Killing us softly: advertising's image of women

United States, 1979

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Using hundreds of examples from magazines, newspapers, album covers and store-front windows, this film exposes the psychological and sexual schemes that underlie many advertising campaigns. With an intriguing mixture of statistics, humour, insight and outrage, Jean Kilbourne shows her audience that although individual advertisements may seem harmless by themselves, they add up to a powerful form of cultural conditioning.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

production company

Cambridge Documentary Films

co-producers/directors

Jean Kilbourne

Joseph Vitagliano

Patricia Stallone

Duration

00:29:05:00

Production places

United States

Production dates

1979

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

015368

Language

English

Subject categories

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Commercialization

Documentary

Documentary → Documentary films - United States

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Advertising - Social aspects

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Cultural relativism

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Exploitation - Psychological aspects

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Women - Social conditions

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Women's rights

Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Exploitation - Psychological aspects

Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Women's rights

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Body image

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Identity (Psychology)

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Persuasion (Psychology)

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Sex (Psychology)

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Women - Psychology

History → Women's rights

Short films

Short films → Short films - United States

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Holdings

16mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

16mm film; Preservation Print (Section 5)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/77156--killing-us-softly-advertisings-image-of-women/ |title=Killing us softly: advertising's image of women |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=30 May 2023 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}