All Entries Tagged With: "advertising"
Debenhams Highlights Natural Beauty in New Campaign
Debenhams is taking a radical new approach with their latest swimwear ad campaign. They plan on using photos that haven’t be retouched to. . . shall we say. . accentuate the positive.
The clothing company is banning all retouching in their latest ad campaign, preferring the more natural and realistic photos that show models women truly can aspire to look like. Accompanying the photos in their store window will be a sign reading, “We’ve not messed with natural beauty; this image is unairbrushed. What do you think?”
Creative and visual director Mark Woods said, “As a responsible retailer we want to help customers make the most of their beauty without bombarding them with unattainable body images. Our campaign is all about making women feel good about themselves – not eroding their self belief and esteem by using false comparisons.” A variety of companies have been making a move to get away from overly touched up photos and stick thin models in an effort to show real women that can be attainable and healthy role models for young women. Debenhams has previously used ads including a size 16 model and a disabled model.
Many touched up images of models that have impossibly perfect bodies lead to a poor self-esteem in young women everywhere, and these poor feelings about themselves can lead to a variety of issues, from depression to a lack of respect for themselves, which can put them in vulnerable situations. Dove has been active in promoting their Campaign for Real Beauty, which is focused on making young women comfortable in their own skin. Results from a “Self-Esteem Report” include that 70 percent of girls believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way. Of the girls with low self-esteem, 75 percent of them engaged in harmful activities such as cutting, drinking or eating disorders.
In case you were wondering, the woman on the right in the photo is the untouched photo. Which one did you think was untouched? What do you think of Debenhams’ new campaign?
Short Film Logorama Takes on Advertising Culture, Results are Highly Entertaining
I guess it was about 1998 when the annoying trend of naming stadiums after corporations really took hold. Trading in names like Candlestick Park for 3-Com Park, corporations managed to suck the mystique and poetry out of our proper nouns. The added bonus being that one feels mighty toolish having to say the name of the corporation every time they go to an event.
I always feel a little sorry for Tim Gunn on Project Runway when he says, “Make sure you pick accessories from the BlueFly accessory wall before going to the Garnier hair salon.” During commercials we joke, “If you’re getting up, can you go to our Ikea kitchen and get me some ice cream from our Ben and Jerry’s freezer?”
The wallpapering of our visual world and our language with logos is nothing new. It is so common that mostly we are pretty oblivious to it. But, if you are even a little tired of it, I’ve got the short film for you.
Logorama is an Oscar nominated, short, animated film by French directors François Alaux, Herve de Crecy and Ludovic Houplain. It depicts a world (based on Los Angeles) where everything is made out of logos, even the zoo animals. The cops are Michelin Men and Ronald McDonald is an expletive spewing psychopath.
The short film is a hilarious, fun, exciting, scathing critique of our cultural landscape. It probably won’t win an Oscar because it’s up against a very sweet, new Wallace and Gromit short and in contrast, the characters in Logorama drop a lot of f-bombs. So, if that kind of stuff offends you, you should definitely not check out this link.
Here is a short trailer for the film:
Can Taco Bell Make You Skinny?
Look out Subway, Taco Bell has their own Jared, and she looks pretty great. Her name is Christine, and she claims to have lost 54 pounds eating Taco Bell. Just like Subway’s weight loss spokesman Jared Fogle, Christine is trying to convince potential customers that not only is Taco Bell’s fast food not bad for you, it can actually help you lose weight. Christine and Jared’s before and after pictures look pretty incredible, but viewers be warned. Even Christine offers a disclaimer: “As you know, the Drive-Thru Diet menu is not a weight-loss program. I didn’t want to cut out my fast food, so I started choosing Fresco items from the Drive-Thru Diet® menu and making other sensible choices. I reduced my daily calorie and fat intake by 500 calories to 1250 calories a day and after two years, I ended up losing 54 pounds. These results aren’t typical, but for me they were fantastic.”
Cutting 500 calories a day is certainly a good way to lose weight, but how much of that was courtesy of Taco Bell’s Fresco menu? I can’t imagine that she was eating Taco Bell every day. Even so, the biggest difference between Fresco items and regular items is that they replace the cheese with salsa, and the calorie difference there isn’t that great. According to the LA Times, there are 100 calories in an ounce of Mexican style shredded cheese, and about 10 in the salsa. The Fresco Crunchy Taco Supreme cuts 50 calories off the original’s 200 and the Fresco burrito supreme with steak has 330 compared to the original’s 380. That’s a 50-calorie difference, which would mean she would have to be eating about 10 Taco Bell items daily to cut the 500 calories she says she did.
Reebok EasyTone Shoes Represent Dishonest, Shaming Advertising
Get fit, get fab, get fat-shamed!
Advertising is a favored target for the modern feminist, fond of critiquing the use of sex to sell non-sexual ideas (see: PETA) and creating an exploitative industry that thinks the hidden meaning of double entendres will be lost on viewers (see: Toyota). While sexism in TV and print advertisement is nothing new, one can’t help but wonder what’s with the influx of completely tasteless (and, indeed, inaccurate) ads.
Consider the launch of the new “Easy Tone” sneakers by Reebok. Piggybacking off the success of Avon and Curves’ joint venture, other shoe retailers, including Skechers, are catching on and offering their own brand of the funky-soled shoe, bragging that it burns more calories and tones while the wearer merely walks in them. Though these claims were debunked by the New York Times earlier this month, the companies are launching an ad blitz in the upcoming weeks, planning around 3,000 cable slots prior to the Christmas holiday alone.
The question remains as to how companies can continue to make incredibly bogus claims about products that don’t live up to the hype. Reebok, the worst offender, relies on sexism and insecurity to hook the female demographic. Each commercial is seemingly directed by a hormonal 15-year-old, with lots of panning on the attractive (and thin) female spokesperson’s presumably well-toned butt, thighs and breasts. There’s also lots of promotion of the bare female form, woman-on-woman violence (“78 percent of women will be jealous!” one ad brags) and the groovy notes of a pornographic-sounding saxophone that would be more fitting in a lingerie commercial.
