Olivia Wilde’s latest commercial for Revlon is, wait, hold up, yup… I just threw up in my mouth.
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I was sitting down to dinner with family and probably shouldn’t have had the TV on in the first place. Then it happened. Filling a brief pause in our conversation:
“My skin is not perfect. And instead of getting stressed out about it you can just…perfect it.”
What!? The air turned muggy with the weight of psychological damage.
We talk an awful lot about social justice here at GMP. But it seems to me that we could get leaps closer to a “just” society if messages like this and the one I saw while using the urinal months back “Drink bourbon? No? Are you a man? Real men drink bourbon. Check the menu” could come to an end.
So I ask, seriously and pessimistically:
Will there ever be an end to commercials like this?
If not, then:
What can we do as a society to lessen the negative impact they have on us?
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I think the male counterpart to this commercial would be advertisements for baldness remedies. A lot of men live with a deep shame of male pattern baldness. The problem is very common. Several guys who work in my office have this problem. They all have different coping strategies: one guy does a comb over, one guy wears an obvious toupee, another has worn a baseball cap for twenty years, and one guy just spent $10,000 for a hair transplant My father went bald when he was young so I always lived with that fear myself. But by some quirk of… Read more »
Agreed. There was a short time a while back when bald was considered the epitome of sexy (around the time that Micheal Jordan was still basically running the NBA).
After that though being bald went right back to be fuel for comedy.
I feel beautiful and confident. But when you say so out loud, you may get labeled an entitled princess. Society prefers you to be humble about your physical beauty (if you feel you have it) rather than being happy about it. You can’t seem to win…be confident or else all these sad body issues and depression and anorexia will plague you, but don’t love yourself too much because then you are a target for ridicule by everyone. But I’m tired of so many people not loving themselves and their bodies and their own beauty. If you feel beautiful, you should… Read more »
Although looking good does have an impact on feeling good and vise versa, we put way too much emphasis on artificially “enhancing” looks and not enough on health, fitness and happiness, which actually make one look and feel their best. I honestly don’t get the plastic surgery, chemical/poison look enhancing torture route many chose, nor the heavy makeup, if any. (Kind of nice to be with the same person in the morning that I was with night before) Maybe when we start looking inward more and to behavior, humor, intellect, compassion, respect and consideration and the way being with one… Read more »
I get why people do all kinds of things to themselves in the hopes of “looking better”. I don’t always agree with it, but I get it. So much of the female identity is tied up in how we look. The basic world message is that you are completely worthless and irrevelant to the world as a woman if you aren’t “hot”, “beautiful”, “pretty”, “sexy”…. No one cares about a woman if she isn’t attractive. Anti-wrinkle creams have been a thing I’ve been using since i was 22. In this culture, women become irrevelant for geting older. Men are allowed… Read more »
Only when we all stop seeking happiness through exterior means.
I feel the issue at hand lies within us, and that ass-vertizing serves as an amplifier, not a creator (in broad general terms). Fear of aging, and its twin, fear of death is nothing new. When we cater to our own insecurities, it befits us not to externalize the problem, but rather ask ourselves honest questions. Ass-vertizing is very poor at selling ideas that no one really wants, but is excellent at exploiting core human behaviors such as insecurities, narcissism, competitiveness and jealousy.
There is no “they”.
Oh… Ah… it breaks my heart every time but doesn’t really surprise me… As an ex model i have experienced first hand all the artifacts “they” put (and I let them do it) to appear in a certain way perfect (perfect to whom?)… My career as a model was cut off when I realised (actually my doctor) I was anorexic … so now i needed to chose : either my life on my own terms or someone else’s… What can we do as a society to lessen the negative impact they have on us? My experience then taught me that… Read more »
Its funny because along the right side of this page I am being told I should drive a Cadillac to appear successful and there is a special watch to make my life easier and less stressful. I have cut the advertising cord at home via TV and with commercial radio so the only place I see these ads is on websites like yours. Ironic.
