BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Now, the messages of the advertising business. They help sell billions of dollars worth of products. But do they also coarsen American culture? And if so, who's to blame —the ad agencies or us consumers? Lucky Severson has a report from Madison Avenue.

LUCKY SEVERSON: This is the annual One Show festival in New York, sponsored by the One Club, a nonprofit organization founded to uphold and raise creative standards in advertising. One commercial receiving top honors was an ad for Dove soap —an unusual attempt to broaden the concept of beauty. Mary Warlick is CEO of the One Club.

MARY WARLICK (CEO, The One Club): What Dove is doing, it's showing that there're real people out there. Everybody is not a size 2. You can be beautiful in your own skin, and that's a very, very important breakthrough.

SEVERSON: Does this mean the advertising industry has turned a new leaf against creating unrealistic images of beauty? Does it mean less sex and violence in media and advertising? Keith Reinhard is the chairman emeritus of the giant ad agency DDB Worldwide, and he has a dim view of the trend of many of today's spots.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

1. robroy wrote: I see the demise of the family and aggressive consumer advertising as directly related though don’t know how to prove it. Here in Colorado we have bigger and bigger houses/three car garages, etc. with smaller and smaller families. Children get in the way of material spending. July 1, 5:47 pm | [comment link]

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