It was a great honor to host this year’s keynote Convocation speaker, Dr. Jean Kilbourne, who is a pioneer of researching the advertising industry. She has several publications in judicial and academic circles, and in national and international publications. She has been a guest on hundreds of television and radio programs and has spoken at universities worldwide. Kilbourne even served as an advisor to former Surgeons General Everett Koop and Antonia Novello. She has testified at the US Congress, appointed by US Secretary of Health and Human Services to the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Her research is extensive, and so are her credentials. Check out for her and a list of her .
As a former model and smoker, Kilbourne warned the audience of how we’re all manipulated by advertising. She noted specific examples within the tobacco, alcohol and “beauty” industries, and also discussed its effects on today’s children. For more about Kilbourne’s keynote lecture, check out the front page and editorial in Issue Four. Here are some additional quotes from her talk that we think are worth sharing!
“The advertiser’s image of women sells all kinds of products … But it also sells the whole concept of what’s beautiful and what isn’t beautiful …” said Kilborne, “The ultimate impact is really anti-erotic because it makes people feel less desirable. How sexy can a women feel if she hates her body?”
“The research is also clear that this affects how men feel about the real women in their lives. When young men are showed pictures of super models in research studies, they then judge real women much more harshly, not surprisingly.”
Regarding the modern trend of parents auctioning off baby’s names for money: “So we’ll have little Exon going through life, permanently scarred because his parents are idiots.”
On Virginia Slims ad campaigns,
“It was such an example of the way advertising, and capitalism in general, co-ops movements for social change. It took the women’s movement, a movement about freedom and empowerment for women, and turned it into having your own cigarette. The slogan was, ‘You’ve come a long way, baby,’ which was so awful when you think about it. Because it so trivialized what the women’s movement was all about. And also, of course, it was selling an addictive product that kills over half of its users.”
“Women who smoke like men, die like men. There’s no difference.”