Section 1.0: INTRODUCTION
Advertising plays a critical role when it comes to matters of dispatch of information to the general public and the economy at large. Annually, hundreds of people are recipients of information that has spread due to global advertisement. Hundreds of billions of dollars have also been used to make sure that consumers in the world economy get the information they may need about products (O’Niel,2014). Since advertising tends to play such an essential role in the economy, it is, therefore, crucial that global regulators seek to ensure that the truth is observed in advertising. The beauty and fashion industries have come under scrutiny for adopting offensive and misleading practices to their audience.
Advertising regulatory bodies have had concerns that this industry tends to portray and showcase models that are deemed unrealistic. This image portrayed in the media, by extension, has adverse effects on its consumers, most of them being young women. The beauty industry comprises hair and skincare products, make-up, cosmetic surgeries, perfumes, weight loss products, and health clubs (Rodgers,2017). This industry sells its products to consumers to make them look prettier, thinner, and younger; however, claims show that advertisements that showcase the effectiveness of these products tend to be highly exaggerated. The models in advertisements over the years are promoting images of prettiness and thinness that are virtually unrealistic. It is essential to implement policies whose aim is to limit levels of thinness promoted by the media and instead encourage diversity of body shapes. To achieve this, there need to be acceptable strategies for the consumers.
Section 2.0: How are models and young girls affected by these beauty standards?
At the frontline of the beauty and fashion industry are models who are viewed as occupying power-deprived positions due to the constant changes in esthetic norms, a high turnover rate of models, and the constant search for young females. Professional models have been seen to experience immense pressure to not only achieve but also maintain exceedingly thin appearance to increase marketability. It is reported that modeling agencies tend to hold power over the employment of the models and the course their career ends up taking.
The thin-ideal imagery disseminated by the fashion industry is sometimes created at the expense of the model’s health due to the pressure they face to attain this image. The health of the larger population, primarily adolescent girls, is also compromised. In young girls, the image portrayed by these advertisements associates with higher risks for eating disorders (Rodgers, 2017). Most models adopt unhealthy weight control behaviors (UWCB) such as fasting, and some experience bulimic episodes. This also translates to the larger population that wants to achieve the model body showcased and undertake body management practices such as appetite abstinence, going to the gyms, and searching for workout methods on YouTube.
Young ladies tend to use the information they acquired from beauty shows to acknowledge their bodies in the sense that they end up identifying the shortcomings of their bodies. They can purchase clothes that cover these shortcomings and, therefore, be less embarrassed with their imperfect bodies (Lee et al.,2017). The perfect body, according to them being, slender, tall, curvy, and well-toned. Most consumers on exposure to this notion end up dissatisfied with their bodies and want to change some features such as losing weight, hips, and hips augmenting. Consumers of these products will embrace the relativeness of beauty but will at the same time long for that ideal body they see in shows and advertisements.
The pressure for body management to acquire a particular image has pushed models to perform cosmetic surgeries to get the perfect face and body. This later translates to the young consumers who follow the lives of the models. They go ahead and find reasons why they should also undergo such procedures. Research has shown that many young youths have admitted that If they have enough money, they will consider cosmetic surgery to achieve a body image (Lee et al., 2017), similar to that of an idle model. Failure to achieve this leads to stress, burnout, boredom, and annoyance, feelings that they unconsciously subject themselves to. These are the effects of trying to keep up with corporate culture or being neglected by it.
Section 3.0: How to regulate false advertising in the beauty and fashion industry
With issues of false advertising in the fashion and beauty industry, concerns on how to curb this were raised, and countries like the united kingdom and France have attempted to regulate the advertising practices. In recent years, legislation has been put in place to limit practices that mislead consumers on the actual performance of specific fashion and beauty products. The united states of America have also adopted similar practices. Still, with their commitment to protecting freedom of speech, regulators in these countries have been slower to enact these regulations. We will therefore explore the regulations in the three countries.
Section 3.1: Legislation and self-regulation in the United Kingdom
The united kingdom dramatically relies on a system of self-regulation run by a non-governmental regulatory body, widely known as the advertising standards authority(ASA), which runs on a code developed by the Committee of advertising(CAD). The code is a set of two rules, one based on broadcast advertising and the other for non-broadcast advertising, sales promotion, and direct marketing. Both the courts and government view this self-regulatory system to protect consumers against false and misleading advertisements (O’Niel,2014). Although this code is not necessarily the law, it is viewed as such, and compliance to the code is equal to compliance to the law. In case of complaints, the ASA takes responsibility for these complains and conducts investigations, carries out research on the problem areas, and ensures that the system put in place operates in the interests of the public.
