads in one day and will spend three years
watching commercials on television, yet many
still believe they are not influenced by advertis-
ing.1 In her book Deadly Persuasion - Why
Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive
Power of Advertising, Jean Kilbourne explores
the pervasiveness and the danger of advertising,
especially how it affects women and girls. Kil-
bourne contends that [a]dvertising is our envi-
ronment and there is no escape.' Through
twenty years of research, hundreds of examples,
and insightful analysis of their effect on viewers,
Kilbourne readily convinces the reader of the
influence that advertising has on everyone.
This book is a compelling revelation of the dan-
ger that our capitalist, consumer society has cre-
ated by exploiting basic human desires in adver-
tising for profit.
As a result of the expenditure of tremen-
dous amounts of money on psychological re-
search, advertisers are keenly aware of the
words and images necessary to capture the at-
tention and money of consumers. The
chairperson of one advertising agency explained
it in the following way: If you want to get into
people's wallets, first you have to get into their
lives.4 Through the exploitation of human
desires, advertisements repeatedly send the
message that only products can satisfactorily sa-
tiate our human desires.'
Kilbourne exposes the way in which adver-
tisements create a toxic cultural environment
through the ubiquitous message that products
will re-create us, transform us and transcend
our circumstances.6 Kilbourne demonstrates
how advertisers consistently deliver the mes-
*Linda Neilan, J.D. Candidate, May 2001, Kinoy-Stavis
Fellow, Rutgers School of Law-Newark; M.A., San Francisco
State University, 1999; B.S., University of Scranton 1994.
**JEAN KILBOURNE, DEADLY PERSUASION - WHY
WOMEN AND GIRLS MUST FIGHT THE ADICTIVE POWER OF
ADVERTISING. The Free Press 1999, $26.00 (hereinafter
DEADLY PERSUASION).
1. See DEADLY PERSUASION, at 58. Advertisers want peo-
ple to think that they are not influenced by ads. Joseph
Goebbels sums this concept up when he said, This is the se-
cret of propaganda: Those who are to be persuaded by it
should be completely immersed in the ideas of the propa-
ganda, without ever noticing that they are being immersed in
it. Id. at 64.
2. Id. at 57 (emphasis in original). Kilbourne rejects the
suggestion from advertisers that turning off the television
protects children from negative advertising. See id. This is
like telling us that we can protect our children from air pollu-
tion by making sure they never breathe. Id.
3. See id. at 235.
4. Id.
5. See id. at 90.
6. Id. at 30.
[Women's Rights Law Reporter, Volume 22, Number 1, Fall/Winter 2000]
© 2000 by Women's Rights Law Reporter, Rutgers-The State University
0085-8269/80/0908](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/worts22&div=11&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Deadly Persuasion - Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising by Jean Kilbourne
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