I joined this course (degree) because I absolutely love creativity but, I don’t get to express my creative side in my current work. I am absolutely bursting with excitement to learn new concepts, processes and tools, and most importantly interact with so many different people, and learn from them.

Getting back to ‘studies’ after thirteen years (that was when I had completed my Masters), especially having never done an online course, was a bit daunting at the start, but now I am thoroughly enjoying the course.  

I am not worried about my grades or whether I will deliver the best assignment, but I am certain that I will put in my best effort and enjoy every aspect of the course - a big thank you to all teaching staff, fellow colleagues and all those assisting me gain this knowledge.

I have not worked (directly) in the digital media space; no hands-on experience at all, so I feel like a child with a brand-spanking drawing-board and artistic pens. 

 

My goal has always been to contribute to the community, to help others, and make a difference. With digital media skills under my belt, I feel I can harness the ‘good powers’ of social media (blogs and websites) to achieve my vision. 

 

I’m absolutely teeming with ideas to blog on (I have listed them under the 80 promo ideas), but, for this course, I have decided to provide my support to helping people suffering from ‘body image issues’ which has become a global problem.

As such, I am going to learn, explore and implement all that I am taught in this course to spread positivity, happiness, love in a very creative way.

2.      Women don't drink and drive

3.      Incorrect correlation between drinks and weight

4.      Incorrect accident impact based on the number of drinks

56. Home candle making lessons
57. Learn Pottery for relaxation
58. Better and practical school programs

59. Creative Film making

60. Practical, affordable yet trendy clothes line

61. New effective ‘Life and health’ Mobile App

62. Best automated cake decorating machine

63. Unique children’s storytelling book

64. 101 easy to make Healthy Juices and Smoothies

65. Round the clock Virtual Assistant

66. Healthy and easy school kids lunch box recipes - website

67. Get Creative – online course on ways to enhance your creativity

68. Short & Sweet - Public speaking made easy

69. How to Invest wisely- best investment guide for busy Mums

70. Ways to bring out your inner genius and quieten your inner critic - website

71. Re-defining success -website: Know your passions and pursue your desires

72. Ways to make the most of Technology – online guide for women entrepreneurs

73. Divine Living – promoting the art of happiness and being content

74. The one stop place for all holiday deals – including cheap flights and accommodation

75. The online chocolatier – how to make delicious chocolates from the comforts of your own home

76. Your online easy and cheap guide to make cute stuffed toys (with everyday scraps)

77. Who am I, the self-growth series – Ultimate guide to explore yourself to be the BEST of YOU

78. Online shopping guide – the one stop for best deals in clothing, homeware, and shoes

79. From stagnant to successful: 10 trusted ways to improve your online business

80. Laughter is the best medicine - Online magazine that tickles your funny bone and keeps you entertained

It was an interesting exercise though, a great way to explore many ideas, that I had not initially thought of, or linked to this topic, e.g. the question ‘Is body image important’ led to the realisation that yes, some companies actually hire people based on body image because it helps them to sell their products.

I did have to google my topic to come up with more mind-map ideas once I ran out of ideas, and suddenly so many ideas kept cropping up, it became an endless pool. I also viewed a few images on this topic, which have given me an idea to plan my promo clip a bit differently to what I had thought. I will now combine the thought/message/impacts of ‘Body image’ with some light take (joke/cartoon) to balance out the seriousness of this topic.

 

This article reports on a study conducted between participants who viewed advertisements featuring a thin-idealized woman and participants who viewed product control advertisements. The findings were that women who viewed advertisements featuring a thin-idealized woman had greater state self-objectification, weight-related appearance anxiety, negative mood, and body dissatisfaction than women who didn’t, concluding that women can feel self-objectification even when attention is not focused on their own bodies explicitly.

This information is critical to my research in that it proves that there is a strong correlation evidence

between exposure to fashion magazines and body image.

 

 

 

Grabe S, Ward, L. M, & Hyde J 2008, ‘The Role of the Media in Body Image Concerns among Women: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental and Correlational Studies’, The American Psychological Association, pp. 460-476.

From this meta-analysis I have gathered that the thin ideal has impacted our society such that fashion

models, cartoon characters, movie and television actresses, and pageant winners all have become increasingly thinner over the past. This report confirmed that repeated exposure to media content leads viewers to accept media portrayals as representations of reality, but media presentations of overly thin women’s bodies are out of reach to most, hence leading to dis-satisfaction with one’s own body and to behaviors aimed at meeting this ideal, behaviors such as dieting, binge eating and purging, and skipping meals.

