Home » kym

Commercial Blues.

Submitted by Kym on August 25, 2008 - 11:49pm.
| |

I don't know about you, but I am getting sick of the media. Television in particular. But not just television. Commercials.

I recently saw two commercials in a row that deeply disturbed me. True, I was watching reruns of CSI on a channel that is geared towards older men, but still. Businesses and television stations alike need to learn when to draw the line.

Commercial One: It's advertising a summer sale at a local matress store. Rather than images of beds and lots of graphics and emphasis on prices and things like that, every time the commercial mentions the summer's "HOT" deal, the commercial flashes to a woman with huge breasts getting out of a pool, dripping wet, in a red one-piece. I was just happy she wasn't naked.

Commercial Two: Starting at the feet, the camera slowly pans up the body of a curvaceous and superficially "perfect" woman wearing nothing but lingerie and laying on a couch. As a voice over, the commercial is selling cars. CARS. The website for finding cars was actually using a nearly naked woman, and NOTHING else, to sell cars. The website was in one corner of the screen, but the commercial really was nothing but the woman. Breasts. Barely covered genitals.

It deeply disturbs me to think that for every step forward we are taking two steps back.

There are finally large companies, large and in charge corporations such as Dove, are taking initiative to fight the objectification of women.

True, these companies are far and few between, but we call them progressive, and we appreciate them.

However, what is one commercial promoting the beauty of ALL women compared to the hundreds that pepper other channels. Commercials with nothing but scantily clad women. Commercials with no real connection to the human body, specifically to nude women, are aiming to sell their products with SEX. Nothing new, right?

But it's not just a beautiful woman riding in a convertible with a handsome man, driving off into the sunset that is being used to sell cars. It's not a husband and wife cuddling in a new bed. It is the female body. Nothing more, and certainly being made out to be less.

And honestly, that scares me more than I can ever put into words.

» Kym's blog | login or register to post comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Just got off the phone with

Submitted by ducafeli on October 21, 2008 - 8:25pm.

Just got off the phone with my commercial agent...

I called him recently, after noticing the Cold Stone Creamery commercial I did last year was still running on their website; I wanted to know if that meant I was entitled to more $$$.

And it turns out, I am entitled to more $$$. The Internet contract expired on the 20th of last month (And I just checked - as of now, the website is still up, and the commercial is still on it).

Anyway, my agent called Cold Stone, and he called the ad agency - I believe it was Saatchi & Saatchi - and has gotten no response (He actually called them a couple of times).

He hasn't heard back from anyone, and told me they clearly plan to do nothing about it, hoping it'll just go away.

So now the ball's in my court - While I'd like my agent to take this further, he's got 200 actors to deal with, so he's pretty much done what he's gonna do for his 10% - so I've downloaded the "claim inquiry" form from the SAG website, and me and SAG will be taking things from here.

(I'm not the happiest actor in the world as I write this - Why can't the people in power in these situations ever just do the right thing? - but this is the "business" part of "Show Business". They want to screw me, I don't want to be screwed, and this is why professional actors need a union.)

While we're on the subject of commercials...I had the Campbell's Soup audition yesterday.

It was nothing - I was basically supposed to act like I was making soup - and I left feeling vaguely depressed; as often as I tell myself not to look for acting satisfaction when doing commercials (Or commercial auditions), it's still tough sometimes to feel like it's basically a "face lottery", as I once heard an actor refer to the process, that has little or nothing to do with acting.

(Sometimes you go in for something that involves a little acting, something funny and fun, but more often than not, not.)

Anyway, I didn't leave with the sense that "I could book this". On the contrary - I'd be stunned if I booked it. To be honest, I don't even think I managed to look credible making soup.

(But don't get me wrong - I'd be "stunned" to get it, but in this particular scenario, I'm up for being "stunned".)

So anyway, I'm feeling a tad "bluish" right now.

__________________
Submited by : Libros Gratis

» login or register to post comments