In Just Seven Days, I Can Make you a Man....

It appears that now men are being encouraged to hate themselves as much as women do. The cosmetics and cosmetic surgery industry have cleverly realised that in order to boost their profits, they need to target the metrosexual.

Recently I watched an ad in which a man (nothing wrong with him) eyes up a woman. The voice-over proclaimed that to himself, the man thought he looked sophisticated, but to the woman, he looked tired.

See how subtle that is? The message is: you are not going to get a woman, mate - especially one who looks that hot - unless you use moisturiser for men.

I don't think there's anything wrong with moisturiser in general, but I do have an issue with how people are made to feel ugly by beauty companies and beauty magazines.

Essentially, beauty magazines are nothing more than marketing tools. They portray the way someone else wants us to dress. Why? So that we'll buy their clothes. They show us the way we should care for our skin and hair. Why? So we'll buy their products.

The advertising industry knows that the best way to get someone to part with their money is to offer them a solution to something that the consumer feels bad about. Not feeding their kids healthy food. Feeling awkward in social situations.

I have noticed that many of the ads on TV are not selling a product, but a solution or an emotion. Or an attitude.

We need to unhook our brains from the whole noisy din of advertising if we want to feel better about ourselves and start making choices that are not based on something we've been brainwashed to 'need.'

And yes, I did say brainwashed. It's time to unplug.