Bagong Ganda, Bagong Pag-asa!

Bagong Ganda, Bagong Pag-asa

by Maxipeel

The Maxipeel’s Bagong Ganda, Bagong Pag-asa campaign is a chain of commercial testimonials of women who were given “hope” after using Maxipeel. With their "bagong ganda", they feel more confident in facing the world or they regained the self they lost because of having skin problems. Maxipeel is promoting beauty and signifies hope to those who are going through beauty troubles. These commercials glorified Maxipeel as the solution to women’s beauty problems by narrating how Maxipeel changed their lives and how they look at themselves before and after using Maxipeel. The commercials also communicate the feeling of gratefulness because of the beauty achieved by using Maxipeel.

However, in this blog, I will argue that the beauty commercials of Maxipeel specifically its Bagong Ganda, Bagong Pag-asa campaign is not promoting the feeling of being beautiful but rather the feeling of being ugly.  

I will examine six commercials under this campaign. I will examine the testimonials of Cheska, Sherry, Alexi, Germain, Nicole and her mother and Zara and her father. Let’s examine the commercials one by one.

The first four commercials (Cheska, Sherry, Alexi, Germaine) opens with a statement that summarizes their bad experiences when they had skin problems. 

Cheska: “Ayoko na magpa-picture”

Cheska’s testimonial is about how (in her own words) she felt bad, hurt and insulted when her high school teacher made her an example of having skin problems. From that point forward, she promised to take care of herself. When she started using Maxipeel, her skin problems were slowly going away. Thanks to Maxipeel, she now feels more confident and very much willing to take as many pictures as she can.

Sherry: “Nakakadiri”

Sherry’s testimonial opened with a statement “Nakakadiri”. Sherry is a night duty nurse who feels that her patients are disgusted with her skin problems. Because of that, she promised herself that she will use Maxipeel. Thanks to Maxipeel, she already feels beautiful because her skin problems vanished.  She also suggested that Maxipeel is the solution for those people who are having a pimple break out problems due to fatigue and lack of sleep. 

Alexi: “Ayoko nang bumalik sa bangungot”

After her opening statement, Alexi shared that people used to tell her that a frog is prettier than her because of her skin problems. So she promised herself that she won’t allow herself to be ugly for the rest of her life. Thanks to Maxipeel, she now has a face to face the world. She ended her testimony by saying that she will move on, and forget her past self because it’s a nightmare. 

Germain: “Pinagpalit ako”

Germain recounts how her ex-boyfriend left her because of her pimples. She also said that she is associated with a Dalmatian because of it. So she promised herself that all her pimples will go away someday. She started using Maxipeel and thanks to Maxipeel, she now has a clear skin and gained more attention from people. Then there’s the narrative about her ex-boyfriend who tried to win her back but she refused. The testimonial ended with her picture when she had pimples and what she is now. 

The last two commercials are slightly different with the first four because this now involves their parents and it doesn't have the opening statements anymore. Still, the narrative structure is the same. 

The commercial showed Nicole together with her mother. They narrated how Nicole lost herself because of her pimples. Thanks to Maxipeel, she was able to have herself back.

In Zara’s commercial, she was with her dad. She narrated how pimples became a stumbling block for her to achieve her dream as a beauty queen. She slowly lost her confidence because of it and thanks to Maxipeel, she had herself back.

Bagong Ganda, Bagong Pag-asa and the Semiotics of It

Verbal Code: Narrative Orientation

Based on the videos above, we can see that Maxipeel used two different formats in their campaign. The first four are solo testimonials of women and the last two are of women with their parents.

The structure of the narrative is also quite obvious – woman face challenges because of skin problems, they used Maxipeel and Maxipeel solved their problems.

The first four commercial opens with a statement summarizing the bad things experienced by the girls when they had skin problems. “Ayoko na magpapicture” “Nakakadiri” “Ayoko na bumalik sa bangungot” “Pinagpalit ako” - these opening statements are reflective of how ugly the girls felt when they were still experiencing their skin problems. These statements are propagating an ideology that having skin problems is ridiculous - that you can’t take good pictures if you have pimples, that you are disgusting if you have pimples, that it is a nightmare if you have pimples, that your boyfriend will leave if you have pimples and you can lose yourself because you have pimples. The opening statements itself already produces a concept of “ugliness”.

The next part of the narrative is how Maxipeel helped them overcome these problems. Because of Maxipeel, I am confident in taking my pictures. Because of Maxipeel, I don’t feel disgusted anymore. Because of Maxipeel, I won’t be living in a nightmare. Because of Maxipeel, my boyfriend regretted that he left me. Because of Maxipeel, I found myself again. This portion of the commercial is glorifying Maxipeel as the saving grace of these women when it comes to beauty. This part of the narrative creates a myth that Maxipeel is the solution to ugly girl problems.

And the last part is the resolution where the girls are stating that they are happy because of the positive results that Maxipeel gave them. This part of the narrative is reinforcing the myth that if you use Maxipeel, you will be beautiful.

Visual Codes: Complex Meaning Systems

The use of quotation in the first four commercials gives emphasis to girl’s concept of ugliness. It is noticeable that the quotes used were negative thus emphasizing the negative effects of having pimples.

The opening statements are also trying to appeal to the emotions of the audience by trying to gain their sympathy with the negative experiences of the woman narrating her story.

It is also noticeable that the set is minimalist thus giving focus to the narrators. The background is dark green which can be associated with the color of the product. The seemingly white circle in the middle can function as a spotlight giving focus to the subject. The movement of the camera from middle shot to close ups also provides emphasis to what the narrator is saying. For instance, when the narrator started sharing how bad she felt when she was ugly, the camera would take a close up shot to her picture before. When the narrator started stating gratefulness to Maxipeel, the camera focuses on her clear, smooth skin.

Conclusion:

Combining these verbal and visual codes within the commercial propagates a narrowed down concept of beauty.  

Beauty Commercials are viewed to be promoting beauty by making us feel beautiful but do they really want us to feel beautiful?

Beauty Commercials like that of Maxipeel is trying to narrow down the meaning of beauty to just the physicality of a person. If someone has a clear and smooth skin, she is beautiful. I find this definition problematic because it only produces a shallow understanding of beauty and I find it as an injustice to the word.

Why do they have to narrow down self-confidence with the absence or presence of skin problems? Why do they have to narrow down a break up because the other party found the other ugly for having pimples? Why do they have to narrow down losing one’s self because of having skin problems?

Why? Because they have to. They have to narrow down the meaning of beauty to what their product can give solution to so they can create underlying conditions that can make their standards of beauty widely accepted by the public. By creating a narrowed down concept of beauty, they can successfully make people think that if they do not achieve the “standards” they’ve set, then they are not beautiful – and that feeling of being not beautiful enough is what they are banking on so they can sell their products.

Beauty companies want people to feel that they fall short of the standards they created because it is only when they have successfully made you feel that you are ugly that they can consider their campaign effective. We must take note that their target audiences are not those who already have clear, beautiful skin but those who don’t have one. So they need to make those “target audience” feel that they are ugly so they will purchase their products.

The concept of beauty has been propagated by a lot of beauty commercials since time immemorial based on our colonial groundings. But the concept of beauty also creates a concept of ugliness and that I feel, is the underlying message of every beauty commercial. The uglier you feel, the more you’ll see the need to purchase their products.

So, do still think that beauty commercials want to make you feel beautiful?