Victoria's Secret vs Dove Evolution! The Fight is on!

       Advertisements have reached many different lows when it comes the portrayl of women. However, the fallowing ad is one of the worst I have seen in a long time. The Victoria Secret company believes that a Michael Bay fantasy of women is enough to sell their bras.

 

            The television spot hit the air this year for the Victoria Secret Christmas collection. It was directed by Michael Bay, the well-known director of movies such as Transformers and Transformers 2. This commercial features slow motions gratuitous shots of large breasted, skinny wasted women who are constantly wearing nothing but underwear. Theses are not just scantily clad women. They are scantily clad women straddling pool tables and tied to giant presents. It has become the number 2 spot after the Evian roller skating babies ad. It receives 985, 329 views PER WEEK. 

            This advertisement is a one minute and 32 second spot with helicopters, planes, explosions, models and entire circus performers. The concept is “One Gift, A Thousand Fantasies”. It is a multi million dollar commercial made to depict even the strongest of women, for example, the women by the military helicopters, into a fantasy. He continues to undermined the image of the strong women is in this advertisement. Take a look at the image to the right: this image shows the women how they really look. The bones stick out at awkward angles and you can see every corner of their skeleton. The women are obviously unhealthy. However, this is the way the media has decided that women need to be portrayed.

            In contrast, we all remember the Dove Evolution viral ad. The ad directly referenced the growing concerns of females and body image. They discovered only 2% of women around the world would describe themselves as beautiful. The budget, compared to the millions upon millions spent on Michael Bay and his explosive bras, was an estimated $135 000. 

A 75 second spot that was made by the agency Ogilvy and Mather from the left over budget from another advertisement. The Dove Evolution ad won several awards including two Cannes Lions Grand Prix awards; one of the most prestigious advertising awards around and has generated $150 Million dollars worth of exposure. Dove touched the lives of $1 Million girls across the world. As a result of this campaign, the international website increased hits by 8 000%, which is practically unheard of! Such as simple campaign increased more coverage then the Michael Bay advertisement could have ever have reached. A simple message with a small budget achieved such heights that Dove is now top of mind in their market category. A powerful statement with a powerful insight into the minds of consumers, no one should over look this message. 

 

That being said, the Michael Bay commercial was created in 2009. The Dove Evolution ad was created in 2006. It would appear that not much has changed.

The glory days of Big Butts

The term “diet” so loosely thrown around has never had such dangerous weight or cringing aftertaste in implications. Yet there once was a time where “diet” was associated with being healthy, balanced, or restricted to certain foods due to health reasons such as diabetes. Ordering a salad was seen as too frumpy, and women were praised for their lumps and curves as one would say “more cushion for the pushing”. Let’s not forget the rear-end praising song of the 1990’s “Baby Got Back”, where Sir Mix A Lot love of big butts leads him to sing “shake that healthy butt”. Back then a healthy butt belonged to size 6 jeans; women who ordered steak were seen as sexy, baby-bearing bodies of the world. Even in the young girl novel series The Baby-sitters Club, “The Truth about Stacey” was focused on the diabetic character Stacey, whom was ashamed to order a diet coke on a date, since she did not want to reveal she was diabetic. Eating disorders, skinny jeans, and social acceptance may be the current connotations of dieting, but the trend as a text did not used to have such negative associations. The evolution of trends is never ending, and the good days of dieting will soon return. Real foods will come back again, and dieting as a means to being happier due to better health, as seen in the Biggest Loser, will overpower the reason to be skinny. Let’s not forget the power of populations as a norm and their significance in giving meaning to ideas, texts, and trends.

Media Influences on Children

Women have many pressures in life that we are constantly worrying about. One of our major concerns is our weight.  The saddest part of this statement is that it starts at such a young age.

            Young girls are becoming more and more exposed to the images of the “ideal woman”.  Studies show that 53% of American girls are unhappy with their bodies by the age of 13. There are toys, magazines, shows, and many more ways little girls are being trained. A great example of this is the “children’s doll”, Bratz.

