Portrayal Me Project Proposal of Women Self-Image Strategic Design and Opportunity Tam Oi Sie Elsie DE114106 2A1 140503855
Contents 01 - 02 .......... Introduction 03 - 07 .......... Preliminary Research 08 .................. Sect Factors 09 .................. Product Opportunity Gaps 10 .................. Weighted Matrix, Opportunity Statement 11 - 12 ......... Understanding Opportunity 13 ................... Positioning Map 14 ................. Value Opportunity Analysis 15 ................. Project Goals, Project Statement 16 - 17 ......... Case Study 18 ................. Realizing opportunity 19 ................. Reflection 20 ................. Reference
The assignment - In this project, I will launch a social campaign called ““ for Hong Kong women to improve their negative self-perceptions from emtional state. Therefore, raising the public awareness on how we think about, portray, and characterize women and body image in these day.
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Introduction Self-image refers to a conception of oneself or one’s role. A woman self-image is directly correlated with her self-esteem and body image. We develop our sense of self-image since young. As we grow up, different surrounding factors may influence how we see or value ourselves. A recent poll conducted by YouGov1 on 24th June 2015, surveyed more than 500 Hong Kong females between the ages of 18 and 30. The survey found 87% of women thought about their weight all or some of the time. 58% of women had avoided a social or school activity because of how they look, while 11% of the respondents had skipped school or not participated in class because of their appearance. Apparently, women are not feeling happy about their body image. Our bodies come in different shapes, sizes and colors. The distinctive features of body and face allow us to tell one person from another, creating a unique self. Unfortunately, today’s TV commercials, social media, billboards, books and magazines promote the idea of skinny, curvy or in-shape body as the “perfect” image of women. In fact, 57% of the Hong Kong women believe that the media portrays them negatively, revealing the significant correlation between media exposure, social expectations and gender stereotypes. With the increasing number of internet usage, given that unrealistic information from media that seem to enhance body image can be overflowing, for examples, cosmetics, diet pills or exercise equipment. It is believed that we are less able to distinguish the airbrushed fantasy or reality from media messages than ever. The cause of self-image disturbances can be various, whether personal beliefs, experience or impacts from the media and society. In this project, I will be mainly focus on Hong Kong young women self-image. The influence of media and society will be studied to help understand the cause of women negative self-image. The project aims to improve women self-perceptions from emotional state, and therefore embrace one’s individuality and uniqueness. Finally, I hope to raise public awareness on promoting a set of positive core values, which every woman has special figure and appearance that no need to pursue the so-called perfection.
1
http://twfhk.org/sites/default/files/TWFYouGov%20release_June%2023Eng.pdf
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Preliminary Research What is body image? The body image includes feelings about the entire self from facial features to body size and height. How we think about our body may relate to how we think about ourselves as a whole. 2
Body Image Issues A healthy body image is essential to our health, happiness and well-being. People with a positive body image are likely to feel good about themselves overall and see the appearance as one small part of who they are. While people with a negative body image are likely to have low self-esteem, anxiety, depression and feeling bad about themselves. Body image problems can occur when a person does not like something about his or her body. This may lead to extreme and self- destructive habits and behaviors, such as crash dieting , smoking to lose weight, excessive drinking, self-harming, bingeing, or even resorting to plastic surgery to correct a real or imagined flaw. Such behaviors can be related to body image disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. A person’s self-esteem can be also seriously affected by body image problems. 3 4 From 2010 to 2014, the Hong Kong Eating Disorder Association ( HKEDA ) received 1114 hotline enquiry calls and identified 618 cases of eating disorders. More than 27% were bulimic cases, 31% were anorexic cases and almost 42% were eating disorder not otherwise specified cases. Moreover, the statistics show that above 50% of them were between the ages of16-25.
