This particular commercial won two Golden Lions at Cannes. At its most basic, the dominant message that the advertisement wants to convey to us is this: the images we see on billboards, on television, and magazines are fake, constructed, an idealised form of beauty that may not be possible to achieve in real life. This is, of course, made clear by the tagline at the end — “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted”. Also, it fits in well with Dove’s ongoing “Real Beauty” campaign.
But isn’t this commercial conveying a couple of other messages that to a certain extent undercut this dominant idea that Dove wants us to get.
For instance, isn’t it also telling women that makeup can alter your appearance so that you look much better?
Here’s another — isn’t it claiming that now, even average looking girls can become models? Don’t worry, we’ll tidy it up in post-production.
The most interesting questions that arises for me, however, are these: Who decides what the current beauty ideal is going to be? Is it one individual with a Mac and a mouse?
No comments:
Post a Comment