not really going to understand this until I find the right image to attatch to it of the advert i'm analyzing.
Ever wanted Beyonce’s curves or Kate Moss’s stick thin figure? Have you ever stared at yourself in the mirror and sighed? The cosmetics industry is growing with thousands of cosmetic products on the market and over 60 brands of magazine advertising them; it’s no wonder that we’re self conscious about our appearance. Who wouldn’t be when there staring at Keira Knightleys rather exposing advert for channel or Kate Moss wearing Rimmel’s new lip gloss “plump it up” and looking absolutely gorgeous?
However, what we fail to realise is the glamed up super models we all fantasize over weren’t born with those stick thin figures and flawless skin, in fact they haven’t even been subjected to the nip or tuck of the surgical knife. Those women are computer generated: with lips, bums, skin and face structure perfected with the click of a mouse.
Most of the advertising plastered over our magazines, is now carefully engineered to make us feel and think differently about their products, to the extent when we’re pulling out our purses and forking out for things that don’t even work.
Take Kate Moss’s advert for Rimmel for instance, one that I know I have compared
myself to and wondered just exactly what I have to do to look like that.
It features Kate Moss, a figure instantly recognizable as a super model and fashion icon. She’s captured in a mid shot and looks directly into the camera with heavy bed eyes. Only the top half of her body is shown, to empathize the fact that she’s wearing little clothing. The angle her body is shot at, gives you the effect that she is pressed up against a wall or laid down on a bed, both suggesting the activeness of her sex life. Instantly we’re come to associate Rimmel Lip gloss with a higher libido.
The way her face is titled deliberately up to the light, makes me want to claw the porcelain skin off her face and peel it onto my own. But don’t be fooled, her wrinkles clearly airbrushed to perfection. Though when you really first look at the picture of Kate Moss, you’re not drawn to her skin.
They’ve used her lips as the clear focal point, painting them a hot pink. The colour symbolises a whole stream of different things; hot pink is usually associated with young, flirtatious women who are both are appealing to men and have confidence in themselves. She parts her lips slightly in a pout, as if preparing to be kissed , which further suggest to essence of romance in her life.
The colour also links to the pact shot of lip gloss at the bottom of the page, which is cleverly coloured the same shade. When you’re next in boots, you’ll see this product and immediately associate it with youthful beauty and no doubt sex appeal. It’s no wonder why, when you put it in your shopping trolley.
The background is also a huge feature in this advert. The nakedness already affirms the fact that she is ready for more than just kissing and the hair is tousled casually to the side looks as if someone has just been playing with it. As if that’s not enough innuendoes they’ve carefully placed her hands so they’re caressing her face, making it so she has as much body contact as possible. This shows she loves the touch and combined with the prolonged eye contact, wants it to.
By this stage you’ve stared at the advert for ten seconds and wondered how on earth she does it. How do she get those lustrous looking lips to burst out of her clear skin, and what an earth do we have to do to get that tousled effect on our own hair?
The sad fact is that 95% of all cosmetic advertising has been airbrushed, and a further 40% of those models have had their lips, skin and face structure modified using computer programming.
The pictures below show Kate Moss in 2008. The first is the worldwide fashion icon we know. She’s doing her all famous pout. This photo has been airbrushed percussively, and has been taken for a Rimmel Photo shoot. This is the women we idolize and perceive as beautiful. Her contract for Rimmel has lasted over five years now and we’ve seen her in countless adverts, that have had us on our knees and begging for cosmetic “must haves”.
The picture to the left however, is Kate Moss on holiday the same year. It’s just one of the many examples of how misleading air brushing can be. The picture below is of a totally different woman, who looks unbelievable average compared to the image we have built up of Kate Moss these last few years.
On the nation’s quest for beauty we have come to idolize something artificial that we can never achieve. If Rimmel’s lip gloss isn’t going to make Kate Moss’s lips “plump it up”, then what will?
It’s time to stop craving a computer’s perception of beauty and start accepting our own. Next time you look in the mirror and sigh, remind yourself at least your real and that those women in the adverts are probably standing in front of a similar mirror to you and thinking the same thing.
