Killing Us Softly

Did You Know?

• Cambridge Documentary Films created Beyond Killing Us Softly: The Strength to Resist (2000), later updated as The Strength to Resist: Advertising's Impact on Women and Girls.
• The Strength to Resist features Gloria Steinem, Amy Richards, Gail Dines, Valerie Batts, Jamila Batts, and Catherine Steiner Adair.

Overview

Advertising gets a harsh critique from Kilbourne, who calls out its harmful practices. She says the shallow, objectifying, and unrealistic images of women in ads damage their self-worth. Nearly every product is sold using sexualized women, which she claims degrades them, promotes abuse, and upholds a sexist, male-dominated culture. Kilbourne even compares advertising to pornography, calling advertisers the nation's true pornographers.

Versions

The series evolved from lectures Kilbourne delivered at American universities since the early 1970s. Four editions exist: Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women (1979); Still Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women (1987), an update by Margaret Lazarus and Renner Wunderlich through Cambridge Documentary Films, with Kilbourne as co-creator; Killing Us Softly 3 (1999), directed by Sut Jhally and produced by the Media Education Foundation, reviewing changes over 20 years; and Killing Us Softly 4 (2010), also directed by Jhally, using contemporary ads to note that the more things have changed, the more they've stayed the same.

Reception

The series has been widely used in university lectures and by community organizers and feminist groups. Editions have been described as extremely popular and praised; Bakari Chavanu called it an engaging and humorous analysis of how images shape values. Ford et al. noted it raises feminist consciousness and has been positively correlated with boycotts of offensive advertisements. Paul Rutherford criticized Kilbourne's crusade against advertising, arguing she conflates pornography and erotica, overlooks satirical and artistic values, and ignores fashion's influence.