Dr. Jean Kilbourne Speaks About the Dangers in Advertising

Dr. Jean Kilbourne, an internationally recognized expert on addictions, gender issues and the media, returned to Westminster Oct. 22 to give a presentation about the harmful results of advertising. She gave a previous presentation on campus in 2007. “My focus will be on health and our freedom,” she said. “It is difficult to be healthy in a toxic cultural environment.”
 

Dr. Kilbourne described how the average American is exposed to more than 3,000 ads per day, “Just about everyone in America feels they are personally exempt from advertising,” she said. “But you can’t grow up in the world today and not be influenced by advertising. What is really happening is that these images are working on people subconsciously.”
 

She showed examples of ad campaigns by manufacturers related to alcohol and tobacco products and explained how they convey a powerful image so people will be willing to pay for the products. She said that nicotine is the most addictive drug of all and the tobacco industry needs 3,000 children to start smoking every day. “The tobacco industry is in the business of getting children to smoke,” she explained. “If children start today, one-half will die as a result.”
 

She also talked about the image of women in advertising and the emphasis on the ideal of “flawlessness,” which is attained through computer editing of photos. “It cannot be achieved,” she said. “The perception of beauty is distorted. Ads are deliberate.” She emphasized that “the solution is not to make our girls hate themselves ” and added that men too increasingly hate their bodies due to advertising.
 

“Most of us have never been educated about advertising,” she said. “We are the product. … Twenty percent of young people are leaders and 80 percent are followers. All they need to do is target the leaders.”
 

She pointed out how “alcohol sells fantasy” when it is really a depressant drug and how the alcohol industry uses “entry drinks” to target young people. “Alcohol kills six times more people than all the other illegal drugs combined.”
 

She ended by saying, “We have a right to be free from manipulation. I am an educator and advocate for media literacy. A media literate public would demand better.” After her formal presentation, she answered questions from students.
 

Dr. Kilbourne has lectured at colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as at many private and public schools. The New York Times Magazine named her one of the three most popular speakers on college campuses, The Boston Globe described her as “a superstar lecturer” and the National Association for Campus Activities gave her their “Lecturer of the Year” award twice.
 

Dr. Kilbourne has made several award-winning documentary films and is the author (with Diane E. Levin) of “So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids” (Ballantine, 2008). Her book, “Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel” (originally published as “Deadly Persuasion” by Simon & Schuster in 1999) won the Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology. She has written many articles, including editorials in The New York Times, USA Today and The Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association, and has contributed chapters to many books.
 

Dr. Kilbourne earned a B.A. in English from Wellesley College and a doctorate in education from Boston University. She has served on many national boards of directors and advisory counsels, and has received many awards.