Public Service Announcement

The public service announcement that I created featured two very different looking people. The woman in the right is beautiful and sexy. She is a perfect specimen to look at. The woman in the right is freaky looking. She looks a mess and is not someone that you would want to gaze at for too long, probably the spectator would only want to stop and laugh at her for her obscure appearance. The text on the public service announcement states “Outside” above the beautiful woman and “Inside” above the ugly woman. This wording is supposed to reflect how the woman looks on the outside and how she feels on the inside. At the bottom of the page are the words, “This is how you make her feel….You can make a difference!” This phrase ties the whole picture together stating that it is the gaze that forces the model to desire to look beautiful on the outside when really she does not feel beautiful at all on the inside.

Most people when looking at a beautiful person do not consider her feelings and only think of her as a pretty picture. In this public service announcement the feelings of the woman when gazed upon by a spectator are portrayed to the audience. When women are looked at as objects of pleasure their feelings are not taken into consideration. Laura Mulvey talks about scopophilia in her essay and the affects it has on women. I used Mulvey’s thoughts expressed in her essay as the basis of my public service announcement. Men often observe an object, in this case the woman in the left, and derive a sense of sexual satisfaction. The feelings of the object, the woman on the left, are not considered. This public service announcement is expressing the objects feelings in the picture on the right.

The words on the public service announcement are installed in certain spots in order to make the observer think about what is going on in the picture. When someone reads something they start from the top and read down to the bottom. The words “Inside and Outside” posted on the top of the announcement are very broad terms that could have a few meanings when combined with the two pictures. The generalized wording makes the observer think about what they could mean and how they relate to the announcement. It is not until the reader observes the bottom of the announcement that they understand what “Inside and Outside” are pertaining to. Outside is symbolizing the woman’s appearance that is seen by the spectator. Inside is referring to how the model feels and her self image. Through the wording and placement of the words on the public service announcement the observer becomes aware of people’s inner feeling when they are gazed upon and often degraded in the public eyes. The statement “You can make a difference,” is telling the observer that they can make a difference in this woman’s life by not looking at her as an object.