A Beautiful Shampoo

This Herbal Essences “Natural Volume” commercial reflects the values and ideology of our society. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkD6EmeDYOY&NR=1

While the English used to believe bathing could be dangerous or was unnecessary, our American modern culture is almost obsessed with the notion of cleanliness. We observed an advertisement yesterday from the late 19^th century where the hegemonic values of that society were reflected in the advertisement. Slavery was prominent during this era and in turn it was used in the Pears Campaign.

Today sex is prominent in our society. In turn this commercial reflects this ideology. A man and woman are sitting on their couch and stumble upon an Herbal Essences ad in a magazine. They then look lustful as they run up the stairs towards the bathroom. In the end the woman locks the man outside, having a love affair with the shampoo as he waits helplessly at the door. She comes out, her hair now extremely beautiful.

Besides the fact that sex is a main symbol and element in the story, the overall portrayal of the shampoo is unrealistic. This look of long, smooth and beautiful hair is neither common nor easy for most women. In reality it may take hours and a lot of money for hair to be transformed to look like this Herbal Essences commercial. The fact that the commercial is basically saying in order to be sexy and appeal to a man, one must have hair like the woman in Herbal Essences “Natural Volume,” when having hair like this is not possible from one shampoo.

It does devalue a woman’s role as all of the emphasis is placed on beauty and cleanliness. The shampoo, not the actual woman, is what ultimately is beautiful and sexy.