Bare Escentuals new campaign features women they chose based solely on personality.
Bare Escentuals is planning to shake up the cosmetic industry’s common advertising practices with a new campaign featuring models that were picked in a blind casting through a personality survey. Lucky for Bare Escentuals, the final 5 models in their “Be a Force of Beauty” campaign are attractive, a range of ages, and a variety of ethnicities. Before Dove-lovers get upset over the fact that these aren’t “real” women (the surveys were sent only to models and actresses), let’s look at the promise of the campaign: pretty is what you are, beauty is what you do with it. Bare Escentuals isn’t trying to feature average, everyday women—they are showing that pretty women are everyday women, but beautiful women are women of substance.
If you’re not still reeling from last year’s demeaning print ad suggesting that women douche before asking for a raise, Summer’s Eve is back with a new controversial campaign: “Hail to the V.” This campaign is a study in contrasts. One part is inspired, a celebration of the “cradle of life” and homage to the body part that throughout history “men have died for.” It’s beautiful, smart, and looks about as epic as the organ it’s praising. The other part consists of 4 videos featuring talking hand puppet vaginas against an animated background. Let’s put aside the fact that douching is not recommended by doctors because it can lead to vaginal infections and the fact that it suggests that there is something wrong or shameful about the natural state, and yes, smell of the V. These videos manage to be incredibly racist with their stereotypical depiction of the African American and Latina hand puppets/vaginas.
Dear Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and the California Milk Processor Board,
I’d like to thank you for your efforts in making sure that men have the support they need when facing the incredible hardship of dealing with the women in their lives who have PMS. Back in 2005, you ran a “Got Milk” campaign featuring the insight that milk eases symptoms of PMS. That campaign got a lot of criticism, so of course, recycling the same idea this August and hoping that “everybody’s got a sense of humor since then,” is a great plan.
Women have a sense of humor–what could be funnier than debilitating menstrual cramps, backaches, mood swings, hormonal imbalances, fatigue and bloating every month? But, of course, it’s the men that are the real sufferers. Portraying menstruating women as she-beasts is not funny, it’s sexist, and your ads are offensive.
For a while, we were completely on your side. The Got Milk ads with Angie Harmon, Susan Sarandon and Sofia Vergara were great! The classic spot about Aaron Burr—hilarious! But these PMS ads mock women when you could have had them as allies. Why not a campaign targeted at women that shows you care about easing their symptoms instead of making fun of them?
June started out with a doozie. A male politician in the Australian Parliament “meowed” at a female colleague during a debate. First off, yes it’s true. Second, Jezebel is spot-on: this guy is a true asshat. And we’ve added this fine word to our lexicon here at Womenkind for people who aspire to debase women. Try to contain your gasp. But no need to dwell on this bloke’s childish, ridiculous and as Penny says “extraordinary” behavior. What is truly extraordinary here is this woman, Penny Wong. Obviously, she is a highly-intelligent woman. Clearly, she is extremely well spoken. And no doubt she is a woman who commands respect. But what is amazing here is Penny’s ability to keep her cool, and retort in such a well-spoken and expressive manner – is just plain jaw-droppingly cool.
The Badminton World Federation has mandated that female players wear skirts or dresses to create a more “attractive presentation.” The objective is to increase viewership in the 2012 London Olympics. This recent dress code requirement hopes to make players, who previously wore shorts or athletic pants, more feminine and therefore more appealing to fans and corporate sponsors.
Wikipedia, the “information” juggernaut, continues to be a top ranked “go to” destination from search engine queries – however, according to a recent report, fewer than 15% of its contributors are women.
