MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Humanity, as a whole, has lost so much.
We’ve had to grieve collectively in ways we never imagined. Loss of a loved one. A job. Our health. Our sanity. This we all know. The whole world has been living through the same nightmare for more than a year.
Yes, humor does have a place in the world, always. But ads about the pandemic, plus comedy? That makes for a tricky cocktail. The Belo video, perhaps with the best intentions, tried to do just that – make people laugh. But obviously, it didn’t work.
By now, every argument against the ad has been made. Every suggestion on what the agency could have been done differently. But I won’t get into that because there’s a huge issue that needs to be discussed. And that’s to do with the societal view of women’s bodies. The ad is just a reflection of that.
Women’s faces and bodies have been picked apart and criticized so much by the collective, that it’s become the par for the course. Even if the ad was based on ‘insight’ – it was a very private, female insight that women truly struggle with – so when did it become fair game to exploit this in the guise of ‘storytelling?’
How is this acceptable? It’s not about ‘Mali lang yung execution.’ It’s 2021. How did our standards for beauty regress so much? Has the pandemic taught us nothing about empathy?
How did the people involved with the ad be okay with casting the plus-size woman as the ‘after’ girl? Even if she had every right to refuse, even if there were women in the team, how was it justifiable, especially at a time like this?
This brand has a powerful voice. And the video sends a strong message that women’s bodies are an open target. One that is subject to criticism and ridicule. Tone-deaf is too weak a phrase to describe why the ad is offensive.
What’s truly offensive is that this brand’s voice is seen as the authority on women’s bodies and what is considered ‘beautiful.’ And to target women at their most vulnerable, prey on their insecurities; it just perpetuates the thinking that women’s bodies are not their own. Everyone can have an opinion about it.
It’s heartbreaking to imagine how the casting process went. How people put one girl beside the other and created an ad that sent a message: one is beautiful, the other is not.
About Meggy de Guzman
Meggy was a creative director at BBDO Guerrero and Leo Burnett Manila. She’s won at Cannes, Adfest, Spikes, Adobo, Kidlat, and numerous other award shows. She now works as a director and creative consultant for clients and advertising agencies.
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