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P.6, 4 P.7 Focus On Body Image: How You Feel About How You Look by Maurene J. Hinds P.17 Body Image and Self-esteem by Lisa Firth
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Gender Stereotype and Social Expectations To women and girls, they are often being told by how to behave and how not to behave, what they should look like, wear, think or speak. Gender stereotypes are global phenomena as well as in Hong Kong, where women learned certain behavioral, cultural and psychological traits since young ages. Typical gender stereotypes towards women including specific images and roles. For examples, women need to pursue a slim figure and pretty face; women prefer shopping and likely to be gossip; pink, purple or sparkly colours suggested for girls. In Chinese society, specific traditional values such as “women are homemakers” “Three Obediences and Four Virtues” deeply ingrained. A survey conducted by the Women’s Commission in 2009 interviewed 1,530 people aged 15 or above found out people in Hong Kong generally felt women should focus more on family than own career, while taking care of family was considered as the most important contribution. As we can see, society has developed its stereotypes and rules about females. From the Portrayal of females in magazine advertisements in Hong Kong by Chan, K. and Cheng, Y. (2012)5, it quotes “Gender role stereotyping as a communication strategy was often used by advertisers to establish a shared experience of identification with the consumers (Hovland et al., 2005).” It also pointed out that these stereotypes included portrayal of young and physically appealing women, as well as portrayal of women in decorative roles or as sex objects to promote and fascinate consumer products. The sample further analyzed 215 advertisements from a popular lifestyle magazine in Hong Kong. Among 207 advertisements, 65% used classic or feminine beauty type, while Sex kitten and casual beauty types contributed 13% and 9% respectively. The remaining advertisements used trendy (7%), cute (5%) or other beauty types (1%). The result shows there is lack of diversity of beauty types and classic beauty dominating the scene. It emphasizes the shared belief of advertisers in classic beauty type and the importance of classic beauty for Hong Kong women.
5
http://www.coms.hkbu.edu.hk/karachan/file/JAPC_Dec_2011.pdf
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The Pressure of Perfection – Women are flawed There is no a certain cause of body image problems, it seems to be a combination of psychological, physical, and social factors. However, it is easily affected by the social background and the media most of the time. From the webpage of HKEDA, it says the media influcence our value and behavior. This explains by one study, which indicated that since TV was introduced to Fiji Island in 1995, 69% of the girls started to diet and 15% started to develop the habit of vomiting 3 years later. The girls were hope very much that their body figures were as slim as the TV models’. 5 Today’s society has set an unattainable standard of flawless beauty and perfection, as well as drive for thinness. In Hong Kong, sliming has become a trend, where thin means beautiful and successful, while fat means ugliness and low self-esteem. Under the media exposure, images of physical appealing women are found in many commericals, magazines, TV programmes or video clips, presenting the so-called standard of beauty in front of audience. It is believed that the pressures of perfection on women continue and worsen. In addition, women have been taught to treat their bodies as objects to be changed, corrected, modified, and controlled through money, cosmetics, diets and pills. In the Portrayal of females in magazine advertisements in Hong Kong 6 ,samples indicated that cosmetics, skin care, perfume, contact lens and personal care advertisements made up 30%. Beauty and slimming treatment service, women clothing and accessories contributed another 18 percent and 17 percent respectively. These product categories reached for two-thirds of all advertisements, which targeting women directly. The truth is the underlying message of media is telling that women are already not perfect the way they are. The media may offer solutions, whether effective or not, but the flaws remain and forever change women’s self-perception. In fact, many advertisements portraying selected lifestyles and values considered to be beneficial to the advertisers, which mean even selling unrealistic promises or claims using images of beauty. As we may see advertisements these days often selling unrealistic images of perfect women that are actually extremely well-crafted by using special lenses, filters, lighting and computer technology.
