Body Image in the Media - Essay Example

Body Image: Media and Mind The Dove Pro-age ad shows four women fully naked but sitting in such positions that their private parts, as generally understood by the western culture and media, are not shown. The definition of private parts is subject to conflict because different schools of thought show different levels of flexibility over such matters. For example, for a religious personality, the ad is absolutely offensive as it crosses the limit in its actors of what is religiously permissible to show for a woman. But for another person, the ad is suitable for being broadcast on the television as he/she does not perceive the nudity to be of explicit nature. Regardless of the variety of opinions, it is an established fact that the content of the ad is controversial and can have potentially negative impacts on the minds and psychology of all audience in general, and children in particular. The Dove Pro-age ad assumes that people are always conscious about staying and looking young. The ad assumes that no one wants to look aged. The ad also assumes that companies intentionally include not-so-aged actors in their ads to promote their anti-aging products. This is clearly demonstrated through the use of these words in the ad, “too old to be in an anti-aging ad” (“Dove Pro-age Campaign”). Interestingly, while the women clearly look quite aged i.e. in their 50’s or even beyond, their skin is still very elegant and they all look quite pretty compared to how women look when they get that old in general. All women have very shiny and healthy skin. Another noteworthy point is that not a single actor has hair longer than till her shoulders. In fact, one actor has a totally boyish haircut while the other three also have hair that is too short compared to the standard traditionally set by the society for a beautiful woman. The ad suggests that in order for elderly women to look beautiful they should be smart, have short hair, and have a beautiful skin that is guaranteed with the use of Dove’s products. The fundamental theme or goal of this ad is to liberate the women from the fear of becoming old because if they take good care of their skin, they can look beautiful even at old age. Understandably, the prime audience at which this product of Dove is targeted is elderly women. Most anti-aging products are targeted at women in their 30’s or 40’s. This product caters for the needs of women beyond that. Another dimension of this ad is the message of multiculturalism and anti-racism. The women actors shown in the Dove ad belong to different races and possibly, to different original cultures also. Ads made today particularly try to emphasize their support for multiculturalism and anti-racism because they want to promote their product as far and wide as possible without letting such barriers as culture and race come in their way. This ad of Dove is very important with respect to the difference and overlapping features of nudity and sexuality. The image of a completely nude woman is traditionally associated with sexuality and is considered content of explicit nature. However, Dove has shown in this ad that if put in context and by emphasizing on factors other than sexuality, complete nudity can be made publically acceptable as it would not arouse sexual emotions in the audience. All women shown in the ad wear a confident smile that negates the sexual significance of the ad. Confident smile is not the kind of expression a woman would wear in an ad that is meant to emphasize sexuality or whose purpose is to arouse sexual emotions in the audience. Dove has used this expression of confident smile as a measure to make its ad get through the censor boards without any cutting, but could not actually succeed as the ad was banned in the US. Nudity has also been used in the ad to make it special and more memorable as anything that raises controversies comes with the benefit of becoming the popular word. The Summer’s Eve ad is another ad that is based on the theme of gender and sexuality. The ad shows a man and his wife in a washroom. The man is taking bath while his wife is wearing makeup standing in front of the mirror. The man has a well-built and muscular body and is shown pouring a lotion or a liquid soap from a bottle over his hand. While he is rubbing the liquid over his body, the wife says, “Did you know the Summer’s Eve cleansing wash is pH balanced and gentler than soap which makes it perfectly formulated for a woman’s v?” (“Summer’s Eve Commercial”). In other words, the wife warns him that the liquid he has taken for a soap is actually Summer Eve’s cleansing wash that is pH balanced and is thus perfectly suitable for use over the soft skin of vagina. The man is taken aback to learn that he is using something that has been formulated for women. Next, the man is doing all kinds of manly things which generally constitute intense exercise. The ad is indeed funny as the man becomes extremely concerned about losing his manliness after using the product by mistake. He exercises, lifts weights, and does all sorts of tasks typically associated with men in order to ensure that he has not compromised his manliness. It can be inferred from the ad that while the cleansing wash has been purposely formulated for women, it would not have any side effects if men use it. The target audience of this ad is primarily women. The ad assumes that men become extremely worried if they ever find out that they have done a womanly thing or used a product that is meant for or even just suitable for women. Men are so conscious about preserving their manliness that they would do anything to ensure it is not compromised. This assumption is used in the ad to project that men can safely use this cleansing wash as it would not cost them their manliness in any way. This strategy helps widen the target audience of the ad so that men are also included in it and the cleansing wash can be used by just anybody. This ad conveys the message that women need to use products that are softer and gentler over their genitalia compared to what they regularly or normally use i.e. soap. The underlying message of the ad is that women need to be more particular and cautious about the softness and quality of skin of their genitalia. The script has been carefully edited so as to make the ad suitable for being shown openly as the letter “v” is used in place of the word “vagina”. Messages like this have the tendency to make women conscious and concerned about the quality of skin not only all over the body in general, but also especially the skin of their genitalia. While it is a good message and is not subject to blatant criticism, fact is that today, there is hardly any soap in the market that can cause any sort of harm to a woman’s vagina if she uses it. The ad does serve the purpose of making the women overly concerned about matters that are not really that important. Another important thing to note is that both the man and his wife are in perfect shape. While this can only be inferred in the case of the wife from the fact that she is seemingly just the right weight for her age and height, it is more apparent in the case of the man who is briskly rubbing the lotion over his muscular body. The ad clearly supports such ideal physique and indirectly advocates that people need to look like these actors. These ads have mixed effects on people’s mind and body image. For one, the Dove Pro-age ad is controversial as it shows too much skin; the very reason for which it was banned in the US. Ads like this teach people that it is fine to show nudity publicly. This can be disturbing for a vast majority of audience for multiple reasons; some families are too religious or conservative to absorb such media. In other families, parents might be concerned about what kind of impression and psychological effects such ads create on their adolescent children. On the other hand, these ads make people beauty-conscious. There is a considerable population of overweight and obese men and women in the US. These ads suggest that regardless of the age, race, and gender, one has to keep in shape in order to look beautiful. While in one way this is a positive message as it makes people curious about their looks and in turn, they tend to be more responsible in the choices they make with respect to their food and lifestyle in general. But from another perspective, overweight or obese people feel like having been left with no chance of looking beautiful even with good skin because their figure is not correct. Works Cited: “Dove Pro-age Campaign.” Youtube. 20 Feb. 2007. Web. 26. Oct. 2014. . “Summer’s Eve Commercial.” Youtube. 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 26 Oct. 2014. . Read More