Modern Evolution

Because appearance and identity are major themes at The BAG, particularly as women and media are involved, I thought we should take a look at this ad.

First some background, though.

At the end of the summer, a story that dominated the news here in Spain was the backlash against underweight fashion models.  Prior to Madrid's fashion week, the Spanish Association of Fashion Designers, in concert with the local government, instituted a minimum weight standard based on a U.N. recommended body mass index.

Although there was applauding, fist pounding and back pedaling within the industry, the bigger shows that followed -- London, Paris and New York -- chose not to follow Spain's lead.

In light of the concern, I became interested in this ad, produced for the Dove company, as part of its Campaign for Real Beauty.  (BAG note: I became aware of the ad in late summer, but didn't get a chance to blog it till now.)  Given the sophistication of marketing and advertising (and perhaps, too, a growing evolution in social responsibility), it becomes ever more complicated to discern between self-interest and social-mindedness (if you accept the idea) in commercial campaigns.

I know you'll raise other questions, but here's mine:  As a hybrid commercial/public service announcement, how much is this ad "doing the right thing," and how much is it leveraging the "attraction" of social responsibility in the name of selling beauty and beauty products?  And then, in a practical world, is this what you call a "win-win?"

Given our close daily inspection of visuals here at The BAG, there is another extremely illuminating aspect of the ad to take note of.  The subject of photoshopping and digital alteration often comes up here in discussion, but I can't remember when/if we've had the opportunity to really see it process.  In that light, I found the post production sequence rather startling, if not somewhat illicit and even grotesque.

Finally, regarding the opening shot (above), isn't that look especially riveting -- as if, in that intense gaze and plain appearance, this women somehow convinces us she would not be a party to what follows?

I'd love to hear your reactions.

Video: Dove Evolution: From Model To Billboard In Under 60 Seconds - Link

Dove Corporation Campaign for Real Beauty - link

(Full disclosure: I increased the size, and added contrast to the still.)

(hat tip: BoingBoing. video: Reginald Pike. Yael Staav.Tim Piper/Ogilvy, Toronto via boardsmag.com)

Comments

[Lucaites]

I'm a bit new to this blog -- well' I've lurked for awhile. But I too find all of this a bit disturbing, but am having difficulty putting it in words. Could you say a bit more about what makes the use of photoshop here "particularly" problematic?

JLL

[ummabdulla]

Wow - I remember years ago looking at before and after pictures of models in teen magazines, but then they only had the airbrush; they didn't have the computer software that makes it so easy to lift her eyebrows, thicken her lips, lengthen and narrow her neck, etc. You wonder why they even need to start with a real human being and bother with the expense of make-up artists, hairdressers, photographers, etc.

(Haven't there been some recent controversies with photos of women... Rosie O'Donnell and Katie Couric maybe?)

It is sad that even the supposedly most beautiful women in the world (the models) aren't even good enough to be portrayed realistically, and the girls and women who try to look like them don't realize that even those women don't look like that.

There was a TV commercial years ago... I can't remember the company, but I think it was for pantyhose or something. They showed twins who were both very beautiful and had nice figures (both the same), but then they showed one wearing their "slimming" pantyhose (or whatever it was) and the other wearing their product that added curves to her behind. The message was that you couldn't possibly be good enough.

When I saw photos of the too-thin models, or the one who died of complications from anorexia, what I found saddest was that they didn't really look abnormal, as far as models go.

This discussion reminds me of the book "The Beauty Myth", which I guess is out-of-date now.

[amm]

Not only the model's final appearance is totally artificial, the video itself depictng the model's creation -- its speed and editing and so on -- is a further comment on how all the millions of images surrounding us are artifacts -- some made with more care than others. And as with any ad, this too, at base, is driven by the desire to make money -- although it can still be entertaining and show something that rings true.

[Miss Led]

The Dove campaign really hits you in the gut. One of their shampoo ads features photos of various women - one is a woman in her 60's or 70's with white hair and lots of wrinkles.

I realized I NEVER see old women as models. Certainly never women without facelifts, airbrushing, etc. making them look like 30-year-olds with white hair.

