1st Essay Proposal

Essay


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Essay Proposal


Claudia Griffin - Level 05 - Critical Studies - OUCS205


Focusing on specific examples, critique the use of real women in advertising in the media.


- [Intro] For this essay I will look at the pro's and con's of the use of real beauty in the media, in particular, the dove real beauty campaign. I will compare this type of campaign to the other beauty campaigns used in the media. 
- Explaining the dove real beauty campaign and examples
- Is this dove campaign really about promoting real beauty, or is it just trying to sell products?
- Explaining the gaze in the media
- Explain the hypocrisy of dove's message due to the vanity products they sell
- Explain the hypocrisy of Unilever, as they also own Lynx, whose advertising campaigns are the opposite to what the dove campaign is trying to achieve
- Research showing the good the campaign has done
- A quick look at other beauty campaigns in the media
- [Conclusion] The campaign is needed, even if the products they are selling are hypocritical


Bibliography




Coward, R. (2000) The Look in Thomas, J. (2000) Reading Images, Hampshire: 1st edn, Halgrave Macmillan


[WHY] Exploring the idea of 'the gaze', how men see women, how this effects them. We read through this text in the sign up session for media, gender and identity essays, and I found a few quotes which I think will fit in well with what I have to say, but I need to re-read through the text to fully understand it.


Watkins, S. (1999), Introducing Feminism, 2nd edn, Cambridge: Icon Books Ltd


[WHY] This book introduces feminism at a basic level, showing the struggle for women's rights.


Zoonen, L. (1994), Feminist media studies, 1st edn, London: Sage


[WHY] This book provides an introduction to the relationship between gender and the media. 


Wolf, N. (1991), The beauty myth: how images of beauty are used against women, 2nd edn, London: Vintage


[WHY] This book explores how women's pursuit of beauty has effected women's struggle for equality.

Gauntlett, D. (2008), Media, gender and identity: an introduction, 2nd edn, Oxon: Routledge


[WHY] This book is about the impact images of women in the media have on peoples identities.


Rogers, M. (1999), Barbie Culture, 1st edn, London: Sage


[WHY] This book explores how Barbie is a cultural icon involved in sexual stereotyping.


Berger, J. (1972), Ways of Seeing, 1st edn, London: Penguin Classics


[WHY] This book is about how we see things in art, with a focus on women

Barnard, M. (2005), Graphic Design as Communication, 1^st edn, Oxon: Routledge


[WHY] In this book there is a short section of women in advertising and graphic design. 

Wykes, M & Gunter, B. (2005), The media and body image: if looks could kill, 4th edn, London: Sage


[WHY] This book is about how images of unrealistic female bodies in our contemporary culture can be destructive

Research for Essay...

I have looked in to lots of different websites as well as asking others their opinions to get some background research for my essay about real beauty.


Title Ideas

- Critiquing for and against the use of real women in advertising in the media
- Critiquing for and against the use of models in advertising in the media
- Critiquing the dove real beauty campaign
- Critiquing the way women are displayed in the media

For this essay I will look at the pro's and con's of the use of real beauty in the media, in particular, the dove real beauty campaign. I will compare this type of campaign to the other beauty campaigns used in the media. Is this dove campaign really about promoting real beauty, or is it just trying to sell products?

Primary research - asking others their opinions about the dove campaign. Example questions to be asked:
- Do you remember the dove real beauty campaign?
- How do you feel about these women?
- Did it make you any more likely to buy dove beauty products?
- How do you feel about skinny models in the media?
- Did this campaign work in making you feel any better about your body?
I would try to ask a mix of easy to answer yes/no questions, as well as giving the opportunity for those taking part to write a little bit more if they wanted, as I think I could get some really interesting replies when hearing peoples opinions on the matter.

[See Blog Post]

