Postrel Vs Dove Analysis

In “The Fashion Industry: Free to be an Individual” by Hannah Berry, Hannah emphasizes how social media especially advertisements pressure females to use certain product to in order to be considered beautiful. She also acknowledges the current effort of advertisement today to more realistically depicts of women. In addition, these advertisements use the modern women look to advertise products to increase women self-esteem and to encourage women to be comfortable with one’s image.

In our society today a business is not a business without an advertisement. These advertisements advertise what American’s want and desire in their lives. According to Jack Solomon in his essay, “Master’s of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,” Jack Solomon claims: “Because ours is a highly diverse, pluralistic society, various advertisements may say different things depending on their intended audiences, but in every case they say something about America, about the status of our hopes, fears, desires, and beliefs”(Solomon). Advertisers continue to promote the American dream of what a women’s body should look like. They advertise their products in hopes for consumers to buy them, so they can look like the models pictures in the ads. Behind these ads, advertisers tend to picture flawless unrealistic woman with the help of Photoshop. In our society today to look like a model is an American dream and can be the reasons why we fantasizes and buy these products being advertised. “America’s consumer economy runs on desire, and advertising stokes the engines by transforming common objects;signs of all things that Americans covet most”(Solomon).

The dove beauty campaigns are again a perfect example of this, as they depict a digitally altered photo of a woman being presented on a billboard (Tpiper). Depicting a remarkable transformation of an ordinary woman, this video shows a billboard model being produced through means of excessive makeup and hair styling in conjunction with digital editing after the photo was taken. This woman is not natural. She has pounds of makeup on her face, as well as photoshopped touchups, and yet she is perceived by the public as the standard of beauty. Nobody is able to compare with such a carefully sculpted face, and therefore this establishes unrealistic expectations

Growing up in a time era where the media was so influential, advertisements played a key role in how I also viewed the ideal woman as being. From a young age, I strongly believed that in order to be beautiful, I must be thin and have perfect skin. My weight and skin has always been an insecurity of mine, so achieving these ideals was quite the struggle. In order to be thin, I began to adopt a healthy lifestyle at an early age. In order to have flawless, blemish-free skin, I established a solid skin care routine at an early age as well, which, for the most part, I still follow to this day.

While not having an official slogan, the deodorant brand, AXE, aimed for men, has implemented the idea that if one were to use an AXE product all over themselves, the sex crazed females will follow. This ideology is displayed through their numerous advertisements occupying billboards and television time slots. One of their ad’s in particular feature a man pouring the promoted AXE shower gel all over himself, reflected with a slender woman smearing whip cream over her chest to suggest promiscuity. Conversely, the toiletry brand, Dove, has launched their Dove Self-Esteem Project which aims to influence awareness surrounding women 's self-esteem and the confidence needed to reach their full potential. A great portion of Dove’s running commercials encourage body positivity in woman of all sizes. More specifically, many of their ads aim to discredit the stereotypes women

In her article “The Body Beautiful”, Rosalind Coward (1998) argues that society creates a negative obsessions of the “perfect” female body and it affects women negatively in their daily lives. She explains that women have to think of their bodies in separate parts and believe that each part has a different life of their own. Coward goes on to explain the way society expects women to be seen as by providing readers with example advertisements and how it pushes women toward having the body that is viewed acceptable. She concludes by stating that although society creates a negative obsession of the “perfect” body, it helps women from falling into despair because they keep a vague relation to the ideal image. By analyzing an advertisement for Elizabeth Arden’s anti aging serum, we see Rosalind Coward argues that advertisements for facial product often expect women to be flawless and perfect in their body figures.

In her documentary, Jean Kilbourne addresses how the images in advertisements have impacted women, men, girls, and boys. New Beauty: The Beauty Authority, is a

In week ten of our class discussions we were asked to watch a video titled “Killing us Softly” in which Kilbourne discusses how advertisements are programmed into our subconscious minds after being continuously displayed. The movie notes that only a small percentage of an advertisement message is taken in by your conscious mind, the rest will be reworked deep into your subconsciousness (Jhally, 2010). Sadly, a lot of these advertisements carry negative messages that impact the way women view their natural beauty thus lowering their self esteem and resorting to alternative means of getting the “ideal body”.

