A feminist critique on Boddingtons television advert

In this essay I will be examining a Boddington’s bitter television advert from the early 90’s from a feminist perspective. Boddingtons is a bitter, a type of beer mainly associated with hard working older northern men, drinking in their local village pub. At this time Boddingtons were trying to change their image to appeal to a younger (though still early 20’s) drinking market and had started a poster campaign trying to create a sense of “glamour around bitter”.

Feminists are a group that aims to create equal rights, opportunities and social standing for women. Feminist believe that the male dominated world is bias towards men in both work and at home and in society and that women are treated as second hand citizens compared to men. Though Feminism is made up from lots of different groups, with varying views of the reasons for why these inequalities exist and which way is best to act against and change, over time many changes have been introduced into our modern western society. By the 90’s Feminism was very different from its earlier starting point. A lot of changes had been made in our laws and to an extent women had been some what liberated in western society. Equal rights in the work place, property ownership, voting etc had all been passed a long time ago, Britain had even seen its first female prime minister and ‘girl power’ was on the rise. Britain in the early 90’s could’ve been a strange place for a young feminist. Social attitudes had been changed radically since the 1970’s, the hippy movement and the burning of bras. Women were now more empowered and expected to be strong and independent, country leaders even. But sexism was still pretty for front in comparison to today. Though having a female was obviously a big thing for the UK the overall attitude towards females didn’t improve as much as you may think. Maggie Thatcher was definitely a women and a country leader but instead of it being a women’s revolt it was more like a strong women playing a posh boys game by their rules not any new ones, and she was willing to do that. Most feminists at the time and before had wanted to change the rules and remove the sexist male domination of politics and industry not buddy up to them and be part of the same discriminative system. Though Maggie did a lot for women by just being the first female prime minister the general social perception of the empowered female probably went down a little. In Britain at this time, and still now to some extent, the majority of society looked down at politician with disgust and contempt as a group of over educated toffs too detached from the general public and isolated amongst themselves to understand the needs and wants of the every day men and women. Shows like ‘spitting image’ openly mocked current world and country leaders on prime time British television for all to see, using grotesque puppets of politicians being made to say what every one really thought they really meant. Maggie being a complete part of this group meant even though her achievements were so large she was viewed by many as a bossy nanny/ mother figure in this strange political puppetry, rather than an empowered women forging new ground for women in the UK.

This rise and fall of such a prominent women, then followed by such a wet feeble prime minister in John Major, had left the country in a strange gender role limbo. Women were becoming more and more empowered, but still very much portrayed in media mainly as sex symbols or commodities to be used and enjoyed by males. In media men were generally seen as important, well educated business men out to get as much money and fast cars as possible or the more common beer swilling, football hooligan lout of the times. Though Maggie hadn’t really helped to change the view of the everyday women she hadn’t damaged that view either. ‘Girl power ‘was definitely still on the menu and gaining considerable backing. Increasingly the male gender role was coming under attack from the same media sources that had been so damaging to women’s roles. The late 80’s and early 90’s saw males in crisis, women were out there grabbing the bull by the horns and men were having to adjust to strong women in the work place and every where they went. Lad culture was becoming more and more popular as English males struggled to cope with the changes around them. Media at this time saw a lot of what were called ‘lad mags a glossy fashion mag style publication full of fast cars, gadgets and skinny big breasted young women in skimpy out fits. Women were definitely sexual objects for men to look at and at the time in England this was mainly accepted, though obviously not by all. The lad culture though really a pretty disgusting and very sexist one was almost encouraged by the media at the time. A popular television show of the times was ‘men behaving badly’ and perfectly highlights the general perceptions of gender roles at the time. Two mid twenties loutish, untidy, rude, unclean, poorly educated, boarder line alcoholic males living in their horribly kept flat covered in empty bitter cans, pizza boxes and soft porn and two preppy, vegetarian, caring, feminist, clean living women who lived in the flat opposite. Obviously being brilliantly written British comedy hilarity ensues, or may be just a really sexist crude show that did nothing to help empower either men or women. But the 90’s were a simpler time and media got away with a lot more than it can these days.

