The Body Shop: The only one way to be beautiful?

“You are beautiful, but sometimes you may need a helping hand, it’s about making the best of yourself.” With an acoustic and natural sound, without a magnificent formal clothe but a long-white dress, without a magnificent make-up accommodates but a simple-smiling face. Nature’s Way to Beautiful has wrote out the theme of The Body Shop’s new campaign: simple and natural.
This commercial was mainly divided as three parts within two minutes time period. Its background color tone is “green”; it helps remind the audience that the basic color tones of The Body Shop’s product package and store-design. There is no speak aside in introducing the function of new cosmetic product, but an acoustic sound and changing natural images in strengthening the three keep values in The Body Shop’s green business: Activating self-esteem, supporting community trade and protecting our planet. In this commercial, it presents large amounts of image of the natural environment, and taking turns with sentences of words in the screen instead of speak aside. And leads the audience think from self-esteem to community image, and then to the core question of what is the way to be beautiful. And finally show up the answer: The Body Shop could provide you the nature’s way to be beautiful.
Nature’s Way to be beauty has successfully addressed its “green” image in its TV commercial and press release. Firstly, the TV commercial and the press release are focusing on communicating self esteem and self image of beauty. Secondly, Nature’s Way to Be Beauty coveys the theme of community building and community service. This part presents on how The Body Shop sustain a community-based trade to run a ethical business. Furthermore, the commercial move to a broader scale by presenting the image of natural environment, the flowing river, the wildlife and the sweeping hills. And the model standing on the top of mountain confidently and hopefully. And the sentence show out “ Because we believed that the only way to be beautiful is the natural’s way.” The whole commercial ends with the logo of The Body Shop.
Overall, the campaign has successfully in employing the effective elements in building a green advertisement. pictorial elements,written material and music are centralized to the key line that: How we should define beauty? This is a tough question could be answered in different ways. And this commercial did successfully showed to the audience that the definition from The Body Shop: Nature’s way. It’s a sufficient appeal to those who care about their body health and ingredients of the products.
And The Body Shop is wise in employing the use of social media through this campaign, in accessing a more upscale global market, it seems that some of the leading companies of cosmetic products are turning their voice in their values and beliefs instead of the product itself. The Body Shop is showing their way in the path of global market of the natural beauty philosophy.

“Nature’s Way to Beautiful”:

The Body Shop launched its new global website & two new product ranges in August 2008
(Materials)

In accessing a global market, while facing the fear of sales declines in the face of intensifying competition, The Body Shop was launching its new global website and two products ranges: Wellbeing and Nature’s Mineral Make-up. In recognizing the growing heat in cyber communication, The Body Shop approached bigmouthmedia to raise consumers awareness and gauge public participations before the launch.
The Objectives of the campaign are:
• To enhance the awareness of consumer of TBS’s new global website by the campaign “Nature’s Way to Beautiful”.
• To reinforce the favorable image of TBS on it’s green corporate image.
• To organize the online launch of two brand new products lines: Wellbeing and Mineral Make-up.
• To promote the awareness of the new product branches.
• To achieve global online media coverage.

To achieve these objectives, bigmouthmedia immediately conducted a brand perception audit in order to know what has been already said about The Body Shop online and identified the key online opinion leader in the beauty and cosmetic industry.

After the research of the perception of consumer, The Body Shop decide to launch an online social media campaign about The Body Shop’s new global website and two new product ranges. This campaign is set up in order to engage with many stakeholders and consumers globally. And as a result, the bigmouthmedia online PR team was able to engage with stakeholders and consumers across the world on a daily basis, and generate news and discussion and gauge feedback.

Through out the campaign, we could see that the theme of the message is communicating the green and social responsible image of TBS by the new website and products. The campaign focus on THB’s corporate values instead of introducing a specific kind of products. By focusing on its value, TBS is involved with in order to reaffirm TBS’s ethical roots.

