Body Image

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