Dove Evolution of Beauty Campaign; DRAFT

DIGITAL MEDIA ARTIFACT; DOVE EVOLUTION OF BEAUTY CAMPAIGN

The digital media artifact I chose to analyze is a video I saw on YouTube by the beauty brand, Dove. In 2004 they launched this campaign they call the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. Their goal is to encourage confidence and self-esteem in women, instead of anxiety in the way many get about their looks. Currently, 80 percent of women in the U.S. are dissatisfied with their appearance, and more than 10 million are suffering from eating disorders. Also posted in this article, according to Teen Magazine, 50 to 70 percent of normal-weight girls think they are overweight. (Carolyn Coker Ross, 2012) Dove found these statistics sickening and decided to start a movement towards inspiring women.

            This video can be defined as digital media because this type of media refers to audio, video, and photo content that has been digitally compressed (encoded). After digital media is encoded, it can be easily manipulated, shared and played by computers and over networks. This video campaign, created by Dove is posted on YouTube, and plays in the commercial slot before you can view your desired video content. This is the way I was first exposed to this interesting campaign, but soon after in my photography class, our teacher had inserted a link to this video on YouTube into her lecture slides so she could show us as we came up upon the subject in the lecture. You can see in these types of examples how quickly and easily information can spread in digital format.

            I think Dove had a really interesting point in creating their Evolution of Beauty Campaign. The statistics around about women and their body image in society today is at unheard of levels compared to years in the past. According to an interesting piece I found online, 25 years ago, the average model weighed only 8 percent less than the average American woman. Today, models are weighing in around 23 percent less than the average woman. (Barnard/Columbia, 1992) These facts started hitting home and Dove got together and made a pact to use real women instead of professional models for their advertising needs. Their work really stood out  because that is something you do not see. With their point blank evolution of beauty video they wanted one thing, and that was to drive home the point that every image you see in magazines, billboards, and commercials is photo shopped to achieve higher cheekbones, fuller lips, gorgeous hair, etc. and here we are revolving our expectations on these images of woman in shapes that are completely unrealistic.  

            This video is all over YouTube, and is quite popular because this whole Photoshop and re-touching controversy is so big these days. Not only will it be the commercial you have to watch before watching your chosen video, you can often see a small shot of it on the recommended videos to the right of the streaming video. You do not have to have any type of account on YouTube to view this, you can be a basic browser and run into it as well. You simply have to have some type of device to get on the internet, and an internet connection and you have the opportunity to see this video.

            I think it’s interesting how this video is only on YouTube, and that is probably the most digitized site you could be on. It’s full of digital images and video clips, and everything else in the digital media world. The site itself is exceptionally easy to use, and easily accessible to anyone with interest. 

Latest and Greatest

      Really quick before I get to my point, this reading came a good time. After fighting through pages of Boudrillard it felt strange to actually absorb, and dare I admit, enjoy this reading. The photographs on every other page may or may not have had a part in that.
      Anyway, I had so many little stories that went along with almost every little "chapter" I read, so I will just highlight a few. Around the middle he talks about how time and space have vanished, and we live in a global village. We have so called, shifted from action to reaction. I am part of a very dynamic and opinionated group of friends. We have been close knit since our crawling days, so needless to say not a single person is shy to share whatever they think at any time. We are known to break into heated arguments at the most random times in the most random of places. An example; a few girls were taught growing up to fold the laundry as it is coming out of the washer, then place in coordinating piles. The rest of the crew tossed all the dried clothes in a basket, then proceeded to fold. Not a soul is going to back down from the fight, so needless to say this lasted forever. I was reminded of the second instance when I read the segment about this "global village" we are living in. We find ourselves arguing more often then not about whether or not digital media has gone too far. There are all kinds of inventions like the camera glasses, programs and apps to control your electricity from afar.. etc. Like anywhere else, each friend has their own take on technology. Some grew up with the latest and greatest items as kids, using new technology before the rest of the crew even knew how to pronounce the name, where others are still toying around on their first generation ipod nano that was recently bought off a friend. We've yet to come to a decent conclusion on this topic, but we all seem to agree that it can be a little nerve-racking if you think too deep about how far we have come, and how far advanced we can go. Things like picking out groceries online, and simply opening the front door to find them there shortly after. It seems that people will become more and more secluded than it seems we are.        You take a walk around campus and at least every other person you pass is texting, and the next one is skyping his mom in Minnesota, flashing his phone around showing her the new doors of the Van Pelt library! Anyway, as good and neat and make-everything-faster as new technology is, I feel like we probably could swing a quick breather here and enjoy what we have for a few days. Before the next iphone is blasting across my internet page.

Coincidence

As I was scrolling through my Pinterest page on a "quick" McLuhan break, I came across this photo. Reminds me of the parts of the media we have been looking at in class. You need to check your sources for information. You cannot believe everything you are exposed to! 

Interesting Find

I cracked into "The Medium is the Massage" tonight, and admittedly, after a few pages I turned to Wiki to get a quick bit of info on what I getting into. I found a little piece I found neat, since I was wondering myself what the title even meant. Supposedly, "massage" was a typo, meant in fact to read "message". When the wrongly typed books came back from the print shop, McLuhan said, "keep it!". He thought it worked with the story, and they picked out four different meanings for the title. It could read message, mess age, massage, or mass age! I think this is neat because each of the four works well for the book!