Notes from secondary research / My thoughts
- The women are still pictured in their underwear, as they are in the Gaultier campaigns
- The women in the adverts still seem to have flawless skin, and no imperfections such as cellulite, and there are no marks that would make them 'different', they are all still beautiful women just in bigger sizes or older
- As dove as a company is all about beauty products, they are still suggesting that you need to buy these products to be beautiful
- By presenting the women as beautiful, they are still suggesting that women need to be beautiful to appear in the media
- There is no 'real beauty' campaign for men
- I was surprised by the dove real beauty website, as it not about pushing products
- It is a well remembered campaign, but did id do any good for the sales of dove? What did they gain from it? Will it last?
- The campaign makes dove seem like a trust able, genuine brand, compared to ones obsessed with looks
- I wouldn't be any more motivated to buy dove products as cheaper ones are available
- Some people are naturally thin, so they shouldn't be made to feel guilty about this, such as with the 'real women have curves' slogan
- In dove's research findings, it shows that a campaign like this was needed, as many women they asked were unhappy with their looks and had low self-esteem
- It has been a successful campaign, lasting quite a few years, but how long will it go on for?
- Why are we so obsessed with body image?
- The firming cream that the real women were advertising is for a vanity issue, and it is the media in the first place that has told us that we have problems with our body. Dove products, in reality, are expensive and unnecessary, just a temporary fix for a 'problem'.
- By promoting real beauty, does this justify the expensive price of the products, or the other things dove has been criticised for, such as its impact on the environment (criticised by Greenpeace for using palm oil)
- Real beauty shouldn't be about how you look, but whats inside, and how you treat others. It is cheesy but a message that needs to be spread!
- There has been a backlash against dove's campaign, as their underlying philosophy is to sell beauty products
- We are surrounded by images of beauty, in magazines, billboards, tv adverts, product packaging, etc.
- Dove are 'reinforcing the stereotypes they seem to be exposing'
- The adverts are inspiring - I wasn't originally critical about them until I really thought about it
- People don't want to see these real women in advertising, they want to see beautiful, perfect women, who are the unrealistic ideal, and it is their job as models to be beautiful
- Media is run by men for men
- Are these adverts just an eyesore?
- Critical view: when facing an obesity problem is it wise to promote big as beautiful? (However, women in ad weren't actually overweight, instead they were more your average size woman)
- The campaign is needed, even if the products they are selling are hypocritical
- Other companies are trying to capitalise on the hype of this campaign (Nike: my butt is big campaign, and there are many competitions for real women to be the face of something)
- Dove is run by Unilever, who own other beauty companies such as Lynx, whose advertising campaigns are totally hypocritical to what dove is trying to achieve. The women are objectified in these campaigns.
- Mums are buying these products for their daughters, teens with low self-esteem
- Corporate hypocrisy, as Unilever also promote Axe deodorants with idealised females in their adverts.

List of Dove's products
- Body wash
- Deodorant
- Hair care
- Lotions
- Men's care

Other companies owned by Unilever

Aviance Axe/Lynx Ben & Jerry's Blue Band Dove Flora/Becel Heartbrand Hellmann's Knorr

Lipton Lux / Radox Omo/Surf Rexona/Sure Wish-Bone Sunsilk Toni & Guy TRESemmé VO5

Other Beauty Product Providers
- Avon
- Revlon
- L'oreal
- Neutrogena
- ETC

Websites I have looked at:


http://www.wimnonline.org/articles/dovebacklash.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove_Campaign_for_Real_Beauty
http://psucomm473.blogspot.com/2009/03/dove-campaign-for-real-beauty.html
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/teachable_moments/campaignrealbeauty.cfm
http://aseachange.com/blog-illusionists/2008/10/an-egregious-example-of-corporate-hypocrisy-doves-real-beauty-campaignuponco/
http://theweek.com/article/index/204565/doves-real-beauty-campaign-hypocritical

Research... Dove Campaign

Dove Campaign

I thought this was a good place to start researching as it was my initial thought, and also because some interesting ideas sparked by talking about this in the gender workshop. Its important I know exactly what the campaign is about, and find lots of examples of its advertising before I can form an accurate opinion on it. 

About [Wiki]

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is a worldwide marketing campaign launched in 2004 that includes advertisements, video, workshops, sleepover events and even the publication of a book and the production of a play. The principle behind the campaign is to celebrate the natural physical variation embodied by all women and inspire them to have the confidence to be comfortable with themselves. 

The campaign was shot by the British portrait/fashion photographer Rankin who has made a career out of subverting fashion photography and who has also produced several books featuring ordinary-looking people.

Ogilvy's London office chose Rankin because he brings out the character and personality of his subjects and he likes working with non-professional models. Dove wanted to celebrate women by using a photographer who also shoots supermodels, giving them the same star treatment. Rankin shot the follow-up campaign for Dove as well.

One billboard in the series asked viewers to phone 1-888-342-DOVE to vote on whether a woman on the billboard was "fat" or "fab". The results were posted real-time on the board. While a photo in the October 25, 2004 issue of Marketing Magazine shows "fab" leading 51% to 49%, eventually the percentage of "fat" votes overtook "fab", much to the chagrin of marketers.

This campaign has also spurred on a phenomenon whereby attractive women with bodies that better reflect 95% of the female population are referred to as Dove Beauties.

As part of this campaign, in 2006, Dove started the Dove Self-Esteem Fund that claims to change the Western concept of beauty from ultra-thin models with "perfect" features to making every girl (and woman) feel positive about her looks.

The campaign has been criticized on the grounds that Unilever also produces Fair and Lovely, a skin-lightening product marketed at dark-skinned women in several countries. It was also widely noted that Unilever brand Lynx's advertising campaign would seemingly contradict the sentiment of the Campaign for Real Beauty. Not to mention the fact that Unilever also owns and markets their AXE brand of deodorants, where overtly sexualized women are its campaigning staple. This appears to be starkly hypocritical - in contrast to Dove's campaign - as Unilever utilizes "idealized" female sexuality to market AXE products towards young men.

Dove Website

Looking around the Dove campaign for real beauty I was quite impressed to see it was a campaign, actually doing something to promote real beauty, and that I wasn't just trying to be a sold a product with everything I clicked on on the website. 