6
http://www.coms.hkbu.edu.hk/karachan/file/JAPC_Dec_2011.pdf
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Advertisements of products, services aimed for women
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In Hong Kong, slimming and beauty companies often choose celebrities or so-called “successful person� as their spokesperson. The industry symbolize the standard of body figure and successful cases as high self-esteem and being successful in work, social life and relationship. Moreover, they are making claims for effective and rapid results, for instance, join the slimming process to losing many pounds and inches in a short period of time without doing exercise or taking medicine.
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Sect Factors Social
Economic
The pursuit of superficial perfection in modern society ( addicted to cosmetics, plastic surgery, body enhancement: excessive diet, exercise ) more people especially women care more about their body image
New consumption habits: Reply on internet information, purchasing an experience, service and interaction instead of actual products, exchanges
Sliming has become a trend in Hong Kong, where thin means beautiful and successful; fat means ugliness and low self-‐esteem Hong Kong media and society promote gender stereotyping, include portrayal of young and physically appealing women, portrayal of women in decorative roles or as sex objects Women who saturated in media that idealizes specific body images, perceptions, attitudes and behaviors are more likely experiencing body dissatisfaction, low sense of self-‐worth and issues of eating disorders Taking selfies is a new form of self-‐expression that narrates one's own view of desirability, expressing individual hairstyles, clothing choices, makeup, accessories, etc. Social media is a new strategy of promotions, interactions and communications to create contents, draw attentions and encourage users to share across the social networks (e.g. Facebook, Instagram)
Young people new consumption attitudes: Browsing is more interesting than purchasing, enjoy digging into the cyber world
Women have more disposable income carrying out material consumption to fulfill their mental, spiritual and social demands, including fashion, cosmetics, services or treatments, travels and a variety of leisure items Consumers are willing to spend more money to pursue good quality of life and environment As E-‐commerce becoming trustful, more people are willing to go online shopping with fair satisfaction level The increasing number of female consumers provide a large market, while female consumption pattern easily drag by emotional factors, paying attention to commodities’ aesthetic values, style, shapes or brand attributes
The concept of Feminism is advocated, Hong Kong females are more educated and given by more equal opportunities , freedoms
Technology
Usage of mobile applications has increased, more mobile subscribers used apps than browsing web
Mobile and web-‐based technology create social platforms enable online sharing or exchanging of information, pictures and videos in virtual communities
Culture Traditional gender stereotypes on women such as “men are breadwinners, women are homemakers” “Three Obediences and Four Virtues” are still deeply ingrained in Hong Kong Innovative products and creative culture are encouraged gradually Under the globalization and cultural integration, different cultures are embraced and influenced each other. The infusion of Korean, Western, Japanese and Taiwanese cultures are remarkable in Hong Kong Aesthetically, the ideal image of woman body has changed, especially the way a woman’s shape is viewed The popular consumerism encouraged purchasing of goods and services with ever-‐increasing amount
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High-‐speed of internet connection and wireless networking technology (e.g. wifi, bluetooth ) allow easy internet access
Advance on medical cosmetology such as breast augmentation, nose reshaping, eyelid surgery, liposuction and Botox injections offer a quick and simple way to attain social perfect aesthetics
Personal electronic devices are more accessible and easy to afford
Mobile applications create a direct marketing channel which serve different functions like providing general information, prices, search features, news feeds to customers
Cosmetics become accessible, safe (nature and less harmful chemical compounds) and convenient to enhance the physical appearance
Product Opportunity Gaps • An E-book for mental guideliness • A platform to share individual characters (fashion, hairstyle, lifestyle) • Products promote positive body image core values • Webpage with useful information to browse • Enhance pub;ic awareness on women body issues (poster, billboard, video, public art) • Psychotherapy (workshop, counselling, experience) • An app to support and strike for negative self-perceptions • Social campagin with positive theme and message • Design creative avdertising
