CHOPPY
NOODLES
Supermodels and Television Advertising
 Watch
a food commercial shoot from start to finish. Note the similarities
between making the food look delicious and making the supermodel
look attractive. Listen as the director, account executive,
and client debate the content of the commercial.
 Viewers
go behind the scenes of a television commercial shoot. When
the supermodel first enters the studio, she is ignored because
no one on the set realizes that she is the glamorous Charlotte
Brittany. As the supermodel has her make-up done, a food stylist
simultaneously prepares the food for the commercial, spraying
the noodles with plastic so they seem to glisten and shaking
baby powder on donuts to make them look more sugary. As the
model becomes camera ready, so does the food, and the viewer
begins to understand that advertising is about making things
appear more perfect than they are.
 Meanwhile,
the account executive debates the commercial’s content
with the director and the client, trying to please both the
director’s artistic vision and the client’s desire
to see her product properly showcased. The three are then shown
debating which hand-model to use, since the supermodel is unable
to use chopsticks. The commercial’s finishing touches are
applied, adding background clouds along with the hand-model
to create the perfect scene to advertise the noodles.
 Understanding
how commercials are created is an important step in becoming
an educated consumer and critical viewer. Advertisers want to
sell their product to the audience, and they manipulate many
truths in an effort to do this. In addition, commercials’
frequent emphasis on physical beauty suggests that how things
look is the most important thing, which could result in the
average person feeling badly about his/her own appearance. A
critical viewer understands that commercials are designed to
create a false sense of need in order to get the viewer to purchase
the product being advertised. Furthermore, a savvy viewer knows
that the way people are made to look on television is not realistic,
and they are careful about choosing criteria on which to evaluate
their own personal appearance. Finally, the media literate person
knows that nothing is as perfect and flawless as it appears
on television.
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