Wst Advertisment Project

One form of popular media that set standards of female beauty is music. It is an influential medium in today’s society that tells women the ideal beauty image is “thin, lean, tall, young, white, and heterosexual, with flawless skin and well-groomed hair”(208). This is a damaging beauty ideal for women because they think they need to be corrected or fixed to fit an unattainable ideal. For my advertisement I chose prominent male singer, Bruno Mars, because he mainly targets women that believe in this manipulative ideal. I think that when a prominent Hollywood singer or actor says something more people tend to listen. I quoted his song, “Just the way you are,” because it goes against the ideology of society and mass media. His song speaks about a man loving a woman just the way she is, she doesn’t need to fix anything about herself. Neither mass media nor society will tell women to love their bodies and themselves, because they are a multi-billion dollar business that feeds off women to buy their products to achieve the beauty ideal.

Through my re-make I established this idea that women need to love themselves just the way they are, which is not something that media nor society will tell women. I think that my remake advertisement of Bruno Mars sells that idea to his targeted women audience. He clearly states through facial expression, hand expression, and color the way he feels about the media and society. The first thing that is demonstrated, is his facial expression, which is a feeling of disgust and concern. This is shown as he lowers his head and puts his hand over his head as he is ashamed of the media and society, and their power influence on the way women view themselves. The next thing that he utilizes is hand expressions in the advertisement. This is illustrated as he makes the “I love you” sign in sign- language on his right hand. This subtle message is a clear indication to his audience that he thinks they’re amazing just the way they are, even though media and society might state otherwise. Lastly, the black/white color sets the overall tone of the advertisement from dark to light; dark being the outer self and light being the inner self. The black color (outer-self) is the perception of the media and society, where thinnest is idealized and expected for women to be attractive. In contrast, the white color (inner-self) is the real you that you see everyday and nobody else can see. When the inner self is constantly told that it needs to be corrected and fixed it starts believing this, but Bruno Mars self reassures these women that everyday when you look in the mirror you should love yourself just the way you are. This remake is a clear indication to his women audience that not only does he care, but also it is a serious topic that should be addressed. When images in advertisements, television, and music portray the "ideal woman" as tall, white, and thin, with blonde hair. This ideal has a harmful effect to women of all races, because these women see themselves as needing to be fixed or corrected. This promotes a type of self-hatred within women, as they see themselves as unattractive. This is why this advertisement re-make is powerful, because it recreates the negative ideology of  media and society into a positive one that you do not hear everyday.

Works Citied

 Kirk,Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives 5^th ed. New York:McGraw-Hill, 2010.

 http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/26600000/Lots-of-Bruno-Mars-bruno-mars-26630102-500-335.png