I think I’m so used to hearing this my entire life that I wouldn’t have even stopped to think about it had I heard the commercial. But YES it’s awful!! When I did a recent TV appearance (the one with Charlie Capen) they put SO MUCH makeup on me, that it actually changed the way I looked (I have a face full of freckles) even to myself… I asked my best friend to be honest about why I was so weirded out by appearance in the videos/photos and she’s like, “it’s strange how distorted having ‘perfect’ skin makes you look!”… Read more »
Makeup for camera seems to be in excess so it shows up. Big studio lights can heat up the face + also any oils can really get the “shiney” look on them. As a photographer I’ve had to ask models to reapply powders n what not as the flash/lighting will catch the oils in the skin and end up with blown highlights all over the skin, lil pure white specks that can ruin the look of an image. From what I’ve read, makeup also helps prevent the sweating or make it look like you aren’t sweating under the hot lights… Read more »
What about Viagra and Cialis commercials? What’s worse, fear of wrinkles or male penis envy?
Bob, since you brought up “viagra” it reminded me of a commercial I saw last night. Anyone else notice that a lot of the medications that are mentioned say something to the effect that “in some cases, may cause cancer?”
Bob, why make it a competition. Honestly though, you see a hell of allot more beauty adverts then Viagra ones.
Do you? I’m not convinced. But then again, make-up commercials have faded into the background long ago for me, whereas I still notice ED ads. How about a few commercials about products to remove unsightly penis wrinkles?
I don’t know. I can’t figure out why a man would need Cialis when he and his partner are just sitting in separate bathtubs holding hands. Is the Cialis because of his other hand?….
Those at least have some function. Erections aren’t only aesthetically pleasing.
Bob, write and article about Viagra commericals. I’m sure GMP would be happy to receive it.
Now, what’s your feeling on *this* topic? I’d love to hear it.
What about Viagra and Cialis commercials? What’s worse, fear of wrinkles or male penis envy?
A pointless question.
Let’s say there was some way to calculate which is worse and then figured it out. What good would that answer do for us?
I’m sure most of us can agree that both are pretty bad and damaging for different reasons.
As long as there are people watching these commercials, they will keep making them.
So I ask, seriously and pessimistically: Will there ever be an end to commercials like this? If not, then: What can we do as a society to lessen the negative impact they have on us? — There’s an awful lot of talk about how no one can make you upset without your permission. So don’t give anyone else permission to make you upset. Problem solved. Here’s another solution to the problem, for the real social justice warriors who don’t believe in self-help nostrums like the one above: Children should all take eye drops that gradually cause them go blind by… Read more »
wellokthen, you nailed it! I mean, it’s got to be over 50% of the commercials in the media are trying to convince us to buy stuff we don’t need or want!
Reminds me of something Stephen Colbert said:
“If women felt good about themselves, then how could we sell them stuff they don’t need?”
Absolutely! I don’t know , what 60-70% of the commercials in the media today are there to sell us both, men and women, stuff we really don’t need, but they spans untold millions trying to convince us that we do!
“If women felt good about themselves, then how could we sell them stuff they don’t need?” Agree. I don’t think women feel good about themselves in our culture. The world is always eager to tell us we are on the brink of irrevelancy if we aren’t young, tight and perfect. The true question here is, “How do we get women to feel good about themselves?” They even do this crap to Diane Sawyer. I like her news program but ususally she’s flimed by this strange warm-fuzzy glow they filter her through, you might think ABC thought we would all shrivel… Read more »
I don’t think anyone feels good anymore. Of the 100’s of people I’ve known quite a bit of, I’ve known zero that have truly felt beautiful/confident/secure in themselves. The major eye opener is when models whom get told over n over they’re super hot, feel ugly!
“How do we get women to feel good about themselves?”
That’s the big question. Ask those who have found it within themselves, if you can find them.
I’m very femme, I love makeup, personally i don’t particularly want wrinkles (they cause eyeshadow to crease which will drive me batty, so I’ll probably be stretched as tight as Joan Rivers, and I’m cool with that). I really don’t see the need to market makeup with insulting shit like this. Market it as self expression, YES even skin stuff. “Hey do you want your skin to look dewy in a way it doesn’t naturally like some sort of forest nymph, cool, we’ve got a badass product for that. What about super matte like a 40s film star or porcelain… Read more »
*this, not his
Oh goody, another product we can buy to fix shameful flaws so that we can be “perfect.”
You already look perfect to me, Catherine.
I’d love to see more women with lines and wrinkles on someplace other than tabloid shaming pages.
JJ, you are just about one of the few guys here that actually said something in support of women.
Thank you for that.