            These little girls’ dolls are meant to be simply an expression of the child’s creativity. But when children play they are exploring the world around them.  That is how they learn and these dolls are sending the wrong message. They are “fashion conscious” dolls. They tell the little girls that what they should be concerned about is fashion and boys and make-up. A plain dolls leaves more room for creativity without leading them.

Amie Newman, our average mother, has expressed her concern about these dolls by quoting an article out of the Washington Post.

"Ten year old girls can slide their low-cut jeans over "eye-candy" panties.  French maid costumes, garter belt included, are available in pre-teen sizes.  Barbie now comes in a "bling-bling" style, replete with halter top and go-go boots."  

There is something inherently wrong with allowing young girls to be exposed to this kind of imagery at such a vital stage in their self-development and although manufacturers may claim that these dolls are made for girls 7 and up, Bratz sells padded training bras for 6-year-old girls. These girls are barely out of kindergarten and are already being told they are not good enough.

Women need to break out of the self-deprecating habit. Not just for themselves, but for all the little girls fallowing in their footsteps. Don’t let your little girls be raised by someone else’s point of view. Break the cycle of unhappy women. 

http://www.007b.com/body_image_breasts_puberty.php 
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2007/02/27/we-hate-bratz 
http://parenting.families.com/blog/padded-bras-for-6-year-olds 

Type too loud? Then and now- The power of silence is on mute.

Vogue, circa 1960's

 This 1960’s June Harlequin Vogue cover is a “whisper” in comparison to modern day advertising.  Hard selling as we know it today is a contributor to self-consciousness amongst women.  Beauty in the eye of the beholder is much more complicated in a typographic dominating world.  Being told what to think, and how to feel comes in waves, morphing from season to season and with social economic factors.

Absence of text allows for the mind to wander and for art direction to drive connotations. Yet present day magazines have text yelling from stands, about fashion, diet, makeup, telling us what to and what not to wear. 

February 2010 Vogue

The underlying denotation of “picture perfect” women with in-season style, perfected skin and nails, and the in your face eye contact from the model which screams confidence is simply this- we are not good enough.  Now add on the copy.  Can we look at the person next to us with the same zealous affirmation and radiate that we are just as "badass"?  If we’re not already thinking it, text shouts out the sexiest new haircuts, wrinkle fighters, and my personal favourite, the X amount of INSIDER TIPS.  Insider tips make you feel V.I.P., as to give the reader exclusive insider scoop of how to look, feel, and be beautiful.  At times they do have good tips.  Yet as a driver for sales, which I admit I’ve fallen guilty for, Insider tips are just another way to project how the common everyday person is NOT a part of the world portrayed through magazines.  

The point being this- images and text in present magazine circulation are all connotations of woman’s unawareness of how to be BEAUTIFUL.  62 percent of women feel pressured from magazines and TV to have a more attractive body. We are influenced to believe that we don’t know, based on what is shown to us, and driven to fulfill our social and ego needs.    What makes magazine houses annual revenues soar in fact make the everyday women seep. What is made to be current cultural appeals are far more dangerous than we realize.

Good Advertising

"Get those washboard abs!"...yeah right.

Picture this; you’re standing in the room and looking in the mirror.  All you see is bump, curve, bump, curve, jiggle. You take a deep breath and turn to the side. Not right, not tight! This isn’t how you thought you would look. Your legs should be longer. You hips should be slimmer. You’re stomach... just no.

          This is the same scene that plays over and over again to many women each day. We’re never good enough, we all need improvement. Talk about build-up in our heads! This is our problem. We are strong, confident, and determined, yet still slaves to our appearance. We manage to overcome so many hardships, but this one continues to hold us back.

This is not entirely our fault; it is the sum of years of media influence. Movies. Magazines. Commercials. Images of perfect, flawless woman are always forcing themselves into our minds and we don’t always recognize it. We don’t realize it even when we stand in front of our mirrors and sigh.

Take web ads, for example. They stare at us from the side of our screens and tell us ways to “Get those washboard abs”. Even though we don’t consciously pay attention to them, the message gets through, just a little bit. Now, think of the number of times a day these ads appear. If every ad affects us just a little bit, the collective can be damaging to our self esteem and body image. Ladies, let’s dispose of the noise!