My Letter to Carl's Jr.

Carl’s Jr. Restaurants, 

My letter is written specifically to those who produce Carl’s Jr. commercials. My name is Hannah, and I am a student at Brigham Young University. I have seen many Carl’s Jr. commercials over the years, and I have never had any hard feelings toward the company. After becoming more educated on the effects of media on human thought and behavior; however, I have learned that your advertisements are likely to have negative effects on those exposed to them. I understand the tactics behind the nature of your commercials. Sexual content is memorable and may cause your customers to associate your food with the pleasure of sex. While this may seem like a strategic move, studies show that advertisements with sexual content do not increase intent to buy. People may remember your commercials, but that does not mean they are more likely to buy your food. 

More importantly, the sexual nature of your commercials can have detrimental effects on women’s psychological well-being. Studies show that women who view images of sexually objectified women are more likely to suffer from low self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, and even eating disorders. As women are bombarded with images of models with perfect bodies, they internalize these images and believe they will never be able to live up to the standard of beauty that society expects of them. I believe that women are held to too high of a standard for beauty because of the many unrealistic images portrayed in the media. Along with an unrealistic ideal of beauty, your commercials convey the message that women’s value in society is found in their sex appeal. Your commercials only show one aspect of women, without acknowledging that women are multi-faceted human beings with thoughts and emotions. Your commercials tell viewers that women are objects, solely used to satisfy one’s sexual desires. Along with the negative effects on women, it is my personal opinion that children should not be exposed to such content. Parents are largely able to control the movies their children watch, but they have much less control over what they see on television. Children are not developmentally mature enough to handle the sexual content in your commercials. For everyone exposed to your commercials, I believe that the benefits for you do not outweigh the costs for them. 

I understand the need for entertainment to make a commercial effective, but I believe there are many ways to entertain an audience without degrading women. I propose that you simply tone down the sexual nature of your commercials. I believe that just adding more clothing for the women featured could make a significant difference. Still, I hope that you will consider other ways in which you can prevent false ideas and impossible expectations for viewers. You have the power to influence women in a positive way, and I hope that you will take that opportunity. 

Thank you,

Hannah Denney

General Conference

I full-heartedly believe that advances in technology and the increasing availability of media is part of God’s plan to further His work. This weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to watch General Conference and hear from our prophet and apostles. I am so grateful for the messages that they shared, and I felt comforted and inspired to improve my life. The wonderful thing about General Conference is that people can access it all over the world. My little sister who is on her mission in Australia sent a picture of her watching it on a computer with the caption, “Watching it with you.” It was wonderful to feel connected to her even though she is so far away, and it was a reminder to me that everyone on this earth is part of God’s family. Although media can have a destructive impact, its use in spreading the gospel is blessing lives all over the world. 

Easter Season Media

One of the greatest forms of media I am grateful for is music. Yesterday we had our Easter Program in Sacrament Meeting, and I was so touched by the Spirit. We had a piano number, a violin number, and a couple vocal performances as well. Each song confirmed to me the reality of Jesus Christ as my Savior and reminded me how blessed I am because of His atoning sacrifice and triumph over death. I find it interesting that even just music, with no words, can still convey a message so powerfully. Music will always speak to my heart in a way that words cannot. I have also enjoyed all the videos the church has put out this Easter season. Although we often view media in a negative light, I do believe it holds an important purpose to spread the gospel throughout the world. It is neat to see people using media to help and uplift others.

Zootopia

On Saturday I saw the movie Zootopia and I loved it! It was entertaining, funny, and had a great message. It was about the first rabbit to join the police force in the animal city of Zootopia, and how she is able to prove herself to those who doubt her abilities. She is given the assignment to find a missing otter, and she joins forces with a mischievous fox who is known for his unlawful behavior. I loved the message that each person is an individual, and we cannot make assumptions about others based on stereotypes. Never before had rabbits been in law enforcement, but Judy Hopps proved that she could be a successful police officer. The fox, Nick Wilde, grew up not wanting to be mischievous, but as other people pushed the negative fox stereotype on him he eventually became that way. Luckily, he has a change of heart and accepts a job to work with Judy in the Police Department. I love that there are movies like this that can be entertaining for kids and still teach an important life lesson.

The Color of Beauty

This past week I did the coding for our Content Analysis assignment. Our group is looking at sexual objectification of women in magazines. As I looked through each page of Harper’s Bazaar, one of the top magazines for women, I had an unexpected realization. Of course, many of the pictures and ads were risqué, but I realized something about the ethnicities of each woman. The majority of the women were white, and of those that were sexually objectified, I could count on one hand the number of women that were of a different ethnicity. This makes me wonder, is today’s ideal of beauty still the Caucasian woman? I do believe our country has come a long way in establishing racial equality, however, this assignment made me realize that we still have a ways to go. Of course I do not believe that women SHOULD be sexually objectified, but I hope we can get to the point where we can see the beauty in every woman, no matter her color, shape, or size. 

Finding My True Worth

This post is dedicated to my feelings about the past couple class periods. I was very impressed by our lesson in class about gender and media. I was amazed by just how much the media strives to promote the ideal of what men and women should look like and be like. Women are left feeling like they will never be beautiful because they will never compare to the unrealistic ideal of beauty that is shown in the media. These images that we see on a daily basis are not real, and in reality striving for physical beauty is not that important. Like Professor Coyne said, there will come a day when we will have gray hair and wrinkles. We will not have the 25 year-old bodies that we do now. When that day comes, I hope that we can see that we are of great worth because of who we truly are—because of the talents we have developed, the knowledge we have gained, the people we have helped, and the many other things that we have accomplished. Young women today should feel that they have the power to achieve and be whatever they want. Ultimately, I hope that I can always remember that my value comes from my divine nature as daughter of God. 

Media Effects on Culture

Last Monday my FHE family played a game called celebrity. In the game, players wrote down names of celebrities and other famous people and characters on three small pieces of paper. Then everyone divided into two teams and players took turns pulling names from the bowl of papers. In the first round they had to describe the famous person, in the second round they had to use one word to describe the person, and in the third round they had to act out the person. I was a little worried in the beginning that I would not know the people I had to describe, but I soon found that the actors, singers,  and movie/book characters were generally well-known to me and the rest of the people playing the game. This made me realize just how much media influences our American culture. Although each person comes from a unique background, everyone generally knows who Selena Gomez, Katniss Everdeen, and Harry Potter are. Because these types of media characters are well-known to us, we talk about them in hopes of building connections with other people. Additionally, popular merchandise often times contains celebrity content or strives to mimic what they use. We consume media, talk about media, and base our lives based on what it glorified in the media. Media definitely impacts our culture and can be a way to unify a country full of a variety of people.