1. Social Campaign / Communication and Interaction 2. Personal lifestyle management 3. Promotional Items 4. Informative Webpage / Application design
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Informative Webpage / Application design
Promotional Items
Personal lifestyle management
Social Campaign / Communication and Interaction
WEIGHTS (1 to 3)
Weighted Matrix
CRITERIA Time and resources
1
2
3
2
3
Potential creativity
2
3
2
3
1
Social Impact
3
3
1
2
2
Helping People
2
2
2
1
2
Technologically stunning
2
2
2
1
3
Desirable
3
3
2
1
2
Interesting
3
3
1
3
1
Stylish design
2
3
2
3
2
Release of my Passion
2
3
1
3
1
55
29
42
36
ATTRIBUTES
Total
In considering the potential of different possible projects, it is finalized to focus on designing a social campaign to help Hong Kong women to improve their negative self-perceptions. The opportunities of the project will be: • Under media exposure, women are overwhelmed by social unattainable standard of beauty and body perfection • They have negative self-perceptions which may contributed them to avoid involving social and school activities, even suffer from low self-esteem, anxiety, depression or eating disorder in extreme cases • An awareness, interactive campaign is urged to promote a set of positive core values of changing how people think about, portray, and characterize women and their body image • Women should be less self-critical and have a more sympathetic view of one’s self
Opportunity Statement “ Design a social campaign to improve women negative self-perceptions from emotional state. ” P. 10
Understanding Opportunity What is the Social Campaign ? In Oxford Dictionaries, “campaign” means an organized course of action to achieve a goal. A social campaign involving visual language, knowledge and scientific research of social science. It is a large-scale of social communication or interaction to promote certain ideas and practice through the media and public. There are different social campaigns launched by government or non-governmental organizations like WWF, they mainly striving for human rights, animal and environmental protection, against social issues like violence and poverty, as well as encouraging in public health or safety. The communication of social campaign is a goal to change from a person to a large group of people’s behaviours, attitudes, values, thoughts towards an affair. It can be described as a form of persuasion, which communicators trying to convince or influence others from the deliver of a message.
Example of Social Media Campaign: #LastSelfie ( WWF / Snapchat)
While more people died from taking selfies than shark attacks in 2015, the WWF wanted to raise awareness from Millenials and increase donations to protect endangered animals from the campaign #LastSelfie. It is a creative utilization of the emerging Snapchat mobile social platform. The key of the campaign is using native “timed message” functionality to highlight that time is running out for endangered species while engaging millennials with the selfies phenomenon. Before disappearing, the image asked for help by sharing, adopting an animal, or donating through SMS. P. 11
How #LastSelfie Works
WWF Snapchat followers got a #LastSelfie
Users needed to take a screen capture of the image before the image dissapeared after the countdown
The captured image was shared amongst the user’s personal social networks, like Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
#LastSelfie’s Impact WWF Snapchat accounts became an active awareness and donation channel. After one week, 40,000 tweets hit 120 million twitter timelines meaning 50% of all active twitter users were exposed to it. With headlines in more than 6 languages #LastSelfie raised global awareness and in just three days WWF reached their donation target for the entire month.
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High
Positioning Map
A
Emotion
Positive Videos
Low
Therapy Books
Low
High
Efficiency This Positioning Map showing the position of with value of emotion and efficiency.
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Value Opportunity Analysis Existing Offerings
Low
Mid
High
Low
Mid
High
Engaging Confidence Emotion
Communication Powerful Personality
Performance
Aesthetics
Impact
Sustainability Efficiency Visual Creative Society Media
Budget
New Campaign Engaging Confidence Emotion
Communication Powerful Personality
Performance
Aesthetics
Impact Budget
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Sustainability Efficiency Visual Creative Society Media
Project Goals Different values will lead to different goals for the campaign development. The following table shows the goals for my project that established simple criteria for creating a successful social campaign.
