Within my essay i explored the ways in which mainstream advertising present unrealistic ideas of femininity, through this research my main findings included gaining an understanding in to the way in which society impacts the way women and their bodies are viewed and therefore influences the ways products are advertised, with one of the main areas of research within my essay revolving around female sanitary brands, looking at leading brands and the ideas of femininity they present.
As noted in my essay, Whistnant and Zegans argue that menstruation is viewed as a hygienic rather than maturational crisis, when looking at Bodyform's Bloodnormal video advertisement, it did not appear that menstruation was being treated as a hygienic issue, rather the focus was on young women, learning who they are and dealing with menstruation throughout it all.
When this taboo breaking advertisement was compared to their current sanitary product packaging, it was clear that the two weren't visually cohesive, nor did the two communicate the same message.
Bodyform is an example of a brand who present realistic ideas of femininity through their advertisements and online presence, however their packaging communicated ideas that supported Whistant and Zegans' previous argument through the emphasis on cleanliness within the language on the current packaging and in result present unrealistic ideas of femininity, it was felt that in order for the band to appear sincere and visually cohesive with their online persona that the packaging should be redesigned.
Throughout my essay i gained an awareness of how all design can be considered an advertisement, with sanitary products on the shelves of supermarkets acting as advertisements for the brand, this influenced the decision to redesign Bodyform inspired by their Bloodnormal advertisement, so that the brands message is clear and can be spread throughout across all available platforms.
Although i do feel as if the decisions throughout this design have been appropriate and in result my final outcome effectively communicates the empowering & taboo breaking attitude Bodyform present, my issues with the outcome lie with the overall production, i feel that if more consideration was given to the materials then the final outcome would have been produced in a much more sustainable and clean way. Although, with this being said the overall design achieves all the criteria i set out out the beginning of the brief; the colour pallet straight away addresses the stigma around period blood by using colours which women can personally identify as they're the colours they experience whilst menstruating, further to this the language is very direct, encouraging; encourages women to start conversations about periods. The feature illustration is a very successful element of the design due to the way it utilises otherwise wasted space, it's empowering, eye catching and directly links to the Bloodnormal advertisement.
Overall i believe the practical outcome addresses and challenges the unrealistic ideas of femininity presented within mainstream advertising through the stigma breaking, realistic, modern and informed final outcome which has the ability to lead way for other leading brands to change the stigma surrounding menstruation.
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