Make up your mind about makeup

The use of makeup originally started because of hygiene and evolved as one of many methods used to enhance beauty. Today, it is a multi-billion-dollar business. As sad as it is, more and more people think they’re just not beautiful without it. Is advertising responsible for this? Or should we all blame Cleopatra?

In my years of existence, I’ve discovered that girls who wear makeup become younger and younger. I once was a preschool teacher and I had a 5-year-old student who would often tell me what makeup she’s wearing that day. There was a pinch in my heart when she answered my question as to why she wears make-up: “because I don’t look pretty without it.” This girl would also tell me she’s on a diet and showed me her collection of pre-teen magazines with her favourite child models in them.

Let’s debunk this situation, shall we? She’s a beautiful 5-year-old girl who’s straight up insecure and she already has a collection of magazines with other girls she wants to look like. If you’ve read “Advertising: A source of insecurity”, you’d know that advertising did affect me when I was younger. Can we say the same for makeup advertisers? But makeup has been there long before people began to advertise and commercialise it.

It’s become another thing that doesn’t need to be advertised because a lot of people would buy makeup regardless of its price, the harm it may cause to the skin, whether it’s been tested on animals or not, and so on. But the advertising message that is put out regarding makeup is the idea that you will look like a certain model or celebrity if you use these products – ensuring that you’ll be worthy to be on the cover of magazines, with millions of likes and followers on social media, and all that jazz.

Don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of people who enjoy it, are passionate for it, and treat the face as a canvas but what I want to tell you today is with or without makeup – YOU ARE A MASTERPIECE! You were born into a society that emphasises face value, and you now live in a world full of advertising that profits from this. But the question is, does society dictate what companies are allowed to advertise or do we look at advertisements and set it as the standard for modern day beauty?

Make-up isn’t a quick fix for insecurity. Insecurity is something every one of us should deal with, admit, and hopefully one day let go of.

At the end of the day, you still get to choose what to believe – and what I believe is we all have something good about ourselves. Being the only you in a world with billions of people, being unique is such beautiful thing. So why do we need to conform? Looking beyond what society and advertising dictates is a bold move that I think everyone should embrace.

Deo Deception

Much like a book on anti-gravity, the issue of false advertising is impossible to put down. This week, we’re talking about men’s deodorant commercials! As a female, I’ve always found these commercials to be like insect puns – they really bug me.

This body-spray elevator commercial is wrong on so many levels.

More often than not, men’s deo commercials feature a guy using the product that leads to a lady (or ladies) going head over heels for him because of the deodorant’s scent. Does that happen for real? The obvious answer is no.

I once heard someone say that being aware of something and discovering its purpose may come at two different times. As an example, he mentioned that he’s been aware of deodorants way before he discovered their purpose. As a primary school boy, he just knew that deodorant is something worn by older people but it wasn’t until high school that he discovered what it was for.

And what is it for? History says that before bathing became common, people used heavy colognes to mask body odour and it was only during the late 1800s when deodorant sticks were created by chemists to be commercialised. THERE WE GO. History itself states that mass production of deodorants was done for the sole purpose of commercialism. However, I of course don’t want to disregard the product’s actual purpose which is to prevent and mask body odour. It does the trick, but the question now is when did people become so self-conscious of their smell?

In some cultures, the way you smell is associated to your social class. Smelling nice is one thing, but what about simply being hygienic? Again, when baths and showers weren’t common, people used colognes to mask body odour but it was done outside of the consideration of hygiene. Marketing and advertising become, once again, responsible for making people think there’s a need for this product. (Although, let’s be honest, some people actually do but if they bathed frequently, using soap and more soap, they wouldn’t need it. This is the dichotomy of marketing.)

Can we have more honest advertising? I wouldn’t want to start talking about how sexist those deodorant commercials can be but how sad is it that excellence in advertising lies in the capability of advertisers to bend the truth as much as they can so that their products would sell? Objectifying individuals, casually making fun of issues, or simply advertising a photo that looks nothing like the product you get is, in a lot of ways, disturbing and annoying yet society allows it.

I had a conversation about one of my previous blogs and my friend asked how can an advertising blog be against advertising practices. We’re somewhat like an anti-advertising advertising agency. The norm is sadly dishonest, that’s why we would rather be outspoken about the issues that lie in this industry – call it as it is and even make fun of it, rather than succumb to the practices that deceive people.

