SPARK a Movement: Talking back to Candies
Fake Candie's Ad
I love this post on the SPARK Summit blog called Candies, Hear Us Now? | SPARK a Movement. In reaction to Candie’s sexualized ads, they encourage all of us to get on Candie’s website, where the company is hosting a new ad campaign contest. To get their attention, SPARK encourages all of us who are fighting against sexualized messages to do the following:
“let’s tell Candies what we really think. We can take their sexist ad contest and throw it right back at them. So go ahead, log on and make an ad for them, but make it satiric. Use the functions they supply, like text boxes and a drawing pen and question the sexist ads they’re selling. Someone in the company has to be reading these entries. If enough of us band together and question their ad campaign, maybe they’ll listen. We want them to stop selling made-up, scantily dressed models in their ads, and reflect the goals of their foundation.”
Let’s show them we mean business. Comment and suggest ideas, submit your own made-over ad or e-mail the Candies Foundation your new ad showing real girls. Be sure to take a screen shot and post on our SPARK Facebook page, too! Remember the Candies rep read our blogs! These companies are listening. We just need to speak loud and clear enough that they can’t ignore us anymore. To all the girls out there supporting us, we are making a difference and we can change the world, one blog at a time.”
I love this idea! It’s similar to the brand jamming idea that I shared in the post Fight the Power: Children and Adolescents as Consumer Activists , but instead of making up our own contest, we participate in the one that Candie’s itself has designed! Please post any that you submit to Dr. Jennifer Shewmaker’s Operation Transformation Facebook page too! Let’s let Candie’s hear our voices speaking very clearly about their sexualized ad campaigns!
If you haven’t heard of the SPARK Summit, I’d love to share a bit about it with you. SPARK is an amazing organization that was started as a grassroots campaign against the sexualization of girls and women. They join with other groups to help promote healthy sexuality, which they define as :
- is a developmental task we all have to integrate into our lives
- allows for intimacy and is linked to positive feelings
And fight against Sexualization, which:
- uses girls’ and women’s bodies as a marketing tool and a ratings grabber
- is linked to depression, low-self-esteem and eating disorders
One thing that I love about The SPARK Summit was that it was very specifically designed to “engage girls as part of the solution rather than to protect them from the problem.” Through workshops, programs, coalitions, and so forth, SPARK promotes grass root efforts.
SPARK is a great, positive organization that provides proactive ideas to get young people involved in sharing their authentic voices. Check them out!
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How do you feel about me sharing this on BeautyRedefind.net? I love this little, fun, and hopefully powerful opportunity for activism! And the Spark Movement sounds fantastic! Let’s get as many of these anti-sexualization ads submitted as possible!
Of course, share away!! I loved the ad you made, it was jarring.
This is so great! Thank you Jennifer. I just shared a link to your blog on the Hardy Girls Healthy Women Training Institute facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/hardygirlstraining. We are definitely in the same loop!
Thanks, Renee! I love Hardy Girls Healthy Women as well. This month I’m trying to share lots of positive organizations and products with my readers, so any others that you think of, feel free to pass them along to me 🙂