The Beauty Backlash

When we think of the media’s standards of beauty, we realize that most of us will never achieve the impossible ideals it has laid out for us. Sadly, many women still relentlessly buy countless lotions, firming creams, and wrinkle creams hoping to achieve this perfect image. Countless gorgeous female models and celebrities grace the covers of magazines while not displaying a single flaw. Even though many of these pictures have been retouched with airbrushing, women still continue to suffer from low self-esteem because they do not look like the model on the glossy magazine page. The film The Beauty Backlash reveals how companies use women’s insecurities to manipulate them into buying their products and what the Dove company is doing to help make women feel better about themselves.

Many women feel insecure about some feature on their bodies. In a recent poll, “76% of women feel insecure about their looks” (Austen, 2007). The beauty industry plays on these insecurities by putting products on the market that can supposedly fix these flaws. The beauty industry earns around “6 billion pounds a year” through manipulating women (Austen, 2007). Many women realize these companies’ ploys to make them think about their insecurities so they will buy their products. What is interesting is that even though women realize this, they still spend their money on beauty products that make outstanding promises. According to a recent survey, “64% of women think that the beauty industry exploits their insecurities” (Austen, 2007). The pressures from the media make women feel like they have to be perfect. As a result, they buy tons of products hoping to look like those images of perfect women that are everywhere.

Dove’s most recent campaign has abandoned young perfect models for everyday women with flaws. A spokesperson for Dove said, “Dove wants to make themselves a champion for women’s self-esteem” (Austen, 2007). Dove seeks to make beauty more achievable through using real women to promote their products. On the flip side, Dove’s firming cream sales went up 700% with the use of these real women (Austen, 2007). It is hard to know whether Dove is sincere or whether this is just a well-crafted marketing campaign. Dove has also gone as far as to have teams of psychiatrists and charities talk to young women in schools about body image. Even though Dove may have good intentions it is hard not to notice that as they do these good deeds their profits are skyrocketing. Prior to this campaign Dove’s sales were lower than other beauty companies. For example, L’Oreal gained status with customers through the “because you’re worth it” tagline (Austen, 2007). As a result, L’Oreal’s sales rose dramatically with their new tagline putting them ahead of Dove. Women want to feel like they are worth it because it makes them feel good about themselves.

The one other thing to consider is while Dove is promoting the real women, real beauty campaign, they also sell Axe products. As we all know, Axe ads objectify women by showing them attacking men and ripping their clothes off simply because they are wearing an Axe product. It seems that the Dove company is contradicting itself when it shows women with flaws but then jumps to women acting like bimbos who get all hot and bothered over a body spray. It is difficult to tell how Dove really views women when they put out two polar opposite ads. If the real women, real beauty is a marketing scheme it was very well planned.

The film The Beauty Backlash reveals how companies use women’s insecurities to manipulate them into buying their products and what the Dove company is doing to help make women feel better about themselves. Whether these messages are genuine or purely for sales the idea of women being beautiful with flaws and all is a positive one. It would actually be better for women’s self-esteem to be able to see women who look like them in magazines and on TV instead of airbrushed supermodels.

Bibliography

Austen, A. (Director). (2007). The Beauty Backlash [Motion Picture]. United States: Films for the humanities and sciences.

Product Post

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Press Release

(note: details of event have been changed to fit school assignment)


“FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE”

March 21, 2010

Women’s Center Shows Real Beauty During Fashion Show


From: Hamline University Women’s Resource Center
Contact: Alanna Storey, 651-222-3333

(Saint Paul, MN) If you are wondering what clothes are in style for the spring season, the Women’s Resource Center has the answer for you. The Women’s Resource Center is proud to present the second annual Charity Fashion Show. Join some of Minnesota’s most popular fashion retailers as they feature a variety of clothing just in time for the spring season. Enjoy a night out on April 19, 2010 at the Hamline University student center ballroom, in Saint Paul Minnesota. Doors will open to the public at 6:30pm. Tickets are free but donations are encouraged. Donations go to directly benefit women at the Alexandra House, which is a local battered women’s shelter.

The Charity Fashion Show event features a variety of fashion retailers as they show off their new spring designs. Hamline University student volunteers will be debuting the clothes on the runway. Guests will be able to submit orders and learn more about the clothing from store representatives after the fashion show. The retailers are from many notable stores found in Minnesota such as Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Torrid, Herberger’s, New York Express, Lane Bryant and others.

