Originally Ad: 

Analysis: 

Victoria’s Secret must certainly be a hot topic when it comes to the culture jam assignment. They are known for their models with (what society deems as) “the perfect body”. My project, the picture above, is based around a picture modified by Lane Bryant. This picture is meant as a counterpart to the common Victoria’s Secret models, also known as “angels”. The picture captions “#ImNoAngel”, with women who do not suit the “perfect body shape” portrayed by Victoria’s Secret. Though the original purpose of this Lane Bryant picture is to act as perhaps a criticism to the body image delivered by Victoria’s Secret, to the common public, the caption in relation to the picture is highly demotivational, and perhaps delivers an even more harmful message to the public. One may argue that this picture aims to deliver the message that even plus size women, those who are not considered “angels”, are beautiful. While even I believe this message to be true, and in accordance to it, I would like to argue the problem with this picture is that it will result in many forms of misunderstanding, for both men and women. For men, it will alter their perspective even further that these plus size women, no matter of their intellect or beauty, are not the “angels” they seek, because they are “#ImNoAngel”. For women, the skinnier girls will perhaps look down upon these plus size girls, and the girls who belong in the portrayal category of “#ImNoAngel” will feel discouraged and result in a lowered self esteem. Today’s society should be based on the belief that physical appearance is not everything, and this picture counters this belief.

My Cultural Jam Ad: 

Explanation:

While the originally picture was in fact already a campaign against the Victoria’s Secret version of body images, I would like to argue against this Lane Bryant poster. It it undeniable what the goal of this campaign is to achieve, however, I believe that it was done so in a rather misleading and misunderstanding way. Thus, for my culture jam project, I changed the keyword from #ImNoAngel to #ImTHEAngel.  This is to further illustrate Lane Bryant’s point, while at the same time reducing misleading and misunderstanding factors. The new slogan clearly emphasizes that all plus size models in the background are all unique angels in their own ways, as shown by the keyword “THE” and not “A”. In addition, the keyword I changed is also capitalized, stating that each women is a special, and one of a kind, angel. While aiming to achieve a similar goal as the original picture, with a simple but crucial change to the keyword, I believe the misunderstandings have been eliminated. A young girl taking the bus to school may come across this poster at a glance, and take in the message that these plus size models are no angels (original picture), however learn that all sized women are beautiful, and angels in their own ways (modified picture). Through today’s social media, women are faced with severed pressures and expected to look certain ways. With the encouragement of these body-image irrelevant campaigns, I believe we can lessen the poison this social media body-image expectation has on, not only the younger generation, but all generations of all cultures.

Work Cited: 

#ImNoAngel. Digital image. Lane Bryant. N.p., n.d. Web
<http://www.lanebryant.com/content.jsp?pageName=redefine-sexy>.