Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Sticking with video for a bit
Because I do not have anything particularly interesting to write about at the moment. Dove, the cosmetic company, released a 60-second video called Evolution. It's not making its way around Blogland and found its way here. I must say, it's nicely ironic to see a cosmetic company bashing the status quo in cosmetics and manufactured beauty. I wish I had the Photoshop skills of the graphics artists at work here...
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I do applaud Dove's "campaign for real beauty" that shows women of all sizes and colors, but I can't help but be cynical that their motives are based solely on marketing purposes. Their name has been debated on the feminist blogs, and this video even shown on Entertainment Tonight.
I can't help but remember learning about clothing brands catering to "plus size" girls. Instead of using women who wore sizes 14 and up, they would take models in a size 6 or 8 and pad them to fit the clothes.
There's no doubt this is about marketing, and it does seem a bit cynical, since they are capitalizing on the very sense of insecurity and false reality that their products are designed to mask/create. That said, it is good to remind people of just how phony advertising and marketing can be. It is a pretty powerful statement on the fortitude of our society that almost everyone recognizes marketing as a manipulation, even as they are allowing themselves to be manipulated.