I found this Chanel ad featuring Nicole Kidman.At first, I wasn’t sure if it applied to this assignment but when I took a closer look, I felt it was a prime example of expression of individuality. I felt the message here was Chanel liberates a woman. She is an individual with distinct, memorable qualities that people around here won’t forget. ” I love to dance” comment in the commercial, to me , implied that this product made a woman feel like she can be and do anything. I think this commercial represented the repressed individual from society. The perfume was a catalyst to her liberation from the pressure she had felt from the media, society and everyone around her. This Chanel perfume made her feel alive, fall in love and it created an identity. Every woman who wears Chanel should find themselves in Chanel.
Hey I responded to 2 of my classmates blogs ;) Saturday, Mar 10 2007
Uncategorized 5:50 pm
Sophia Kim and Jennifer Miller… really interesting Blogs .. sorry its late .. i couldnt figure out how to get my classmates blog pages..but now i do 
…
-lena
The Century of the Self Wednesday, Mar 7 2007
Uncategorized 2:33 pm
After watching the episodes about Freud , Bernays and Reiche I felt very enlightened. I found it interesting how acceptance in society was and still is a huge issue. I liked Anna Freud’s bias in conforming was her motive to in her research and study,how she felt that conforming the inner self and changing the outside environment would help the ego. I think that is an ideal situation but it obvious wasn’t enough to help the masses out like Reiche’s movement ( if you can call it that ). The idea that conformity was bad works in our diverse society. This country has many cultures for social conformity to work. I like how sociologist after Rieche really propagated this idea of not conforming and standing up and being an individual. Individualism was what post-industrial societies were moving toward on a professional state level. This is wear people became individualized and specialized in their profession. Socialogist like Marx and Durkheim held close this idea of social unity. Like Freud , conformity made is easier to interact with other people, be happier and fulfill your state duties. In Europe we see this today with a number amount of unions that work together to benefit the masses and change laws. The individualistic ideology came to play in the 60′s -70′s where people had enough conformity. sociologist began looking into this and found the results outstanding. Living in a very work orientated society , the idea of social individualism only makes sense. People can’t be conformed in this type of diverse society. The idea of conformity was looked down upon in a political light because of the scare of communism. Even President Reagen preached individualism. This seemed to work in the masses in the US. And with this new kind of self-liberation, corporations began to market people in categories that helped sell products to different types of people. Maybe this is where labeling and stereotyping began ? I think the a combination of Freud’s idea of conformity and later socialist like Reiche with the idea of “Self-liberation” is a healthy way of living. I found these episodes very interesting and educational. There was so much more I did not touch upon that was present in the episodes but this is the basic idea of the film.
P.S. I like how corporations need sociologist and an immense understanding of the people to really prosper. Very interesting how Bernays used his uncle Freud’s advice to really aid in the selling of products for corporations by changing society ( liberty girls/lucky strikes).
Sexism and Sexuality in Advertising Saturday, Mar 3 2007
Uncategorized 7:01 pm
So here I am reading this article and I find it quite pessimistic. I understand “Sex Sells” and both men and women alike are being misconstrude as sex-crazed individuals with perfect 10 bodies. In my opinion, i think that the advertising industry has created a new genre of art and design, the human body. I think that the 120lbs , 5’10 women that are ont he covers of high fashion magazine should be seen as art. Think about it only 5 % of americans are born naturally thin. That to me is a rarity and rarity equals beauty and intrigue. Now its not to say i am encouraging eating disorders or am saying that should be the standard that we measure beauty. I am simply stating that our society ( maybe feminist more then any other group) have taken it upon themselves to criticize an industry that’s main goal is to make more money thru consumerism. The problem is not the influence of the advertisers on our society because that, to me, gives these advertisers to much social control which they have no right interfering in. I think the problem is our societies ideologies. We are not a group of incompetent individuals who can’t appreciate the human body and sex. We are a group of people that immigrated from other countries to gain prosperity and grow socially. Now you might be thinking ” what does this have to do with advertising and sexism and sexuality in advertising ? ” I’ll tell you with one word “Culture” . You go around the world and you will see “healthier”, full figured women in advertisements, with no plastic surgery done. Why is that ? Because people understand that the womans body is beautiful. I think is goes back in history to this idea that the richest people of the old ages were easily noticed by their excessive amount of weight they carried to represent their status in society. The US is still relatively old and always coming up with innovative ideas from social to political standards. I think because the US is a free market economy and millions of immigrants reside here, people have can freely express and create controversial art, design, theories , philosophies etc. without getting penalized. This idea comes to play when pornography was introduced to scoeity and strip clubs and peep shows. I think pornography is a head turner, regardless of if its seen in a good or bad light. I think the more controversy pornography made the more it become intrigated into different mediums , like advertising. And i think thats’ where it derives from. Because this country prides itself with the capability to do more and make more money, regardless of how ( although some restrictions apply) is something that can help understand why our society is so sex driven and image obsessed. Now int he article , it states that “One effect of such ads is to give women unrealistic notions of what they should look like. After instilling anxiety and insecurity in women, the ads imply that buying consumer products can correct practically any defect, real or imagined. “ the author puts fault at advertisers for womens insecurities. I dont think this is accurate. Our society has become to fragile and delicate i think. If women and men alike , are going to react to ads in an insecure manner, then yes of course they will be more prone to take notice to ads and perhaps be more willing to try new things to becoem more accepted in society. I think it is a travasity in our society that the people are not solidified enough to distinguish the entertainment industry from realy life. a girl that is 110lbs and is 5’10 is not the reason for eating disorders and self inflicting pain women and men put themselves through because they aren’t perfect. Society is to blame. We need to start changing our views on real vs. unreal and accept the unreal for what it is, a work of art. People complain about havign perfect, attractive people on the covers of magazines and ads, but if they put a normal face on the magazine, a face filled with blemishes, people would be repulsed. People pick up a magaziene and watch tv for leisurely purposes.They don’t flip pages of Vogue or watch cable to be hard on themselves. They view them because its a form of entertainment and people fial to realize how important to keep a reality check. For the girls that claim that barbie caused their eating disorder, i blame the community, school and parents for not building up a childs esteem.
