Class Post: Dove Commercial

This was certainly not what I was expecting to see when I clicked the link. However, I found it extremely interesting nonetheless.

It's fascinating to see just how much "tweaking" is done to a model just to make her "beautiful." It seems a bit of false advertising on the behalf of Fasel since I highly doubt the foundation makeup they are advertising on that billboard comes with the tools to lengthen one's neck and, evidently, eliminate one's shoulders, but that's probably why I don't get paid the big bucks to make women feel shitty about not looking like the Photoshopped women in magazines and on billboards; I tend to point out little hypocrisies like how all that work is done to make an already attractive woman "more" attractive in order to try to convince other women that they can look like her...even though she doesn't actually look like "her".

Anyway, I think the model's facial expression (none) really tells the story. Granted, it's not conducive to proper makeup application if your model is giggling and smiling like a dunce the whole time, but it would seem to indicate that during all that work either no one spoke to her or no one had the creativity to crack even one half-assed joke to make her crack a smile.

Of course, the irony that this little film was produced by Dove, a company that hocks its products to women using pictures of other, unbelievably gorgeous women (really unbelievably after watching the video on YouTube...) isn't lost on me.
While the message of the Dove commercial is to imply that they would never sink to the level of Fasel when it comes to their models, there's this strange little voice within me quietly screaming "Bullshit!".
Just a quick glance at Dove's website brings you face-to-face with a beautiful young woman who, if we're too believe Dove, has had nothing more than a cursory application of some light makeup...her ridiculously shiny hair was clearly a result of her frequent use of Dove's incredible products.

That the film's director, Yael Staav, seems to ignore the irony mentioned above and discusses the work as though she's saved the world also irritates me a bit. Perhaps because I'm a little tired and haven't felt well for most of this week I'm looking at this the wrong way, but I can't have much respect for Staav when she makes this film for Dove. On it's own, and despite the Dove connection, the ad is very revealing and has a great message, but I feel like the corporate connection to another company that makes its money off of a prescribed notion of female beauty tarnishes the message.

Or maybe I'm just a cynic...