The evening finale is a raffle that includes many wonderful prizes that have been donated to the event by local groups. Guests are welcome to enter their names in the raffle before the event to be eligible for the prizes. The prizes include a fifty dollar gift card to Macy’s, a women’s Juicy Couture diamond watch, Vera Wang perfume, a one hundred dollar gift card to Bloomingdale’s and more.

Mandy Susan, Event Manager, remarked, “The Women’s Resource Center is all about giving back to the community. We figured why not hold a fashion show and a raffle to create a night of fun for many local women while helping out a local women’s shelter.”

The Hamline University Women’s Resource Center’s mission is to help women in the community and the state. Each year volunteers plan events, hold fundraisers, and collaborate with other organizations to take action and improve the lives of women in their communities.

651-532-2045
wrc@hu.edu

Contact: Alanna Storey, 651-222-3333
Email: alanna@hu.edu

Hamline University Women’s Resource Center
1536 Hewitt Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55104
651-532-2045

http://www.hamline.edu/personal/dhudson/eng3370/339s00/johnson/WRC/about.html



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War Made Easy Critical Essay

Most P.R. practitioners think of public relations as a field that helps a company get in touch with the needs and wants of the publics it serves. However, some people have a less favorable impression of public relations. Public relations has also been linked to the idea of spin, or lying to audiences to get them to feel a certain way about an issue. The government has been notorious in its use of propaganda and getting the American people to think favorably of their actions, especially in terms of going to war. The film War Made Easy reveals how propaganda and government relations tactics are used to turn an audience’s attitude in favor of something as destructive as war.

The government uses the tactic of making America look like the good guy and demonizing its opponents to gain the American people’s support in going to war. President George W. Bush labeled the people of Afghanistan, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, and the Taliban as a part of an “axis of evil”, a “cult of evil”, and said that the U.S. going to war with Afghanistan would be a “monumental structure of good vs. evil” (Alper & Earp, 2007). The American government shows its enemies to be monsters so that the American people will not sympathize with them but, rather, see them as a threat to our safety. Even back during the red scare the government was demonizing a different way of life. There were television shows saying communism was “dirty, godless and evil” (Alper & Earp, 2007).

The American government tries to make itself look like a martyr by going under the guise of going to war for the sake of democracy for the American people. Various presidents such as Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush were shown saying that they “love peace and hate war” and “we will liberate these people” (Alper & Earp, 2007). The government gives the impression that we must go to war for the sake of a free country. U.S. presidents lie to us by telling us that they will liberate the people we are warring with even though we are slaughtering civilians and destroying countries that have different views than we do about religion and life.

The film War Made Easy reveals a darker side of government relations through exposing the use of propaganda to gain support from the American people to go to war. U.S. presidents and media pundits have been swaying the American people to be enthusiastic about going to war and view it as a sense of patriotic duty. The American public is never given the full story about why we are going to war because the government knows they would lose support if they released all of the facts. We need to learn to demand the facts before permitting ourselves to be brainwashed into believing that war is our only answer.

*Final Edit*



Bibliography

Alper, L. (Producer), & Earp, J. (Director). (2007). War made easy: How presidents and pundits keep spinning us to death [Motion Picture]. United States: The Disinformation Company Ltd. .

Blogger Bio

Hello! My name is Alanna Storey. Yes, I do find it funny that I like to blog, write, and do PR related activities and happen to have the last name of Storey in case you caught that too. I am currently a senior at Hamline University and am looking forward to graduating. My interests are in women's studies, communications, and psychology. I feel that all of these subjects of study are very important in being an effective PR person. Women's studies gives one the knowledge to understand and be able to interact with diverse groups of people. Communications gives people the art of words to be able to communicate a particular message to a particular audience. Psychology also gives one the skill to be able to go inside the audience's head and become better equipped to give them what they want.

I have had PR experience through doing newsletters and brochures in order to promote the women's studies department here at Hamline. I also interned at the Minnesota Women's Consortium and worked to revamp their marketing system. I introduced Twitter, Facebook, and newly designed newsletters to the office. When I am not doing that I am President of the Women's Resource Center which seeks to create awareness about gender diversity on campus and in the community. I do much event planning for this organization. We have a variety of events such as media talks, charity fashion shows, and a women's history month celebration on campus. I also work in the President's Office doing everything from drafting donor letters to helping with mailings.

That is a short summary of all of the duties and responsibilities I have on campus. You can usually find me on Fridays wearing a Hamline shirt for the weekly Piper Pride Fridays we have. I hope you have enjoyed this summary and I look forward to getting to know all of you and your interests!