The program of The Body Shop are undertaken as:
• Social networking with key online opinion leader of cosmetic and body care product.
• Blogger outreach work.
• Promote online community participation.
• Distribution of PR’s and social media news releases.
• Air new TV Commercial.

To evaluate the campaign for the duration of the month, the campaign had successfully driven increasing clips on the new website, and the target consumers have an effect spent increased time on the site. From the statistic of bigmouthmedia:

• More than 71,000 full page reads of online press releases were triggered.
• Coverage ran on 17 key online influencing blogs, which created buzz and conversation around the products, including product reviews.
• One of the highest ranked blogs within Technorati’s top 100 blogs ran the story. The blog has a readership over 10,400 readers.
The materials I choose to analysis for this campaign including one TV commercial which have been aired in the U.K, HK, and Korea. And I will analysis the TV commercial while engaged with two press releases of The Body Shop’s “Nature’s way to Beautiful” later.

Press Releases Link:
Nature’s way to beautiful:
http://www.thebodyshop.com/_en/_ww/services/pdfs/PressRelease/tbs-natures-way-to-beautiful.pdf?
Wellbeing Range:
http://www.thebodyshop.com/_en/_ww/services/pdfs/PressRelease/tbs-new-wellbeing.pdf?)

Material Sources:
Bigmouthmedia Online PR: http://www.bigmouthmedia.com//
The Body Shop Media Center:
http://www.thebodyshop.com/_en/_ww/services/aboutus_media-centre.aspx

Why you perceived beauty in this way? ---After watching Beauty Backlash

“Because you’re worth it.” When I heard this slogan from the film, it made me realized that L’oreal have the same slogan in Chinese. And different celebrities faces appeared in my mind when I was thinking the campaign of L’oreal. It seems that I have became part of L’oreal’s campaign as I was so familiar with it.

Most skin appliance and cosmetic products define their target as WOMEN. Is it too broad of this target audience definition? But when you took a look at the product lines of certain cosmetics brand. For instance, L’oreal is the brand showed in the film, which offers more than five categories of products: Skin care, Cosmetics, Hair color, Body care etc. Just within the categories of skin care, there are about 10 different product lines. For instance, Active Daily Moisture, Revitalift, Age Perfect, Go 360* Clean, and Sublime Bronze etc. It seems that there are different kinds of selection to fulfil every women’s different need to be beauty. But if there are so many ways to achieve beauty, who indeed set up the standard to measure beauty?

Celebrities Endorsement

The beauty industry bombard us with images of slim, gorgeous and exquise faces of celebrities. These images of perfect celebrities are the representatives of cosmetic and skin care product. The advertising people do not need to ask celebrities to introduce the ingredients or effects on your face, they just need to show their beautiful faces and perfect body shape. Those kind of “perfect” images are conveyed by different media to achieve their audience, in order to make a sense of insecurity among women, and this drive the sales in the beauty industry.

The more perfect faces and body shape of celebrities, the worse the consumer feels themselves. The gab between idealist and realist sets up the expectation of consumers.If the taget audience of beauty industry is women who care about their beauty, so all women are tageted. Because, everywomen wants to be beautiful, beautiful as celebrities which they saw in the television, magazine, and Internet. The uses of celebrities endoresement are acting as the common form and force to create a need of consumers that, you have the need and right to be beautiful as the super star. So the standard of beauty is shaped in publics mind by different media coverage.

Is “Real Beauty” really true?

Soap company Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign has been a marketing phenomenon, which has received enormous publicity by using women of all shapes, sizes and colors as their model. The very different approach from Dove with its revolutionary campaign has called up the awareness of publics about re-definitions of beauty. Dove claimed that “7 in 10 girls believed they are not good enough.” So Dove promotes that beauty is “the natural and true self” to acivate self-esteem of consumers. Even though they have succeed in promoting their corporate’s value in this way, I will argue that that thoses campaign still did not chance the stereotype of how people perveived beauty.

