Perception about Body Image Media Advertisements among Female Students in Twin Cities

Abstract

This study is about positive body image campaigns on television in Pakistan which have attained much attention due to creating awareness about women’s body shaming. Media conveys and promotes socio-cultural values and societal stereotypes pertaining to body shape and size that creates perception of ideal man and woman among individuals. Therefore, body image has become an important issue for one’s selfesteem, mental and physical health especially among women. However, less research has been conducted in this regard and even Pakistan remained less explored. This study investigates the perception about body image media advertisements among female students in twin cities. More specifically, the study analyzes six selected media advertisement campaigns displayed on TV channels. All these selected media campaigns share one common motive i.e. awareness on body positivity. The selected campaigns have been launched by different brands through a series of video advertisements to promote their products/collections during the last five years. The study applied quantitative approach to obtain opinions of n=282 Pakistani female students from 5 universities. Results were analyzed through descriptive statistics. The results indicated that the selected advertisement campaigns possessed effective characteristics. Moreover, the models in the advertisements are body confident and less-sexual. Furthermore, the message delivered in the advertisements is body appreciation, broadly conceptualizing beauty, adaptive appearance investment and inner positivity. The results also indicated that the advertisements affect female students in a positive way including increasing self-esteem, enhancing psychological well-being, enlarging self-compassion, venting frustration, offering encouragement, reducing eating disorders, and improving health conditions.