I think by this point I have set the stage to introduce the advert in question. As I have previously mentioned Boddingtons bitter had, like most bitters, been associated with the hard working, flat cap wearing, white MEN of the north. But now Boddingtons were trying to expand there markets to the confused early twenties modern man of the south. The advert begins with a huge fireball explosion encompassing the whole screen and a fit black male in running gear burst out of the flames. A desert scene appears, it’s a vast expanse with dry red sand and gagged red boulders and mountains there is a feeling of intense heat. A close up shot of the man running in slow motion and the camera zooms into a close up of the runners eye, a flash of a van driving across the dusty desert reflects across the close up eye. Behind we can here hard industrial dance music building as it plays. The van speeds across a dust road with plumes of dust billowing behind it, camera goes to a shot of the runner sprinting towards the camera through dead trees that snap as he speeds past with such force. The shot pans out to the man running across gorges and jumping from mountain to mountain all the time with e music becoming more and more intense, the runner passes over drought cracked lands with sweat running down his body and face the feeling of heat and thirst is intense, it is apparent now that the runner is catching up to the van still blurred in the distance. We have a close up shot of the car side mirror as the runner comes into view, the shot switches to a woman’s right eye, its is dark brown and seductive a strand of dark brown hair is dangling across her eye and cheek, she has smooth unblemished skin and an attractive look from what can be seen. Her eye gazes towards to where to mirror would be as if she is just noticing the runner who has been following her through the desert. The shot switches to a close up of a pair of open toes white heels slamming the breaks of the van on and bringing it to a sudden holt in a cloud of dust. As the camera pans out the music switches to the type played by ice cream vans and it becomes apparent that the van is and old fashioned Mr. Whippy ice cream van.  The runner comes to a running stop in front of the hatch of the open hatch of the van gasping for air; sweat dripping off every inch of his body. In the hatch we can see the women dressed in a tight pink skimpy milk maid/ waitress outfit, it is very short and has bright white trim, she approaches the hatch opening from inside the van with a pint of Boddingtons bitter with a golden colour and rich thick white foamy head. She places it on the ice cream van counter and we have a full shot of the pint of bitter.  The traditional ice cream music is still playing the runner picks up the pint and we have a side shot of him taking a big refreshing gulp as beads of sweat drip from his chin and cheek. The women leans out of the hatch she is tall, slim with dark brown long hair up in a bun with strands running down across her face, the dress she is wearing is not over seductive but does show some flesh. I a broad Manchester accent she asks the runner “ Do you wanna flake in that love?”. The camera goes to the runner turning his head towards here away from the pint in his hand with a large white foamy mustache across his top lip from the head of the pint of bitter, he smiles broadly and in a clearly Manchester accent says “Ta”. The shot switched to a picture of a pint of Boddingtons bitter pint with a foamy Mr. whippy style head on it with a chocolate 99 flake poking out, underneath is written the tag line in black block text “Boddingtons the cream of Manchester” behind this image we can see the van speeding across the dessert once again. The whole advert is forty-one seconds long but manages to cram a lot of imagery in.

