Teen Body Image Study

Is media part of this problem?

Womanity

This name of this perfume is a cross between woman, humanity and/or femininity.  At first, I wasn’t sure what the fragrance was trying to promote exactly.  When I checked out their website, the first page I was directed to (where I chose my country) had an interesting message.  It says, “womanity is… different for everyone one of us, every day, every mood, every place we’re from”.  This is a positive advertisement, saying that there is no definition of who a woman is or how she should behave, which leads to individual choices and non-conformity.  My biggest problem with this ad is that as it promotes individuality, it says a specific product is necessary to attain that ideal (which contradicts the positive message).  This ad was in a recent copy of Cosmopolitan magazine.

Make Yourself _______

The Nike fill-in-the-blank ads are examples of positive advertisements.  They are empowering to both men and women.  In this series, only women are depicted.  These ads say that you can become whatever you want (through fitness, specifically through Nike products).  These ads picture successful female athletes (an Olympic medalist and a professional dancer).  The selected women look strong, fearless, and determined.  This is the kind of positive motivation and advertisement that viewers benefit from.  This is smart advertising.   I found this ad in Cosmo magazine.

Curve

This is one of the worst perfume ads I’ve seen in a while.  It is a change from the average image of a half dressed woman or couple in settings that have nothing to with the advertised product.  However, I find this one to be worse.  This perfume ad portrays women as stupid bimbos who only think about two things: men and shoes (and maybe a third thing being perfume).  Women do not hear nor think about anything else.  They are small-minded and easily swayed by images of attractive men.  The ad says that women are materialistic and shallow.  I found this advertisement in a recent edition of Cosmopolitan magazine.

The Accident

I changed the tagline “Axe Effect” to “Axe-ident” for a few reasons.  The first and main reason is that I don’t believe Axe to be a very seductive product, especially not one to achieve the pictured image.  The second is that women have self-control and don’t stick their hands in any man’s pants, regardless of how wonderful he smells.  Lastly, I don’t think Axe could have this effect in any way except for an accident.

The Axe Effect

According to this ad, Axe body spray is so seductive that even women’s clothing wants to get in men’s pants.  It’s a natural attraction.  This ad was able to get away with sexually suggestive content that I doubt would be possible if there were people in the picture.  I’d also like to point out that there aren’t full outfits on the clothesline.  The biggest contrast I see here is the pair of extra white, clean socks hanging next to the ‘dirty’ image.  I found this image here.

Hard Rock Casino [3]

This alteration is a continuation of the previous post and mostly was for fun.

Hard Rock Casino [2]

 

As I mentioned under the original ad, I noted that it looked as if the female model hadn’t eaten in a while.  Her ribs are showing (casting shadows/dark lines on her mid-section) on her already thin figure.  She perpetuating the idea that women need to be thin to be beautiful and sexy.  I wanted to acknowledge her possible eating disorder to call attention to it as a serious issue.

Hard Rock Casino (Original)

The original advertisement is a picture of indulgence.  Drugs (cigarettes and alcohol) are a theme in this image.  Mostly, the ad sells sex.  The woman is looking at the camera seductively.  She’s barely dressed, is biting a playing card, and looks as if she hasn’t eaten in a week.  The woman is being sold more so than the product (experience) in this advertisement, since you have to look closely to see that the ad is for Hard Rock casinos.  I don’t particularly understand this advertisement.  The caption speaks to cheating, both in games and in relationships.  This shouldn’t be successful, but Hard Rock is trying to make sinful pleasures appealing.  It advertises risky behavior by making it seem enticing and sexy.

When I Google-searched the ad for more information, I learned that this is one of the Hard Rock Casino ads that was part of the campaign that would be on trial (as of July 2004).  It was questionable whether or not this ad was just sexy or pornographic as well as being plain indecent.  I found the original ad here and it can be found in simple Google searches.

Axe Twist Deodorant Commercial

This ad for Axe Twist Deodorant says flat out that women get bored easily. This deodorant will constantly be changing, so women will stay interested in you despite their short attention spans. Women’s boredom is natural, so this will help you keep a date entertained. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be charming or sincere, you just have to keep changing your appearance (and your seductive, manly scent with Axe Twist Deodorant) for a woman to stay focused on you. Axe says that even the most uninteresting men will be successful in wooing women since women are unintelligent and can’t control themselves when you wear Axe.

This is a horrible message to send. Women do not get bored easily. However, if a guy isn’t confident enough to be who he is and has to buy into Axe products that promise to make him seem exciting (and constantly changing) in order to please a woman, it makes perfect sense that a girl wouldn’t be interested. There is no deodorant on the market that can make a man any more interesting, and women (and hopefully men…) are well aware of this.

The Photoshop Effect

This video clip is a good follow-up to the previously posted Dove Evolution ad. Regardless of whether or not it is true that 99.9% percent of advertisements are edited with Photoshop, we know that the majority of images are “perfected” on a regular basis. The video contains interviews with a professional photographer and nutritionist who comment on the excessively high amount of images is changed and the lack of knowledge that viewers have on the changes that are made. Without the realization that the pictures are edited and aren’t natural, the images send negative messages and have the potential to lower individuals’ self-confidence when they look in the mirror and don’t see the same stereotyped perfection.

Dove Evolution Commercial

This is a neat commercial for Dove.  It points out that perceptions of beauty have become increasingly distorted over the decades.  The media showcases unrealistic and unattainable visions of ‘perfection’ that can lead to negative emotional and physical side effects for both men and women.  This Dove campaign is a step in the right direction as a positive role model.  It politely pokes fun at the impractical standards that the media have set and reminds viewers of individual beauty, saying that models are regular people whose images have been played with to an editor’s liking.  Let this serve as a reminder that you are beautiful too.

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Brains Buy Hanes

This is another altered ad for the Hanes Mystrece stockings.  Here I decided to send the message that smart women buy this particular Hanes product.  This message supports both intelligence and the advertised product.

Brains by Hanes

This adjusted Hanes ad is for the same Mystrece pantyhose.  The message here is clear – wearing these stockings make you the intelligent woman you want to be.  This product will give you the brainpower that you crave, while you maintain your naturally sexy persona.

Original Hanes Advertisement

This original Hanes advertisement was for Mystrece pantyhose.  The image itself is basically a sexy schoolgirl.  The captions of the ad promise women that they can become unforgettable sensations by wearing the stockings.  The original ad doesn’t go so far as to completely knock intelligence, but it implies that intellect is less desirable compared to being the sensation that the pantyhose can supply.  The original image is from this site.

IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD...

 

In the perfect world, there would be gender equality.  This is a homemade advertisement for Absolut vodka.

Welcome!

I'm starting this blog for an activist assignment in my Penn State COMM 411 (Cultural Aspects of the Mass Media) course.  Throughout my blog posts, I will be analyzing different advertisements in the media, focusing on their portrayals of gender, beauty, and sexuality.  Thanks for joining me, and welcome to my Advertising, Gender, and Sexuality blog.