On a lighter note, here's another crazy commercial I found for a product that may just work better than a deodorant. Who knows?

Just go with the flow

RED ALERT! We’re talking about period products! Pads, liners, and tampons – not to mention a hot pack, pain killers, and food, lots and lots of food. But we’re specifically going to talk about the ones that us girls use to trap our bloody well… blood! (And mucosal tissue, but let’s not get scientific/visual.)

This menstruation thing is just cramping our style, period. (#pungameisstrong) Ladies, back me up. Most period product ads are the same. A girl or group of girls in white pants or skirts, doing pirouettes, jumping and laughing like it’s all good, doing things they wouldn’t even do if they did not have their period!

The unrealistic advertising of pads and tampons are 100% unnecessary to begin with. First, because it’s totally wrong and counts as false advertising. I know when I’m on my period all I want to do is spend a couple of days in bed with an electric blanket no matter how hot it is outside, fetal position, eating fro-yo, sour squirms, and soup. I most certainly do not want to ride a horse nor do flips at a trampoline park while Aunt Flow is around. Second, I think period products shouldn’t even be advertised to begin with because we’re going to buy them anyway! We don’t have a choice. We will bleed – red blood, NOT some blue liquid. EVERY. SINGLE. MONTH.

Does brand matter? Yes and no. Yes, because we tend to become loyal to the brand we’re most comfortable using. I personally am not influenced by ads in this decision because it’s all a matter of experience. And no, brands do not matter especially when your monthly visitor comes without a warning – we’ll most likely use what’s accessible and not risk the apparently high chance of leaking through and staining our white pants.

A great thing to realise though is with the good ol’ Internet, women all over the world have now been responsive in creating videos and articles that reveal how periods actually work. These often point out how period product advertisers do nothing but ovary-act, showing us stuff that we can do if we had their pads or tampons, all the while masking the rather nasty side of things.

It’s obvious where I stand with this. What do you guys think? Shouldn’t period product advertisers just stop and go with the flow?

Cherubs, and expensive roses.

It’s that time of the year again when couples are excited and singles are freaking out! Whichever team you’re in this year (#teamthirdwheel!), I hope you have a fantastic Valentine’s Day! (You know, if you celebrate it at all and whatnot.)

But what is Valentine’s Day? History says that it’s the commemoration of one Saint Valentine and his act of martyrdom, marrying couples in secret which led to his imprisonment. This caused him to cross paths with his one true love: the jailer’s daughter. Since he was in jail, couples he wed would often send him flowers and notes to show their gratitude and the same is true for him and his lady. He sent his girl a note on his execution day, the 14th of February and signed it “From your Valentine.”

Sweet beginnings are used and abused by modern-day society, we can’t ignore the fact that Valentine’s Day is very much commercialised. Businesses and advertisers needed to give people something to spend on in-between Christmas and Easter, thus Valentine’s Day! Under the disguise of love, Valentine’s Day seems to do little more than raise women’s expectations and give men immense stress to deliver.

After all the heart-shaped lollies, roses, and the misuse of cherubs; how relevant is Valentine’s Day? Apparently, relevant enough to be the fifth most celebrated holiday in the world. Why does society (literally) buy into this holiday? With the power of the internet, you’d want to believe that there will be people who know that Valentine’s Day, much like other holidays such as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, is used as an advertising tool to gain profit. This saddens me because I think that love should be celebrated every day.

False advertising has been a prominent issue in society for years, and with the Bunnings and Bike Barn fiascos that recently hit the news, isn’t it possible that Valentine’s Day counts as false advertising too, with its huge and unrealistic upselling of love?

We all will leave this world one day. Would your life’s highlight reel include Valentine’s Day? If you only made extra efforts on Valentine’s Day, then I’m sorry to say but I don’t think that’s love at all. You simply bought into the idea of love trying to please society rather than sincerely extending love to your significant other. Gestures of love are most genuine when you do it because of an overflow of love in your heart that you can’t help but pour it out – and not because advertising told you to.

Born to buy

For the majority of my life, I’ve been “one of the boys”. I grew up with two older brothers, so  I got their hand-me-downs, I was always bugging them when they were with their friends, and I even learned their hobbies.

So naturally, I was closer to guys. This being said, I’ve gained a clear perspective on how boys have this perception that they have to be sporty, they have to be taller than girls, and they should never cry.

