© Cathy Thorne – everydaypeoplecartoons.com

For other inspiring, thought provoking cartoons by Cathy Thorne, check out her website: everydaypeoplecartoons.com

Media messages directed at women and advertisements for beauty products have changed significantly in the past 20 years.

In the early 1990s many TV commercials for beauty products portrayed assertive businesswomen:

1990 Italian commercial for L’Oreal Elseve Shampoo, starring Cindy Crawford

1990 L’Oreal Plenitude Anti-Wrinkle Cream:

And these days, nearly 20 years later, we can notice a shift in the subtext of ad messages. The focus is solely on seduction and leisure time:

Italian commercial for L’Oreal Elseve Shampoo, starring Laetitia Casta

Side note – in case you do not speak Italian, I must point out that the language used in this ad is deliciously ridiculous:

“Il primo balsamo alla proteina di perla” = “The first ever conditioner with pearl proteins” ??????

“Trasforma i capelli lunghi in luce scintillante” = “Transforms long hair into sparkling light” ??????

“Lucentezza a specchio” = “Mirror shine” ???????

“Tocco cashmere” = “Cashmere touch”

And a commercial for L’Oreal Plenitude, from the 2000s starring Virginie Ledoyen… at the beach:

Bring back the strong businesswomen!

Last week, I was in Amsterdam for IDFA – the biggest film festival in the documentary world. In between film screenings and networking events, I would walk around town indulging in my favorite activity: street photography. What struck me the most was the ubiquity of ads that objectified both men and women: they were strikingly similar to those that I see every day around Paris. I somehow didn’t expect to find this in the Netherlands, a country that consistently ranks in the top 10 of gender equality nations and that is far more progressive and down to earth than France.

A couple of examples that were plastered all around town:

I’m thinking of starting a regular feature on this blog, posting offensive ads that I see around town (Paris, that is). Thoughts/suggestions?

This TV commercial for “L’Oréal Elvive Full Restore 5″ shampoo and conditioner has drawn criticism in the United Kingdom. The reason? Singer Cheryl Cole, the woman featured in the commercial, is wearing expensive hair extension, that cost up to £1,000 pounds ($1650). It would be thus impossible to obtain the same look by simply using the shampoo.

According to the Times of London:

During her TV commercial, a message flashes up, saying her hair is “styled with some natural extensions”, but it remains on screen for fewer than two seconds of its 30-second duration. In magazine advertisements, the hair extensions are mentioned in print 2mm high.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it had rejected 13 complaints that the ads were misleading because the disclaimer about Cole’s hair extensions was “clear and legible”.

And what about L’Oreal’s take on this? From the Times:

A spokeswoman for L’Oréal said she “did not know” whether Cole used human or artificial extensions. A company statement said: “Cheryl has worn hair extensions for some time. They are part of her look and are cared for in the same way as normal hair.”

Full article here: “L’Oréal row takes the shine off Cheryl Cole’s hair”

For a related post on shampoo commercials, check out this other blog post: “The Evolution of Shampoo Commercials“

This song would be just about brilliant for the Illusionists docu soundtrack! The Care Bears on Fire is a band from Brooklyn, NY: Sophie (lead vocals, guitarist, 13 years old), Izzy (drummer, 13 years old) and Jena (Bass, 15 years old) are my new heroines! I can’t wait to see what they’ll do next.

Links:

Care Bears On Fire on MySpace
via Feministing

These awful, über-sexist Reebok EasyTone ads were conceived by the ad agency DDB Chicago:

Now, if you go to DDB’s official website you will notice some interesting quotes:

“Values”

(Who We Are > Roots)

Respect for Our World

As influential communicators, DDB is in a position to use creativity as a force for good. As Bill Bernbach so eloquently put it, “All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.”

(emphasis mine)

Interesting. Could you watch the commercials one more time, keeping in mind the above statement? Don’t you notice a huge disconnect?

To complain to DDB for the aforementioned ads you can contact Jeff Swystun, DDB Chief Communications Officer : Jeff.Swystun@ddb.com or address something to him, in 140 characters or less, to his Twitter account: @JeffSwystun

Could ad men come up with the reverse scenarios (meaning, a 20-something male in both ads)?

(insert no brainer answer here)

From the Washington Post’s “On Being” video series: an interview of make-up artist Bailey Orenia-Sessoms – who speaks eloquently about race, beauty, and self-esteem.

A terrific quote:

When you have that lack of self-love, you’re more susceptible to accepting society’s “beauty standards” and then you find yourself not liking who you are year to year because every year (fashion) changes.

To watch the full interview, click here.

