This ad shows the male version of the Dove campaign which Mr.Henry had showed us. The behind the scenes work on an average male who is the face of a company. Media mostly portrays the dramatic change of a female but no one realizes that equal or maybe more amount of work is done to make the male look apealling. To being a skinny male with a few pimples after the work of photoshop he is made into every girl's dream man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_I17cK1ltY
It is interesting to see how much effort goes into beautifying the male as well. I never imagined that so much work would go into such advertising campaigns. However, as the video itself suggests; it is all about manipulation. This video, along with the female one, is in accordance with the dominant discourse regarding how our society values beauty, a good socioeconomic status, and presentation of oneself amidst others. Also, a point to note is that both the male and female are white. The ad-makers did not use a black man or woman to sell their product(s). This proves that blacks are still not given a fair chance in our modern, technological world. Our world is inherently racist even after people like Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., etc. have transformed the face of black people. Nevertheless, I must admit that using a black person for the Dove campaign would probably not work in the ad-maker’s favour. It is an unfortunate reality.
ReplyDeleteIaman,
ReplyDeleteCan you expand on this post a bit more? Think of some questions that you might like to ask the class that relate to this video.
Media has important role to play.it should disclose the reality and educates people. In here I found it is totally against the value of media itself. The most dangerous thing is it easily misleads the society. This advertisement shows that how some advertisements let people to believe that when they use their products, they can be fair and good looking. But the truth is people don’t know how the advertisements were made. They never believe that it was made by using Photoshop and they are just wasting money for some fake product.
ReplyDeleteIf media didn't mislead society maybe our economical status wouldn't be so high and people wouldn't want to be like others, but seeing that these people are so extra ordinary in the eyes of some people, they want to raise the bar for society and make them want to be what they always dreamed for. As seeing in this video it's very hard close to impossible to look as such on a daily basis. The media continues to portray ads with gorgeous people who everyone looks upto to get their products to sell, "monkey see , monkey do."
ReplyDeleteIf the companies showed the sad truth do you think their products would still sell?
Would their even be a point in making any ads?
Media has a very important role to play in all of this and as we can see, the same things that are done for females are also done for males e.g the makeup, airbrush, photoshop etc. The only difference is that the media is much harder and public on women than they are the men.I also find it very interesting to see that females are more tolerant or accepting of men and many of their flaws and habits.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the media munipulates people, but thats no secret. Everyone knows how much the media lies but people still buy the products hoping that it may make them look as good as the person in the ad, although its not very realistic. I think that if companies showed the truth to their ads people wouldn't buy it because the ad does not look very good. They would make the assumption that the product is not good as well. Maybe they should come up with a better approach of making the ads look realistic instead of overselling it.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this because it shows us the depths of the iceberg that is usually not shown because of the water. In other words it’s nice to see the males’ side of this. I personally appreciate seeing this because it shows me that although women being the part of the iceberg that's always shown and seen by people, it’s nice to see what goes towards making a male beautiful in everyday ads and posters. I always thought that male posters were never photoshopped or touched up because I though they simply looked the way they did on the ads. We always hear about how women's pictures are edited and all these different things but it’s always nice to see the other side of a story where you weren't familiar with or didn’t know about.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to Iaman's question. I don't think the products would sell if everyone knew the truth. If they said "our product doesn't work" why would someone bother buying it? The company would not make any money by telling the truth. Therefore there really would be no point in making advertisements. In the end most companies lie about their products to make money.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I really like this video because it shows us how much hard work goes into making a model look as gorgeous as she does. And in reality she does not really look that way. I think that people should learn to love who they are regardless of what media portrays as 'beautiful.'
I feel that if companies told people the truth about how the people in their ads really looked, at first they would lose customers. After a bit of time i feel that there would be a lot of people that would appreciate their honesty and see that they are using regular people and want to by their products. The Dove campaign commercial is an example. In the Dove commercial they show how the lady is transformed and how Dove doesn't do that. This is in fact getting them more customers because they are showing normal average people.
