Midterm Project: What exactly is Beyonce's Heat commercial accomplishing?

 In the fall of 2010, Beyonce launched a commercial for her new line of perfume, Heat. Beyonce’s commercial reflects Susan Douglas’s concept of enlightened sexism by showing that the feminist movement has ended and women are free to be in control of their sexuality; hence, empowering women. However, I will prove that Beyonce’s Heat commercial is not empowering to women and actually strips women of their dignity by displaying them solely as sexual objects. Beyonce says, “I want women to definitely feel sexy, strong, empowered and I want them to feel like they can conquer anything when they walk in to a room. And I want them to feel like they can leave a lasting impression on everyone they walk past”. That was what Beyonce wanted Heat to represent for women: empowerment, being in control, sex appeal. Is her commercial empowering? In this paper, I will prove why the answer is no.

Beyonce’s Heat commercial starts off by showing the bottle of perfume for a mere three seconds and then quickly transitions to Beyonce lying in a bathtub naked, rubbing her shoulders. Throughout the whole commercial, slow seductive music is playing and the lighting remains dark and steamy. Beyonce wears a red satin robe that is open down the middle of her chest, barely covering her breasts. She is pouting her lips and moving throughout the commercial in a sexual fashion while wearing black high heels and having her legs look as if they were perspiring. The commercial focuses on Beyonce’s body and the sexy moves she undertakes. However, the commercial is suppose to promote Beyonce’s perfume, Heat, and the only time you actually see what the bottle looks like is quickly in the beginning and end of the commercial. The image that is sticking in young women’s mind is the image of Beyonce strutting around half naked.

Beyonce’s goal in filming this commercial is to promote her new perfume, Heat. After viewing this commercial several times, I began to question if Beyonce was advertising sex or perfume and if they were interchangeable. I believe that both sex and perfume are being advertised and are in relation with one another. For starters, like I said above, the perfume is only shown in the commercial for a quick second, definitely not long enough for a consumer to remember what the bottle looks like. The commercial, like many other perfume commercials, are linking a scent to a sexual experience. Beyonce’s sexual appearance in the commercial sells the image of women becoming sexually desired by all men, just by smelling them. What is being advertised in this commercial is the idea of Heat and what doors it’s contagious smell unlocks. The scent is not being advertised clearly because not once is smelling the perfume involved in the commercial. Heat holds an idea of sexual desire and Beyonce advertises her sexiness to be attached to the product. Men and women view this commercial and immediately see sex appeal in Beyonce. It is the image of Beyonce the viewer will remember when going to the store to try and search for this new hot commodity.

The Heat commercial sends the message to viewers that as long as you wear this perfume, you will be considered indefinitely sexually desired by all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mecYFl188E&feature=related. I have embedded this video to go along with the Heat commercial to give voice to Beyonce in explaining why her Heat commercial is the way it is. Beyonce wants this commercial to promote empowerment of women and give women the feeling that they are unstoppable and can conquer anything. Why does society connect sexiness to empowerment? Susan Douglas goes in to depth on this idea in Enlightened Sexism and what we learn is that the fight for feminism is considered to be ancient by many women. We now feel that we are able to use or bodies in any sexual way to demonstrate our sexual freedom that we lacked for centuries. Beyonce is an attractive woman and flaunts herself for all to see in her commercial for Heat. Why not use your sexuality to increase revenue? By displaying our sexuality we are in fact stripping our inherent power and giving men the mindset that they are the ones with the power in all aspects of life and women are secondary to them. Beyonce’s commercial does not empower women; unless you think strippers and Playboy bunnies are empowering. Beyonce’s commercial is degrading woman and sending the message “you see what you get”, meaning a sexual being is all we are. As quoted from the embedded video, Beyonce wants women to leave a lasting impression when they walk by someone. How can you possibly leave a non-sexual lasting impression by not even talking to a stranger and simply just strutting by? I have embedded a magazine ad for Beyonce’s Heat. http://pinoytutorial.com/lifebytes/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/beyonce-heat-perfume.jpg. This picture further proves why this commercial is purely sexual and offers nothing of empowerment to women.

Society has linked perfume for men and women with ideas of sexuality. Beyonce’s commercial may empower women, but only in regards to sexuality. When I think of empowering women, I think of ideas displayed in Enlightened Sexism that Douglas refers to as embedded feminism. I think of empowering women when I see women in successful careers or women who dominate a sports arena. I do not see in any way how being viewed as a sexual object is empowering to women. Beyonce’s Heat is striving to tell women that they will feel powerful and sexy if they wear Heat. Women should want to smell good or bad for themselves to begin with. However, our society puts a strong emphasis on men and women to appeal to others more importantly than themselves. Beyonce jumps right on the bandwagon with this idea. Beyonce sends the message that a perfume can make you feel more than just smelling nice. Heat can make you feel like a new woman. I would say that this is a far reach for a perfume to accomplish, however that is why Beyonce’s commercial for a perfume focuses on herself as oppose to the perfume. Women who see this commercial will say, “Wow! Beyonce looks so good and is so sexy and if I wear Heat I can feel sexy and good about myself too”. Since when does smelling a certain way allow you to conquer the world?

Another problem I have with this commercial is the concept that the commercial for Heat is a large contributor to many low-esteems of women. For example, what happens to the woman who does not fit the typical “feminine” characteristics and never does feel sexy? Does she feel empowered by simply spritzing a perfume on herself? I would have to say that buying Heat is not going to make this woman or any woman feel as if she can conquer anything in the world and be seen as sexy. Furthermore, Beyonce’s commercial genuinely makes women feel worse about themselves. We see in Enlightened Sexism how women who do not fit in to this ideal of feminism are treated poorly and are the end of every joke ex. Janet Reno. Yes, of course Beyonce is stunning in the commercial, but paid professionals also created a beauty by perfecting every flaw with make-up, lighting and camera angles. Beyonce’s commercial is defining beauty as outer beauty. Not once during the commercial does it talk about being a good person, having values or being warm-hearted. The commercial is trying to do one thing and that is make money. Beyonce’s Heat racked up 3 million dollars worth of sales in the first month on shelves (Miller 2010). Beyonce is definitely receiving large benefits so who could blame her? We all know America is a capitalist society, but these commercials and other media objects are detrimental to women by portraying them as all beauty and nothing else. As we know from all of our class discussions and reading Susan Douglas, we are in a period of enlightened sexism. Enlightened sexism is making large strides backward in the feminist movement. Today, successful women are criticized for not being “feminine” enough. Beyonce’s commercial creates what many people think as ideal feminine characteristics. These set of guidelines are not empowering to women and Beyonce’s commercial does exactly the opposite of what she hoped it would do. It makes women empowered in one category: sexuality.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-03 19/entertainment/27059506_1_fragrance-beyonce-heat