Baudrillard and Disneyland

           As warned, Baudrillard's reading was definitely not a breeze. I did pick up on more than I imagined which probably means it is completley different than the point meant to be understood. Anyway, for starters his points were interesting about dissimulating and simulating. Simulating is feigning to have what you don't, whereas dissimulating is to fake not to have what you do have. An example he gives is when illnesses are simulated. The person cannot be treated as ill, which prescriptions if he/she isn't, nor can they be left untreated if they really are sick.
           This part caught my eye because I knew a lady growing up who had a different type of illness everytime you saw her. Her children tended to as well, and were always confined at home as to "get healthy" which was sad because I'm sure they didn't have half the things they had grown to believe. The mother would travel all over to get her self-diagnosed illnesses examined. At one point she even had breast cancer. This case is a little extreme, but obviously the doctors need to look into the things she would go to them with, in case she or her children really did have that certain illness.
           The segment about Disneyland was interesting as well. It made sense because when you are inside the park, you are completely lost in the fantasy of it all. Everything about it is so built up and surreal you become lost in absorbing it all. The part I didn't so much agree with is when he mentions that Disneyland is "presented as imaginary to make us believe that the rest is real." He says that Los Angeles and the rest of America are no longer real. I don't understand this quote, nor do I agree that we are a simulation.

Response to Lisa Gitelman's, "Always, ALready New"

In Lisa Gitelman's article this week, she states some interesting points about the Internet and new media. She focuses on the history of the World Wide Web, "the largest document ever written", and the effects we see today of this "new" art. Today, the entire society is on the internet 24/7. We can obtain access to the WWW literally everywhere we go. School, home, Walmart, McDonald's, the library, the tire shop, etc. This is efficient for things like checking emails, getting directions, googling store hours and all sorts of things, but there are some worries about the internet in the long run, and the credentials of it for more scholarly uses.
    We rely on the internet so heavily, and need to remember to check into sources before claiming its the truth. News can be posted on a public webpage in a matter of seconds after the event, even during an event and will be seen by hundreds or thousands of people within the first few minutes. This makes me nervous to trust everything I see because it older types of media such as newspapers and magazines news artifacts go through multiple overviews and edits before being exposed to the world, therefore we don't see that news until a day or two after the event actually happens. This method isn't as quick obviously but tends to offers more reliable artifacts.
   Another interesting and important factor of the internet that Gitelman writes about is Error 404, and the amount we are seeing it when trying to select a hyperlink that is outdated. I find this really interesting because writings that are cited by internet pages, that only last " an average of 45 days" have a strong likelihood of losing credibility though the source may be one hundred percent legitimate. A quote in her article from Cerruzi says, "it's still too early to tell" about these factors of the internet, but, "with the persistence of Error 404 we may already be too late".

Response to, "As We May Think"

Vannevar Bush had many interesting, note worthy points in his article, "As We May Think". He did a good job discussing the ties between technology and science, and the outcome of too much interference with the world. He states that scientific involvement that is too heavy could very well lead to destruction.
   It was very interesting how on key he was about the technological inventions of the future, which are the items we use today. He talked about the camera and how much faster and automatic they will become. He states how they will soon be able to adjust exposure automatically, take photos in full color, and be able to print thousands of copies of the same photo if so desired. In words from Bush, "The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it".
    One point I find especially interesting because you can understand how it would sound absolutely lucrative to readers at that point in time is, "The Encyclopedia Britannica could be reduced to the volume of a matchbox." And to show for this we have USB drives in every pocket, backpack, and purse of people all over the world. It is the most efficient, quick and easy way to store and carry information from destination to destination.
     Science has made our lives faster, easier, and more clear in many ways, but we must understand that to keep this up it much be updated and fixed on a periodic basis or we will fail. At this we ask the question, "Has science wedged in to our lives too far/"

Why I Blog?

                I believe that blogging is a form of writing that people either love or they hate. Sullivan explains in precise manner, “it is the spontaneous expression of instant thought”, and “the deadline is always now.” Blogging is directly in the moment, and records information as it comes in, much different than reporters who must wait until every single source is confirmed, and the information included is exactly correct.  For the “type A” perfectionist, blogging most likely won’t be the mode they turn to most often. They would rather send their writing through editors, making sure every word, every punctuation, and every indent is exactly where it should be.  On the other hand we have the “free form” personality that runs on adrenaline, chasing the risk of error in blogging and doing their best work on pieces constructed in the moment.

                I like the fact that information reaches any available reader the minute it is posted. In this day, with the massive extent of fast technology we have come to rely on everything we could ever need at our fingertips the second we need it. Blogging definitely fits the bill, provided information we interested in quickly and often. This could be a dramatic downfall for situations including misspellings and other grammatical errors, because hundreds or thousands of readers have easily been exposed to the error before you edit and re-post. In print articles, feedback often hits the editor before the author receives it which offers a pillow to the author to avoid direct heat whereas in blogging, the author will openly receive the information, good or bad, through email or the comments section of the blog.

                A final point I find important is the fact that if bloggers stop moving, they will sink. Through personal experience with blogs, I would follow bloggers who would lack posts for weeks at a time. The ones that posted daily were the only ones I stuck to following. If you want followers to stay, it is imperative to post frequently to keep them attached.

                

WELCOME

Welcome to my blog, Twenty One Dreams. Throughout my time in digital media I will be posting on my daily happenings, ideas and experience here at Michigan Tech.  Feel free to leave any questions or comments in the comments section following each post. Thanks for visiting!