Section 3.2: Consumer protection from unfair trading regulation
Although the code is the principal enforcer for advertising regulations, it works with secondary legislation, the consumer protection from unfair trading regulations 2008(CPR), whose prominent role is to lay out prohibits against aggressive, misleading, and unfair advertising that are similar to those the code is responsible for. Under this regulation, if an advertisement contains false and misleading information, it is termed a violation of said regulation as the consumer ends up being subjected to a purchase that he would not have otherwise undertaken as a result of the false advertisement. Failure to comply with the code that an advertiser has committed to complying with as part of its commercial practice is also classified as a violation.
Section 3.3: The proposed new legislation
While CPRs and the code provide general prohibitions centered around misleading and false advertisement, a recent legislative focus in the united kingdom has been launched. One that emphasizes digitally altered images used in advertisements. This is for models used in the beauty and fashion industry. There is a growing trend in photoshop for models in the industry that ends up creating an unrealistic picture about one’s body image and the expectations that consumers have on these products (O’Niel,2014). The proposals work to ban all images that have been manipulated to send a particular message to its consumers and those that end up targeting an audience below sixteen years of age. Liberal Democrat Jo Swinson argues that the constant use of digitally altered images and photographs harms its younger audience of not feeling happy with themselves and their appearance. The overall goal for these regulations set in place is to protect consumers from the dangers posed by misleading and inaccurate advertising. Regulations adopted by France are almost similar to those in the united kingdom, with the addition of fines for any agency that uses altered images in print advertisements. The United States, like France and the united kingdom, also has bodies that oversee the adoption of the set policies in advertising.
Section 4.0: How modeling agencies and designers can break the tradition of the perfect model
It has been established that modeling agencies tend to trigger the need for thin, perfect bodies to fit as the ideal model. Still, it is vital to go to such extremes to make alterations to your body to attain the picture-perfect body. We focus on the projects of Alexander McQueen, whose works focus on exploring limits that the body can do outside the consumerist fashion world. His items from his London exhibition “savage beauty” ultimately liberates the body from the dominant identity modes of construction that consumers are constantly subjected to in order to uphold discipline tastes and socio-cultural roles of the body (Stephien,2017). Alexander’s modes often wear clothes that look distorted and genderless, an image that questions symmetry and proportionality as a significant ingredient of ideal beauty. His projects aim to offer a new language to fashion to embrace different dynamics where beauty or ugliness, nonhuman, and human are abolished. Though his works are primarily criticized for pushing his models to wear heavy layers of clothes tailored in unnatural shapes, his aim, which he emphasizes constantly, is to reflect the limitations of audience judgments rather than caging women into conditions that are rendered unnatural.
From the beginning of his career, Alexander always left room for freedom of expression for his models and constantly encouraged them to “go out there and do their thing, ” a show of potency and unlimited imagination. His work over the years has been filled with imagination and high levels of creativity. He knows no boundaries in fashion and does not use body shapes to illustrate beauty but instead integrates it with other forms from nature or life occurrences (Stephien,2017). He takes pride in using his skills and platforms to show that beauty is more than simply a slim body but has many things attached to it. He defies the rule of fashion and ends up transforming human and nonhuman forms and figures in an attempt to showcase that the body is not just a human form that has become but has the potential of constantly becoming. Alexander cuts the dominance of the fashion industry of the notion that a perfect body is a slim and pretty one and instead explores, using his platforms, the different ways fashion can be used for the benefit of its consumers.
Section 5.0: Conclusion
It is clear that advertising is a crucial part of any commercial business and plays a vital role in creating awareness to consumers about specific products. It should be noted that consumers rely heavily on information that advertisers give in either print or digital media. Therefore, it is crucial that correct and reliable information, especially regarding matters of beauty and fashion, be observed and taken seriously. The notion that a particular outlook of a model is the overall measure of beauty, or how slender a person translates to how acceptable they are in Society, is morally wrong. Agencies and the government should ensure that the information disseminated to the media is correct, healthy for the users, and beneficial to the end-users. Agencies should also go a step further and set realistic beauty standards for their consumers and not adopt extreme measures and practices for their models to create a particular image for the public.
REFERENCES
Bishop, K., Gruys, K. and Evans, M., 2018. Sized out: Women, clothing size, and inequality. Gender & Society, 32(2), pp.180-203.
Lee, J. and Lee, C.S., 2017. Feeling bad can be good? audience research on Korean reality makeover shows, Get It Beauty, and The Body Show. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 34(3), pp.250-263.
Rodgers, R.F., Ziff, S., Lowy, A.S., Yu, K., and Austin, S.B., 2017. Results of a strategic science study to inform policies targeting extreme thinness standards in the fashion industry. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 50(3), pp.284-292.
Stępień, J., 2017. ‘Savage Beauties .’Alexander McQueen’s performance of posthuman bodies. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, 13(2), pp.170-182.
O’Neil, A., 2014. A call for truth in the fashion pages: What the global trend in advertising regulation means for US beauty and fashion advertisers. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 21(2), pp.619-641.
write