What are advertisers really selling us?

Advertising is an over $200 billion a year industry. We are each exposed to over 3000 ads a day. Yet, remarkably, most of us believe we are not influenced by advertising. Ads sell a great deal more than products. They sell values, images, and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy. They tell us who we are and who we should be. Sometimes they sell addictions.

In her slide presentations, Jean Kilbourne examines images in advertising with the incisive wit and irony that have delighted and enlightened her audiences for years. With expert knowledge, insight, humor and commitment, she brings her audiences to see that, although ads may seem harmless and silly, they add up to a powerful form of cultural conditioning. She is known for her ability to present provocative topics in a way that unites rather than divides, that encourages dialogue, and that moves and empowers people to take action in their own and in society's interest.

She explores the relationship of media images to actual problems in the society, such as violence, the sexual abuse of children, rape and sexual harassment, pornography and censorship, teenage pregnancy, addiction, and eating disorders. She also educates her audiences about the primary purpose of the mass media, which is to deliver audiences to advertisers. The emphasis is on health and freedom -- freedom from rigid sex roles, freedom from addiction, freedom from denial, and freedom from manipulation and censorship.

The presentations can be adapted for a wide variety of audiences from high school students to college students to community groups to professionals in a wide range of fields, including addiction, health, women's issues, domestic violence, media literacy, eating disorders, criminal justice, and many others. In addition to these presentations, Dr. Kilbourne sometimes does workshops and seminars of varying lengths on all of these topics.

For further information or to schedule a lecture, please contact Jean Kilbourne (jkilbourne@aol.com). To schedule a lecture in the college market, please contact: Lordly & Dame (lordly@lordly.com or 617-482-3593).

Dr. Kilbourne's presentations include (click title for more info):

The Naked Truth: Advertising's Image of Women

Deadly Persuasion: Advertising & Addiction

Deadly Persuasion: Advertising & the Corruption of Relationships

Pack of Lies: The Advertising of Tobacco

You've Come the Wrong Way, Baby: Women and Smoking

Marketing Misery: Selling Addictions to Women

Slim Hopes: Advertising & the Obsession with Thinness

Falling in Love with Food: Connection & Disconnection in Food Advertising

Eating Our Hearts Out: Advertising & Obesity

Under the Influence: The Advertising of Alcohol

The Naked Truth

Deadly Persuasion

Deadly Persuasion

Pack of Lies

You've Come the Wrong Way, Baby

Marketing Misery

Slim Hopes

Falling in Love with Food

Eating Our Hearts Out

Under the Influence