Ad On The Perfume Obsession example essay topic

Looking at the ad many obvious observations can be made. You see a female bent over a toilet. Then you notice the writing on the ad. Then you realize that it is an ad for the widely marketed perfume Obsession.

Hey wait a minute. When did obsession start making ads where women were bent over on the toilet? Oh, I see. That's when it clicks. Its not really an ad on the perfume obsession but really a joke or parody on the perfume name. It has become an Obsession for women to have the ideal body type.

Looking at the picture from an examiners point of view, I notice the women and everything about her. You can immediately tell why she is sitting on the floor in a fetal position over the toilet. She is anorexic. You can tell mostly by her protruding spine. The spine is seen as the backbone of any human being. It is seen as what keeps us standing and walking everyday.

It can almost be said to be our strength. Hers on the other hand is exposed which is a sign that her strength is exposed. This reminds me of the story in the Bible where Sampson exposes that it is his hair that gives him his strength. Now anyone could basically have control over him if they cut his hair. He is now vulnerable to any attacks, just like in the ad.

The lady is now vulnerable to all outside attacks whether it be a disease or even death. To me the creators of this ad got the pathos right, in that they effectively engage the audiences' emotions. They would probably be able to draw sympathy and concern from any typical person. In large font across the top of the ad it reads, "Obsession" and at the bottom in a smaller font it reads, "For women". There is one main point that these words are trying to get across. It is that anorexia becomes an obsession for women.

All around us to day are stereotypical images of how women should look. These images are usually images of models. Many women see these images and feel that they don't live up to these standards of beauty and in turn take extreme measures in order to attain that beauty. The ad is sort of telling us that this is what happens when women try to look like CK models (logos). They are basically destroying their physical state and mental state. Advertisers often emphasize sexuality and the importance of physical attractiveness in an attempt to sell products.

In recent survey by Teen People magazine, 27% of the girls felt that the media pressures them to have a perfect body, and a poll conducted in 1996 by the international ad agency Saatchi and Saatchi found that ads made women fear being unattractive or old. Advertisements emphasize thinness as a standard for female beauty, and the bodies shown in the media are frequently different of normal, healthy women. In fact, today's fashion models weigh 23% less than the average female. In one study, 69% of girls said that magazine models influence their idea of the perfect body shape. Women frequently compare their bodies to those they see around them, and that exposure to idealized body images lowers women's satisfaction with their own attractiveness.

Another point that I notice is how the woman has her hand over her stomach and her bent down over the toilet. She gives me the impression that she has maybe just thrown up. She looks like she is in pain from the way she is holding her stomach and is scrunched over the toilet. With her head bent down it seems as though she is ashamed of what she is doing.

I picture her asking herself in her head, "why?" She is probably crying and at the same time reprimanding herself for doing such an awful act on her body. She feels guilty for putting herself through all this pain and agony, but at the same time is punishing herself, feeling that she is not good enough to outside into the outside world. She is basically her own enemy. Something else that I notice is how they allow for one of her breast to be shown. I feel that there a re many reasons why they allowed this to happen. First it shows that she is human and not some creature.

Some people feel that when a person does these acts to themselves they are sort of creature like. They are not entirely human because no human would allow there habits to go this far. Although she is doing this she is a human being and definitely a woman. Another reason why I feel that they showed this is because they possibly wanted to show what age group she might belong to. Judging by the perkiness of her breast, she seems to be in her late teens to her mid thirties. This may be the age group that the creators of this ad are looking to target, possibly implying that this age group contains a higher percentage of women that are anorexic.

If we now analyze the surroundings of the woman, we see the bland nature of everything. The entire picture is in black and white. To me, this is saying what happens to your life when you become anorexic. You become trapped in this bland and boring life, a life that you can't escape without the proper help. But in another aspect, her surroundings seem almost normal.

It has a toilet and a wall, nothing atypical of the normal bathroom. This sort of suggests to me the secret life of this anorexic lady. If you were to pass this lady on the street, you would never guess what problems she posses inside. So basically this bathroom has become her hiding place where only she knows its true meanings. Looking at this ad, I feel that the creator did a good job of being able to leave an impact on their audience. The woman in the picture is allowing the camera to take pictures of her in her vulnerable state.

By allowing the public to see her this way it is sort of her way of letting society see what happens when you try to look like a CK model or like the "typical women". Now looking at any other typical women or even man on the street would cause me to wonder what they are truly hiding from the public.