Have you ever seen the films "Killing Us Softly" and "Still Killing Us Softly" in one of your classes or in residence assistant training? Many Penn State students are familiar with the films, and now have the opportunity to see this eye-opening presentation live.

The USG Department of Women's Concerns is bringing Jean Kilbourne to Schwab Auditorium at 8 tonight, and admission is free. Kilbourne is an internationally known media critic, lecturer and writer. She was named Lecturer of the Year two years in a row by the National Association for Campus Activities, and was named Woman of the Year by the Boston chapter of the National Organization for Women. Kilbourne is also a frequent guest on radio and television programs, such as The Today Show and Hour Magazine, and has been consulted by ABC and CBS News.

The slide presentation is called "The Naked Truth" and consists of past and current advertisements which degrade and objectify women, sometimes subtly and even quite blatantly. Kilbourne uses expert knowledge mixed with humor to show her audience that although ads may seem harmless and silly, they add up to a powerful form of cultural conditioning.

Advertising is a more than $100 billion a year industry, and its influence is pervasive and mostly unconscious. The average American is exposed to over 2,000 ads a day and will spend a year and a half of his or her life watching TV commmercials -- how could we not be affected by images we are bombarded with on a daily basis?

A report by the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women named advertising the worst offender in perpetuating the image of women as sex symbols and an inferior class of human being. Kilbourne's presentation illustrates the dangers of this imaging and covers a wide range of issues, such as racism, violence against women, child exploitation, date rape, eating disorders, sexism against men, alcohol and smoking addictions, and economic discrimination against women.

"The Naked Truth" will be of great academic interest as well as personal interest to a large faction of students, such as those majoring in marketing, adveritsing, business, communications, sociology, political science, black studies and women's studies.

Don't miss your chance to see Kilbourne in person tonight. We guarantee that after seeing "The Naked Truth," you'll never look at advertisements, and the way they reflect our society, the same way again.