Proof that Media Works

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of studies out there, touting the effect that media has on the wants, needs, and beliefs of the mentalities of individuals. My women studies professor told us a story recently, of how a family member refrained from letting her young daughter watch television. A precocious little five- or six- year old, she replies "But how will I know what to want?"

And it's very true. The video link below is a TV spot for the newest Ralph Lauren fragrance line, Big Pony. The music is OneRepublic's 2010 single "Secrets", a song that I am not quite obsessed with (but all my friends will say otherwise). The spot highlights a polo game, with beautiful people, chiseled jaw lines, and attires that make me want to go buy out J.Crew for myself.

So of course, between the song that I love, a company that my family has been loyal to since my youth (if not longer), and my memories of going to polo games with my family, this spot has me wishing I had a chisel jawed man playing polo, with a smile that could stop the Earth's rotation and a gorgeous thoroughbred on which I could win endless polo games (not to mention, smelling and looking as amazing as Ralph Lauren makes everyone out to be).

Now, is this realistic? For the most part, no (but it depends on where you go). Sure, this makes me miss the polo fields and my horse back home. Of course it makes me wish I had fashion sense. Yeah, it reminds me of the days when I would sit on the bathroom counter at home as my dad got ready for work, always asking to smell his bottle Ralph Lauren Polo aftershave. But men who look like that only exist in Hollywood and not in the real world.

Besides, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Somehow, Hollywood manipulates our minds to make us all want the same thing, even though many of us never gravitate towards that particular "type". How do they do it?

Regardless, every time I see pictures from home, it leaves me convinced that I will someday go back and marry a good ol Texas boy (that is, if I get married). Media makes us want things that are either unrealistic to the rest of society or that go against our basic biology and neurological hardwiring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQgp9X_Fioc&feature=related