Of course, like every ad, the idea is to get you to spend, spend, spend. =:-O

[Darryl Pearce]

...oh, I was fine with the fast-forward documentary until the digital manipulation began. I must admit that I like visual effects rather than special effects.

But the differences between paintings/sculptures and actual photographic imagery is getting to be a ...less distinct border.

However, I do like the model with the dramatic single lime-light.

[Tina]

A "self-esteem" fund from a company that sells beauty products? Something is not quite clicking here. Back in the summer when the Dove models were on Oprah, I saw a good article in "Slate" about the "average woman" ad campaign--I thought it was insightful although critical of the company's motives.

Let me see if I can find the article, and think this over a bit.

I'm reminded also of Benneton's ad campaigns featuring children with disabilities and so on. And who were the folks who were taking artsy pictures of people on death row for their advertising?

[Tina]

another thought in my stream of consciousness--the Wal-Mart greeters, handicapped or elderly persons who stand out front to show that Wal-Mart has a socially aware side.

Why I am making these connections? Are these all "awareness campaigns" that have actually served to further marginalize the groups they supposedly want to serve (or exploit)?

Let's see: average women = elderly = handipcapped = death row inmates. wait a minute.....

Oh, man. This isn't starting to look good.

[Susan]

WOW - that's about all I can think to say right now...wait more is coming! I've just never seen a FACE DONE before...

This is FLABBERGASTING and to add to THAT reaction in me, you will be (maybe) surprised to learn I am a Graphic Designer who uses Photoshop constantly!

I don't "use" it to "enhance" faces or bodies! For a while, I used it to retouch cell phones!

Can you imagine? :)

Usually the files depicting the cell phones were not in good Photo quality shape to go to print so I never felt I was misleading the public. These "photos files" were full of scratches, blobs and distortions…it was more like cleaning up an OIL SPILL or a muddy mess.

The phones, themselves were very nice looking "THINGS"! They ended up looking like what they actually were!

HOWEVER, to use this program (Photoshop and others) to "enhance" a nice looking woman/HUMAN FEMALE or male into something totally UNREAL is a terrible shame.

Even all the make-up and visual "tricks" that will produce, isn't "right". A little make-up isn't a bad thing but I have seen young girls with gorgeous skin covered with massive amounts of make-up/"foundation" for just "being around" - "doing nothing in particular".

The NEED to cover their faces with all kinds of "stuff" - their eyes with several shades of COLOR and encircling them with even more just to go to the grocery store - IS WEIRD!

I know the whole SELL, SELL, SELL impetus behind this - more cosmetics - more money, etc.

But when you tye it in with becoming skin & bones and the rest of the REMAKING of the human female - it gives ALL of society the wrong impression and not only that leaves us all depressed (to name ONE downer).

Everyone loses because women can't ever KEEP THAT going and men are totally disappointed that - THAT GIRL/FEMALE doesn't exist in REAL LIFE.

How much does this contribute to even greater social ills? The poor young women who starve themselves LITERALLY to death and the people who are never satisfied with their mates - should they ever be able to find one who is "CLOSE ENOUGH".

"Close Enough" will only disappoint in the long run or even short run. If she wakes up with a bad flu, will the Significant Other run away screeching at what she really looks like on a bad day? Of course, on a GOOD REGULAR DAY - she doesn't cut it either without all the STUFF.

I saw a TV presentation on what the advertising agencies do to some models - way beyond what is shown here in the DOVE piece. I'm assuming the model's face had already BEEN DONE in the one I saw but what they did to her LEGS were FREAKISH.

She was sitting down, sideways with her legs extended in front of her. The "artists" (both men) took a swath of her top leg area and stretched it INCHES or PIXELS all the way down to her toes.

The model ALREADY had beautifully long, slender legs but these two men actually stretched these legs beyond endurance (like she had been on THE RACK).

She looked like a GIANT, tiny body or middle, large breasts with long spidery legs - BARBEY Doll - ugh! If she had been REAL and stood up, the effect would have been MONSTROUS and her NEW legs would not have supported her.

