This ad was released by Protein World in 2015 and has appeared in the U.K., where it is now banned, and New York City. The ad features a fit, lean, well-endowed, light skin women in grey-scale. She is wearing a bright yellow bathing suit and has long, light-colored and straight hair. On the yellow background, the phrase in bold across the ad is “ARE YOU BEACH BODY READY?” which is directly followed by “The weight loss collection” and three pictured Protein World products. It is also stated that these supplements will replace two meals daily. In addition, in the top left corner there social media icons and protein world’s @.
This add portrays avarice and envy as it insinuates that if you do not look like the women that is featured, that you are not beach body ready and need to look like her. They want people to buy their products and make people feel like they need more to become like that or maintain that beach body look. The result of greediness for these expensive supplements, most likely follows the initial envy of the woman’s body. The placement of the women on the ad makes it nearly impossible to look over her along with her black and white body in contrast to the bright yellow. This further insinuates that they want their audience to see her and react by buying their product. It is possible that they put the women in a grey-scale to neutralize her ethnicity but it is still clear that she is a light-skinned woman with light, straight hair, which is now causing the ad to not only be oppressive of women with different body shapes but also different races and ethnicities. Also, the direct following of the weight loss supplements to the question, show that Protein World assumes the answer is no and provides the audience an answer for their self-deprecating predicament.
The intended audience is young women, from teenagers to early thirties, in coastal North America and Europe, specifically the United Kingdom. The audience is most likely wealthy or middle-class as well as being busy as a student or at their job. This ad would appeal to busy young women because it suggests that they could lose weight from a meal replacement rather than a strenuous routine of diet and exercise. These young women are also most likely from privileged families who are able to afford a trip to the beach and that vacationing is still a part of their life agenda. I believe these women are well aware of how the media culture manipulates them to feel bad about themselves and make them feel like they aren’t enough but it still hurts. The reason these ads work to well-informed audiences is because, despite cultural knowledge about the negatives of our current society, people still want to feel accepted by looking the “right” way. When I look at this ad I know that it’s just the culture and they are trying to make me feel bad even though truthfully everyone is beach body ready, you just have to put on a bathing suit (maybe not even that in some places). However, it has already made me feel like I should hit the gym and fix myself so I can look better because it makes you feel like that is what society wants and that's what people want even if they say they accept you the way you are.
Source: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/01/protein-worlds-beach-body-ready-ad-not-offensive-watchdog.html
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