At her keynote address Friday night, media critic Jean Kilbourne stressed how advertising has created a toxic cultural environment of poisonous, destructive images that cause the public health, especially that of young women, to suffer.
About 300 people came to hear Kilbourne’s speech, which was the kickoff event to “Girls on the Move,” sponsored by the ASUO Women’s Center. Kilbourne’s speech and slide show entitled “Deadly Persuasion” focused on advertising and was followed by a question and answer session and a book signing.
Although she criticized many forms of advertising, her main focus was how tobacco companies recruit young, new smokers.
“When you’re selling a product that kills people, you’ve got a problem,” she said. “Your best customers die every day.”
She addressed how alcohol advertising targets young people as well.
Kilbourne, currently a visiting scholar at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass., also discussed ways in which advertising, especially in the fashion and beauty industries, can affect young women.
“Self-esteem of girls in America plummets at adolescence,” she said.
At the end of her speech, the audience gave Kilbourne a standing ovation. Members of the audience included Girls on the Move participants, University students and the public.
“I thought she was very good as a motivation speaker,” Jennifer Hester, a Girls on the Move participant from Mountain View High School in Bend, said. “We’ll definitely look at advertisements differently.”
Kilbourne showed several ads that appeared in Advertising Age, an advertising publication that contains business to business advertisements. Such ads attempt to sell their readership as potential advertising targets.
Ethan Kunz, a graduate student in planning, public policy and management, said, “My interest in this is an old one, but the surprising thing was the ads that were directed at the ad industry. I didn’t know they existed.”
Some, but not all, of today’s advertising students are going to continue the status quo, according to Kilbourne. “I’ve had students who’ve said that they’re in advertising, but they’re worried about some of the ethical situations,” she said. “But certainly there are people being educated to perpetuate this stuff.”
Though she has spoken at both public and private colleges across the country, Kilbourne said her audiences all respond equally well to her message. “I’m often surprised,” she said. “In places that I would least expect, something positive happens.”
Girls on the Move is part of a national event coordinated by the Outward Bound organization. The weekend’s activities, which included rock climbing and meeting the University women’s basketball team, were open to girls in Oregon’s middle and high schools. There were also sessions for parents, teachers and administrators.
Kyla Schuller, a 1999 graduate and coordinator of Girls on the Move, was pleased with the keynote speech.
“Our focus really was supporting teen girls. I think we were highly successful in that,” she said.