Near the tail-end of 2007, we started seeing an abundance of television commercials featuring an excited Valerie Bertinelli announcing that she was just three pounds short of realizing her goal to lose 40 pounds. On the surface it seems like the rallying cry that women are longing for: "you can lose the weight you want to lose", but columnist Connie Schultz also sees the negative impact it can have on countless girls and young women.

"For too many, every glance in the mirror triggers a default button of self-loathing. And that's what Bertinelli's corporate sponsor counts on each time it recruits another overweight actress to diet for public consumption... The message is always clear, whether it's through a celebrity, usually a female, or just another chunky stranger, also usually a female: She hates herself, and you should, too. But we can help."

Schultz goes on to say that many diet programs simply exploit the self-loathing that's often created, in part, by their ad campaigns and teach women to see themselves nothing more than a dress size.

Labels: dieting, media_influences, self-esteem