'Real' People?

'Real' people becoming superstars have continually been a popular theme of ad campaigns. Paul Smith, Nike and Alexandra McQueen have all used this idea in their ads, however even though the idea is good, the reality of it seems far from what it should be.

Take these Paul Smith ads, since when has Mika been a real person? Last time I checked he is kind of famous, therefore he is a celeb endorsing the label, not a real person. The same goes for the lead singer of All American Rejects. Paul Smith seems to be slightly confused as to what a real person is....

No doubt you will recognise these Nike ads as part of the 'Big Butts, Thunder Thighs and Tomboy Knees' campaign, supposedly promoting a healthy body image and Real Women. Right, so that bum and those knees are meant to be bad? I think Nike also has a very distorted image of what real people look like, as this is definitely not it!

Lastly Alexander McQueen's 'Real Cheerleaders' campaign, OK so these are actually real people, but do you see a slightly overweight one out of them? No. Being a Cheerleader carries certain expectations, they are skinny, pretty and popular and whilst they may be real people, they are still in a league of their own and are often looked up to.

So designers, you can't seem to get it right, why don't you just stick to what you know unless your people are actually 'real', leave the real people claims to Dove.

The purpose of the Ideal

The purpose of advertising design is to make people buy certain products and buy into certain ideals. Graphic design or communication is a huge industry, and is not only important in affecting our beliefs through advertisements, but also through the world which surrounds us in terms of street signs, education, and editorial design.

The position of the audience is particularly important in the communication of ads, advertisers build upon our already formed set of beliefs by producing iconic messages and literal signs. A typical ad showing slim happy girls with 'ideal' lives can appear to reflect our culture, this is a necessary component in order for the ads to work as we need these symbols of our culture in order to create desire around them. If the images and promises in ads are of something which is culturally alien to us we will not buy into the product.

For advertising to work there must be a relationship formed between the consumer and advertiser; the advertiser needs to know exactly what the consumer wants and how to sell it and the consumer needs to be seduced. Although we all know that the images and claims in advertisements are all myths, we allow ourselves to be sucked into these fantasies, even if it is only for a short period of time, and let ourselves believe that our lives would be that much better, if only we had the latest mascara.

Again it is the notion of reality versus fantasy, and where we draw the line. It can be seen that these myths may be quite damaging, in particular for adolescent girls when they are at an impressionable age. Advertisements strive to create an alternate reality; it is up to us how much we buy into this reality.

Calvin Klein

image scanned from Vogue April issue

In this ad for Calvin Klein, Kate Bosworth looks alarmingly skinny. It's scary that every designer seems to want to portray the notion that skinny is an ideal, and it is even more alarming that some celebrities seem to wish to endorse this. Kate Bosworth is known for having a problems with her weight when back in 2006 she was almost skeletal, it confuses me that she would go on to bring attention to her weight through ads such as this.

The notion that female celebrities are the construction of the female ideal, which puts them in a place that we can only strive and dream to be in has been replaced by the idea that we CAN and SHOULD be like them and has been brought to our attention through the media. The images of celebrities cannot be avoided in everyday life and this only brings these ideals closer to us, making the image of the celebrity seem achievable and realistic, when in actual fact these images are manipulated, airbrushed and have money thrown at them to create these illusions.

'Real' Designer Babies

In this particular this ad shows a baby seemingly looking like a typical ‘baby’ with a finger up his nose, but really it is just another designer version of the ideal kid. He is still dressed up as the cute little boy in dungarees with a side-parting and no mess. In fact it looks like a kid that has been forced to sit still for a cheap portrait shot, and the expanse of white background makes the ad stiffer than the subject matter. The advertisers are trying to stage the perfect kid everyone wants – even when they are picking their nose they remain clean and free from drool and snot. The glasses are the strangest thing about it they make him look like a little old geeky man, especially paired with the swept over hair. The minimal writing and understated text give a designer edge to it- unlike most kid’s ads primary colours don’t jump out at you and there are no eye catching slogans. So it is obvious that the ad is aimed directly at the parents and doesn’t take what a kid is actually like into consideration. Once again the baby is a fashion accessory, something to dress up and look cute.

Picture scanned from 'Junior' Issue 102

Designer Kids

So if it’s the parent’s responsibility for the image of children, looking at the advertisements in a leading contemporary parental magazine seems the obvious route to take. One example of an advertisement is this one for Miss Grant, on first glance it looks like it wouldn’t be out of place in the pages of Vogue, but looking again it is quite disturbing to realise that they can only be about 10 years old! The glasses are probably the worst thing about it, what 10 year old do you know that wears oversized rhinestone glasses? It is just like creating a mini-designer clad celebrity. The strange thing is that there isn’t really any sign of sexualisation in the image, it more a sense of sophistication and almost growing too quickly and passing the teenage sexy dress up stage all together. It is an unrealistic image of a young girl- could you imagine what the outfit would look like in the real world? The white trousers would be covered in food, sequins would have fallen off, the glasses would be lost and the ridiculous head band lop-sided!

The overall effect of this advertisement seems to focus on less on the idea of providing kids clothing and more of the idea of creating replicas of women’s clothing advertisements. It makes me question why any parent would be influenced by this image as I definitely cannot imagine any young girls wanting to dress like this. It is almost like the designer kid is being turned into a fashion accessory, not does the parent want the latest fashion, they now want their kids to be a walking billboard for it, and the designers are obviously realising that there is room in the fashion industry for this.

Take the name of the brand, ‘Miss Grant’, Miss is used as a title for unmarried women or teachers- not young kids! Everything about this brand screams sophisticated twenty-something career woman.

Picture scanned from 'Junior' issue 102