Name: Mok Wai Wah LANG1003s Section: T10Is the image of beauty in the media and advertising credible? Ideals of beauty have changed throughout the development of human society. In the past, beauty was only a functional term to determine a woman's fertility. Being fat was once one of the requirements of beauty in the world and nowadays we can still find it in some developing countries such as Mauritania (Harter, 2004). However, the norm of beauty becomes more commercial, unnatural and unnecessary. It is not only related to economic development along with globalization, but also mainly contributed by the modern advertising industry and media. The consequence is miserable and induces a negative atmosphere in the globe. The miserable consequence can lead to a serious impact on the health of the human body, causing permanent damage or even death. Whatever medium or talking beauty advertisement people encounter in daily life, the basic norm of beauty has always been to have a slim, slender body with a Barbie doll face. The image of beauty on TV and in newspapers brings an unrealistic belief in society and has led women to do everything that can achieve such an unattainable goal. For example, in Hong Kong, women tend to gain the “magic number,” which is less than 100 pounds, regardless of what somatotype they have (Chu, 2010). In Asia, women try to lose weight by dieting, taking pills, having cosmetic surgery or even taking worms, but no one would want to try to do exercises during long office hours. They rely extremely on these methods and eventually their body has to suffer from a number of diseases such as eating disorders, malfunctions and major organ damage. Although using drag and condu...... middle of paper ......ee, S. W., Fung, S., Ho, S. Y., Lee, P. W., & Stewart, S. M. (2009). Sociocultural influences on body dissatisfaction and diet in Hong Kong girls. European Review of Eating Disorders, 17(2):152-60. DOI:10.1002/erv.900Treasure, J. L., Wack, E. R., & Roberts, M. E. (2008). Models as a high-risk group: The health implications of a zero-size culture. British Journal of Psychiatry. 192, 243-244. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.107.044164 Tombs, A. G. (2006). Do our feelings leak through the clothes we wear?. In: Y. Ali and M. van Dessel, Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference: Advancing theory, maintaining relevance. Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference, Brisbane, Australia, (1-8). December 4-6, 2006. Zuckerman, D. (2005). Adolescents and cosmetic surgery. Virtual Mentor, 7(3). Retrieved from http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2005/03/oped1-0503.html.