Britney’s line-toeing image has been a selling point for her from the start. Her first big hit (<–pun maybe?), “Baby One More Time,” features her as a sort of quasi-rebellious school girl – her braided pig-tails set against a uniform that surely breaks the rules of wear.
In her MTV Awards roles, she ultimately personifies “sexy” in the Hollywood definition of the word. Sparse, tight, glistening clothing, snakes, same-sex exchanges. . . she pushes the limit just enough to stay ahead of the curve, but not so far as to be inaccessible by popular public (think Madonna vs. Marilyn Manson).
Britney is also the celebrity face for several lines of perfume: Fantasy, Hidden Fantasy, Curious, and Believe.
Fantasy’s tag is “Everybody has one.” Innocent enough. But the video for the fragrance has a “goddess” (Britney) running through the forest from a Hunter who decidedly wants to touch every part of her body. Before she leaves for her “goddess world tour,” the hunter shoots her with a “magic love arrow” and they fall happily in love.
Hidden Fantasy “shares a secret of warm sensuality that is impossible to hide.” Maybe that’s why the tag is “What do you have to hide?”
A description of Curious on Sephora’s site reads, “Britney Spears personifies daring and piques the curiosity of young women everywhere. Curious by Britney Spears represents the young woman that pushes boundaries and revels in adventure.”
Believe has the phrase “My fragrance” beneath the words. Britney’s fragrance. Her signature? Her stance? Her view?
Hmmm. . .
In each of these adds, Brtiney wears a long, flowing dress (except in Believe) – more clothing than she wears in many of her other public spots. In the Believe add, she is surrounded by caged birds. These images seem almost innocent – kind of pure and feminine. But then they’re juxtaposed with implied and explicit depictions of sensuality and, well, it is essentially pornography. Let me explain:
My freshmen year of college, I took a Philosophy class in which my professor paraphrased someone’s idea that pornography is, simply stated, an attempt to capture, touch, and hold the beautiful, pure, and untainted. The very reason that the object of desire is desired is that same essence the object loses when it’s caught or when the desire is met. He compares it to a caged bird – so free and inspiring in its beauty that one wants to catch it in order to glean from its nature. But in containing it – in touching it and holding it up close – the bird loses its inspiring essence. It’s caged now. It’s contained now. It’s been stripped of its ability to live out its identity. This is pornography.
Maybe it’s a little unfair to compare Britney’s adds – Britney’s image – to this idea of pornography. But in the Fantasy video, the Hunter wants to catch her because “there’s no part of her he doesn’t want to touch.” Believe even has images of caged birds surrounding Britney.
Interestingly enough, the marketing of these products has more of an adolescent appeal. Sephora even says that she “piques the curiousty of young women.”
Young, potentially-still-somewhat-cageless women? Inviting them into her world? Making the “Fantasy” of being caught and trapped seem appealing and ideal?
Maybe. Maybe not. I’m probably digging a bit for this one, but I don’t think it’s too far a stretch to at least consider. Also, I’m not trying to talk bad about Britney. I don’t know her. My point in this piece is to discuss image and marketing.