A lot of the imagery used is pretty obvious, the dry intense hot barren desert used to induce the feeling of thirst and intense heat in the viewer, the vast expanse making sure our focus still remains on both the runner and the van he is chasing, the choice of runner is interesting. As I’ve said before Boddingtons had generally been associated with white older males in their late 30’s and 40’s, but what we have is a fit young black male probably in his early twenties. He has the physic of an athlete runner not that of your everyday male, especially one who enjoys the odd pint every now and then. Who is this runner and who is he meant to represent, definitely not the type of person we would expect to be found drinking Boddingtons. He is dressed in full black running gear and is fairly good looking, is he there to represent the fit slick male hunter running after his prey in the African desert? The desert in the advert seems more like Australia or America, is he meant to represent the strong dominant athletic male that many males aspire to be? This probably makes the most sense and the fact that the runner is black may just be to help serve to shock factor of the broad northern Manchester accent we later find he has. The really interesting part of the advert from a feminist point of view, in my opinion isn’t until the female is introduced. Yes the obvious reaction would be that this tall, thin attractive female dressed in her some what skimpy outfit is degrading to women and portrays them as mere sex symbols for men to rule over. But we remember that at this time things were changing, roles were swapping in places and the vocabulary used in the advert is probably the most interesting part. The use of the tall elegant looking model and the fit young black male with strong northern accents is there to shock the viewer into being amused that the accent we hear when the actors open their mouths is not generally what we expect, but the wording I feel has a deeper meaning. With the female addressing the male as ‘love’ a fairly derogatory term used generally by males towards females with a lot of sexist undertones and yet instead of being offended by this as many women would’ve have and still would the male acts in a submissive and friendly manner, almost as if he should do as he is told by his master. Is this some kind of feminism we see, well not really I guess a real feminist would say that there should be no master and submissive the both genders should be equal. But in what has previously been the male dominated world this is a definite act of defiance. I suspect that the advert was not made by feminists trying to tap their way into mainstream advertising and topple the male pysque from inside. Instead what is probably more like that a mixed team of men and women created the advert in a way that played along with the shifting changes in gender roles and attitudes of the late 80’s and early 90’s. What is interesting to now see around twenty years later is that the model that was used to act the part of the ice cream lady has gone on to have a very successful career as television presenter and personality in the UK, a household name and much admired strong female role model Melanie Sykes.  Far from damaging the image that she had as an underwear model before the advert this Boddingtons advert has often accredited as the starting point of Melanie Sykes career in television and media. So does this advert portray women as sexual objects, yes somewhat but it also helps rebalance the playing fields between the sexes a little and reminds us to laugh at ourselves. It may be seen as sexist and a bit misogynistic but its is a good advert, I’ve remembered it from the day a first saw it when it came out and though not with absolute clarity I have always remembered the dialogue in the scene between the male and female and the product that is advertises. In that way alone the advert works and remains one of my favourites and one that I know many of my generation remember fondly too.

Advert found at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEEU1nQeGNA&noredirect=1

Reference list:

Hill A (2012 Oct 14) ‘sexist stereotypes front pages newspapers’ The Guardian [Online}. Available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/14/sexist-stereotypes-front-pages-newspapers (Accessed 29.04.2013)

Evlin S(2013) Sexism is the media industry really to blame? Online student journals.[Online] Available at http://www.studentsjournals.co.uk/comment/culture/2024-sexism-is-the-media-industry-really-to-blame (Accessed 28.04.2013)

Jacobsen M.F, Mazeer L.A, (2010) Sexism and Sexuality in Advertising [Oline] Available at http://www.edu/aubel2/eng104/paranioa/pdf/jacobsen.pdf (Accessed 28.04.2013)

A 'Campaign for real beauty'

A few weeks ago, a girl approached me at a party and told me she thought I looked beautiful. My immediate reaction to this assertion was a small shrug, and a shy « oh, I don't know about that... » This reaction is apparently very common among women, and shows a lack of self-esteem existing in most of us.

The brand Dove (Unilever), as part of their 'Campaign for Real Beauty’ has approached and used this flaw very intelligently. Launched in the early 2000's, Dove's « The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report. » found that « only 2% of women around the world would describe themselves as beautiful ». Our perception of beauty has somehow gone astray and is now very much based on the 'perfect sexualised woman' represented in most of the images bombarded at us on a daily basis.

As women, we all have, at some point or another, opened a magazine and thought 'I would like to look like her'. The message that Dove is sending via this campaign is that the women we admire for their 'beauty' in these types of images are not in fact, real. The models used in such advertising represent the epitome of feminine beauty for our times but even that is not enough : they are in turn Photoshopped, retouched and recreated as 'perfect' in order to sell.

One of the first well known adverts linked to the Dove ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ was the short film « Evolution » ( directed by Yael Staav and Tim Piper) made in 2006.

