The Perfect Image

1883 Words4 Pages

The ‘Perfect’ Image
In 2006, Dove created a 75-second video called ‘Evolution’. (Piper, “Dove Evolution”) It earned immeasurable success and laurels. Today, it has over 17 million views on You Tube. It won two Grand Prix at Cannes; both in Cyber and Film. (Wentz, 'Evolution' Win Marks Dawn of New Cannes Era.") It has raised much needed awareness about how Photoshop and makeup distort images we see in magazines, billboards and any media for that matter.
The famed advertisement begins with the caption – ‘A dove film’. It begins with a close up of a girl. It is an average looking girl. She has blemishes, redness, heavyset jaw, and pretty blue eyes. She has shoulder length dirty blonde hair. In fact, one may see the hairstyle she has a million times in the street. She is no different from any of us.
And then begins her ‘evolution’. She is slowly transformed. It begins with covering up her blemishes. She now has skin as flawless as glass. Slowly, the imperfections that were not even noticeable when we first set our eyes on the girl, start fading away. Her hair is now styled and now looks like something every girl wishes for. Fake eyelashes are added and feature-defining makeup like eyeliner, bronzer, highlighter etc is applied on her face. Who knew that the ‘right’ makeup could change a person to that extend? She slightly resembles the girl we started out with.
But her transformation is not complete yet. Photoshop comes in. Her lips are pumped, her neck becomes longer, her nose becomes thinner, her eyes become bigger- after all, aren’t these features the society deems ‘perfect’? She looks like a completely different person now. A person would hardly be able to recognize the ‘average’ girl we began out with as the girl on the bil...

... middle of paper ...

....
6. "Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders." Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders | National Eating Disorders Association. National Eating Disorders Association, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

7. Perle, Elizabeth. "Photoshop Isn't Evil. There, I Said It." Huffingtonpost.com. The Huffington Post, 30 June 2011. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
8. "Photoshopping: Altering Images and Our Minds." Beautyredefined.net. Beauty Redefined. Beauty Redefined, 12 Mar. 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
9. Piper, Tim. "Dove Evolution." Online Video Clip. Youtube.com. YouTube, 06 Oct. 2006. Web. 12 Mar. 2014
10. Wentz, Laurel. "'Evolution' Win Marks Dawn of New Cannes Era." 'Evolution' Win Marks Dawn of New Cannes Era. Advertising Age, 25 June 2007. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
11. ZagStudiosOnYT. "Dove True Colors Super Bowl XL Commercial." Online Video Clip. youtube.com. YouTube, 30 Jan. 2007. Web. 13 Mar. 2013.

Open Document