Real Beauty
Every day you see women displayed on billboards, in magazines, in commercials, and all over the internet. The purpose of all these advertisements is to demonstrate what it takes and what it looks like to be beautiful. However, what we as consumers believe to be beautiful is not as it seems. This image affects everyone and is ruining lives. Dove is here to change that, here to set things right, and support real beauty. After analyzing the Super Bowl and Evolution commercials they revealed rhetorical strategies such as ethos, pathos, and logos. As well as clever marketing strategies to combat the images of beauty that are detrimental and persuasive in the media. Dove wants to get everyone involved their campaign to help make a change and instill confidence amongst girls and women.
Dove is a company known for its products, such as its antiperspirants/deodorants, beauty bars, body washes, hair care, facial care products, and lotions/moisturizers. The first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of Dove is “clean”. Dove is trying to keep the world clean, not only through their products, but through supporting the world with a clean image of beauty.
“Imagine a world where every girl grows up with the self-esteem she needs to reach her full potential, and where every woman enjoys feeling confident in her own beauty. Imagine the world of possibilities we can open up by helping to build self-esteem in the people we love most.” That is a direct quote from Dove’s campaign for real beauty website. Dove wants to build a world where women everywhere have the tools to inspire each other, feel empowered and look up to real beauty as opposed to the unhealthy and unattainable beauty presented by the media.
It all began with surveys that were distributed by Dove to 3,200 women across ten countries including the U.S. and Canada. The results of these surveys were troubling, only two percent of these women described themselves as beautiful, half of them thought their weight was too high, and ninety percent of woman said they want to change at least one thing about their physical appearance (Brodbeck & Evans 2007). You might ask yourself, why are all these woman unsatisfied with what they have and why do they want to change themselves? This was a common problem, but a unique response from Dove at the time was creating a “Campaign for Real Beauty.” It launched in 2004 and it features real women advertising Dove’s products. These series of advertisements focused on promoting real and natural beauty, while trying to erase the near impossible image of beauty that has flooded the media.
The first commercial of this beauty campaign by Dove aired during the 2006 Super Bowl which was viewed by millions of people all across the world. The commercial cost Dove 2.1 million dollars. It wasn’t your average advertisement. As no specific product was being advertised and no donations were requested, confidence was encouraged. The commercial consisted of a group of girls who were unsatisfied with their physical appearance, and ended with the commercial saying let’s change their minds since every girl deserves to feel good about herself. The commercial ended off by asking the viewers to join their campaign for beauty, and that hour thousands of people joined it, and today there are over five million members to this campaign. That Super Bowl commercial was a huge success and definitely delivered its message across better than other advertisements. Due to the positive responses Dove continued in its campaign and released tons of commercials. The first commercial released during the Super Bowl creates pathos, the commercial is targeting the audience through an emotional perspective and is attempting to have the audience react emotionally. The commercial wants the audience to react with their heart and feel sympathy and compassion for these girls .The target audience in that commercial was mainly geared toward woman and younger girls, however it affected much more than that. I believe after fathers and mothers saw this commercial they also wanted to be more supportive to their children’s physical appearance and instil confidence within their children.
The commercial that received the most attention is Dove’s “Evolution,” it aired after the previous commercial. This commercial shows a regular woman coming into the studio getting her makeup and hair done, which is all pretty normal, however after the shoot the images are uploaded to a computer and altered drastically with Photoshop. Comparing the regular image of the woman to the final product shows a huge difference and almost an impossible one, and the commercial then shows two teenage girls staring at the billboard as they are walking past it. The commercial then states “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted,” and then again asks the viewers to take part in the Dove Real Beauty Workshop for girls. This commercial used logos very effectively. As it revealed the series of logical steps taken by the media, and the stylists preparing women to be portrayed in the media such as the women on billboards. It explained that it was practically impossible for women to look like what they saw all over the media and while doing this they established credibility since the advertisement was done very convincingly. This commercial received both positive and negative attention. Certain viewers were proud of it since it made them feel better about themselves and it showed them the truth, that it was almost impossible to acquire such physique. However, some people such as the models took it negatively because there are real models out there that actual are modeling their real selves and they do not want this stereotype coming out where everyone begins to believe that all models alter their image through technology.
Today, Dove commercials feature all types of women with a variety of physical qualities that aren’t usually found in regular advertisements. These commercials are not only targeted to women but to men as well to show them that the women they see in the media don’t exist. Therefore the advertisements encourage men to stop comparing the real women in their lives to the fake women that are seen all over the media. The advertisements also make women feel much better about themselves since they learn that the models they try to mirror are not possible.
