Females & Fragrance in the Media

As Catherine Latterell (2006) states at the beginning of her article, “When most people hear the word “technology” they typically think of computers, cell phones, or cars.  Yet an object does not have to contain a motor or a computer chip to qualify as technology”.  The advertisement I chose to focus on was that of the company Chanel.  Perfume is a form of technology that we have customized to meet our needs and wants as a culture, as Latterell (2006) phrases it.  Individuals in the U.S., especially females, are encouraged to not only to spend time on our looks and our bodies, but also to smell of fresh flowers or sweet fruits. The original ad shows a completely naked woman with flowers wrapped around her body, sitting, and embracing an oversized bottle of Chanel’s perfume “Chance”.  She looks very peaceful and content.  This advertisement stands out because of the pink colors and flowers, as well as the beauty of the female posing.  The flowers and the nakedness of the female make the perfume look very natural and coveted by the woman.  For my remix of the photo, I substituted the perfume bottle with a photo of the earth - not how we typically picture our planet, but an earth that is being destroyed by pollutants.  I chose this photo mainly because the development of perfume is actually harmful to the environment, and it is opposite of the "natural" they are trying to portray in the ad.  The overall message of my remix is twofold.  First, “Sometimes technologies have unexpected consequences” (Latterell, 2006, p. 581).  Technology is not always positive – it is not always negative either, but I think we truly do not realize how much of an impact it has on our everyday lives.  In the case of perfume and technologies such as that, instead of moving forward with reliance on chemical processes we should look to more natural ways. Our earth has been severely affected by the technologies that have been created by the humans living here – some positive changes, but many negative. The second message is that we as women and humans have much more of a purpose than “smelling” nice or looking a certain way.  After remixing this image it changes the purpose of being a woman seeking a certain image to a woman looking at the big picture, looking at the demise of our planet.  A sub-message here is to embrace earth, and to try and “save” our planet, because there is no Planet B.

Rachael