Ad-busting

Unbustable ads

Wed, 15 May 2013 07:24:51 -0600

H&M’s new beachwear campaign featuring Jennie Runk is pretty awesome. In this article she explains that women have sent her messages saying that this ad campaign has given them the confidence to try on a bikini for the first time in years!

See… it does make a difference when we see diverse body types in advertising and media!

Those silhouettes are crazy tall and skinny. Just more reminders...

Mon, 13 May 2013 08:30:28 -0600

Those silhouettes are crazy tall and skinny. Just more reminders of the beauty standard we should all strive to achieve - the impossible.

I'm on holiday - taking a short break from ad-busting

Wed, 01 May 2013 03:08:26 -0600

Hey friends.

I’m enjoying a much needed holiday overseas. I won’t be posting any ad-busting for 2 weeks, but don’t worry, I’ll be back!

A big THANK YOU goes out to the wonderful people who have sent me nice emails thanking me for the work I do. You guys inspire me to keep ad-busting!

Jennie.

The appearance of a tampon shouldn’t be it’s selling...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:02:41 -0600

The appearance of a tampon shouldn’t be it’s selling feature…

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Sat, 27 Apr 2013 08:16:13 -0600

Unbustable ads

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 09:22:39 -0600

I really like this Sorel advertisement because it features an intelligent woman who does good work. Leila Janah is the Founder and CEO of Samasource, a non-profit social business that gives digital work to impoverished people around the world. She graduated from Harvard University with a degree in African Development Studies and has done plenty of great work in the fields of medicine, technology and social/economic justice.

What a brilliant concept to use a woman like her in advertising!

I like that Sorel chose to feature a real person whose work takes her to remote locations where she would actually need a good pair of warm boots. They could have used a model wearing nothing but boots, like this stupid Ugg advertisement, but they chose to do something way cooler. Thanks, Sorel!

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Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:30:29 -0600

Note: Not everything I post is “ad-busting” or...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:02:00 -0600

Note: Not everything I post is “ad-busting” or “feminist” or deep or thoughtful. Sometimes the stuff I post is just fun, silly, quirky, etc. and that’s OK.

What’s being implied here is that flats are frumpy and...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 17:55:35 -0600

What’s being implied here is that flats are frumpy and heels are fabulous. Whatever, Häagen-Dazs. At least my feet don’t hurt.

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Thu, 11 Apr 2013 08:30:46 -0600

Submission: Leggy ladies Here’s an image that was...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 19:39:33 -0600

Submission: Leggy ladies

Here’s an image that was submitted by a reader.

Can we talk about how ridiculously elongated this woman’s legs are? I realize they are playing on the text that says “stretch to the max” but they didn’t need to distort a woman’s body to make their point. Images like this contribute to the unrealistic beauty standards that women feel pressure to live up to.

Here’s another example of an ad I busted that makes...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:08:25 -0600

Here’s another example of an ad I busted that makes stereotypes about the kind of things women are interested in.

I normally don’t post things like this, but I thought this...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:18:32 -0600

I normally don’t post things like this, but I thought this was perfect. This is one of the most important messages I hope people take from reading my blog.

It pisses me off that beauty is always associated with...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 12:35:26 -0600

It pisses me off that beauty is always associated with youthfulness.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE YOUNG TO BE BEAUTIFUL.

Submission: "Take Courage" beer ad

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 08:30:00 -0600

This beer advertisement was banned in the UK by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in 2009. The ad implies that the woman is asking “Does my bum look big in this dress?” and the guy is using beer to gain the courage to answer her.

The ad definitely makes fun of curvy girls, and some people interpreted it as the man building courage to take advantage of the woman.

Interesting language for a hair product…

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:30:22 -0600

Interesting language for a hair product…

Submission: BMW's Degrading and Hyper-Sexualized Ad

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:51:00 -0600

A) BECAUSE compromising a women’s existence for the sole purpose of selling fucking automobiles is okay?

B) On top of that they had to bring slut-shaming into it too…

C) Why must a “sexy” woman and car go hand-in-hand in the advertising world? Are men really so oblivious to car advertisements that they won’t pay attention unless there is a hot white blond lady strutting her stuff? REALLY? I don’t believe if for a minute.

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Sat, 23 Mar 2013 08:30:36 -0600

My answers to questions about media & body image

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:16:05 -0600

A student recently sent me a message asking if she could interview me for a research project. She sent me a list of questions related to media, advertising, body image and self esteem.

I had fun answering the questions and I figured that other people might find my answers interesting or useful, so I am posting them here.

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1. Do you think there is a link between media influence and dissatisfaction with one’s appearance? Why or why not?

