Dove Beauty Advert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epOg1nWJ4T8

This advert by Dove really stood out to me because it shows a child at the beginning of the advert and the advert finishes with ‘Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does.’  The advert shows beautiful women and a women trying to diet to change her appearance and women having plastic surgery.  After watching this advert I went onto their website ‘Campaign for Real Beauty.’ I found a really interesting section about the ‘impact of the media’ which relates to my project about the pressure the media can influence have on women and young girls:

‘Impact of the Media:

Many women and teenagers feel that media and culture show only the most attractive women and that it is time for a change:
- The average person sees between 400 and 600 advertisements per day.
- More than one out of four girls surveyed feel that the media pressure them to have a perfect body.
- Girls who watch TV commercials featuring underweight models lose self- confidence and became more dissatisfied with their own bodies.

Nearly half of women surveyed (47 percent) feel that only the most attractive women are portrayed in popular culture. Almost the same percentage (48 percent) of respondents wants to see women of different body shapes and weight portrayed in the media.

Growing up Beautiful: The existing narrow definition of beauty is not only unrealistic and unattainable but it also creates hang-ups that can lead girls to question their own beauty. Low self-esteem and a negative body image can start at a young age and dissatisfaction with body image increases as young women progress to adolescence.

- More than one in three girls age 6 to 12 (35 percent) have been on at least one diet.
- Only 56 percent of year 7 pupils like the way they look.
- 92% of girls worldwide want to change at least one aspect of their physical appearance.
- Between 50 and 70 percent of girls of normal weight believe they are overweight.
- Eight out of every 10 female students have disordered eating in some way, and are regularly dieting.’

This can be found at: http://www.dove.co.uk/cfrb/self-esteem-fund/about.html

This photograph by Dove is to advertise that all women are beautiful, no matter, colour, race, size or shape and portrays a convincing message that all women are 'beautiful'.
It made me think that as a child and when growing up all these influences are around them that could potentially influence children at such a young age.  ‘We become what we are only through the encounter, while growing up, with the multitude of representation of what we may become’ (Weekes, 1992, p.32).   It can be said that young girls look up to their idols and want to look the same, sometimes going as far as dieting and forming an eating disorder at such a young age.  I found an article on ‘The Daily Mail’ online about how girls as young as six can develop eating disorders because they look up to supposed ‘role models’ who are evidently very thin and can have an impact on the child's decision to lose weight.   Below is a small extract of the article:

‘Role models: Experts have in the past said pressure from the fashion industry and celebrities to be extremely thin have an impact on how the young view food and their body shape.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1372182/Children-young-SIX-eating-disorders-anorexia-bulimia.html

 

Weekes, Anne. (1992) Woman’s Art Journal. Student’s Self-Image: Representation of Women in “High” Art and Popular Culture, Vol. 13, no 2