 

Fardouly, J & Holland, E 2018,‘Social media is not real life: The effect of attaching disclaimer-type labels to idealized social media images on women’s body image and mood’, New Media & Society, pp. 4311-4328.  

 

Though this report’s focus was on the use of disclaimer comments on social media, that proved to be ineffective at reducing women’s body dissatisfaction, I enjoyed reading an incident this report refers to. 

In October 2015, an Australian teenager Essena O’Neill, who had been a social media star, made headlines across the globe because she quit social media. O’Neill quit social media because she felt the portrayal of herself on instagram was unreal, and this made her miserable. On quitting, she critiqued how fake, inauthentic and staged social media was, and the negative impact of society’s overemphasis on women’s appearance.

This led to public discussions on the idealized nature of social media, and the potentially damaging effects - body dissatisfaction and negative mood, of viewing such images on women’s body image. 

I would like to spread O’Neill’s action in my video requesting young women to either quit social media and focus their energy on becoming women of substance or use social media just to connect with family and friends but not be impacted by all the false/unrealistic bodies portrayed in social media.

 

 

Matthews N, Lynch T, & Martins N 2016, ‘Real ideal: Investigating how ideal and hyper-ideal video game bodies affect men and women’, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 59, pp. 155-164. 

 

It is interesting to note that the hyper-muscular male and hyper-sexualized female characters in video games have an impact on the body-image of both men and women. I was aware of the characters depicted in video games, but with this article I learnt that the body image portrayal in this medium also impacted viewers.

Video games depict voluptuous, scantily clad women and strong, capable men that reflect masculine tastes that dominate video game content and culture. This article found that women who knew that the swimsuit models they were viewing, were digitally manipulated images, still compared themselves to those digitally altered images and had a desire to look like those hyper-idealized models, thus leading to disordered eating! 

Men on the other hand, did not report body dissatisfaction when they perceived extremely muscular physiques that was not practical to attain.

 

 

Slevec, J & Tiggemann, M 2010, ‘Attitudes Toward Cosmetic Surgery in Middle-Aged Women: Body Image, Aging Anxiety, and the Media’, Psychology of Women Quarterly, USA. 

 

From this report it is clear that cosmetic surgery (liposuction, breast augmentation, tummy tuck etc.), especially amongst middle aged women, has increased dramatically over the past decade. These days, men and women, young and old, and people of varying socio-economic statuses take cosmetic surgery as the new attractive way of body manipulation, to meet society’s unrealistic standards of beauty. Media advertising has not only popularised the unrealistic body image but also increased public awareness of cosmetic surgery and the latest advances in cosmetic surgical procedures. 

Just as the continual exposure of the ‘thin’ body ideal has been internalized by many women, so has the regular exposure to cosmetic surgery in the media made it a normal procedure to achieve ‘beauty’.

With more and more aging celebrities promoting cosmetic surgery (via media) to achieve unrealistic age-related norms of appearance, middle-aged women link beauty with sexual desirability, happiness, wealth, and success that impacts their self-worth negatively.

Body image related issues have impacted both males and females around the world, who have reported feeling dissatisfaction about their shape, weight and individual body parts.

This is a global issue that is on the rise.

Body image is an issue about how a person perceives their body especially after watching idealised body images on different forms of media. This perception quite often lead to such people becoming preoccupied with achieving an unrealistic body shape and weight because they believe they will feel better about themselves (and more confident) if they are thinner or more muscular.

Teens and young adults (females more than males) are impacted most by the body image issue, but middle-aged women struggle with this too.

Body image distortion leads to this cohort of people feeling bad about their appearance and thereby employing destructive behaviours such as excessive exercising and disordered eating to change their appearance.

 

 

My promotional video is targeted towards women - teens, young adults and adults. This target audience have negative thoughts about their own bodies.

Women who are impacted by media inflicted ‘thin-body image’ glamorisation, engage in eating-disorders and cosmetic surgery to attain this unrealistic body image.

With my video, I would like to encourage women to either quit social media and focus their energy on becoming women of substance or use social media just to connect with family and friends but not be impacted by all the false/unrealistic bodies portrayed in social media.

 

 

From all the research that I have been reading and viewing, it is confirmed that women who view advertisements featuring a thin-idealized woman suffer self-objectification, weight-related appearance anxiety, negative mood, and body dissatisfaction. Even women who know that images in adverts are digitally manipulated, compare themselves to those digitally altered images and have a desire to look like those hyper-idealized models, thus leading to eating disorders and cosmetic surgeries.

With more and more aging celebrities promoting cosmetic surgery (via media) to achieve unrealistic age-related norms of appearance, middle-aged women link beauty with sexual desirability, happiness, wealth, and success and this impacts their self-worth negatively.

