Construction of Body – Image through Advertisements

In India advertisements are the primary revenue resource for both print and audiovisual media. So the advertisers and their policies control the media and fulfil their agenda of ‘brainwashing the consumer’. Advertisements through the use of signs and symbols create an ‘image’ of the product or service and try to manipulate the consumers. Advertisements take the glimpses of real life and make them richer to transport the consumers to a ‘make-believe world’. This construction of image becomes an important area to focus in case of advertisements of cosmetic and beauty products which give assurance of ‘image-makeover’ to the women consumers. In these advertisements women are found to consolidate the prevalent patriarchy of the society and the reference to contemporary liberated women is very rare. The paper tries to show this celebration of ‘body – image’ as a means of subjugation and powerlessness on the part of women and raises question on its behalf.

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