Dove’s definition of beauty makes “beauty” more accessible, as accessible as it can be, when you are using the Dove’s product. Dove’s definition of beauty reminds me one of The Body Shop’s campaign, which is titled as “ Nature’s way is the only way to be beautiful”. So it seems that there is a trend that promoting a natural and real self is the most beauty. But the companies never give up the big premise that: using their products to be beauty. So I doubt that, if the most natural and real self is the most beautiful self, why should I need to buy the products to maintain it? It seems that there is a long way to refine how the publics to perceive beauty by a single campaign.

Further Link:

Dove’s Campaign of Real Beauty:

http://www.dove.us/#/cfrb/about_cfrb.aspx

“Love her, buy her a pair of Nike Valentines”

(Note: This is a product launch blog which created for Class, the information is not factual.)

by Miya

Monday, January 14, 2010

Still considering the gift for Valentines day? Is a bunch of rose seems to be out-of-date? Or a box of chocolate is not enough to hold your love? How about buying a unique pair of Nike Dunk High to make your love talk the walk?

For 2010, Nike has continued its Valentines sneaker tradition by launching your unique pair of Nike Dunk High. Nile Dunk High combines the color of soft pink and white-challenge red in featuring girls notebook scribbling. The lovely color for your lovely her. Order online before February 8, 2010, you could say anything by engraving. Make it a unique gift by engraved name of her on Nike Dunk High. Just add her name after selecting your Nike Dunk High online, it is easy and quickly by just registe in Nike.com. And the shipment before Valentines Day is guaranteed.

Princess has sent Cinderella the crystal shoes on time and lead a happy fairy tale. Order now online, and give her unique pair of Nike Dunk High. The good quality could make your promises walk the talk. Love her, buy her a pair of Nike Valentines.

See more information: http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nike/language_select/

Press Release(rough draft)

Press Release(rough draft)

(*NOTE: this is not factual. It is for a school assignment。)

For Immediate Release

UNDERWATER WORLD INTRODUCE CHINES SEA TURTLE BABY

Contact: Miya Gu

Address: 1536 Hewitt Avenue

Telephone: 631-3643444

Date: March,21,2010

[Saint Paul, March, 21]--Underwater World has announced it will introduce 10 turtle eggs from China and available for the tourist to welcome the birth of the baby turtle in this April. The 10 baby turtles will be born during the Easter holiday week on April. This program is part of national effort to reiforce the relationship bewteen China and America in caring the endagerous marine organism. Ten turtle eggs took a over 13 hours flight and arrived at Underwater World yesterday. And now they are taking care by the specialist of the aquarium. The proficient said that the expected birth dates of the turtle babys will fall in the first two week of April.They will stay in Underwater World after birth as the Goodwill Ambassador from Hongkong, China. Underwater World will open for the children and parents to experience the birth of the turtle baby. And there will be egg shell painting parents-child campaign holding through the Easter Holiday week.

Underwater World is the biggest state-own aquarium, which recently build up partnership with the Ocean Park Hong Kong. These ten turtle eggs are sent by Ocean Park Hong Kong as a gift to Minnesota. You will receive more chance to see the marvellous marine organism from China from April.

Come and experience the marvellous birth of the gift from China!

Contact: Miya Gu (651)434-44444

Underwaterworld@entertainment.com

Underwater World.

Address: 333 Western Street

Saint Paul, Minnesota 55***

Fax:(651)*********

Propaganda: More Lies or More Truth? ----After watching “War Made Easy”(Final)

The first time I heard the word “propaganda” is when I was watching the movie called “Triumph of the will”. Propaganda used to be a neutral term to describe information that is spread for the purpose of promoting certain causes. Since War World Two, after its association with Nazism, it has developed negative connotations. Now it can be defined as misleading information that is deceptive to the public. As an example in China, the government changed the name of the Central Propaganda Department to the Central Publicity Department. It seems that the word "propaganda" has become a representative term of the government's official story.

