Sinful Victoria's Secret
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| "BODY by Victoria. All you see is curves." (BODY by Victoria.) |
This advertisment is an image by Victoria's Secret promoting their lingerie line "Body". On the surface level, this image shows a slender, attractive woman wearing nothing but a black bra and panties on her knees in front of a black backdrop with the word "Body" in all capitals and bold next to her. The text then continues to say "All you can see is curves". This line serves to bring attention to the woman's figure. This advertisment is targeted at women and men. Women, in order to sell the product and men in order to motivate them to either buy their significant other the product or to encourage her to get it "for him" if you know what I mean...
This ad is meant to inspire the sin of envy in women and lust in men.
Envy is necessary in women to make this ad relevant because the goal is to make them want to "look like her" so they'll buy the product. This image makes the woman jealous of the girl's body type. This image also evokes lust in men in order to make them want to get the product for their wives. It may make the men think that their woman could look more like the girl in the picture if they wear it.
Victoria's Secret is able to target an audience of all types of backgrounds and classes. The products can be expensive however if bought in a large quantity so then the audience is reduced to people of a higher income. Because Victoria's Secret is the leading lingerie company in the United States currently (and pretty much the world), their models are consequentially going to be the United State's idea of a "sexy" female figure. This causes an unhealthy urge for women to look like these, for the most part, underweight models resulting in bad weightloss habits and women to excessively buy the undergarments resulting in not only envy being committed but avarice and then lust.
The image uses the color black because it represents desire, power, seduction and danger. All these descriptors being correlated to lust and potential envy. The white text contrasts with the black backdrop and may be meant to represent innocense. This could represent purity as a contrast to the image's context. The woman in the image is placed in a submissive position (being on her knees), which is probably meant to be targeted at men as a sexual reference. By having these models act promiscuous, V.S. is hoping to attract the young, sexually active customers which can be negative or positive depending on how you spin it. That's why V.S. will always be able to stay successful, it's because lust will always create a large market with many people continuing to commit it although it is forbidden in the eyes of religion. The same idea goes for envy and V.S. is definetly not the only business that utilizes this technique. Make-up companies especially use it and it results in vanity as well. Basically, the capitalist world promotes the utilization of the seven deadly sins as it is the best way to get their products sold. They are built on the idea of avarice - they want you to keep on buying products even if they are not needed, just to make money which can be considered greed on their behalf. It's a cycle of sins and probably why man (when refering to the christian bible) is most likely damned to hell because most of us are not able to overcome them with the corresponding virtues.
I really enjoyed your commentary on this advertisement. I liked how you included how certain deadly sins pertained to women while others pertained to men. I also liked how you commented on the submissive, sexual, position the model was in. I hadn't noticed that before reading your response. I do however, believe you could have better organized your response because your central idea was all over the place. I also believe you could have developed your point on the seven deadly sins more as well as the relation to Christianity could have been made more clear in the context of your advertisement. Lastly, I believe you could have stated the purpose of the advertisement and how the techniques or deadly sins pertained to that purpose.
ReplyDeleteHey Shea,
ReplyDeleteI found your post quite intriguing. I liked how you were very insightful with your analysis for your ad. You mentioned the reason why the ad is not only targeting women but also men; I don't think I would have thought that. But you were able to explain that logic well enough for someone like me to understand your reasoning. Your were able to stay focused throughout your post and provide great evidence to back up your argument. Good job!
Hey Shea! I loved your post so much! I liked how you brought up how the ad plays into different deadly signs for men and women. Bringing that up showed you had a great understanding of the ad. This thought is continued with all the evidence you had backing up your arguments of envy and lust for men and women. Greta job keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI liked the way you structured your argument to make it an easy read, as you moved from looking solely at the ad to a broader scale of how capitalist economies manipulate customers. I also thought there was a nice balance between looking at message and the visual effects of the ad. (By the way, I thought it was odd that they mentioned "curves" as that is typically associated with women who weigh a little more.) I think it's fine to use attractive models to promote a brand, however I believe that many young people are influenced by the unrealistic standards set by these women. Companies should try to do a better job of portraying a more average figure rather than perpetuating the constant obsession for what is deemed "perfection". Overall I thought this was an interesting read and allowed me to further contemplate the beauty industry's impact.
ReplyDeleteI like how you used the concept of the 6 sins and their significance within companies. It was very well explained and supported with evidence. though you could have supported how Christianity has fundamental importance when committing sins. overall you had a great progression of ideas and arguments, you did a very good job!
ReplyDeleteShea, I liked your commentary on how this ad could apply to both men and women, considering both perspectives allows anybody who reads the ad to better understand the opposite sex's idea about the ad they may not have considered before. Also the idea of the "cycle of sins" was something I hadn't considered and is really something you could explore in depth. I think to improve this you could have made a better effort to structure the issues in capitalism and Christianity. Overall, great blog!
ReplyDelete