What is so sad is that women with perfectly proportioned legs and bodies are made into "nothings"! Not worthy of a LOOK or any value!

I'd love to see a REVOLUTION of short legged, short stature, curvy women made into something really special.

Ever take a close look at those beautiful RENOIR & REMBRANDT WOMEN - bulges and cellulite galore!

Time for a CHANGE - let's be INCLUSIVE of all BODY TYPES for surely God made and gave us this VARIETY for a REASON!

Thanks for the chance to RANT and hopefully contribute -

From "A" Female ARTIST reminding the World of the infinite VARIETIES of beauty…even so called "UGLY" can be appealing…

I say America and other nations who so value such a strict stereotype - EXPAND your horizons (no pun intended!:).

[MonsieurGonzo]

Notwithstanding the very real problems of eating disorders among women and likewise steroid & growth hormone abuses among young men, which are very real, to be sure ~ they are in fact minimal when taken in with total population statistics within the U.S.A...

...in the same way that certain "sensational" crimes are broadcast relentlessly on empTeeVee, giving many the impression that it is no longer safe for their children to go outside to play or, ride the Municipal Bus: the ugly truth is that the magazine/TV "mirror" by which Americans "view themselves" is incredibly distorted not simply by design but also by desire.

Americans are overtly obese. thin-ness is rare ~ not unlike "good teeth," fitness is more a symbol of intelligentsia / upper-middle class status!

Few Americans actually wear anything other than 3rd world sweatshop cotton "gym clothes," denim slacks and rubber shoes. iow, i find this obsession with "too thin" models and sexual celebrity almost laughable when in fact American children are in reality so fat that diabetes is a childhood epidemic, and Vyagra is a socially acceptable performance enhancing drug.

“When you are on the phone or on the air, you have no body” -McLuhan

"photoshopping" is virtual cosmetic surgery for a physically unfit post-modern delusion :-/

[ummabdulla]

Susan's post reminded me of this: China agonises over leg-stretching surgery

This thread also reminds me of the skin-lightening creams that are used by so many women - and men - around the world.

[Janet]

There sites that show before and after photoshopping of models and celebrities - usually to advertise the skills of the retoucher for advertisers. But to address the theme of using "public service" to get profits, the "pink ribbon" "breast cancer awareness" scheme, which also degrades women is a far richer source to plumb.

[thirdeyepushpin]

free your mind and your ass will follow the kingdom of heaven is within..and so with beauty as well. Unilever wants to leverage the new market oof beauty rebels....

[Dan]

The ad is striking, I mean, I know that all these tricks are used to make fashion shoots work, but to actually see it is something else. Now for the cynicism, the company that owns Dove also owns the Axe brand. Axe's campaigns are of course for anything but real beauty. So yes, this is a marketing ploy even as it presents itself as almost a negation of marketing.

[Scarabus]

I teach a course titled Image and Identity, so I’m always on the lookout for such stuff. Last Thursday I showed this commercial followed by an Apple Keynote presentation on related stuff. For the latter I showed one slide containing an unretouched image of a frighteningly emaciated Kate Moss, then compared it to images of more fulsomely-bodied Marilyn Monroe and Christie Brinkley. I also showed some images I found in a book by Kevin Ames titled Adobe Photoshop: The Art of Photographing Women. (The current edition is titled Adobe Photoshop CS2….) Lots of before and after images, showing just how Photoshop experts perform their tricks. Don’t know about the second, but the first edition shows how to make a real woman into a replica of Barbie. The students were clearly impressed.

Side note: The image of Kate Moss was in grayscale, those of Monroe and Brinkley in color. I had the class talk about whether, in a presentation about manipulation, I had manipulated them by doing that.

[zatopa]

In a way it's kind of reassuring that a megabrand can do this kind of advertising; it's clearly effective, their brand is doing very very well.

