Social Awareness Contradiction

I think that the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty really gives a hard impact to the viewer. It leaves them with something that they can remember. After seeing the video and the before and after images of the model, I think that the Dove Campaign is being very genuine towards promoting the “true beauty” of someone. It reveals the effects that a company uses to make an advertisement. By doing this, the viewers should come to an understanding that everything in the advertisements and magazines are not the true appearance. With extreme makeovers from makeup, lighting, Photoshop, and more, a normal person can be on the page of a magazine too. Dove gave the viewers the insight that everyone has is beautiful and that only the effects behind the scenes of advertising made celebrities look even better.

I think the Axe Effect Campaign is the opposite of the Dove Campaign. I think it is over exaggerated like the advertisements in the 50s and 60s. The video of their commercial made me disgusted. Is it really appropriate? To me, I think that the ad is inappropriate since not all girls would even like the smell of Axe. In grade three or four that the guys in my class would always spray Axe excessively. I think one reason for them to do this is because they think it was “cool” to use it. It definitely wasn’t about girls at that time. After seeing the video, I think that the Axe Campaign over exaggerate the effect of their product.

Well using the analogy that Dove and Axe are ‘siblings’ under the same ‘parent,’ I think that it’s not very surprising that the two are promoting opposite things but I do think that the parent company should take responsibility. Siblings aren’t exactly the same; they may have opposite personalities but they have the same care under the same parent. Therefore, I think that the parent company should promote the same cause but the two campaigns should just promote it in a different way. For example, if Dove promoted “real beauty” for girls, maybe Axe should promote “real beauty” for guys by using natural body spray. Even if the two campaigns are different, they should not be polar opposites like these two. The difference between Dove and Axe are to such an extent that it's unbelievable that they are from the same parent company. It is confusing for the viewers to know which of the two points they are really promoting – natural beauty or artificial body spray with illusory results? I think they could have different types of things they advertise but they should be more or less at the same topic.

Ads of the Past – Did They Really Say That?

 

1) Sanitized Tape Worms

My first reaction to this ad was: “What? I don’t get it – are they really advertising tape worms…to eat?” It doesn’t make any sense to me at all. I mean, do they have any common sense? The single thought of eating tape worms grosses me out. This ad just makes me wonder how desperate humans are to make money. I wonder how far the company was able to pull it off. I’m sure many people now would not even think of eating something which seems inedible. I doubt tape worms would allow one to become more skinny (like the ad indicates); but if does, then I’m pretty sure there are many negative after effects.

2) Tipalet

I think this ad shows gender inequality. The slogan “Blow in Her Face and She’ll Follow You Everywhere” makes it seem like women are slaves or pets. This ad as an appeal to romance but I think it’s just a false advertisement. In reality, I think most people can agree that smoke doesn’t have a very favorable smell. Thus, why would women start following men because they blow nasty, intoxicating, smoke into their face? Not to mention the health factors shadowing this concept.


 3) Lard

Who wouldn’t want a happy family? Using a picture of one to advertise something like lard is just wrong. Lard is fat. Pig fat. How is eating fat healthy? How does that make people happy? I think the company is taking advantage of the consumers’ lack of knowledge. The advertisement used the term ‘lard’ instead of something like ‘pig fat’ to trick people who don’t know what lard is. The innocent consumers might think that it is some wonderful new product to make families happy.

4) Camels

Intelligent people trained to save people from illness should know what is right and what is wrong right? Wrong. As seen in this ad, a doctor is advertising cigarettes. With the statistic that “More Doctors Smoke CAMELS Than Any Other Cigarette” and the slogan “The Doctor’s Choice is America’s Choice” makes the audience think that smoking the cigar would make them popular and belong in the “cool” club. Since the doctor also advertised it, consumers may think “well the doctors smoke too so it must be okay.” False facts like these would attract people to buy the product and also harm the people who use it.

I’ve got to be honest and say that I wasn’t completely surprised about these old ads. Advertisements are made mostly for one reason – money. Humans can be very greedy creatures. These advertisements are exaggerated, over-the-top, and morally wrong. I think that if the “Canadian Code of Advertisement Standards” was not introduced, providing rules that advertisements should follow, the advertisements nowadays would be the same – the producers wouldn’t know their limit. Although some advertisements do bend the rules, it is not as exaggerated as the ads shown above.

Hey, Guess What? I Can See You…

Wow! Google has yet again invented a type of application – Google Street View.  When I first realized this I was both happy and scared.  Since my family doesn’t own a GPS, I would say I use Google Map quite often.  When the new application was out, I found it very interesting.  At first, I thought that it would be very convenient since I would be able to see what the place I was searching up look like and look for eye-catching landmarks to help recognize it.  However, when I actually tried it, it took me quite a while to figure out how to navigate through the image of the roads.  When I tried to move forward or to zoom in, it went too far, and when I tried to look around, it started making me dizzy!  I guess things aren’t always the way they seem to be.

I’m pretty sure that no privacy laws are being broken (since Google would have taken down the application if they were) but that doesn’t mean that everyone feels comfortable with it.  Many people may think that this new application is violating privacy.  Mom and I are two of them.  When reality kicked in, I realized that MY house would be viewed by strangers as well.  Fortunately, when I searched up my address, my family wasn’t in the picture and surprisingly our car wasn’t either.  However, if our picture was there it would have been a different story.  As it is now, I don’t think it would violate any privacy.  This is because people on the road passing by or anyone walking by my house would see the same view – a normal two-storey house.  If, for example, there was a picture of me walking home from school, I would think that it would be violating my privacy.  Even though my face would be blurred, I think that people can figure out who it is.  A stranger might see a teenager with a backpack and possibly recognize my Mary Ward Uniform.  That is enough to locate where I go to school!  As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words

For example, the picture to the left is from Google Street View at the Kennedy bus stop near Ward.  As you can already see, there are some Mary Ward Students waiting for the bus.  Even though you might not know WHO exactly they are, you can recognize that they are from Mary Ward from their uniform which can be seen. 


In the end, I think that this new application from Google has more disadvantages than advantages.  Even though it may be more convenient for some users to see a picture of the location they are traveling to, I think that the privacy issue is a big concern.  I think more people would accept this application if Google decides to actually REMOVE all people and cars in the photos.  A new way of navigating through the roads would help as well.  Unfortunately, I think that it’s not very likely since it would cost a lot more and waste time.