I certainly do. There have been numerous academic studies that have indicated a correlation between media influence and dissatisfaction with one’s appearance. One study that really stands out was conducted in Fiji in the 1990’s. Just a few years after television and American shows like Melrose Place arrived on Fiji’s main island, eating disorders went from being virtually unheard of to noticeably on the rise. Read more about the study here.

2. Who do you think is most affected by unrealistic body expectations?

I think that young girls from the ages of approximately 8 – 17 are the most affected. This is because girls start to become more aware of how they look, and how they are “supposed to look” around age 8. They are very influenced by the images around them and desperate to fit in and be “normal.” Also, they have not yet developed the critical thinking skills necessary to combat the onslaught of images that confront them every day… their minds are like sponges just soaking up all these negative messages that women need to be very thin yet have large breasts and a round butt, dress in sexy attire, have long blonde hair and the lightest skin possible in order to be considered attractive.

3. When do you think this issue became especially prominent?

I think it became prominent when advertising really got ramped up in the post-war consumer era of the 1950’s. Advertisers realized that women were the primary shoppers and decision makers when it comes to household products (food, clothing, beauty products, appliances, etc.) so they began to target the majority of advertising towards women.

4. How does media affect our perception of beauty?

It has a HUGE affect on our perception of beauty. The biggest problem is that images of women in the media are often constructed using Photoshop, and they are not “real.” It is all too easy to brighten eyes, whiten teeth, remove winkles, slim down a waist or thighs using Photoshop. When this is done over and over again on virtually every image that we see of women in the media, it has a devastating effect on women. We believe that we CAN and SHOULD look like that, when in fact the models in the images don’t even look like that.

5. Why is the media so obsessed with thinness?

Thinness is desirable because it’s difficult to achieve. Very few people naturally have a “model’s body” – I believe it’s only 2 to 5% of the female population. So, advertisers and the media use thin models because they know that almost nobody can achieve that look, yet everyone will desire that look because it’s put up on a pedestal and worshiped. If people are constantly trying to look like something they are not, they will have lower self esteem and be dissatisfied with their bodies. This means they are more likely to spend money buying products to try and achieve that look.

6. How are men affected by unrealistic body expectations?

Men are definitely affected by this too, although I believe it’s to a lesser extent. Men feel pressured to have good skin, muscular arms, six packs, thick hair and to be tall.

The reason why men do not have as much pressure placed on their physical appearance as women do is because there are men in successful roles who are NOT thin, young or beautiful. Think about all the successful men who are bald, overweight, ugly, short, etc. Now think if you know any successful women who fit that description? And if a woman is successful yet fat, she is constantly harassed about her weight in the media, where as men are not.

7. Does the beauty industry prey on women’s insecurities to sell them things they don’t need? Explain.

Yes they do. An example would be anti-aging creams. Open any women’s magazine and you’ll find tons of ads for anti-wrinkle cream. The incredible thing is that these ads are targeting increasingly younger and younger women. There are so many in COSMO magazine, whose readers are mostly in the 17-23 age range. These are young women who don’t even have wrinkles yet, but they are already getting the message that wrinkles are bad, ugly, undesirable and something must be done to stop or prevent them. So women start obsessing over these “imperfections” and worrying about them. Once we become self conscious about something like wrinkles, we are much more likely to spend money on products like anti-wrinkle cream in order to “cure” the problem.

8. What do you think should be done to eliminate or reduce the influence of media on our perception of beauty?

I think that advertisers should stop using Photoshop to create unrealistic beauty standards, and I think they should use more variety in their models. I’d like to see images of REAL women of different ages, different ethnic backgrounds and different body types.

9. How does media influence directly relate to eating disorders and low self-esteem?

Go to Google Scholar and type in “media influence and self esteem” you will see tons of academic studies indicating that consumption of media DOES impact self esteem in a negative way. Almost every study I’ve read has come back with the same conclusion: the images we see every day are extremely powerful – we cannot live up to those unrealistic standards of beauty, yet we keep trying and continually fail. Constantly failing to live up to the ideal beauty standard takes a toll on our self esteem… it’s no wonder eating disorders are rampant.

10. How can everyday people combat against unrealistic beauty ideals and embrace their natural beauty?

My first bit of advice is to stop buying magazines or looking at images of “beauty” that are highly retouched. The next step is to start following blogs or Facebook pages that promote REAL beauty. For example, there are plenty of blogs on Tumblr that promote beautiful curvy women, beautiful petite women, beautiful black women, beautiful punk-rock women…. and almost every other niche you can think of. Find the niche that interests you and start to look at THOSE images rather than mainstream media images. This way YOU get to control the types of images you are seeing, and that is hugely powerful. For example, when I scroll through my Tumblr dashboard, I see amazing images of all these beautiful women who look nothing like the images in magazines, and it’s so refreshing. It makes me feel like my body is beautiful and normal, which of course it is.

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Sun, 17 Mar 2013 12:08:02 -0600