I think this ad is very safe. The finished, billboard model shot is not something most hip viewers would look twice at; it's a look that's still out there, certainly, but it's hardly a current look, and anyone who thinks of themself as having a smart sense of style could not be to look twice at such 80s-era photography, lighting, layout and makeup. Call me cynical, but to me it's "Do the Dew", X-Treme Soft Drink, aren't-we-radical-for-not-believing-the-hype. Just for a different market.

And yet, it would seem that their hearts are in the right place. And if that fade-out flying-dove is bringing greater self-esteem to young girls, I can hardly fault them for that.

[The Heretik]

Surreality is the order of the day.

[ummabdulla]

Wait a minute... Dove is a Unilever brand? (I had no idea they had so many brands.)

That website doesn't mention "Fair&Lovely" as one of their brands, but if you search on it, it comes up on eight of their international sites. "Fair&Lovely" (and Fair&Handsome, for men) is a skin-lightening cream that's sold in many countries; it's advertised heavily on Arabic satellite stations, among others. The commercials are really horrible - a woman who's pretty much of a loser until she starts using Fair&Lovely, and you see her skin gradually get lighter until she gets a dream job as a TV personality, and her parents are so proud...

But they also have the Fair&Lovely Foundation, "empowering women" through "education, career guidance and enterprise".

[Lightkeeper]

And yet, it would seem that their hearts are in the right place. And if that fade-out flying-dove is bringing greater self-esteem to young girls, I can hardly fault them for that.

Here's a little secret, zatopa: the sole purpose of a corporation - any corporation - is to make as much profit as possible. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS. Full stop.

This ad reminds me of this book called The Rebel Sell. It explains how capitalism needs "rebels" - people who aren't buying what they're selling - so that it can continue to have new markets for further exploitation. It was a real eye-opener. For instance, when the hippies all decided that they didn't need to have the same cars as everyone else in society, Volkswagen made billions selling them the same thing - a car - in different packaging. Old wine, new bottle.

This whole notion that corporations could possibly have a real social consciousness is so beyond the pale that I find it hard to believe so many intellectuals even play with the idea. Do some research, christ just even watch The Corporation. The only thing that matters is the bottom line. If in the process they need to maintain an illusion of 'social responsibility' to make people believe in them some more, then thats what they will do.

Just please stop passing around the misguided notion that corporations have any real interest in saving our souls. We live in the most hypocritical time we have evidence of. It should not come as a surprise to any thinking person that a corporation which markets women as commodities to sell a product to men would turn around and present another product - this time to the women themselves - by appealing to their innermost hopes and desires (ie, the surely ludicrous notion that one does not need to buy things to be beautiful). It is just par for the course, from where I stand.

[mdhatter]

If it were an ad using the message to leverage sales of 'negative' products (lottery tickets, amphetamines, ricin), that would be one thing.

The decision to purchase or not a particular brand of soap product is pretty much a socially neutral thing**. Only time will tell if this is a one-off or a real commitment on the part of the company.

If time does tell, one way or the other, soap purchases might just be a progressive decision.

**- (usually, I mean unless you're a bit of a hippie (and no offense hippies, I use handmade soaps too))

[AnonWoman]

I have a seven year old daughter and I've been thinking how I feel about this Dove commercial featuring young girls. Hard to argue against “you're beautiful as the rainbow” showing young girls in all their natural beauty. How does she see it? If I look through her eyes, it seems perfectly benign. But the commercial emphasizes a girl's beauty, as opposed to her talent, brains or accomplishments. It's the constant emphasis on beauty that is so disturbing.

A girl's preoccupation with how she measures against her female peers starts early. First grade was particularly vexing because she was in a class with a number of girls whose mothers obviously focus on their daughter's appearance. On the very first day of class, my daughter came home and excitedly announced: “Jenny is a model and she has done commercials with her Mom!“ This year, thank goodness, she isn't surrounded by the same group. She's made friends with another girl, much like herself, and they get to be their glorious seven year old selves, day in and day out.