It was by chance that I came across a talk show where Jameela Jamil presented the ‘I weigh’ movement and I realised just how silly I had been all this while to be physically, emotionally and mentally impacted by my body image. I am a unique person with so much more in me than just my body, and I want to spread this message to all those who struggle with ‘body image’ issues – we all unique and we are all special!

With my video I would like to promote the importance of a happy, healthy, purpose-filled life as opposed to stressing over ‘unrealistic, air-brushed, photoshoped’ body images that we see on media.

How did these thoughts change over the course of the assignment?
I am more than ever determined to promote my message; to be part of the movement who provide hope to millions of women around the globe. All the articles I have read, all the ads and videos I have watched, all enforce that something must be done about this issue - this must stop, girls/teens/women must be proud of their bodies and lead a healthy, happy life.

What would you do differently next time?
I will probably choose a different format for everything - the creative journal, the font styles, my theme for my product, the colours that I have selected. I would also like to spend more time researching my topic to be better prepared and encapsulate a wider range of ideas.

What did you do well?
I think for a complete newbie, I didn't do too bad in preparing the Creative Journal:
- the research work that I did;
- the beautiful/powerful videos that I found on this topic;
- my story line, though not novel, but required - it will never be enough to promote this message of 'self-love'.

 I am thrilled with what I have produced - my little Picasso, though I am sure the markers will find many 'technical' issues with my work.

Camera angle from the back: a woman (in her living room) switches on the television and sees advertisements of bikini clad women promoting the latest diet to lose weight in 20 days and a miracle cream to make cellulite disappear! 

Next, the woman is seen in her bathroom looking at herself in the mirror and experiencing a riot of negative emotions - frustrations, body dissatisfaction, self-conscious, sad, and angry. This is followed by quick shots of woman’s daily life: woman doing the laundry, teaching her son, dressing her daughter, and working (also giving a presentation) at her office. 

The day after, the woman receives an award at a work function, and she seen to be very proud of herself. She is then seen in front of a mirror looking at her reflection (Camera focus on both woman and the mirror reflection). A female narrator in the background says: 

Video ends with a word cloud of empowering words, followed by credits, and lastly states ‘I am beautiful’. 

I have watched so many advertisements without realising that the choice of colour used has been selected on purpose to add weight to the advert. It is something one usually does not pay attention to, but Lichtlé, M. (2007) article has informed colour is used quite intuitively in most advertising to influence people; colour can be used as a marketing tool!

From the experiments conducted, this research found that the optimal stimulation level (OSL) influences an individual’s pleasure, arousal and attitude towards an advertisement, such that, individuals with high OSLs:

• experience more pleasure from ads whose dominant colour has a red hue, is saturated, and is bright

• are aroused or stimulated more by ads whose dominant colour is only slightly saturated

• have a favourable attitude towards an advertisement if it has a red hue, is strongly saturated.

 

This article has explained the concept of ‘optimal stimulation level’, that is the colour hue/saturation/value that stimulates an individual. 

O'Connor, Z 2011, 'Colour Psychology and Colour Therapy: Caveat Emptor', p. 231.

O'Connor (2011) has researched and documented that colour can be used to impact different kinds of emotions, depict different kinds of behaviour, and treat various ailments.  Colour can be mingled and combined to impact human responses: behavioural, psychological, and physiological.

For instance:

Red, is a warm colour that evokes strong emotions such as anger, excitement and intensity. Though this colour represents courage and strength, it can also be related to violence and brutality.

Blue, represents cool, calm and serenity, while invoking feelings of peace, tranquility, security. It can have healing effects thus many offices have blue rooms to create a productive environment.

Green, a health-giving colour, a sign of fertility, has been seen to have therapeutic effects on trauma patients and helps in times of stress. It is a soothing colour that invokes balance, cheer, restfulness, and harmony in people.

 

Irankhah, P & Bekooij-Westerhout, E 2014, 'Colours and emotions in advertising: How to catch the eye and capture the heart', Utrecht, pp. 24-26

Irankhah et al. (2014), have provided some interesting examples of how colour has been used by different companies for their advertisements. Facebook and Twitter have utilised Blue, that invokes feelings of calm, happy and serenity, in their logos, while M&Ms have used brown (gives a cosy feeling) to represent the wholesomeness of their product. McDonald’s have both red and yellow to invoke feelings of excitement (red) and friendliness and happiness (yellow), while Breast Cancer Research Foundation has used pink, which is associated with feminine emotions. Though humans are genetically programmed to react to colours, they can also perceive colours based on their personal experiences and choices. 

