Don’t Believe the ‘Hype’!
As I leafed through my free magazine on the train, I once again came face to face with ‘complete and utter perfection‘. Staring back at me were ‘perfect faces’, ‘perfect bodies from a perfect world’….smooth glowing skin, lustrous healthy tresses, cool clothes, great handbags, exciting nights out, fantastic holiday locations and amazing careers…the list goes on and on…how can your ordinary ‘Joe’ or ‘Joess’ live up to this lot? In a world where wrinkles are rare, wobbly bodies are a ‘no no’ and pores are ‘not the done thing’, it’s no wonder people get strong feelings of inadequacy after viewing this lot! I have scanned here some of the advert pages with the words that first popped into my head on viewing the images with no editing!
I must say firstly, I was most disgruntled on seeing the Estee Lauder ‘Double wear’ advert with claims of lasting all day, without touch ups! I don’t think so! I tried it a while back and I found it was ‘double thick’, shiny in about an hour and gave me spots! You don’t see that side of it on the advert, with two supermodels ‘cosying up’ & looking ‘elated’ (& those smiles are so fake..). So I do say, ‘don’t believe the hype’. Then I saw an ad with Jennifer Aniston looking ‘well smug’, no! She is so annoying, nauseating actually, she makes me ‘wanna scream’ and will she please put her shoulder away already! We’ve had years of The ‘Rachel’ haircut now this! Jen just go away I say! Please!
Then to some fashion images which caught ‘my fashion eye’, one by Guess that was…guess what? Dam boring! A shoeless model leaning against (wait for it) a wall…with her hair hanging ‘artistically’ over one eye, ‘oh my days’, it’s just so dull = unoriginal! (Like we haven’t seen this pose a trillion times!) In contrast with that I spotted a MaxMara ad with supermodel Freija Bela Ericksen (quite a mouthful I must say..) and I have to say she was looking hot! ‘Smoking’, actually and as much as I wanted to critique this ad I found I could just not! (Why…as yet I don’t exactly know). The Dior Addict ad caught my attention with it’s startling ‘surreal’ pink colour scheme, beautiful porcelain ‘china’ like skin, pink luscious pout, (I can dream…) this image epitomised a high level of ‘feminine beauty’ and I’m not disputing that the model herself lacked at all in ‘looks department’, but well it looks really retouched, maybe ‘hyper’ retouched creating a mask of ‘idealised made up unattainable beauty’?
Finally I spotted the River Island ad and I thought when I saw those glasses, they’re ‘not Gucci’ and I don’t know why..am I ‘brainwashed’? I must say though in this ad the location certainly suited the name ‘River Island’, and no I won’t be buying the glasses anytime soon, or anything by MaxMara (could not afford it) & certainly no ‘Double wear’ (try Constance Carroll instead!) nor Dior Addict (I just don’t think it would suit my look somehow). Which leaves me with a conundrum…could I start my own mag with ad’s for make up like Constance Carroll?? And use unknown models? With fashion spreads featuring clothes from the market & charity shop? Hmmm…this gives me some food for thought..and maybe my own ‘top model’s’ Stephanie & Marianne could take part also??
