clude commercials focusing on appearance enhancement, nine out of ten of which are directed at females (Ogletree, Williams, Raffield, Mason, & Fricke, 1990). Many advertisements leave a girl to believe that she must be found thin to be attractive. Puberty related body changes may be a major blow to a girls self esteem. Thus Freedman (1984) observes that puberty transforms a girl into a woman without her consent: it betrays her by making her both more and less feminine at the same time. The hormones that inflate her breasts, also layerher thighs with unsightly fat, and cover her legs with superfluous hair. The size, contours smells, and texture of an adult woman contradict the soft, sweet, childish aspects of feminine beauty standards emphasized by the media (Norton, Olds, Olive, & Dank, 1996).In a study of body image, Girgus (1989) illustrates some of the consequences of this intense preoccupation with physical appearance. As young girls grow older and their body changes, they become increasingly dissatisfied with their bodies and consistently desire to be thinner. Boys, on the other hand, welcome the process of puberty, they look at it as though it is a step n the direction of manhood (Borzekowski, Robinson, & Killen, 2000). Women who are very dissatisfied with their bodies may be particularly vulnerable to advertising that portrays female models who exemplify thinness as a necessity for feminine beauty. Research on the persuasion process has shown that individuals who receive a persuasive message are more often to accept it if they find the communicator of the message to be physically attractive. Advertising researchers have found that an attractive model or product endorser may possibly influence the recipients attitude toward the brand of the product and the purchase intentions (Cabellero & Pride, 1984). Research supports that physically attractive individuals tend to be more persuasive in part because others credit them w...