ReplyDeleteI've also realized that everyone tends to forget how much of a struggle males go through in the entertainment industry. We always hear about women and all the makeup that they have to put on but we never hear about men. This is a good way of showing people this because we seen how they get photoshopped in ads as well. Guys are expected to be fit, have all these muscles, especially a 6/8 pack and have defined bones just like girls are expected to be skinny, look sexy and wear lots of makeup. The only problem is that media gives a lot of attention to females about this but not to males and it makes them feel like they cant talk about it.
I do think people generally only think about women being airbrushed and the discussion of men being airbrushed in the media isn’t talked about as much. This video did bring awareness to the fact that men are airbrushed too, and it’s not just women. I think it depends on the product that’s being sold. For example if a woman had been airbrushed for an ad on jeans, I don’t think it would have a great effect on whether people purchased the item or not. However, if it was an ad showing how great a product can make your skin and the person in the ad had been completely airbrushed maybe it would affect people’s choice on buying that product. I generally don’t think it would make a difference because majority of people are aware that people in ads are airbrushed, and it all depends on if the product is effective for them. When you go to the mall and you see those big Victoria Secrete ads it’s quite obvious those women have been airbrushed, but it doesn’t have an effect on whether customers decide to purchase their products or not. I think advertisements are appealing to the eye even though it’s false. Beyonce is featured in many L’oreal ads but the reality is her hair ISN’T even real. People may try the product to have hair that looks as luscious and healthy as Beyonce’s but the reality is not even Beyonce can achieve her look with that product.
ReplyDeleteIf the companies showed the sad truth do you think their products would still sell?
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I think that the media should try a `natural`approach to selling their products. All the air brushing and making their models look magnificent takes the reality away from the product and what it actually does for you. They would get a lot more people to buy their product because peoples mentality would automatically think the product actually works. With all the extra beautifying done to the models photos, i personally would think the product was a fluke and that the company selling it was just trying to take my money. When you go out and buy a product you never know the outcome of it until you try it! you dont have a live person to say that it really works, you have to depend on the model on the product and pray the product actually follows through for you.
Would their even be a point in making any ads?
There would be a point of making ads because it would intrigue customers to buy something that actually works, if you had a real model who used the product, you would have live proof and would buy it.
I have never thought of a man being Photoshop. I am still shocked at the fact of men being changed, because when I think of men, they are the once that wear less make-up and are more acceptable in their appearance. Not only that, but are judge less on how they look. If a guy, like Dwayne Johnson, was to loss “some weight” the media wound care. The media mostly target women for their imperfection.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the product should be able to sell. Sometimes advertisements have the advantages or disadvantages. For instance, maybe if someone is conscious about their appearance and want to look like the ad they can do that, but by taking healthy measurements.
At this point of life I do not think ads are going to stop. We get them from everything, banks, retirement homes, make-up lines. And I don’t think hey are doing to look for the less compatible or the normal girl with imperfection. Complains are still going to look for those who fit there profile and the industry depends upon those people who construct and deconstruct the industry.
It was shocking to see that men go through the same process as women. They changed his photo completely, with the spray tan and make-up. I believe that the media is much harder on girls to obtain the bodies that we see in magazines compared to men. I think if the companies showed the sad truth that people will still buy their products because they already have this idea about beauty and if showed the truth they might just ignore it and still buy the products. The media has distorted the way people think about beauty, so by them telling the truth I don’t think it will really change anything. I think there is still point for the companies to make advertisement because for example when people see the warning signs on cigarette packs they still continue to buy it. By continuing to put up advertisement, the company will still get profit.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that media does play a very important and a significant role in all this, we clearly know about how much effort is put in for females, but here I am surprised that same or even more effort is put in for males too. This video is very interesting to see, I have never actually gave a thought about how much effort is put for males, and how perfect they need to look in front of the camera. Womens may be pointed out in the media about looks, and the way they are suppose to look, but males aren't far behind, same as what females are going through, males are going through the same.
ReplyDeleteIf people knew about the truth their is a possibility that people would stop buying products, but their is a possibility that poeple would not care and buy the products, just like Mohibo gave an exmaple about ciggaretts. People are warned about the product, they are told about the side affects but they don't pay attnetion or they get soo addicted that they don't care anymore. I also agree with what Bhumi said earlier, that there are companies out there who still sell their products by lying, and still make money. Even after knowing the truth people do buy products, so yes the companies will make profit.