Most of the guys I knew growing up didn’t really care much for clothes or anything like that until high school, but nowadays, I see 1-year-old boys getting the most fashionable clothes and even wearing designer shoes. I used to know a 3-year-old boy who wore Gucci school shoes and that was the first time that I thought about how kids – no exceptions, both girls and boys – are raised to be fashion-forward right off the womb.

I recently saw a video on Facebook from “The Illusionists” about why young girls are sexualized, and needless to say, it’s very true. Raising children to be concerned about how they look and how they dress gives the industry heaps of advantages because opening their eyes to these things at a very young age only means they will treat it as the norm growing up. Children are raised to be consumers.

Going back to that little boy with the Gucci shoes – I then realized how a lot of my guy friends are now very concerned about the clothes and (especially) the shoes they wear. Over time, I’ve had guy friends ask me for fashion advice or send me photos of the clothes they’re trying on in the stores to get a “lady’s opinion”. Today many of my guy friends follow their own fashion icons, male models or celebrities they look at (I’d say look up to, but I know they don’t actually look up to them – they just look at them) for “inspiration”.

This so-called “inspiration” is nothing more than fuel for insecurity. YES! It even happens with men and we are all victimised by media and its impossible standards of beauty.

In my honest opinion, we can blame media, marketing and advertising all we want but at the end of the day, we always have a choice whether we’re going to listen to the marketing messages that tell us we’re not good enough until we have ticked all the boxes that society and businesses dictate. The truth is, we’re never going to tick all those boxes because there’s always something new that gets added to the “must-have” list every single day. Satisfaction is a matter of self-awareness and contentment with who we are inside and not what marketing and advertising tell us to be on the outside.

Advertising: A source of insecurity

I was an insecure teenager growing up. I had an eating disorder and I was depressed for years until I discovered who I really am. During that season in my life, I saw other girls who were trying to be closer to the preconception of perfect, battering themselves to become someone off the Internet or in magazines.

The Internet, advertising and general media impacts our lives whether we know it or not. I didn’t know that as a young teenager but learning that it’s simply advertising affecting my perceptions gave me a sense of clarity that there’s nothing wrong with me.

This video shows that magazines are merely product catalogues packed full of advertising.

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD WATCH THIS! A shocking video about the ugly truth hidden in beauty and fashion magazines.

Advertising is everywhere and as for women, we are led to believe that we are not good enough as we are. Society’s standard for beauty is raised every single day and advertising creates an illusion that we’re only going to be beautiful when we have a certain, often expensive, product.

Some time ago, I saw a Facebook post of mine, ‘round about the time I was going to finish my degree. The post was an infographic showing how deceiving food labels can be. It urged me to share my two cents as to how sad it is that advertising and marketing all too often bend the truth to gain sales. I majored in marketing because I’ve always believed that marketing is the artistic side of the business but what happens when art comes in a deceitful form? I didn’t want to be that kind of marketer, so I promised myself that I would be as honest as possible once I start to work in the industry.

It’s still true today that advertising has its way of manipulating our behaviour as individuals. As I’ve mentioned, I became insecure and I knew other girls were too – but the moment I understood that those photos are manipulated first in order to manipulate our thoughts and emotions, is the moment that I knew that there’s more than meets the eye. Hey! Even celebrities were affected by this and they’re the ones we look up to.

I want to believe that behind the façade that advertising puts up, there are some advertisers who know that there’s nothing wrong with us.

In my next blog, I'll look into a company that started an advertising campaign to empower women and how this work created a huge ripple of panic among traditional advertisers.

How much have you sacrificed today?

This weekend I was at Sky City in Auckland. After dinner, a quest for Ice Cream sent me and my friends into the casino. There was no ice cream there. We exited the casino and left the building, walking past a series of personalised number plates stapled to pristine motor vehicles and I recalled something I had read in one of my favourite books, American Gods, written by Neil Gaiman:

“Entering the casino one is beset at every side by invitation – invitations such that it would take a man of stone, heartless, mindless, and curiously devoid of avarice, to decline them.

Listen: a machine gun rattle of silver coins as they tumble and spurt down into a slot machine tray and overflow onto monogrammed carpets is replaced by the siren clangor of the slots, the jangling, bippeting chorus swallowed by the huge room, muted to a comforting background chatter by the time one reaches the card tables, the distant sounds only loud enough to keep the adrenaline flowing through the gamblers’ veins.

