Original Advertisement
Above is an advertisement put out by Avon in January this year. It received a lot of backlash online for its body shaming message that women should cover up their cellulite and stretch marks. Avon, is a beauty company that has been known to give women an opportunity to become sales representatives of the company and to sell their products. This ad starts off with saying that “Every body is beautiful” but then its true aim is to point out bodily imperfections such as cellulite and stretch marks that need to be removed with their products. The woman in this advertisement as seems to have flawless skin and none of the imperfections that this ad targets. These products rarely work and women often get upset that these products don’t get rid of these imperfections that we should be ashamed of.
For years’ women have been shamed for imperfections on their bodies such as cellulite and stretch marks that are inevitable and often happen during puberty, having children, and just the general aging process. The media and most notably the tabloids, have been known for their body shaming of women especially female celebrities. Tabloids have been known to put out photos of aging female celebrities, pointing out flaws in their bodies and calling them disgusting and ugly. Mediums like this leave an impressionable effect on young girls and leads them to believe that cellulite and stretch marks are something to be ashamed of and can be detrimental to how young girls and women view themselves. This ad seemed to have fall through for its aim to empower women and sent the message that women should feel insecure about these imperfections that happen to nearly all women.
Jammed Advertisement
In a society that shames women for having cellulite and stretch marks, advertisements need to break from the trend of editing out imperfections. What the original advertisement failed to advertise was that these bodily imperfections are something that should be embraced but rather it came across as it is something that women should feel insecure about. For my culture jam, I decided to change up the headline from “Every body is beautiful” to “Every body has imperfections” because as a society we need to accept that imperfections on our bodies happen and that we have to embrace that. I also changed up the text “so she can feel confident and powerful 24/7” because it is made to seem that the only way to feel confident in one’s body is to hid the cellulite and stretch marks. I wanted to take away any sense of body-shaming and change it to the reality that nearly all women have some sort of cellulite or stretch marks on their bodies. When you realize that these imperfections are so common you tend to hide them less and embrace them more. Also, imperfections like these are almost inevitable in aging women, by placing less emphasis on how ugly these types of imperfections are we can treat them like any minor flaw.
The issue of body-shaming women starts with the media. Showing women untouched and unairbrushed leaves the viewers with a sense of ease and realization that flaws are nothing to be ashamed of, but rather something to be embraced and accepted by society.
Bibliography
Deabler, Alexandra. “Avon Apologizes for Body-Shaming Ad after Getting Called out by Jameela Jamil.” New York Post, New York Post, 21 Jan. 2019, nypost.com/2019/01/21/avon-apologizes-for-body-shaming-ad-after-getting-called-out-by-jameela-jamil/.
