Monday, June 27, 2011

Someday

This might just be the most horrifying ad campaign (for an equally horrifying product...) that I have ever seen.


To think-- that I had this image on my desktop so that I could post it here.  That I actually typed that name into google to verify that this is not a sham. That I visited the "fragrance" website for supporting materials. This is a real product and not the invention of comics from SNL or the Onion.  But before you tune out because Bieber-bashing is just too easy...your poindexter would like to "read" this campaign to show you why I find it so concerning. (I use the term Bieber or "Bieber" for the business and not necessarily for the person-- the 17-year old from Stratford clearly doesn't know what's going on.  I hold his management accountable until further notice).

We see the teeny-bopper with a shorter-version of his trademark swoosh, and a woman of indefinite age (though clearly older than Biebs) whispering in his ear.  The largest text reads "Someday," the bottle resembles a flower with a key. Smaller text reads "Never Let Go with the new fragrance for her that gives back."

Anyone who has taken a media-studies class begrudgingly knows what is to follow.  As always, what is being sold is not a perfume but a vision of life, a vision of happiness: here, it plays upon emerging female sexuality and fantasy.  A male "artist" creates a fragrance for women, selling it to them as an incentive to Never Let Go because they might meet him Someday. This in itself is concerning.  Usually female celebrities "design" fragrances for women, and males for men, but here, "Bieber" hocks his fragrance to young women, or girls, more appropriately. He offers a scent that his fans can wear that will attract him. According to the youtube page for Someday, "It's a fragrance he can't get enough of and can't stay away from, making those who wear it irresistible." Apparently money can buy you love, as long as it's used to buy this fragrance first.

Clearly these ads are directed towards girls who are not yet media-savvy enough to wade through this barely-pseudo-sexual language.  The question of age is important--Bieber is a young star with even younger fans. "Someday" it will be socially acceptable, never mind legal for them to have the relationship the ads promise.  I don't think I need to point out that the flower on the bottle looks like female genitalia; thus female sex organs are literally turned into a commodity-- sold by "Bieber" (the entity, not the person) back to young females.

"Someday" also exploits the harmful stereotype of female fandom:  women's consumption of music and culture is frivolous, and based on crushes and irrational desires.  Female-fans (short for "fanatic," remember?) are culturally encouraged to embrace stars in a specific way: buying posters and magazines (...and CDs or MP3s or LPs) and T-shirts will show him that you really love him, so that when you meet after a concert or on the street or at school, he'll know that you care. That's how the scene plays out.  Women pursue the hypothetical relationship, including sex, marriage, babies (in no particular order) allegedly without"listening" to the music, which is why teeny-boppers are so easily dismissed.  Bieber's "Someday" promotes hysteria (I choose my words wisely). Purchase and apply the product and you can "take the experience past the music, beyond the performer, and journey deep into a world of possibilities. Into the world of Justin Bieber." 






The fantasy is vague--the girl is alone in her room, she sprays the perfume, and SUDDENLY she is falling in front of a green-screen-sky with Bieber sometimes floating sometimes embracing. Titanic-style hand reaching and golden clouds. Tweeny-piggyback riding and laughing. The walls come back up and the girl is left in her room but the boy of the fantasy remains.  She holds a heart-shaped lock and a key (playing on archetypes of female chastity). If you wait, if you are good Someday your prince will come.


There is a "Someday" iPhone app. I don't know what I can say about that.


Dreams cannot be purchased and should not be sold.  We must continue to scrutinize media so absurdities like this are not accepted at face value. Girls and young women must be encouraged to engage in dialogue about the culture they consume.


Finally, Bieber is, unsurprisingly, no advocate for women's rights.  When Rolling Stone asked Bieber about rape (as it relates to abortion), he responded "Well, I think that's just really sad, but everything happens for a reason. I don't know how that would be a reason...I guess I haven't been in that position, so I wouldn't be able to judge that." Maybe Someday he will understand.  Someday.


Rolling Stone interview

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