I am writing in response to a piece written by Adam Friedman titled “Spend less time on your image, more time on yourself” (Monday, September 9, 2002). Although I appreciate Friedman’s concern over my lack of spirituality, I think it is ignorant and rash to blame the advertising industry for eating disorders, an increase in prescription drug use, low self-esteem, and the dissemination of cultural values. It is so typical to look at a societal ill and immediately blame the media for it. I wonder about the “research” that Friedman, a CAS student, claims to have done before pinpointing advertising as the source of all that is wrong with the world. As an advertising major in COM, I have learned that people actually filter out the majority of the ads with which they are confronted. When we know that someone is trying to sell us something, we put up a mental wall and ignore it. And yet, Friedman believes that “ads raised us” because the force of them was so strong that it made us resist all influence from our schools and our parents. If you are the kind of person who lets words on a billboard shape who you are, maybe the problem isn’t with the message, but the effect you let it have on you. Advertisements are simply suggestions, reminders of what products and services are out there. As human beings, we have the ability to make choices about things that we like and dislike. We are not the programmed droids that Friedman makes us out to be. He is right in urging us to do things we enjoy. But if that includes perusing a Cosmo and shopping at Abercrombie and Fitch rather than reading “Siddhartha,” does that make us bad people? There are plenty of people out there who don’t let advertising scare them into buying the right clothes or having the right hairstyle. Friedman is right, we should look inside ourselves. Let’s look for the confidence to make our own decisions based on all the information that is available to us.

Dana Bertelsen COM ’04