There is a secret that the casinos possess, a secret they hold and guard and prize, the holiest of their mysteries. For most people do not gamble to win money, after all, although that is what is advertised, sold, claimed and dreamed. But that is merely the easy lie that allows the gamblers to lie to themselves, the big lie that gets them through the enormous, ever-open, welcoming doors.

The secret is this: people gamble to lose money. They come to casinos for the moment in which they feel alive, to ride the spinning wheel and turn with the cards and lose themselves, with the coins, in the slots. They want to know they matter. They brag about the nights they won, the money they took from the casino, but they treasure, secretly treasure, the times they lost. It’s a sacrifice, of sorts.”

Advertising and Gambling are twin engines of the same religion. Advertisers sacrifice vast amounts of money to the Advertising Gods in the hope that they’ll win big. Don’t believe me? Well, I’m sure you’ve heard this one before: “half of my advertising budget is wasted, I just don’t know which half.” It’s the calling card on the inept. But they also say (whoever “they” are) that you’ve gotta spend money to make money. So why do advertisers sacrifice money without any idea of what the return will be?

The reason is that advertising is a realm of sacrifice. In the same way that casinos beguile their victims with colour and noise and scent is the same way that advertising sells its counterfeit dreams. “Spend more! Spend more! Your advertising works (even though we can’t prove it)! If you stop sacrificing, everyone else who is will pull ahead. Is that what you want?”. It must be true; there are thousands and thousands of advertising messages getting nailed into our heads every day, so someone must be winning.

Yes, someone is winning but it’s not you and it’s not your competitors either. The House always wins. Advertising Agencies, Media Buyers, PR companies, Design Ninja Shops, Web Thrillers… they’re all different rooms in the same House. They always win.

And you’ll always lose if you continue to believe that gamblers play to win; that there’s a box you should think out of; that people buy watches to tell the time; and that if 50% of your advertising is working then that's enough.

Sexism in advertising? Say in ain't true!

Honestly, the news that Saatchi & Saatchi NZ big knob Kevin Roberts was placed on leave for sexist comments is as daft as reporting that Mars is far away. Advertising is the most widely accepted sexist industry. How we can act with any surprise to Kev's sexism is beyond me. One man getting pinged for sexist acts will make no difference to anything. In fact, you have more chance of emptying the sea with a fork.

The entire advertising industry is rife with it, from the top to the bottom, through the middle and the back. How many female interns applied for a job at Saatchis on the creative director's casting couch? How many Auschwitz thin models have taken lusty bites out of fast food products that haven't seen the inside of their bodies since before they were teens? How many wives were presented with irons or washing machines or cigarettes as birthday presents?

Just type "Sex in advertising" into your google search bar and see what comes up.  Below are a few from the Saatchi & Saatchi stable.

These ads are as sexist as can be, so why do the women who work at Saatchi's not do something about this? Why are they happy when all the company is doing is perpetuating a creative stereotype and doing nothing significant for feminism? If you work in an industry that breeds sexism then don't complain when some idiot says a sexist thing. Especially when your company is flogging dead meat in a bun using a 21-year-old, double-D blond in a bikini to do it. Double standards I think. You can't work at a death camp and complain about the quality of your toilet paper when all around you people are getting hacked to death. Excuse my metaphors but at least they're not sexist. Make a change. Protest. Walk out. Burn the office down. Hang the bastard. Make it significant. Change the status quo for all of us. Please.

The Four Horseman of the Advertising Apocalypse.

Recently a Chinese advert made its way onto the Internet and was immediately labelled “The Most Racist Advert of all Time.”

A bold claim, especially since the advert is a direct steal of an advert done in Italy in 2009, except that the preferred racial role has been swapped. Take a look.

Well, what did you think? Which is more racist? More importantly, what are you going to do about it? It’s the latter question that proves to be the most difficult to execute, especially in this scenario where the offender is thousands of miles away. After all, it’s so easy to complain, and it’s lots of fun, but when the rubber hits the road there isn’t a complainant in sight.

We live in an over-connected, over-nuanced and over-Photoshopped miniverse where many advertisers just don’t care if they cause offence, and worse, many consumers don’t care either. Late last year a company called 2Cheap Cars placed an ad on TV that could have been seen as racist as it featured a Pakeha (white) girl dressed in a Kapa Haka (Maori) outfit. The company stood by its view that the ad wasn't racist and didn’t budge when criticised. To be honest I don’t see it as racist. I find it offensive because it’s one of those mindless, bottom-of-the-barrel types of ads, designed to aggravate and annoy to gain brand presence. Anyway, what do I know? Paul White, the “Marketing Expert at Auckland University” said 2Cheap Cars’ strategy was a well-proven one, used by many advertisers (he refers to Harvey Norman) and if they wanted to do it then they can go right ahead.