Slate magazine recently launched Double X, a blog devoted to women’s issues, which feels like an hybrid of Jezebel (for its sass) and Feministing (for its feminist consciousness); The New York Times wrote an insightful article about the blog launch here.

I have been thoroughly enjoying this new site – so imagine my surprise when, this morning, I stumbled upon this ad from Sprint (the U.S. telecommunications company) on an article about Suprime Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (notice the top banner):

It reads: “Plastic surgeries happening in the U.S.: 31″ … “Videos uploaded on sprint phones: 459″

A page reload yielded a similar ad about the # of “spray tans sold in the U.S.”

Plastic surgery? Spray tans? I understand the importance of niche marketing, but why is it that I have to witness obnoxious, stereotypical ads on a progressive site with a feminist slant? Am I the only one to notice a disconnect? Bah.

Last month, during a brief stay in Italy to visit my family, I noticed a disturbing new trend in advertising: creams designed to “lift” breasts and buttocks.

The last time I had seen a print ad for a similar product, I was in my early teens: in the back pages of all the popular teen magazines, I would see ads for X-ray glasses (destined for boys, to see through the clothes of women) and various “miracle” creams designed to accelerate puberty and turn a flat chested girl into a Pamela Anderson-like bombshell. My friends and I would dismiss this as utter rubbish (with the exception of a hopeful pimply faced boy in my class who once purchased X-ray glasses and brought them to school. Sadly, they didn’t work).

Fast-forward to today. Imagine my shock, when, while sitting in my dentist’s waiting room, I see that ads for creams to “increase breast size” are peppering the pages of virtually all the women’s magazines I pick up. Even more surprising? These creams belong to major (read: well respected) cosmetics companies.

Some examples (note: one of the photos below is a bit graphic, showing a nipple, so NSFW for those of you in the United States. Us Europeans are used to a lot worse)

The Title: “Dalla Ricerca COLLISTAR” (“from Collistar’s Research Team” – thus legit, no?)

“La rivoluzionaria novità che rassoda e solleva il seno” = “The revolutionary new product that firms and lifts breasts”

“più alto 2,7 cm” = “1,1 inch higher”

“più voluminoso +1cm” = “1/2 inch more volume”

“più sodo per il 90% delle donne testate” = “firmer breasts for 90% of women tested”

And now, let’s look at the pretty little asterisks that accompany each claim. Mind you, you may need eyeglasses to read those teeny tiny scribbles at the bottom of the page:

“Test clinico-strumentali” = gibberish? Well, let’s say clinical tests conducted on 20 women at an important Italian university. “An important Italian university”? WTF? Also: “maximum values reported after 60 days”. Whatever that means.

Let’s look at another ad, this one from Pupa, a cosmetics company that usually targets teenage girls and women in their 20s-early 30s:

This ad uses a similar language – as well as outrageous claims:

Firming effect = 94%

Rounder breasts (whatever that means) = 97%

Higher breasts = 88%

An interesting tagline, bottom right: “+ volume – chirurgia” (+ volume – plastic surgery)

And now, a quick look at the asterisks:

* Maximum value found in 3 subjects out of 35. Median value: 1 cm.

*** Tests are self-evaluations of 35 women during 8 weeks.

The self-evaluation part is what interests me. Because, whenever you see claims about anti-wrinkle creams, or anti-cellulite creams, or any other potion on the market (creams to increase breasts, buttocks, make your hair fuller, etc.) the percentages the ads refer to are not objective scientific findings. No. All beauty companies – big and small – use the results of self-evaluations in their marketing campaigns.

I once saw a documentary on TV that featured a French lab where they test 90% of cosmetics on the market. Women who participate in the study are given loads of free samples and usually return to the lab after 2 months to fill out a questionnaire about their satisfaction with a given product. A smiling lab attendant asks questions about one’s satisfaction (with yes/no answer) and then the results are compiled. In the documentary in question, a turtle-faced woman in her 60s say that the anti-wrinkle cream she had used had shown positive results. I couldn’t believe it. It’s ALL SUBJECTIVE: no scientific tests are carried out to confirm the claims. After all, if creams could actually reduce wrinkles, lift breasts, eliminate cellulite, why would women resort to expensive and intrusive procedures like Botox, breast implants and liposuction?

What these cosmetics companies are actually selling is HOPE.

After all, Charles Revson, founder of Revlon once said: “In the factory we make cosmetics; in the drugstore we sell hope.”

For an insightful article about the misleading marketing practices of cosmetics companies, click here.

It’s the same with the breast creams above. A few more examples:

What to do about this? Send your complaints to consumers’ associations.