This is not saying that everything we called propaganda is inherently bad. Public relations are who has been associated with publicity in propaganda events, to determine whether propaganda is more truth or praises lies, an examination of the role of public relations in agenda setting is inevitable.

There is a blurred line between Journalism and Public Relations, especially when we talk about fierce, ethical and moral crises. Both of these professions are playing critical roles as gatekeepers in agenda setting.

As the film War Make Easy has shows, once public support is in place and war is finally underway, the news media necessarily turn from covering the rationales for war to covering war itself. When war became a product, amounts of coverage about war will be released, and particularly in the early stages, news coverage of war is much more like Public Relations about war. Through the manipulation of media coverage, the administration is provided with an effective way to win public support.

Public relations became a relatively negative war when thought to be the offender who spins a net of rationales. And serve as the slaves for government. If the PR wants to clear this kind of accusation, to recognize the responsibility of public relations and ensure the free flow of information and gate keeping is critical. Public relations’ job is to create and reinforce a bond between the administrations and public, instead of operating as the puppet of the government, who presents a selective and deceptive history. Just as the presenting in the film that, if the officials try to blow smoke and cloud reality, public relations and journalist as liberal media workers should be the one who dedicates themselves to provide clarity.

If the lines between journalist and public relations are blurred, it may be because of their job require that they react both intensively and cautiously. It requires these professions to provide the right message to the public at the right time and in the right place. Mainstream journalists have rarely called attention in real time to failure of news media to provide necessary information and real debate; their failure have been typically been pointed out well after wars have been launched, and it is always too late to reverse the tide. It is important for public relations to be proactive.

By the last five decades people have witnessed different military inventions, such as bombings, invasions and long-time occupation. The pattern of continuous misrepresentation by the media from the world wars onward should became historical mirror for public relations to provide a clear media focus to the public, though it is not going to be easy and it will require dedication to truth.

Take A 5W1H Step to Know Me-Miya

(In FuJian Province,China. June 9th,2009)

Who Am I?

你们好（Hello），I am 古惠莹（Gu HuiYing）, the new exchange student in Hemline University. My family name means "ancient, traditional,classic" in Chinese. It is a name passed by my ancestors, and my surname is HuiYing which means clarity. My parents wants me to show penetrating mental discernment when I come across bump in my life.

And I could also be called as Miya, I love this name since it is simple. And my professor always call me MaMa Miya, I don't mind you call me in this way if it is more easy for you to remember.

Where Am I From?

I am from Guangzhou, the capital city of Canton, China.Guangzhou is famous for its delicacy, so if you got the chance to go there, I'd like to be your guides in searching the different kinds of food.

"When"s Important to me

I was born in June, a warm and sun-shining month in Guangzhou. I like to smile and positive, just as the beginning of summer.

I decided to go to study aboard when I was an sophomore, I had spent about one semester time to prepare my IELTS and materials to get in Hemline. I believed that this experience will give me great inspiration in my senior year.

Why I came here?

I am Gemini, which means I can't not be understood by depending on appearance, I like to try new things and challenges. This is one of the reasons why I am here.

My college in China is a special college since it is found by Hong Kong Baptist University and Beijing Normal University. All of my courses are taught by English, and many of my professors are came from different countries. Majority of them are came from US. I had heard about many things about America. And eventually, I own the chance to experience the "real world".

How did I came here?

I had took a 14 hours flight in order to "land" in Hemline. Besides this, I spent a whole semester to prepare my IELTS and application materials to came here. I set my goal and fight for it, so this chance is especially precious for me.

What will be next......

In the past two weeks, I had experienced the winter carnival, mall of America, visit to the old couples' nice house...what will be next? I don't know.

Before I came to US, most of my time are spending on study. Besides, I had the experience in working in the Admission Office in College and participating in climbing the 5000 miles mountain.

Whatever will came out, I get prepared...

Hope I will have a nice semester with you my new friends here.

（A delicious din-sum which called shrimp dumplings in my hometown）