ABSTRACT
The body has received academic attention over the years and Vaknin (2006), among others, has demonstrated how our daily lives are becoming a mirage of images that result in a total preoccupation with image management and self-enhancement. This phenomenon is not overlooked by marketers; products and services relevant to body image issues can be seen to have profound influences on consumers. Marketing plays a role in consumers’ perceptions of body image and underpins aspects of the cultural ideology of the body that underlies consumers’ sense of an ideal or more desirable body. This bodily discourse is manifested through advertising (Thompson & Hirschman, 1995), media images, and product symbolism, for example, as well as through social interaction.