Value
Goals
Engaging
Attract people to participate
Communicate
Convey positive core values of self-image
Personality
Embrace individuality, emphasize one’s uniqueness and characters
Powerful
Cause resonance and deep reflection, thinking
Effective
Improve women’s negative self-perceptions
Visual
Good visual aids and design
Creative
Different from ordinary social campaign, merging new promotions
Social Impact
Raise public awareness towards how we think about, portray, and characterize women and body image
Low Expenditure Low budget but high quality campaign
Project Statement “ Design a social media campaign to raise awareness with perceptual view on women self-image in order to enhance their self-esteem and change the negative self-perceptions.”
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Case Studies The Dove Real Beauty Campaign Based on the findings of a global study, The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report, Dove launched the Campaign for Real Beauty in 2004. The campaign started a global conversation about the need for a wider definition of beauty after the study proved the hypothesis that the definition of beauty had become limiting and unattainable. Among the study’s findings was the statistic that only 2% of women around the world would describe themselves as beautiful. Since 2004, Dove has employed various communications medias to challenge beauty stereotypes and invite women to join a discussion about beauty.
#SpeakBeautiful (Dove / Twitter) The campaign is based on a new research from Dove about self-esteem and social media: Women posted more than 5 million negative tweets about beauty and body image ( their own or someone else’s) in 2014. In #SpeakBeautiful, Twitter and Dove will encourage women and girls to turn ugly tweets into beautiful ones from a new technology that uses Twitter data to identify negative social media conversations about beauty and body image. When a negative tweet is posted, the the know-all technology recognizes it and send non-automated responses to real women, which include constructive and accessible advice to encourage more positive online language and habits. Advice will come directly from social media and self-esteem experts who collaborate with Dove and Twitter to empower women to speak with more confidence, optimism, and kindness about beauty online.
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Real Beautiful Sketches Based on a statistic from Dove, only 4% of the women around the world consider themselves beautiful. Thereby, Dove conducted a social experiment promoting the message to women: You are more beautiful than you think The experiment invisited an FBI-trained sketch artist to draw women first based on their own self-perception and then based on that of a random stranger. The two sketches were compared and resulted in shocking findings: The stranger’s descriptions were regularly more stereotypically attractive and similar to what the subjects actually looked like. It pointed out that women are often overly critical of their appearances and don’t see their true beauty..
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Realizing opportunity Name of campaign Brainstorming
聯想
Possible names
Final product name
Flawless / Perfect
完美
Flat-ter / Flawless is more
Flawless is more
Real Self
真我
Real Me
Portrayal ME
Individuality
個性
EmbraceIN
Beauty
美
OptBeauty / 8eautiful
Objectification
具體化
Objected
8eautiful
Me
Portrayal
Portrayal Me
Protrayal Me is a social campaign target on Hong Kong Women, aims to raise awareness on women self-image issues and encourage women to protray themselves with positive self-perceptions.
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Reflection Overall, the project will be an interesting and challenging experience from researching, developing and designing a social media campaign effectively to improve Hong Kong women’s self-perceptions. In the process of research on project intentions, SECT factors, Weighted-Matrix as well as Value Opportunity Analysis and Goals are useful tools for idea generation and developnment. However, if there is more time, a thorough research and findings should be done to support and explain there is a high potential design opportunity. Since there is lack of offerings aimed to encourage positive self-image on Hong Kong Women apart from certain NGOs or foreign cases. It is believed that the new campaign will have more space to be developped and worked on.
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Reference • Body Image and Self-esteem by Lisa Firth • Focus On Body Image: How You Feel About How You Look by Maurene J. Hinds • Expectations for Women: Confronting Steretypes by J. Elizabeth Mills • http://www.heda-hk.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&p=113 • http://archive.news.gov.hk/isd/ebulletin/en/category/healthandcommunity/090305/html/090305en05006.htm • http://twfhk.org/sites/default/files/TWFYouGov%20release_June%2023Eng.pdf • http://www.justforthis.com/ • http://www.dove.us/Social-Mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx • http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/dove-and-twitter-team-address-hateful-tweets-about-beauty-oscar-night-163040 • http://realbeautysketches.dove.com/
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