As stated earlier there were negative results from these advertisements. The first being that models may have gotten offended due to the fact that they work so hard to be successful and it basically their entire life, and the Dove commercial summarizes what really happens in just over a minute. The second thing that I believe was an extremely negative result from the Dove commercials is its still focusing purely on physical appearance. It encouraging women or younger girls that they are beautiful no matter what, however it isn’t saying anything about not worrying about their physical appearance. Dove is basically saying that physical appearance matters but you don’t have to look like the models, this is keeping women objectified. Having women objectified is disregarding their personality and simply treating and judging them based on their looks, this is completely wrong. I believe it would be better if Dove incorporated other accomplishments for the women into their advertisements aside from real natural beauty.
Dove is trying to portray itself as an ethical company and while doing this it establishes good publicity. Being ethical and having good publicity leads to an increase in sales because people would want to support Dove’s effort and be a part of it. The campaign in its entirety can be deduced as one big marketing strategy, Dove is doing a good thing but really it is just a smart and unique way to market their variety of products to everyone and anyone, not just the extremely beautiful women in the usual advertisements.
Greed
Greed, it is something that affects our everyday lives. It ruins and enriches people, it is all around us and sometimes difficult to avoid. “Greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs or deserves. It is typically used to criticize those who seek excessive material wealth, although it may apply to the need to feel more excessively moral, social, or otherwise better than someone else” (Wikipedia). Greed today is found almost everywhere; it is found in the cafeteria, in corporations, in school, and even in families. But what is greed really? What does it mean? What does it take to be greedy? How do you become greedy? Is greed a good or bad thing? Greed is a malleable concept, sometimes good sometimes bad. I will define greed as a religious concept, where it is typically a vice to be condemned, and in psychology as a dysfunctional way of thinking. To achieve this goal, I will begin by working through the claim that greed is good, then challenge this by establishing the clear differences between several contrasting but closely related terms like ambition, desire, drive, earnestness, even selfishness, none of which qualify as greed as I want to define it. I will then define greed by giving you both a religious and psychological definitions which can help us identify other forms of dangerous greed in society, then I will end off by giving you an example of how powerful greed can be.
Greed is usually considered a major source of evil that is the cause for crimes such as stealing, plundering, and hoarding. However there are certain types of greed that can be good. Greed can be considered an incentive for people to work hard, similar to a drive that keeps them going. It creates a desire by making people want to be more productive and more involved in society. Getting an education has become part of the social norm, today in the US there are over 98,706 public schools and over 7,000 post-secondary institutions. This number is incredibly large and the only reason we have this many post-secondary institutions is due to the demand. Attending these post-secondary schools is a result of greed, it makes people want to become more educated. People know that with an education they can find a better job, with a better job comes more money, which in turn leads to a more prosperous and comfortable life. Not only is achieving an education beneficial to the individual learning but to others around him or her as well. The reason being is that greed in education leads to competition, everyone wants to be the best and throughout this quest for the best, there is a huge amount of medical research usually involved. Research leads to medical discoveries that save lives and make our everyday lives better. In pursuit for a better education the unemployment rate is substantially lowered due to the fact that more people will have the qualifications to work more jobs. The resulting lowered unemployment rate will also lead to a lowered crime rate and a better and less government dependent society.
We need greed, without greed nothing would survive and we would all become push-overs. Greed helps a person move up in life, it is a form of ambition, it makes a person want more and more and results in success. If it was not for greed there would be no motivation and no one would want to better themselves or do their best, we would eventually get monotonous. Greed has brought us to the way we prepare food, the way we dress, and shelter, and it has enabled us to survive harsh environments and avoid extinction. We now have appliances that make things easier for us, homes that keep us sheltered, automobiles, planes, and trains for transportation. Our greed has led us to these accomplishments, we don’t just want to fulfill our survival needs, and we would have been extinct if that was the case. Our survival is a result of greed related qualities and our future accomplishments will also be a result of these qualities, without them things truly wouldn’t be the same. With that being said, greed isn’t as it appears, greed is something different, more extreme and more dangerous, but does stem from the previously listed desires.