This piece, which won a number of awards, placed an ordinary looking woman in the spotlight, facing the camera. A series of accelerated snapshots follows her being made up, then photographed, and finally being retouched on Photoshop. This gives her stereotypically beautiful features, such as a long neck, wide eyes and pert lips. Then the shot widens and we can see that the final image of her is projected onto a huge billboard. The woman we see in the beginning and the one at the end are totally different. The whole film is a criticism of advertisers' need to indiscriminatly embellish reality at any cost, and without real need, in order to sell. This has a negative effect on all of us. Men are influenced into thinking that women should look like this and women start underestimating themselves and feeling anxious because they don't.

In addition to introducing the Real Beauty campaign in 2004, which tried to give a fresh, more coherent view of feminine beauty, Dove has recently created what they have called the 'Dove movement for self esteem'. During their global study, Dove found that anxiety and lack of self esteem was something that starts from an early age. Films, such as 'Growing up' (2012), were made to illustrate this. In this film a number of young girls are shown doing various activities, such as gymnastics or swimming. But the ad says that « 5 out of 10 girls stop doing everyday activities because they feel bad about how they look » . It then goes on to tell us about the new educational programs and activities Dove has created in order to give back that 'self esteem' to girls and women alike. It is about inspiring women to feel proud of their own bodies and differences and push them to believe that they can do whatever they want to do. They pride themselves in saying that the programme has now reached more than 7 milion girls around the world. In 'Onslaught', directed by Tim Piper (2007) they advise women in general to « talk to [their] own daughters before the beauty industry does » The important message they want to get across, especially in this particular short film, is that the representations of women in media such as magazines, adverts, films etc, are most of the time unrealistic and idealised and that this can become toxic for young eyes.

Another of the programme's related films, that came out this year, was called 'Real beauty sketches'. This film illustrates the surprising difference between how women view themselves and how others see them. Each woman in the piece is asked to describe themselves to a forensic artist who cannot see them, and in turn describe another woman they had talked to a few minutes before. Thus two portraits are made for each woman using two separate descriptions. Surprisingly, the portraits made from the womens' own self-descriptions, were uglier, sadder and definitely not as positive or radiant as the portraits based on the description made by another person. When women described themselves their features tended to be exaggerated, and were generally described in a negative way. When faced with the two portraits, women became emotional, suddenly realising that the image they had of themselves in their minds was in fact distorted by their own lack of confidence. To resume, the ad strongly suggests that we are more beautiful than we think we are.

It should be emphasised however that Dove is using this revolutionary technique to achieve, in the end, what is required of all brands : sell. But at least they are one of the first brands to tackle those kinds of issues, and through their advertising, give a healthier view of beauty. An example of this, is their outspoken choice of models. In 2005, Dove decided to put forward in its adverts « six real women with real bodies and real curves »

For the first time, 'real women' were advertised - with larger bellies, bums, or chins. These were women we could all identify with, without any difficulty !

Later on, the ‘Pro-Age’ campaign would advertise older, 'wrinkled and flawed' women.

Overall then, Dove is presenting women with uplifting, hopeful ideas. The brand seems to have given itself a very good image by pointing out this particular social problem - and trying to solve it. The campaigns and the programmes seem to have provoked a reaction in the media today, and perhaps in women in general. It has opened up a discussion women wanted, as to what beauty is in our modern world. From a feminist point of view, on the surface the brand has innovated and done good things. When you see these little girls in 'Onslaught' or 'Growing up', you want them to believe in themselves and not take any notice of whatever made you doubt yourself when you were their age. Dove has created a sense of community; some place where girls and women can discuss these issues and surpass them. We should learn to be strong together and show the world 'our' differences, and even better, be proud of them. When you look at these adverts, you could think that this is what feminism needs nowadays : strong, confident looking women, of all ages, shapes and origins, saying this is who I am - a person with character and value, whatever my appearance.

