Killing Us Softly is a harsh term, one that gives a clear description of the situation that

is being talked about in the movie. Kills are swift and are hardly ever considered soft. Killing
us softly implies a subtle death over a prolonged period of time. The person saying killing us
softly knows that they are being killed, but cant very much about it. Jean Kilbourne titled
her video killing us softly because that is exactly what is being done. In her video she explains
that she began collecting ads in the late 60s, and as she collected these ads, she began to see a
pattern in them, a statement of what it meant to be a woman in American culture. As she
continued to see more and more ads over the years, she concluded that advertising tells
women that what is most important in women is how they look, to always strive for ideal image
of female beauty; and in longing to have that ideal image; womens bodies are turned into
things and objects. Kilbourne titles her movie Killing Us Softly because the identity of women
is being violently changed from who women really are and who they can become to an identity
that has been molded for them; an identity that is unhealthy, unrealistic, and unachievable.
This isnt a problem for female children, but once girls hit adolescence, they hit a wall because
women are only acceptable if they are young, thin, white or light-skinned, perfectly groomed
and polished, and plucked and shaved. Of course advertisements dont put it in such a harsh,
blunt way, but advertisements that promote this ideology are everywhere. According to
Kilbourne, advertising is a 250$ billion a year industry in the united states and we Americans
are exposed to over 3,000 ads every single day, and will supposedly spend two years of our lives
watching commercials on television. She also states that most people feel personally exempt
from the influence of advertising. But according to the editor in chief of Advertising Age, only
8% of an ads message is received by the mind while the rest is worked deep within the brain.
Jean Kilbourne adequately titled her movie killing us softly because advertising companies sell
more than products. When advertising companies put up an ad on television, schools, internet
videos, billboards, and other public places, they put up values; they sell images, morals, and
concepts of love, sex, success, and normalcy. These ads tell us who we are, the many faults we
have, who we should be, and how its only possible to achieve perfection through buying or
believing in their product that the company is advertising. This is how she also relates all of this
to the concept of symbolic annihilation. Symbolic annihilation is the absence of representation
of a certain group of people in the media. The group of people that is underrepresented is
often because they are not the correct race, sex, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status.
And when people of a different status that isnt of the norm, make it to advertisements, they
are generally considered beautiful if they approximate the white girl ideal; light skinned,
straight hair, and has Caucasian features. An example of this that Jean Kilbourne uses is that
black women are often features in a jungle setting wearing leopard skins like exotic animals.
This form of media vilifies the identity of people, making members invisible through changing
the skin color and hair types of women who are not of the right skin color and hair type.
Women lose their identities as special individuals this way, symbolically annihilating some

cultures in the process. Kilbourne also addresses many more issues in her movie like how
advertisements objectify women and how consumerism causes men and some women to have
a negative and distorted image of women, affecting how men feel about women, leading men
to reject qualities like compassion, cooperation, empathy, intuition, and sensitivity. The
obsession with thinness, the tyranny of the ideal image of beauty, and violence against women
are public health issues that affect everyone in one way or another. Kilbourne believes we
need a lot of citizen activism, education, discussions, and media literacy, and that we need to
work together to change the standards and attitudes. We need to think of ourselves as citizens
rather than just consumers.