Jelena Abbou, a Serbian-American body-building competitor is the new face representing for MAC cosmetics in their new makeup campaign launch called simply, "Strength." Jelena Abbou is a unconventional model that would not be normally featured in beauty advertisements.This ad shocked many people when this advertisement was released to the public for their choice to choose a female body builder. I think it is refreshing to break away from the traditional model "looks" that dominate our ads everywhere and on fashion runways, and see this kind of strength and beauty.
Makeup and tanning is a huge part of getting ready to compete in these kinds of body building competitions and many female body builders mainly uses MAC cosmetics because they are well known for their long lasting makeup.
Some people may not like a female body builder as a model for MAC cosmetics because it is unconventional beauty by the societal norm standards and also some people may argue that preparation to compete such as constant tanning, not eating for days before competition, etc. does not represent beauty at all and not "natural."
How do you feel about Jelena Abbou as the new face of MAC and this Strength campaign?
I think it is great that MAC is putting a non conventional looking model for their campaign. But on the other hand their interpretation of strength is too literal. A strong woman could have endless representations other than having muscles.
ReplyDeleteI think is the same message, but with different package. Is still the woman as an object of the male gaze, the woman as object to sell. The approach is to gain, may be, other audience, but the fact this model does something that in the past was just for men, indicates that she wants to belong at that ideology of feeling superior to the women. Although she is a woman, but obviously, she is part of the patriarchal mentality.
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