The creator has to choose the right model for their ad, and the right model has to possess the perfect finesse to please the ad, but also possess the right finesse to please the intended viewer, plus other on-lookers who will have opinions on the portrayal of the ads. In Pozner’s article, she uses the Dove ad, and the backlash of this ad was based on a few things: First, the women used in the ad, were a good touch, but it is not allowing women to be completely comfortable in their skin, because the ad’s purpose is to create a solution for these types of women who have certain superficial issues. Secondly, the women used are too average, and they are showing viewers false hope, allowing them to think that it is acceptable to look out of shape, obese and other similar characteristics (Pozner 3). Third, men are superficial so the women placed in these, “female-targeted” ads must be a “fantasy babe” that allows for the superficial needs of men to be fulfilled, as said by Richard Roeper (Pozner

Everyday we expose ourselves to thousands of advertisements in a wide variety of environments where ever we go; yet, we fail to realize the influence of the implications being sold to us on these advertisements, particularly about women. Advertisements don’t just sell products; they sell this notion that women are less of humans and more of objects, particularly in the sexual sense. It is important to understand that the advertising worlds’ constant sexual objectification of women has led to a change in sexual pathology in our society, by creating a culture that strives to be the unobtainable image of beauty we see on the cover of magazines. Even more specifically it is important to study the multiple influences that advertisements have

This article discusses how media shapes standards of beauty. In modern society, beauty standards are seen as close to perfection which makes it impossible for women and young girls to meet them. This can result in mental and physical problems. The article includes the assessment of several brands. However, it is very descriptive as it focuses in on the Dove campaign. This article made me realize that Dove is taking the right steps to prevent women and young girls from getting physical and mental illnesses. Dove truly does focus on real and natural beauty. Also, the article reveals ethos as the author includes many facts and statistics throughout her article which makes it very difficult to be considered as biased. Pathos is also included as

Society has been obsessed with beauty ever since the beginning of time. Whether it be the royalty of the past or the models of the present, it is an ongoing analysis with society. As a society, we enjoy looking at people with so called “perfect” bodies and faces, so why wouldn’t advertisers take advantage of that? Although the question is, is it right to only expose us to the ideal image of a human or is it making our culture self-absorbed and self-conscious? Advertisers subliminally use certain tactics to make it seem that if specific beauty products are used, people will feel as if they become better looking or more masculine. Targeting specific audiences when persuading consumers effects society’s view of perfection. The Cosmopolitan advertisement for Polo Red Extreme Cologne is the perfect example of this. This ad uses its graphics to subliminally promises masculine ideals and social dominance through society’s viewpoint toward sex appeal.

Women’s magazines are littered with beauty advertisements. On one page, a mascara ad promises thick and long lashes as a symmetrically faced woman holds the wand to her eyes. Her skin is pore less and she appears mechanical.. Turn the page and an actress/model stands with legs the circumference of an arm. She is modeling jeans, yet they are barely on her body. This kind of advertising does not end at the actual advertisements. The truth is that the magazine itself is an advertisement of its reader’s inadequacy. Furthermore, the magazine as a whole serves as an advertisement to a woman’s assumed lack of confidence.

Often times, women are pressured by the mainstream media to upkeep a stellar appearance. They are expected to measure up to high standards without question. Even before most girls reach puberty, commercials are bombarding them with small Barbie esque makeup kits filled with lip glosses and chalky eyeshadows. The impact it has on impressionable children, both girls and boys is something that will likely last a lifetime if unlearned. Cosmetic companies who are marketing to young ladies say they can simply improve their looks to gain acceptance from their peers if they use the products they are selling. The makeup industry is a multi million enterprise that makes a profit from women’s insecurities and amplified pressures from society as a common tactic many cosmetic campaigns use is to push women to embrace the ‘natural look’ by providing products that will make it appear as if the individual is not even wearing makeup. Companies will spout out that with these products, the end result will be ‘you, but better.’ It is somewhat of an underlying and slightly manipulating slogan, as if to say how a woman appears could be improved because it is lacking in the moment. This distorts how we all believe how a woman is suppose to look.

Many young women in today’s society struggle with confidence and their body image. This is a huge problem in society and many people have spoken out against the influence of media on women’s body image. However, it continues to be a major problem and more can always be done to raise awareness about societies unrealistic expectations for women’s beauty. Dove’s Choose Beautiful campaign was started to promote the self-esteem of women and encourage them to see their beauty, however there are some criticisms, including the company using this campaign to increase their sales. Dove is selling a product with the expectation that confident, beautiful women will purchase it, however people still have the ability to resist the ad industry.