Seth Stevenson wrote a piece for Slate titled When Tush Comes to Dove. I agree with his analysis that “you simply can't sell a beauty product without somehow playing on women's insecurities”:

The interesting thing here is the risky bet Dove is making. Beauty-product marketing has almost always been aspirational: I wish I could look like her … perhaps if I buy this lip gloss, I will! But Dove takes a wildly different approach: That chick in the ad sort of looks like me, and yet she seems really happy and confident … perhaps if I buy this Dove Firming Cream, I'll stop hating myself!

In part, Dove's strategy is not unlike the Body Shop's old eco- and animal-friendly stance: Buy our products because you like them, but also because you're making a righteous statement. To buy Dove is to cast a vote for more "real curves" in advertising.

But there's a dirty little secret here. Because, in the end, you simply can't sell a beauty product without somehow playing on women's insecurities. If women thought they looked perfect—just the way they are—why would they buy anything?

Why, indeed.

[Cassidy]

"If women thought they looked perfect-just the way they are-why would they buy anything?" Jeez, how long does that guy go without a shower?

It is bit of an oversimplification to claim that all companies are in business to make a profit, therefore, all companies are evil and everything they do is evil. I appreciate the fact that I can buy inexpensive shampoo and soap at the store instead of making them myself or buying expensive handcrafted products.

I am very happy to support Dove's choice in advertising campaigns by buying their products. Even if it were a completely superficial gesture on Dove's part, I want every girl and woman to see someone who looks like themselves in everyday advertisements. It is a win/win situation. I heartily applaud this step in a healthier body-image direction.

[Cactus]

Yes, tina, I thought of the Benneton ads, too. My take on that was that they were a company doing ecumenical ads of Africa and rain forests and such to sell their high-end clothes......hoping no one would question where the clothes are made. BUT, they got a lot of press whether good or bad.

Maybe that is what Dove is doing......getting 'talk' which is free advertising for them. Still, they ARE making a point that all we see is not real. All grownups know this, but ten-year-olds probably don't. Maybe that's where it will do some good. But, of course, Dove is a soap, not a cosmetic. And actually, the campaign was rather short-lived, at least in the states. Doesn't that usually mean it wasn't all that successful?

Another thing kids don't realize is that the camera likes a still face. Think of all the top models and look at their faces. Very little expressionality. (I know it's not a word.) I cannot think of one model with animated expressions. They are either born that way or learn how to do it.

An early issue of "Ms." magazine had an interview with Anais Nin, and accompanied it with an old photo of her (I think she was in her 60's then). She was furious and demanded that they print the current photo which she gave them. Now that's integrity!

Enjoyed your rant, Susan. One of my art teachers had a theory that when men are dominant in society, women in art are 'Reubenesque" and when women are in positions of power, women in art are thin. Go back to pictures/ads of the 1940s and the women are much more natural looking (they had airbrushing then, too). Even the movie stars look positively plump by today's standards. Calista Flockhart, indeed!

[GeorgeF]

My dear old mother used to say: who likes to embrace a bag of stag-horns? I can assure you - she was and is right.
Dove had run an ad-series, on which about tem women, all of them definately no professional models, in their undies were presented, all of them slightly overweight in terms of models and I think, this ad raised a lot of sympathy to them.
Some years ago H&M ran a series of ads with Anna-Nicole Smith - visibly overweight - posing in some sexy things. It was one of the most successful campaigns.
I simply don't understand, how skin&bones-creatures like the Olsen-twins, Calista Flockhart or Mrs Posh-Spicegirl could ever have become ideals. They are just sick! They are symbols of a sick society. And who has argued, "roubenesque" women were a product of a mens-dominated society? My daughter, a feminist at its best woul simply laugh about!

[jtfromBC]

Lightkeeper > "just even watch The Corporation."

A better suggestion could not be given and for those who do not have the video its free here;

The Corporation--watch/listen free 145 minutes then recalibrate your concept of this entity .
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12998.htm

[mdhatter]

Cassidy, handmade shavings soaps and bath soaps are considerably cheaper than any of the commerically produced, overpackaged, mega marketed, fully suynthesized 'health and beauty products', because they have exactly four ingredients, each derived from food.

They may not keep as long, buth that's a price to pay.