Kilbourne's lecture hasn't changed dramatically during 20 years of touring college campuses and doing research for the National Institute of Health. The primary purpose of the mass media is to deliver audiences to advertisers. There's more of it, it's more sophisticated, it's more blatant in some ways, and advertising is more and more taking over our media and our society. One example she cited was the increase in bus advertising, and a specific bus in her hometown of Boston which had been converted into a box of Dunkin' Donuts. So that in the beginning, I had to spend a lot of time convincing people that advertising mattered, and I don't have to do that so much anymore.
People are much more aware.
They are more media literate. She said that increased consciousness has come in part from the public health arena, citing the debate over tobacco advertising which made its way into the presidential election. There's been tremendous progress in terms of identifying tobacco advertising as part of the problem. One of Kilbourne's major topics is sexuality - the dominance of heterosexuality, the way it's manipulated to sell products, and the way sex and beauty are equated with violence in ads for everything from shoes, to jeans, to food. Kilbourne commented on the highly exaggerated representation of women, men and children in ads.