Just something i wanted to quickly mention. I just read in our book that attractive models in advertisements don't actually influence a person to buy something. So I'm confused. I just got done writing a paper about how much advertisers use sex to sell because that's what people respond to and as soon as I push "print" I find out that's not really the case. Cool huh. Oh well, hope I get a good grade.

Oh my god! Over the weekend I ripped out every ad in my latest edition of Cosmopolitan. As I'm sitting down trying to pick which one I want to demolish, I'm thinking, "not a big deal, it's only a couple of pages." Wrong! Holy crap, I knew there were a bunch of ads in magazines (I don't even want to look through my InStyle) but I had no idea. Actually pulling the pages out made me realize how many of them there actually were. And I didn't even pull out every ad, just the ones with people in it!! When I picked them up to move them into my bag it was like the whole magazine. And when I went to put the magazine up, there was no point!! It was gone! Everyone in the world should try this just to see how much advertising there is in a magazine. I couldn't believe it. I mean I believe it, but seriously. Furthermore (which I know we're going to discuss this later but still...) there were absolutely no women of color in these advertisements, except Halle Berry for Revlon and Eva, the America's Next Top Model winner. No one who wasn't a major name in pop culture. Sad. Will I stop reading Cosmopolitan? No. Will I send a strongly worded letter? No. That's how they get away with it. And I'm willing to bet things would look a lot different in an African-American focused magazine. It's funny though because Cosmo does try to portray themselves as a even representation of women. My favorite is when the write articles about anorexia or how we should all feel comfortable in our own bodies, but the ad on the other side of the page is some under-weight woman using an orange peel as her only clothing.