However, uplifting as the message can be, a few things have made people tick. One of the most obvious ones, is the fact that the whole 'be proud of your body’, and 'you are beautiful' is immediatly contradicted by the fact that yes, this is an advert, and yes they are trying to sell you products that are supposed to make you look better. So which is it then? Should we not worry, and be confident about our 'real' bodies, or after all, accept that our 'real' bodies still need a little help (from the brand) for us to get that important boost in our self-esteem. It is difficult to have it both ways. When for example, an old smiling woman is advertising anti-wrinkle cream, the initial positive message is immediately cut down by the fact that however wonderful she might be, she still needs that anti-wrinkle cream !

Another more general criticism concerning this campaign is the fact that Unilever has also produced questionable adverts such as 'the Axe effect', where thousands of women in bikinis are running after a man spraying himself with deodorant. The hypocrisy here lies in the promotion of a sexist view of women, which is otherwise criticised by Dove. But this has more to do with keeping a constant moral standard in the main company. The criticism that made the most noise was the scandal that emerged when fashion photo retoucher called Dangin, was quoted in the May 12, 2008 issue of The New Yorker:

“Do you know how much retouching was on that ?” He asked. “But it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone’s skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.”

The particular adverts he was referring to were the first in the series of the ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’. The photos featuring 'real' women with 'real' curves. The ad in itself is already hypocritical, but what made matters even worse was the complacency with which Dove produced 'Evolution', in which they accused the beauty industry of creating false representations of beauty and where retouching was deeply criticised. To quote the video; « no wonder our perception of beauty is distorted. » The video went viral at the time. It was a huge success and is still considered as one of the best in advertising - it won awards and pushed sales, even without mentioning any products whatsoever. The effect it had on the general public was huge. But once you have made such a statement, and based your whole campaign on something like the real beauty of real women, it makes your whole philosophy sound fake and opportunistic. However, the fact that the fact they were retouched being described as a shock seems to go a little far. Of course it is disappointing, but the women in the photos have obviously been airbrushed. None of them have at least a little bit of cellulite or uneven skin tones. They all look radiant, pretty and in great health. And do be honest, without even talking about the photoshopping, they didn't really take that many risks concerning the models. They do have more curves and represent a type of woman that is definitely more in the norm, but where are the really skinny ones, where are the 'fat' ones? It all comes down to the obvious; these adverts were made to sell, and even while criticising essentially themselves, advertisers are not yet ready to give up and start advertising 'ugly' or 'imperfect' people. The women in the ad are in effect a little larger than usual, but the bottom line for Dove, is to make us believe that even with more weight on than the usual top models, we can look, in our own way, as perfect (with a little help) as them.

In her article « Dove's 'real beauty sketches' ad deserves some praise' » (The Guardian), Heather Long says that ‘ If we aren't getting told our physical appearance is lacking by the media and advertising, we're getting a lecture from some high-profile figure or another about how we aren't living up to our career potential or finding that elusive "balance" in our life. We always lack something, and advertisers can't wait to inform us that one product will make all the difference.‘

So putting all the criticism about Dove aside, (the hypocrisy etc) overall it has been a nice, refreshing change to see women in advertising who are not based on stereotypes. No women represented as sex objects, or mindless housewives - just women that we can easily identify with for once. And recently there has been evidence that maybe this campaign is actually having a positive effect on how the fashion and beauty industry work. In her April 2013 article in 'The Australian Women's Weekly', Liz Burke talks about Sarah Willcocks, the editor of the fashion blog Style Melbourne, having to « smooth out one model's shoulder bones for fear of "glamourising" her scarily skinny frame» on images of the latest Australian fashion week. The models apparently looked very tired and unhealthy. She also says that the reason why « thin is in » is because the designers want it - ironically, thin fashion models are chosen because designers believe that womanly features and curves would distract from the clothes. « Medical experts have called for mandatory health checks for models amid revelations that designers are sending women with waists the size of seven-year-old girls down the catwalk, and of disorientated models collapsing on the job. » she continues to write. Clearly this has to change but if modelling agencies are starting to use Photoshop to fatten up the images of their models rather than thin them down, maybe this is an indication that we are, at last, on the right track. If so, Dove has definitely played a part in this.

