Maggie
Durso-Smith
English
112
Fur is Far From Pretty
If
you see someone wearing fur boots or a fur coat, do you think that they are
unattractive? “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals”, or PETA, thinks
so. They put this bizarre yet
powerful ad together. The woman they chose as their model is Joanna Krupa. Her website
states that “She has been habitually voted amongst the ‘Sexiest Women in the World’,
coined ‘Sexiest Top Model in the World’ by magazines across Australia, U.S., South Africa, the United Kingdom,
France and Germany. Playboy U.S. dubbed her the ‘Sexiest Swimsuit Model in the
World’ and Joanna is frequently discussed as one of the sexiest celebrities in
the world” (http://www.joannakrupa.com/). Her reputation and her fame are used to get PETA’s
point across. Joanna is textbook pretty: long blonde tousled hair, blue
eyes, full eyelashes, perfect skin, and thin. She has perfectly straight white
teeth and pink lips. She also has this look on her face: a fierce look in her sparkling
eyes, and a smirky smile. She is also
not wearing a shirt or pants, just light pink lacey underwear, with a little
bow on them. One thing sticks
out in this ad; the brown, longer than humanly possible, obviously fake, dry,
dead pubic hair sprouting from her underwear. Other than this disturbing flaw, she is clearly
made to look sexy. PETA made her a stereotypically
attractive, and a vision of what some people would call perfection. However,
this message is not about how pretty anyone is. This ad is selling that fur is so powerful and
transformative, that wearing fur will make you ugly, inside and out.
Joanna is not the only detail that PETA precisely planned out. The
text on this image reads, in all caps, “Fur Trim: Unattractive.” The “Fur Trim”
part is in black and it is off to the side. “Unattractive” is written in pink,
and placed over her body. The pink colored text goes along with the pretty and
perfect, Barbie-like theme. The text saying “unattractive” is placed over her as
if it is a label or stamp. PETA is telling us that even with all her
perfection, she is dubbed unattractive because of the fur. The caption under it
sums it up well, once again in all caps “Don’t ruin your look with fur trim”.
Under that text her name is written in black, and “for PETA” in pink. They
included her name to show that this celebrity supports this idea, hoping that
her fans will too. Details of this ad contribute to the
theme of fur being powerful enough to change someone images completely.
Now for the part that makes the
argument: the hair coming out of her underwear. We can assume that it is pubic
hair, which is the “fur” that is ruining her perfect look. No matter how pretty
you are, fur will ruin your image. Fur is powerful and strong enough to completely destroy whatever positive
reputation you have earned yourself. However, pretty and ugly are not
just on the outside. This ad is telling us that no matter how good of a person
you are; fur has the power to transform you into a bad, unethical person. No matter how much charity work you
do, no matter how successful you are, if you wear fur, all that is destroyed.
Wearing fur is supporting animal cruelty, and that is what people will see in
you. This ad is selling
that even if you’re the nicest or prettiest person in the world, wearing fur is
so powerful, it will make you ugly, inside and out.
The whole world can relate to having a reputation, but this
ad was targeted more precisely to certain people. On an obvious note, the
audience is for people wear fur. Although it is also targeted at people who want
to be what society sees as “pretty”. This ad is also aimed at people who look
up to Joanna Krupa. They could idol her in a way that they just like her, and
will do just about anything to be like her. If she is against wearing fur, they
will be as well. On the other hand, it
is for people who do not necessarily like her, but people who aspire to be like
her and her image, people who aspire to be “perfect” and “pretty”. It appeals to this audience because they will
do anything to make themselves look perfect. They will dye and damage their
hair, put tons of makeup on, starve themselves to get thinner, and more. If fur
makes her ugly, in all her
perfection, it will make anyone ugly. PETA uses the power that Joanna has on
teens, and the pressure to be perfect to get their argument across. If people are willing to do anything that she does, they will look into
this ad and see the power of fur, and what it does to her image.
PETA
is selling this message to try to stop people from wearing fur, because in
order to make fur clothing and shoes, animals are tortured and killed. This ad
does not really touch on the animal cruelty aspect of fur, but the ugliness of
it. I personally do not think this ad is effective. For one thing, it is gross
to look at, which makes viewers almost immediately look away. When I first saw
it, I scrolled past it as quickly as possible. I think it has too much appeal to
pathos. Although a strong
appeal to pathos could help an argument standing for something so
controversial, the pathos are directed at the wrong emotion. Focusing too much on the
disgustingness of the ad hinders to the emotion of how powerful the fur is.
Her hair being in her pubic area does not have anything to do with wearing fur.
People do not like looking at it, and therefore will not look into what it is
selling. It does not clue in to wearing fur being cruel, but ugly. I think that
because of how unrealistic and gross it is, it does not have the effect of it
being ugly, just weird. People are so distracted by the hair, that they do not
take time to assess the point PETA is trying to make. Overall, my opinion is
that people will get the general message, but maybe not the full point. Great
risk is taken when the model is shirtless, but when you add the pubic hair, it
pushes it over the edge. Fur being so powerful that it could ruin your image is
what the ad is trying to sell, but the ad could just be disturbing to look
into.
Although
it is eccentric, PETA made this ad, and people know they advocate for animals. Despite
the drama of this ad, people know it is an effort to stop the abuse of animals.
Every aspect of this ad, like the model, style, and argument made are helpful
to proving the point. PETA wanted people to see how powerful fur was, in a
drastic way. People often say PETA crosses the line with disturbing pictures of
animal cruelty. Although animals are not even included in this image, have they
done it again?
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