Body image is a serious issue, but I don’t want my message to be dark and sombre. I will introduce emotions of frustration (from watching glamourised body images); follow it with a scenario highlighting a woman’s tenacity and achievements, leading to messages evoking happiness (via images/music/background speaker), and finally end with world-wide statistics symbolising hope (you are not alone – there are many women who do NOT have the same body shapes as those of the models shown in media).

Which colours best represent these emotions? Why?
 
Padlet colour choice
For the Padlet (Creative journal), I have selected a background image which shows ‘perspective’; women who think they are fat are usually not, it’s their own perspective which distorts their thinking into believing that they are ugly. Since the Padlet is my creative space, my scrap-book, I want it to reflect my warm, happy, fuzzy (marshmallows in heart) personality.

Video colour choice
I want to use a variety of colours, because the video conveys a mixed bag of emotions. Bold, strong contrasting colours like black and white will introduce the body image issue; I will use shades of red to make my message exciting, while warm, happy colours like yellow will evoke a sense of positive hope in my viewers, and the use of green will harmonise near-traumatised victims of this issue.

Which fonts best represent these emotions? Why?
Most videos on the Body image topic have used clear, easy to read Sans Serif Font like Futura, Garamond, Helvetica, Gothic. I too am planning on using Sans Serif Font – Copperplate Gothic and Century Gothic, since I find them easy to read, bold, and romantic (bring out the feminine side to convey my message). I will use these fonts in a couple of word clouds depicting the emotions running through a woman when she is confronted with body-image dissatisfaction and the gratitude she experiences when she realises her self-worth.

1.      Gender: Female. From all the articles I have read, it is evident that women are more impacted by the unrealistic body image ideals popularised by media, such that women are obsessed with attaining these body images.

For instance, a study, in the article by Gordon (1990), shows that in the United States:

-          more than 50% of adult women diet; and 

-          more than three fourths of the women classify themselves as “too fat” (Gordon, R. A. 1990. Anorexia and bulimia: Anatomy of a social epidemic).

The ‘Embrace’ video also provides some vital global statistics of the number of women who are unhappy with their body, and feel they are not ‘enough’ since ‘society’ (media) is insistent upon reducing a woman’s worth to just her physical looks.

 

2.      Age group: 16 - 45. I would like to target all women (irrespective of their age) who suffer from the delusion that media portrayed body is better than their own body. Though research has identified teens as the primary subject who experience body dissatisfaction from watching body images on media, research have also pointed out that ‘women’ in general are affected deeply by body image issue, to the extent that they are unhappy with their body and try different measures to attain ‘media portrayed’ body images.

 

3.      Professional status: Educated. The research articles that I have read, do not specify the education level of the women, but I would like to target the educated cohort of women for my promo video because I expect such a cohort to understand the ‘unreality’ of the air-brushed images, yet they pursue this ‘madness’ of constantly trying to ‘perfect’ (‘whatever that means’) their physical looks.

 

From Knossenburg, et al. (2016) article, I understand for a video to go ‘viral’ it must have strong elements of surprise (i.e. attract the viewer’s attention, retain it) and engagement (i.e. make the viewers want to share the video).

SURPIRSE: I will start off with a series of media ‘ideal’ body images advertising ‘super-quick, easy to achieve, with 100% guaranteed results of attaining a slim body in 20 days’, to immediately capture my audience’s (women who are unhappy with their body and always yearning for a thin-model body type) attention and trigger the emotion of body-dissatisfaction, anxiety, frustration and also give hope that they can get ‘slim’ quickly if they follow that advertised diet. 

RETAIN: Then I will show a woman’s true worth by following a woman’s daily life where the woman organises/manages and carries out different chores and achieves a lot such that she could be awarded the ‘super woman’ title.

ENGAGEMENT: I will use some form of animation (though, I am not sure if I can achieve the animation yet) and word clouds to show the woman’s (the heroine in my video) feelings. I will introduce dark comedy/humour in the animation (or drawings, if I can’t achieve animation) to lighten up the mood of this video. To evoke positive feelings, I will stress on the fact that we are all unique, amazing people, achieving many things in our daily lives and we should take care of our body for health reasons and not for ‘artificial’ physical looks. Finally, I will provide some statistics of how many women have model-like figures and what is the true body form of the majority, giving examples of ‘fake’ air-brushed/photoshoped celluloid images.

Knossenburg, Y, Nogueira, R, & Chimenti, P 2016, ‘Contagious content: Viral video ads identification of content characteristics that help online video advertisements go viral’, p. 453.