Our society needs to have more morally healthy images, and maybe Dove has helped to open the door to new ways of advertising, more inclined to respect both the models and the viewers. But, even though we would like to think that as modern women we have the maturity, the strength and choice to ignore the negative imagery we are bombarded with every day, it is not always as simple as that. If it was, the whole media of advertising would just fall appart. Obviously, some of the images end up influencing us whether we like it or not. It is something that needs to be discussed, fought against, and Dove is a precursor, in that it has at least helped in creating a new way of representing women which doesn't involve all the usual stereotypes to be able to sell. And if what they say on their site is true , and if the educational programs they have created have indeed helped all of these little girls to feel more confident, and to not let themselves down just for a question of appearance, then who knows? Maybe Dove's ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ will one day be considered as a great milestone in feminist advertising.

 

References :

Dove (2013) About the Dove Self-Esteem Fund.[Online] Available at :

http://www.dove.co.uk/en/Tips-Topics-and-Tools/Articles-and-Advice/About-the-Dove-Self-Esteem-Fund.aspx (Accessed: 5 May 2013)

Dove (2013)The Dove^® Campaign for Real Beauty.[Online] Available at:

http://www.dove.us/Social-Mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx (Accessed: 5 May 2013)

H. Long. (2013) 'Dove's 'real beauty sketches' ad deserves some praise', The Guardian, 20 April [Online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/20/dove-real-beauty-sketches-ad-women-perfection (Accessed : 5 May 2013)

J.L.Pozner (2005) 'Dove's "Real Beauty" Backlash' Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, issue 30 (Fall ) [Online] Available at : http://www.wimnonline.org/articles/dovebacklash.html

(Accessed: 5 May 2013)

B. Helm. (2008) 'Surprise! Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" ads actually kind of fake'. Bloomberg Businessweek, 7 May. [Online] Available at :

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2008/05/surprise_doves.html

(Accessed : 5 May 2013)

J. Neff. (2008) 'Dove's 'Real Beauty' Pics Could Be Big Phonies' AdvertisingAge, 7 May. [Online] Available at : http://adage.com/article/news/dove-s-real-beauty-pics-big-phonies/126914/

(Accessed : 5 May 2013)

L. Burke. (2013) 'Skinny scandal: Photoshop used to fatten fashion week models' The Australian's Women Weekly, 11 April. [Online] Available at :

http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/style/fashion/8640847/skinny-scandal-photoshop-used-to-fatten-fashion-week-models (Accessed : 5 May 2013)

Videos:

Tim Piper (2006) Dove Evolution. Available at :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

(Accessed : 5 May 2013)

Bornsquishy (2008) Dove - Onslaught. Available at :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zKfF40jeCA&NR=1&feature=endscreen

(Accessed : 5 May 2013)

doveUKI (2012) Dove Self-Esteem Programme - 'Growing up' TV advert. Available at :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElKFK6rRHNY

(Accessed : 5 May 2013)

Geraldine BUCKLAND 1114644

Analysis of an PSA campaign from a feminists perspective

Through this essay I aim to take an advertising campaign from Star Models Bahia and analyse it from the perspective of feminism. I will explore the ideas deliberately put forward by the campaign as well as the ideas that may not have been intended. I will then use what others have said about the campaign to either confirm or deny my opinions and readings of the images. Finally I will state wether I think the campaign is successful or not, and how it might be improved or changed.

“You are not a sketch, say no to anorexia” campaign from Star Models. The advertising agency was Revolution.