There was even quite a lot of content that I wasn't expecting to find, such as: self-esteem guides; games; quizzes and more. There is even a section to ask questions so if I think of any I can. 

I'm sure a lot of people will be quite sceptical about the motives of the dove campaign and it would be interesting to get some other opinions on it. 

Adverts

There are so many different images used in the Dove real beauty campaign, so I thought it was important to look at many of them, to get a true feel for what they are about.

 

Other Websites / Articles concerning Real Beauty Campaign

Dove to dump real beauty campaign?

- I don't know whether this is actually true or not but I found the comments from the websites users underneath really thought provoking.

Is Dove's real beauty campaign hypocritical?

Changing the definition of beauty

More Research... See Blog Post...

Sign Up Lectures... The Media, Gender and Identity

This lecture was really useful in helping me to determine that this is the topic that I want to write my essay on. It helped me to think of some topic ideas for my title as well as thinking about where to go next as before this I felt a bit confused about where to start and need to just focus on one idea.

Title Topic Ideas 

What is graphic design that is good for advertising to women? Is it featuring real women, like in the Dove real beauty campaigns, or is using beautiful models like in the Jean Paul Gaultier adverts. Both feature women in their underwear showing off a different idea of beauty.

Other things to look at - guerrilla girls, introduction to feminism, colleen's real beauty, look magazine (uses real shaped bodies), jean paul Gaultier and other brands which always use the 'perfect' body, benetton adverts featuring aids victims as models, giles deacon using plus sized models on the catwalk, crystal renn (famous + sized model)

Notes

- The real beauty campaign is still a way of branding
- Ethical concern - are dove marketing the need for people to feel unhappy with their looks?
- Market research
- Dove campaign - can be seen in a cynical way, they are seemingly interested in social change but really is it all about selling their products? is it hypocritical?
- Comparison of masculine and feminine brands, what portrays what? What appeals to who? Is there a certain style of design that appeals to the different sexes?
- At the same time, the dove campaign tells women that they should be attractive to men, the gaze is still there
- Look mag - contains real sized women in their features but still contains 'fake' models in the advertisements

The Look

We read a section of 'The Look' by Rosalind Coward. (Pages 33-36) There are a lot of quotes in this text that I can see as being useful for my essay.

- We are obsessed with the image rather than the real thing... Looking good rather than being good
- Images are made by men for men, as men control these things, and what they want is sexualised images
- Looking is not neutral, you measure yourself up to other people
- Adverts allow men to stare at women, which they couldn't do in real life. There is a relationship of domination and subordination.
- There are socially prescribed roles for women and men because of adverts.
- Men control the production of images - seeing women like pg 3 models makes men comfortable as they feel like a man, as it is socially acceptable. This comfort of security and power can be used to make women seem stupid.
- Beauty is socially driven, what it means to be beautiful changes. e.g. fat women used to be beautiful because it meant they were ready for childbearing and also that they were rich, and pale women used to be seen as beautiful as it meant they were rich enough to not have to work outdoors. The qualities of beauty are submissive... e.g. generally women are shorter than the men they date.
- Women are made to worry about their appearances
- We don't control our lives, there is a superstructure, the media, which controls our behaviour and how we think about each other. Would society be different with women in control?
- Do women have some power knowing how their beauty effects men?

Sign Up Lectures... Globalisation, Sustainability and Ethics

I think attending this lecture helped me to realise that it is the issue of gender and identity that I want to write my essay on, however, it was still interesting and things I have learnt may be useful for future essays, as ethics is something which interests me.

Notes

- Commodity fetishism makes you forget that a thing you buy is the product of someones labour - you don't think about someone making a product with clothes you buy from a shop as you would with buying something from a craft fair
- A system with the ultimate drive for profit can't really ever be sustainable. For a business, profit is always their first concern and the environment comes after this
- Brands create a new market for their products with re-branding and greenwashing

First Things First - A Manifesto (1964 - Ken Garland)

- Because you have skills you have a decision to make: put your talents to use to influence the world for good or use them to advertise random objects
- How simple/possible is it to actually stick to this? People still need to earn money, especially students with all the debt they will be in. Why do something that won't help you?
- You should design things that promote education; culture; and the good of the world
- Graphic designers waste their talent when they could be doing something better

First Things First - Manifesto (2000)

We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief; the market rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it.

Encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles. Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. This, in turn, is how the world perceives design. The profession’s time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best.

Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this view of design. Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact. To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse.

There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programmes, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help.

We propose a reversal of priorities in favour of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication – a mindshift 
away from product marketing 
and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.

In 1964, 22 visual communicators signed the original call for our skills to be put to worthwhile use. With the explosive growth of global commercial culture, their message has only grown more urgent. Today, we renew their manifesto in expectation that no more decades will pass before it is taken to heart.

- The items that described are luxury items that define a person, they are carefully chosen as there is an ethical dilemma between each one

- Would you be comfortable marketing those?

- This manifesto has a different focus: anti-capitalism

- There are lots of differences between the manifestos

- Do you agree? Ultimately your ethics are what you can afford them to be, the designers who have signed the manifesto are all already rich and successful