Barbie has teamed up with MAC to sell a line of makeup products and Barbie to girls and young women. Commercials and advertisements continually portray young girls acting, even looking like Barbie herself. Girls are told that if they want to be pretty, they have to look like Barbie and have her stuff too. Several researchers have conducted studies on Barbie concerning her body. Some suggest that if Barbie were a real woman her waist size would be 39% smaller than the average waist size of an anorexic patient. As if that wasn’t issue enough, I had to look twice at these MAC advertisements to see if these women pictured were real or fake. They are most definitely real models, although their hair, makeup, even their poses seem plastic.
Why do you think that Barbie and MAC chose this photo for their advertisement? Do real women really want their makeup to look like this? What are they trying to tell us?
I wouldn't say I would be entirely concerned when I looked at an advertisement like this. These women are obviously made to look like Barbies because that's half of the product their selling. I'm not going to then assume that because of this, I too should attempt to make myself look like plastic the next time I leave my house. In fact, I believe when it comes to advertisements like these it should take a smart consumer to realize something like that and not take it for what it is on the surface. Obviously there are people out there that can look at something like that and realize that it doesn't mean "I have to look like Baribie." And also ther off course will be those out there that do not, but that's kind of part of life; everyone is different. But I feel like advertisements like this will always be out there and then it becomes up to us to choose how to react to them.
ReplyDeleteI think they chose this photo for their advertisement because it is our society's view of perfect beauty. Perfect skin, hair and makeup make for the ideal "beautiful" woman of our time. Perfect products make for the perfect advertisement because people WANT perfection and are persuaded more when these advertisements look flawless. I don't believe real women want their makeup looking this way, but the company is most concerned with making their photo consumer-friendly...they don't really care at all what other people think about their picture. They want to appeal to the public so they will make money. No concern with "personal feelings" and the effects on other people (especially women) is taken into account. They are showing us their view of what beauty is, and some people take it seriously. I believe this photo has taken it a little far, but opinion and personal views are what we depend on to read this picture and what it is saying.
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