The campaign consists of images juxtaposing fashion designer style sketches with photoshopped models made to look like the sketches. The images use off-white cream for the background with the models in a pastel colour pallet. Awkward hand drawn type holds the campaigns tag line: “You are not a Sketch, Say no to anorexia” in one corner. The photographs of the models have clearly been manipulated in such a way that they are the same proportions as the sketches. Meaning the stylised skinniness of the sketches is transferred; resulting in creepy, skeleton like figures. Overall the images are compositionally sparse, using only elements that are narratively essential (in this case the: Logo, Sketch, Photo and tagline). This sparseness reduces the amount of distractions within the image, allowing the intended meaning to take centre stage.

The problem however, is the intended meaning isn't holey clear. I can think of five different readings of this campaign. Not all as sincere as I'm sure was intended.

• Models; you don't have to be skinny
• Normals; even models aren't this skinny
• Designers; draw and make more realistically sized clothes
• Anorexia is bad. Don't be anorexic
• It's designers fault models are skinny

If the campaign is aimed at models, the imagery and message works to some extent. If it's aimed at normal women however, the message stumbles. As raised by Mirna (Editor of Elle Croatia) on her blog, “they could just as easily juxtapose a picture of a runway model next to one of the average female and change “YOU ARE NOT A SKETCH” to “YOU ARE NOT A MODEL.” but that wouldn't shift the blame away from the modelling agency, so wouldn't make publicity sense.

This all makes the campaign feel very worthy, in the way that it is instructing girls not to compare themselves with the sketches without doing anything to help. In the end it's still a fashion advert with skinny models. It's like the purpose of the campaign was to highlight anorexia in fashion and how designers make small clothes. Great, known issue now highlighted ... now what? You got a few people to go "oh that's so sad, people shouldn't be anorexic" and do nothing about it. The battle isn't with awareness, people already know the problem. The battle is with the overall attitude towards women in the media.

If we look at the credits to the campaign:

Advertising Agency: Revolution, Brazil
Creative Directors: Emerson Braga, Edson Rosa
Art Director: Edson Rosa
Copywriter: Emerson Braga
Photographer: Diego Freire
Illustrators: Edson Rosa, Samuel Marinho
Additional credits: Carlos Pereira, Renata Matos, Vitor Barros, Flavio Fernandez, Melina Romariz, Mylene Alves, Clarissa Mattos, Jaime Neder Rezak

We see that no one creating the imagery or in control of the message is a woman. It isn't until additional credits that a woman is even mentioned. I would expect that at least one of the creative directors to be a woman. In a industry so dominated by women in the outward presentation, one might expect there to be more women in command. How do you get a well rounded idea that suits the psyche of women if you don't have women in positions of power or control? Even with the best of intentions, the ideas and words of men can be insensitive to women, either through ignorance or apathy. I don't think this campaign is particularly insensitive but I think it could be targeted better, something I feel a woman would have more insight into in this case.
Not that eating disorders and body issues are purely a female thing. Both men and women can be affected by anorexia, bulimia and feeling their bodies are inadequate. Though anorexia is less common in men (ANS, 2011) there are other disorders that are more prevalent (though less obvious) in relation to body inadequacy, such as obsessively trying to gain muscle mass and tone. These disorders can also be partly attributed to advertising and high fashion. Men in fashion are tall, handsome, muscular and well endowed. It feeds the same parts of the brain that say you are somehow inadequate or should change.
In short, I think that it is more common for women to consciously experience body issues at some point in their lives and be able to relate to that in other women by comparison with the general experience of men.



An article on Huffington Post compared the Star models campaign with an earlier anti-anorexia campaign from Nolita staring Isabelle Caro, a known anorexic model. This 2007 campaign showed Isabelle naked and reclined with “No Anorexia” written across it. Isabelle's figure at the time was incredibly slight, skeletal even and not dissimilar from the manipulated imagery from Star Models campaign. The campaign was very effective at the time and had a second wave of attention and meaning when Isabelle Caro died in 2010.
The Nolita campaign, though very effective in raising awareness and causing a stir, didn't change the attitude of the fashion industry all that much. The models stayed skinny, the clothes stayed small and the photoshopers made them all skinnier and bustier. The general attitude towards this tendency to the skeletal is gradually changing but whether that is down to; a specific campaign, the culmination of campaigns or the public becoming fed up with the saturation of media with unrealistic figures; is unknown. It could well be that the models are skinny because thats what the public want and that having so called plus sized models would be a detriment to the industry as a whole. I don't personally subscribe to this as I think many people would feel more comfortable looking at images of realistically beautiful models with flesh on their bones but I can see how the fashion industry would change itself to what sold more (in this case; skinny sells). Unfortunately the choice of skinny over plus has been removed from the majority of advertising, leaving only a few groundbreaking campaigns that use plus sized models.