Paul White’s statement is ludicrous, outdated and ignorant. Much of last century’s advertising towards women was sexist beyond words. Does that mean that today’s advertisers should carry on following this outdated and moronic methodology or should they change the approach of their advertising? It looks like a bit of both. There are now far fewer adverts showing women as vacuum cleaner lovers but heaps more of women trying to shove huge hotdogs down their throats or flashing their underwear. So it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.

I’ve always felt that the advertising industry is very lax about governing its creative output. There isn’t really an industry body (except our own morality) that keeps us in check, regardless of where we advertise. And that brings me back to 2Cheap Cars. This weekend I was strolling along Tamaki Drive in Mission Bay when I heard one of their awful adverts blaring from the back of a truck. 2Cheap Cars have gone mobile and were blasting advertising messages from speakers mounted to the sides of a truck. Is that the best they could do to be heard? In the end, 2Cheap will most likely be spoken of in the same breath as a streaker at an All Blacks’ game. And that’s cool ‘cos that’s what they want.

So, which is the biggest sin in advertising? Some might say lack of originality or complaining too much on your blog but my experience in New Zealand is that Apathy is the biggest offender, followed by Sexism, Racism and then Blasphemy. The reason Apathy comes out on top is that no one gives a damn. Let me rephrase that, no one gives a damn about doing more than just shaking their heads and moaning on Social Media. Sexism comes second mostly because it’s easy to spot. Racism is a bit harder because it’s better disguised. Blasphemy is last because that whole thing is dying out, plus you’ll never know who’ll take offence at your message and how they’ll react to your blaspheming. The last thing any business needs is the delivery of anthrax in the mail.

The truth is that advertising is far too powerful, regardless of whether 2Cheap Cars or Vodafone or Greenpeace are doing it. Unfortunately, we as consumers gave it all that power. Isn’t it time we took the power back?

What do you think of this image: ignorant, sexist, racist or blasphemous? I’d say it’s blasphemous, but I see the others too. What about you? Leave a note in the comments and we can discuss. 

Believe in Brussels

The Mafia doesn't have a website. They don’t have a brochure either. Nor do they have flyers, business cards, email signatures, TV ads or any of your typical advertising material.

They don’t even have a real social media presence either. They don’t canvas at universities for top graduates, they don’t place recruitment ads on LinkedIn, they don’t have banners and they don’t hold marches. So how do they get new members?

They sell a belief system that attracts a certain type of person who is prepared to believe. 

The same goes for the National Rifle Association (NRA). They don’t sell a physical product. The NRA sells the belief that an ordinary American citizen has the right to bear arms. Doesn’t matter what type of gun, just as long as you can have it.

Donald Trump isn’t selling the idea of him being president. He’s selling the belief that voting for him is the right decision. If Trump wins the election who really knows what he’ll be doing? You can’t follow him around as he goes about his duties and you can’t attend his clandestine meetings. Do his voters really care what he is doing three years after the election? Most likely not. Why? Because they weren’t sold a president in the same way they get sold a car or a vacuum cleaner; they were sold the belief that they made the right decision.

At the end of the day isn’t that what we’re all being sold?

The thing is I wrote the above paragraphs yesterday morning before the bombings in Brussels.

Belief is a terrible thing to sell and it’s an even worse commodity to purchase. It can be manipulated and twisted for the wrong ends; it can make monsters of people, legends of men and morons from the masses. But the truth is we choose what we believe in. I don’t believe in Christ but I believe in Apple. Why?

Is this the power that marketing and advertising have?

Don't be deceived when our revolution has been finally stamped out and they pat you paternally on the shoulder and say that there's no inequality worth speaking of and no more reason for fighting, because if you believe them, they will be completely in charge in their marble homes and granite banks from which they rob the people of the world under the pretense of bringing them culture...
Watch out, for as soon as it pleases them, they'll send you out to protect their gold in wars, who's weapons rapidly developed by servile scientists will become more and more deadly, until they can, with the flick of the finger, tear a million of you into pieces