Campaign for Real Common Sense would be better
Tuesday, 31 October 2006 12:26![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
earthbelow
So I was crusin' for a bruisin' over at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nightsinge's journal and she was talking about the Dove sponsored site campaignforrealbeauty.com. I had a different reaction than she did, though.
I went to site I really felt like it was completely disingenuous for Dove to sit there and sponsor a site that's all "campaign for real beauty", but yet all the models in their pictures are what's considered "attractive". And I know that the Dove company wouldn't put actual women in their ads.
You know, the ones who might be overweight or have scars or might not be "pretty". It's like they went around and found the prettiest non-models they could get and put them in pictures and said "this is real beauty".
It's not that people don't realize that models are airbrushed and edited and make-uped within an inch of their lives. It's that society doesn't care.
You don't compete for the coveted title of "beautiful" with models. You compete for that title with the women around you.
Because women around you are getting plastic surgery and designer clothes.
Thing is, even with your campaign for "real beauty", you're still campaigning for beauty. Not intelligence or tolerance. Beauty. So you're still putting all this emphasis on looks.
Fine. Little Ashleighee stops comparing herself to models and starts comparing herself to her classmates.
What exactly is better than that?
How about a campaign for people to take back their souls from a country run by corporate interests and government goons? How about a campaign for women to decide that something besides *looks* matter.
Oh, wait, if we did that, people wouldn't buy overpriced soap that's supposed to give you silky, soft skin and make you pretty. They'd buy whatever soap is cheapest so they stay clean.
Dove is basically saying "don't worry, I know all these models make you dispair, but see, they're ugly inside just like you. So that means you can be pretty just like them. All you have to do is buy our soap and talk on our forums and you can join the Pretty Club."
They're not helping anything.
It's like you're an organic potato chip company who says "we want a campaign for real potato chips" and you point out all the things that are wrong with Lays and Ruffles and what not. You do a film about all the chemicals and preservatives that go into those potato chips. And you set up a site so that women can talk about natural potato chips and being happy with the way God made potato chips.
But you're still selling goddamn potato chips, bitch. Please.
Because it would cut into your profits if you started telling women that maybe the potato chips, organic or otherwise, are complete junk food and they need to discover broccoli and carrots.
Which is the truth. Women need to stop obsessing over beauty, real or airbrushed. You know what, in the end, you're gonna be a shriveled up corpse getting eaten by freaking worms.
Now you can be a corpse that leaves behind a legacy of literature or good works or invention or political change or just being a damn good person. Or you could be a corpse that said "I'm pretty" a lot to herself in the mirror, but never did anything, because she was too obsessed with her face to use the brain behind it.
nightsinge's journal and she was talking about the Dove sponsored site campaignforrealbeauty.com. I had a different reaction than she did, though. I went to site I really felt like it was completely disingenuous for Dove to sit there and sponsor a site that's all "campaign for real beauty", but yet all the models in their pictures are what's considered "attractive". And I know that the Dove company wouldn't put actual women in their ads.
You know, the ones who might be overweight or have scars or might not be "pretty". It's like they went around and found the prettiest non-models they could get and put them in pictures and said "this is real beauty".
It's not that people don't realize that models are airbrushed and edited and make-uped within an inch of their lives. It's that society doesn't care.
You don't compete for the coveted title of "beautiful" with models. You compete for that title with the women around you.
Because women around you are getting plastic surgery and designer clothes.
Thing is, even with your campaign for "real beauty", you're still campaigning for beauty. Not intelligence or tolerance. Beauty. So you're still putting all this emphasis on looks.
Fine. Little Ashleighee stops comparing herself to models and starts comparing herself to her classmates.
What exactly is better than that?
How about a campaign for people to take back their souls from a country run by corporate interests and government goons? How about a campaign for women to decide that something besides *looks* matter.
Oh, wait, if we did that, people wouldn't buy overpriced soap that's supposed to give you silky, soft skin and make you pretty. They'd buy whatever soap is cheapest so they stay clean.
Dove is basically saying "don't worry, I know all these models make you dispair, but see, they're ugly inside just like you. So that means you can be pretty just like them. All you have to do is buy our soap and talk on our forums and you can join the Pretty Club."
They're not helping anything.
It's like you're an organic potato chip company who says "we want a campaign for real potato chips" and you point out all the things that are wrong with Lays and Ruffles and what not. You do a film about all the chemicals and preservatives that go into those potato chips. And you set up a site so that women can talk about natural potato chips and being happy with the way God made potato chips.
But you're still selling goddamn potato chips, bitch. Please.
Because it would cut into your profits if you started telling women that maybe the potato chips, organic or otherwise, are complete junk food and they need to discover broccoli and carrots.
Which is the truth. Women need to stop obsessing over beauty, real or airbrushed. You know what, in the end, you're gonna be a shriveled up corpse getting eaten by freaking worms.
Now you can be a corpse that leaves behind a legacy of literature or good works or invention or political change or just being a damn good person. Or you could be a corpse that said "I'm pretty" a lot to herself in the mirror, but never did anything, because she was too obsessed with her face to use the brain behind it.
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no subject
Date: 31 Oct 2006 19:47 (UTC);)
no subject
Date: 31 Oct 2006 20:47 (UTC)You ever thought about doing a gleepost?
no subject
Date: 31 Oct 2006 21:46 (UTC);)
no subject
Date: 1 Nov 2006 00:34 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Nov 2006 05:17 (UTC)You know what else I think is beauty? Health. Every been really sick and all you could think is "please let my head/belly/whatever stop hurting?" It doesn't matter then how smooth you are or aren't, the beauty is in things working right. I've sure felt that way. When I was sick, I couldn't believe that before I cared so much about thinness. What's it all matter in the end, like you said?
Blah. I still like my shoes though. I'm too onto the shiny.
At least Dove doesn't make makeup? They're pretty much too sweet smelling cleansers and hair stuff right?
no subject
Date: 2 Nov 2006 17:52 (UTC)However, I disagree that the ad's message is "see, models are as ugly as you." I don't think a lot of people truly *get* how much manipulation goes into the creation of a print ad model...and this was a fast way to make it clear to folks who don't spend a lot of time reading about it.
I'm still not about to buy Dove. And were they to market intelligence or tolerance (as other companies have) they'd be just as suspect and I'd be just as unlikely to support them.
I still might show their messages, though.