Thursday, March 26, 2009

Beauty re-defined

We all know that sex sells.

Or does it?

Lately, I’ve noticed a trend in advertising which reflects a gradual but growing dissatisfaction among women with the unrealistic standards of beauty in the media today.

Before we proceed, let me say that I am in no way insinuating that men have not been objectified by the advertising industry. Case in point:

Diet Coke Construction Worker Commercial


I’ve been following this trend for some time now but the
subject of women and self-esteem took on new life today
when celebrity
Kim Kardashian appeared in the news
talking about some photos of herself that were
taken for the cover of Complex magazine.
Thanks to some quality
Photo-shopping and airbrushing, she appears on the
cover as the epitome of womanly perfection.

Unfortunately, after the photo shoot, someone absconded with the un-retouched “before” photos and then published them on the Internet, exposing a horrible truth:

Kim Kardashian has…cellulite. (Insert gasp of shock and disbelief here.)

All this time, we thought she was beautiful, when, in fact, she is actually grotesquely afflicted with lumpy, bumpy, cottage-cheesy blobs of fat, located close to the surface of the skin!

She is…imperfect.

Oddly enough, however, Kim has no immediate plans to get liposuction or check herself into a weight loss clinic to correct this glaring defect. Nor does she seem particularly bothered by it. Her response to the photos was simply, "You know what, who cares? So what! I have a little cellulite. What curvy girl doesn't? How many people do you think are photoshopped? It happens all the time!"

Perhaps Kim was able to take her imperfections being broadcast all over the world so well because she’s been viewing some of the recent ads put out by Dove.

Some of you may already be familiar with Dove’s

Real Beauty

ad campaign which uses real women instead of models in their ads.

As part of that campaign, they created a short film entitled,

Onslaught

that, interestingly enough, doesn’t promote any Dove products at all. Instead, it petitions mothers to talk to their daughters before the beauty industry does. What I find utterly fascinating about this ad is the fact that Dove is a part of the very industry it condemns in these commercials.

What could possibly be Dove’s motivation for engaging in such a campaign?

In my opinion, they are building relationship.

Your customers are far more likely to purchase your product if they trust you. Dove has wisely and effectively adopted “The Caregiver” role for its brand.

Brand roles were discussed

Here

The message communicated through the “Real Beauty” campaign and “Onslaught” film is that women don’t have to look like models to be beautiful. That message, communicated in print ads, via their website and through the Onslaught YouTube video, makes Dove's customers feel like the brand is on their side in the war against the unrealistic images of beauty in our society.

It is then a very short jump in the viewer’s mind from, “I like Dove. I can trust Dove.” to “I want to support Dove and buy Dove products.”

If you’re still using sex to sell your product, this trend toward “real beauty” is definitely something you should be aware of. Sites such as www.realbodystory.com and a simple Twitter search on the words “body image” will lead you to ongoing conversations about body image and this growing dissatisfaction with the unrealistic images of beauty being forced upon women and young girls by the media.

So, be careful.

No matter what your product is or what methods you’re using to sell it, by not listening to and participating in your customers’ conversations, you run the risk of not just creating ineffective ads but of creating ads that actually offend and isolate the very group of people you’re trying to reach.

And when that happens, the results are anything but beautiful.


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