Who is to blame for the state of the fashion industry and it's attitude to women? Is there anyone to blame? The campaign points to the fashion designers, they draw and make clothes for size zero or smaller girls after all. But they could just be fulfilling what art directors and magazine editors want for their runways and double page spreads. The art directors and editors must have complete control over every part of what they send into the world, unless the talents scouts only send them models fresh out of anorexia clinics (Slate 2013). Even then they could reject them and request less skeletal models without eating disorders. So it's back on the editors. Even the most aesthetically guided of which must also be influenced by what sells and makes them the most money or popularity. Over a long period of time, if the things that sell best are faced by slim models and the things that don't sell are faced by full figured models then the obvious marketing move is to have more slim models. So it's on the public, who buy the thing with the skinny model and the Photoshoped face. Regardless of what the public consciously think or say, they buy skinny. So editors want skinny to sell. So talent scouts find skinny and fashion designers make beautiful clothes to fit them. The designers can't make bespoke outfits for every individual model that will wear it, so the size is standardised; 5'8” tall with measurements of 34” chest 24” waist and 34” hips (AMA 2012), which equates to roughly size 4 US. Bare in mind, that is a short and large model by runway standards with some models being both taller and thiner.
People are impressionable and eager to fit in. Plastering images of unhealthy people and stating “this is what is beautiful, anything less than this is not attractive” is not good for us as a whole. Stop using women to sell your products and they might stop wanting to look like commodities. The want isn't a conscious want, it's a subconscious self comparison with your peers. If your peers are all tall, large breasted and stick thin then that is what you are going to compare yourself to at some level. Does this campaign change anything? Make anybody do anything differently? I don't think so but I think it's a step in the right direction at the very least. I don't think it's targeting the right people to be an effective campaign of change in the fashion industry.



Chris Steel - E&OE



Bibliography

StarModels (2013) Facebook page [Online] Available at: www.facebook.com/pages/Star-Models-Bahia/188748634477783?sk=wall&filter=12

Copyranter (2013) Alarming Anorexia Ads Via Brazil [Online] Available at: www.Buzzfeed.com/copyranter/alarming-anorexia-ads-via-brazil?utm_source=feedly

Huffington post (2013) Anti-Anorexia Ads Stun With Tagline 'You Are Not A Sketch' [Online] Available at: www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/anti-anorexia-ads-photos_n_3110649.html

9thDynasty (2013) Disturbing Anorexia fighting ads [Online] Available at: http://9thdynasty.tumblr.com/post/48615961867/disturbing-anorexia-fighting-ads-compare-skinny#disqus_thread

ANS – Anorexia Nervosa Statistics (2011) “Anorexia affects approximately 1 in 150 fifteen-year-old females, and 1 in 1000 fifteen-year-old males.” & “Approximately 10 percent of cases of anorexia arise in men” [Online] Available at:

www.disordered-eating.co.uk/eating-disorders-statistics/anorexia-nervosa-statistics-uk.html

Slate (2013) The Most Infuriating Thing You Will Ever Read About the Modeling Industry - “Modelling scouts have been gathering outside of Sweden’s largest eating disorder clinic, trying to lure critically thin patients onto the runway” [online] Available at: www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/04/22/modeling_scouts_recruit_teen_patients_at_swedish_anorexia_clinic_are_you.html

AMA, Association of Model Agents(2012) Getting started as a model [online] available at: www.associationofmodelagents.org/become-a-model/getting-started-as-a-model.html