| 8/04/2005 |
WHEN DOVES CRY by Prince
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Can I ask what the big deal is? What is the controversy with Dove ads? I understand what's been said by certain reporters not liking to see "fat" women on billboards. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, piggish included. A person can like whatever type of man/woman they want to like. Some ads are meant to be sexy, just as some ads are meant to be funny or informative. Not everyone has the same idea of what is sexy, funny, or informational. So marketers try to appeal to what they believe consumers most likely want to see. This can be both good an bad, depending on your views of advertising and mass marketing.
But why is this even an issue? These women aren't professional models who sport size nothing bodies. That doesn't make them fat. As far as national averages go these models sizes (6 to 12) are actually slightly under the average consumers size (12 to 14). So why is it such a big deal that they have normal looking women in an ad? Are we, as a buying nation, so uncomfortable that when we see regular sized people promoting a product that we don't know how to respond?
Not only are these ads staying away from the ridiculously glamorous, but they are also showing women relaxed and smiling. Comfortable with themselves. They are not portraying them as body image expert and author Ann Kearney-Cooke says, "...like objectsÂwhich is important since objectification can lead to violence against women."
Ok.. So. Bonus! What's the big deal then?
When I worked on a crisis hotline and we'd get girls that would call in and talk about eating disorders or body image issues, one of my first questions was where were they seeing/getting such ideas that they had to be or look a certain way. Typically the answer was the media. Magazines. Television. Movies. All of which were places were you could regularly find rail thin women posing as Jane Everday. Many teenagers didn't understand that not everyone will, should, or could look like the women they see in the media.
Magazines, like Cosmo, telling women what size they should be. Unrealistic images of women in supposedly commonplace situations. No wonder people would startbelievingg what they see, to be the way everyone should be.
So the Dove ads? Keep 'em! They're great! Can't get enough of them. |
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I posted this @ 8/04/2005 11:27:00 AM.............Need a link?..........
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