The influence of advertising design in the print media on the self-perception of selected South African and Polish women : a comparative study

Abstract

Magazines are highly specialised forms ofmass media communication. Across cultures, women's magazines and advertisements systematically promote an ideal of feminine beauty that is embedded primarily in body-image. Mass advertised messages targeted at women promote dominant mainstream cultural and global standards regarding body-image. They al~ promote the use of various products and lifestyle patterns that are intended to enable women to achieve the desired 'look' of the moment. The influence of these advertised messages manifests iD real-life consequences, which are either positive or negative, and which, in turn, influence women's role in society. Seen in this light, certain manipulative practices present in the print media have been identified, which are used extensively to influence women, to shape their perceptions of the world around them, and to coach them into embracing a consumerist lifestyle, with the ultimate aim of generating revenue. In this regard, this study focuses on the ways in which advertising design in women's magazines and the content ofthe South African and Polish EUe and Cosmopolitan, as well as the South African Fairlady and the Polish Twoj Styl represent the image ofcontemporary women in South Africa and Poland.