Project 5

Commercial and Advertising

Where do I even start with Melanie Martinez and her song “Mr. Potato Head.” In the beginning, it starts off with a little girl watching two stereotypical commercials that put women down. It is a Caucasian woman that takes a diet suppressant as seen in figure one, to starve herself into the “perfect” body. Next is an African American who hides what she was born with. She covers her already beautiful hair with a typical blonde wig. She hides her hair, and her natural beauty hiding behind a fake wig. In Kilbourne's article it states, “ … it fetishizes products , imbues them with an erotic charge- which dooms us because the product can never meet our emotional needs”(para, 2/ pg. 488). This statement is beyond true, women often look at products like these and get led down when they don’t help. The commercials persuaded the little girl to try diet pills and alter her look. They gave her false hope for beauty. The next couple lines touch on whether not having a pretty face is worth it. She writes that having a perfect outward reflection is the only thing that matters to men, and society as a whole. She states “Does a new face come with a warranty” implying that she wants plastic surgery and she wants to change her image. Melanie Martinez says how you pay thousands of dollars for compliments. Which in reality is true, society does not like the weird, or out of the box people. It wants to fit you into this mold where you have to look a certain way to be noticed (Killing Us Softly 4).

Figure 1

Sexual Innuendos

It briefly touches on how girls can only feel special if they have a perfect appearance. Basically, saying that if you have surgery as seen in figure two you can feel sexual because your outward image is more appealing for men. This shows women in the light that we have to come off as sexual, and almost selling ourselves to men. Women feel objectified. Later on in the song Melanie Martinez states “ No one will love you if you're unattractive” , which is a very twisted image for women. This singles out our looks, when we should ultimately be judged by what is on the inside and our personality. Kilbourne writes, “Advertising often encourages women to be attracted to hostile and indifferent men” (para, 6/ pg. 489). Throughout the whole music video the man was very manipulative, and shallow because he went for the girl with looks and when she became vulnerable, he betrayed her. He made her feel ugly. One specific part that stood out was when he cut her hair. That was a representation of how men make women feel ugly. He took that action literally, but it happened mentally and emotionally every day. It repeats this one specific verse all the way to the end of the song “ You promise that you'll stay forever, even if her face doesn't stay together.” This line implies that women rely on men. Which couldn't be further from the truth. Women are so empowering by being able to take care of ourselves, and push past the normal stereotypes.