Special K Joins the Corporate Body Positivity Movement
This post originally appeared on Proud2BMe.
During the Emmy Awards, Special K Canada launched a new campaign with a simple hashtag, #OwnIt, which encourages social media users to spread body positivity. The commercial begins with a statistic from a 2011 Glamour survey: “97 percent of women have an ‘I hate my body’ moment every single day.” The Special K solution? Focus on “what we should change instead of what we can’t.”
The overall message from the campaign is that by accepting our bodies and “ditch[ing] the doubt,” we as women can empower ourselves. Natasha Millar, a senior director at Kellogg Canada, hopes the ads will change the way consumers view Special K. Instead of being told what we should look like, the brand wants to focus on overall wellness—which, in their mind, involves body positivity.
The way it works, according to Special K, is that when women “take control of self-doubt, they are stronger, more confident, healthier and ultimately empowered,” Millar said in an Adnews interview. This basis of corporate body positivity campaigns lies in the idea that we need constant affirmation from the world that we’re worthy and that we’re enough.
The variety of brand ads in this group—almost exclusively geared toward female consumers—appeal to many because they claim to provide an easy, quick fix to a problem women have struggled with for centuries. They keep us looking outside of ourselves—to media, celebrities and advertising—for our worthiness. Body-positive advertising masks the fundamental truth that we already have the ability to empower ourselves, to #Ownit in our lives, decisions and self-worth. We don’t need Special K, Dove or any other brand to tell us we’re worthy, despite what we’re being sold.
Buzzwords like “strength,” “real beauty” and “own it” are facades for commercial speech that, at its core, exploits our basic human drive to belong and feel accepted by selling a pseudo-empowerment message.
Special K is selling you cereal, but they also want to sell you self-worth. Don’t buy into it.