After reading about both positive and negative greed it becomes dilemma to conclude what greed actually is, whether it is good or bad. When considering greed through a majority of religions it is said to be negative. Most religions say that greed and desire are often confused and sometimes desire is taken too far that it turns into greed. Many religions encourage donating and suggest that if a person is comfortable financially he/she should put their money to good use or use it to help people in need. An example is in Buddhism, greed is not good and it is one of the three sins that lead to evil. In Christianity Greed is also frowned upon, the bible summarizes greed and says that it is something that will never be satisfied and that a greedy person ends up valuing materials more than God. The Islamic religion is also against greed, and since I am Muslim I will go a little more in depth. Greed is a vice in Islam because it is an act of selfishness, it distorts one’s character, it makes one arrogant, it leads to the corruption of society, it undermines ones love for good as well as decrease values such as justice, fairness and compassion. Many religions share a common view, such as that of the Christians and Muslims. They believe that the human being, cannot serve both God and greed at the same time and therefore must choose one. That choice hopefully is God, and as a collaborative effort we should try to remove the structures and attitudes that support greed. It seems as if the majority of the population has supported this argument due to the fact that there are hundreds of religious charities worldwide. The Salvation Army is an example of a Christian charity that has been extremely influential and most historic. The purpose of this organization is to bring Christian salvation to those in need of it both physically and emotionally. The Salvation Army does not discriminate in its attempt to assist the needy regardless of gender, color, race or religion. The Salvation Army has been expanding ever since it originated in 1865 until even today reaching a total of 110 countries (Wikipedia). Charities similar to the Salvation Army have done a substantial amount of kind acts. Their donations and kind acts have given homes to the homeless, they have given food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, education to the uneducated, and medical care to the sick. The dollar or two that we may take for granted these charities take full advantage of and stretch it to its fullest potential. It is amazing how far a dollar goes in Africa, it can feed a person for an entire day, or used to buy 25 bricks in order to build a shelter (Earthlink).
In accordance to psychology, greed can be considered as a dysfunctional way of thinking. Although this may not always be the case, there are certain psychological conditions that encourage a person to be more greedy than usual. In these situations greed is like an addiction for the person and they are not able to control it or the actions that may result from it. In other situations greed is very pleasuring and there are experiments to prove this. Jason Zweig is a senior writer at Money magazine and in his profession greed is a common topic. Jason was very curious as to how greed comes about so he offered himself to perform various tests in a MRI machine. The researchers are able to monitor changes in oxygen levels as blood ebbs and flows within the brain, this enables the researchers to pinpoint the specific regions of the brain that are engaged in that task. After performing a few financial games while in the MRI, researchers concluded that your brain becomes intensely aroused when you anticipate a financial gain. They further stated that “Your brain treats potential investing profits as a broad class of basic rewards, like food, drink, shelter, safety, sex, or drugs.” Therefore greed is not only to be associated with money, but this wrongful and foolish behavior can be observed in the degenerated forms of sex, eating, aggressiveness, and a lust for power. Although greed may be a motive, what is it that differentiates from other immoral actions such as aggressiveness?
When we start to understand more specifically what greed is and how extreme greed is, we need to ask, can we see it at work in society today? Acquiring wealth leads to a person wanting only more and satisfaction only comes during the chase for more. Bad greed is an uncontrollable desire for wealth which causes a person to do unethical and immoral things. Outcomes of greed include sweatshops that are found all over the world. These sweatshops have horrible work conditions, low pay, child labor, and no help. Other negative outcomes of greed include theft, scams, and immoral decisions that happen every day. In the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Power, Joel Bakan explains an interesting yet shocking example. Joel constantly reminded his readers that the bottom line of corporations was to produce profit no matter what it seemed like they were doing. Joel stated a perfect example in relation to General Motors (Bakan 63), the company was aware of the possibility of fuel fed fires when it designed certain models of cars. The reason being was the location of its gas tank; in result what the company did was calculate its cheapest solution. GM concluded that in order to fix the problem it would cost $8.59 for each of the 41,000,000 automobiles, however if they didn’t fix it, each fuel-fed fatality would cost GM $2.40 for each of those automobiles. Therefore GM opted out of fixing them since they would save $6.19 per automobile if they allowed people to die. As unbelievable as it sounds, it happens, and it’s still happening all around us we just don’t hear about it because it is cleverly disguised.
After seeing both sides it seems that regulation is the answer, there isn’t as much rape and such because there is strict regulation and brutal punishments. On the other hand when corporations do wrong they get a slap on the hand, they close and open with a new corporation number performing the same actions just hiding them better. Greed is growing and is affecting the society more and more, regulation is a must. Regardless of whether or not corporations oppose the idea of regulation it must be imposed upon them. When there is stronger regulation and stricter punishments it prevents greedy companies or people from performing unethical actions and immoral practices.
In conclusion greed can be both good and good, however good greed can lead to bad greed. In my opinion I believe we do need greed, because it has what made us successful for all the years we’ve already lived and it will continue to make us successful for the years to come. What I believe we need is regulation; if we can overcome the barrier of regulating greed then everyone will prosper. Whether greed is condemned in religion, or a dysfunctional way of thinking, at the end of the day greed is both good and bad.
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