I’m sure there’s an element of potkettleblackism in this, but check out Dove’s ad showing that average can be beautiful with enough makeup and photoshopping.
(HT: Ezra)
-
Tags
Administravia Apple Culture Cycling Design Education Films Food Funny Green Health History Home Language Linkdump Money More to come Music People Photography Picks Places Play Politics Ramblings Reader Reading Recommended Religion Rowing Science Sport Tech The InterWeb Thinking Tips TV Work
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck and Luke Morton requires Flash Player 9 or better.
-
Tweet
-
Naked Commerce
-
-
RSS Links
-
Blah Blah Blah
So far I've written 136,758 words in 988 posts. 1,033 comments have been posted, with a total of 67,899 words.
4 Comments
One interesting thing to me is what it says about our cynicism – if we didn’t see through Dove’s own self-interest, which is to sell lots of soap – we’d applaud them for applying shareholder money to help reverse a condition that the “beauty industry” helped create in the first place. There’s a widening gap (pun intended) between the “normal sized” Western woman and the typical model used in ads – creating even more dissonance that Dove and other companies are trying to harness in marketing to women. Maybe you’ve seen the Hanes ads with the “normal sized” women?
I have seen said commercial blandishments, and heartily approve. I’m all for improbably gorgeous women, but so many models nowadays tend more to the cadaverous.
I think what they fail to get is that looking good isn’t about size but fitness level and general health. I’m probably a smaller size than lots of “plus-size” models, but I’m no way as in shape as them. Even the bigger models are pretty well toned and don’t roll over the top of their jeans… the key is that healthy, toned women who look after their skin, hair and nails are beautiful regardless of size. We all look better when we take care of ourselves. Oh – and it helps that everyone in these ads is over 5’8″, if I were that tall I’d look a lot better.
I agree with most of that, Em, except for the bit about “looking good isn’t about size but about fitness level and general health” – actually looking good isn’t really about any of those, it’s just about looking good (though what you describe is one excellent way of getting there). Now being attractive is certainly about what you mention, plus many other things, and size is only a qualifier to that (huge and scrawny generally count against a person, but there’s a lot of room between the extremes).
We’re totally agreed on one thing though – I too would look a lot better if I was 5’8″; that extra half inch would make all the difference