Body image is undoubtedly important in everyone's life. The main objective of this thesis is to find its importance for marketing. To achieve this goal, it was necessary to find out the society's opinions on the issue of beauty and body image, how do media picture human body and if there exists a difference between these two things. The first part of this theses consists of the historical development of the beauty ideal. It is followed by segmentation of Czech population, based on the data from the project MML-TGI, survey focused on beauty preferences and content analysis of lifestyle magazines. The findings support among other things the importance of beauty to most people, media's focus on extreme thinness for females and disparity between the presented ideal and people's preferences. The results lead to one conclusion: the importance of body image for marketing exists and is significant.

The thesis is focused on an issue of attainable beauty ideal and its possible negative consequences mainly on adolescent audience. It also deals with the possible ethical questions that are related to the beauty ideal with the young audience. This narrow part of the poulation was selected because of the the fact, that they are the at the biggest risk. The theoretical part describes the related experiments and also shows some examples of different approach to beauty in marketing communication. The practical part of the theses consists of two parts, questionnaire survey and an in-depth interview with the specialists in the psychology and marketing. The conclusion of the work indicates, that young people are aware of the relationship between the beauty ideal and the negative consequences, but, as the rest of the population, do not perceive this phenomenon as an ethical issue.

<p>The purpose of the study was to inquire into pupils’ attitude towards the current beauty ideal from a gender- and an ethnicity perspective. The study was based on a quantitative survey among 116 young students about prevailing beauty ideal from two different schools in the Stockholm area. The result showed that the students are partially characterized by the stereotyped images of women and men but that there are tendencies towards another view especially among the girls. It is however clear that appearance still is important. A majority of the boys agreed in the statements that it is important to have a good-looking girlfriend and that girls should be thin. Both sexes believed that a person who is beautiful gets better treatment. Both also agreed in the statement that boys should be well trained. Most of the students are however satisfied with their own appearance and body and would not want to change. The study has shown that there are differences in attitudes when it comes to both gender and ethnicity. The emerged results were introduced in three different themes and were analyzed on the basis of gender-theory and metacognition and were compared with prior research, which showed that there were both similarities and differences.</p>

The purpose of the study was to inquire into pupils’ attitude towards the current beauty ideal from a gender- and an ethnicity perspective. The study was based on a quantitative survey among 116 young students about prevailing beauty ideal from two different schools in the Stockholm area. The result showed that the students are partially characterized by the stereotyped images of women and men but that there are tendencies towards another view especially among the girls. It is however clear that appearance still is important. A majority of the boys agreed in the statements that it is important to have a good-looking girlfriend and that girls should be thin. Both sexes believed that a person who is beautiful gets better treatment. Both also agreed in the statement that boys should be well trained. Most of the students are however satisfied with their own appearance and body and would not want to change. The study has shown that there are differences in attitudes when it comes to both gender and ethnicity. The emerged results were introduced in three different themes and were analyzed on the basis of gender-theory and metacognition and were compared with prior research, which showed that there were both similarities and differences.

Skönhetsideal är ett område som är aktuellt i dagens samhälle. Skönhet har genom alla tider haft en stor inverkan på framförallt kvinnor. Syftet med vår uppsats är att studera, förstå och förklara åtta unga kvinnors upplevelser och attityder till det rådande skönhetsidealet samt vad det är som påverkar kvinnorna till att de vill eller har genomgått skönhetsförändringar. Uppsatsen har sin utgångspunkt i våra frågeställningar som är följande: (1) Hur upplever unga kvinnor det rådande skönhetsidealet? (2)Vad är drivkrafterna som gör att unga kvinnor genomgår skönhetsförändringar? Undersökningen är en kvalitativ studie baserad på semistrukturerade djupintervjuer med åtta unga kvinnor i Halmstad. Reflexivitet i det moderna samhället, objektifiering och intrycksstyrning, användes som teoretiska perspektiv. Dessa teorier är sociologiska analysverktyg som har använts för att förstå och förklara kvinnors attityder till det rådande skönhetsidealet. Resultatet visade att de unga kvinnornas upplevelser av det rådande skönhetsidealet innebar att man som kvinna ska vara ung, smal, vacker och vältränad. Dagens rådande skönhetsideal visade sig vara det ideal som ansågs vara mest hälsosamt, jämfört med tidigare skönhetsideal. De unga kvinnorna blev i största utsträckning inspirerade av sociala medier när det kommer till skönhet. Kvinnorna var positivt inställda till skönhetsoperationer och plastikkirurgi ansågs vara ett medel för att förbättra utseendet samt stärka kvinnors självkänsla samt självförtroende. / The beauty ideal constitutes a significant part of today's society. Beauty has throughout the time had a great impact on women in particular. The purpose of our paper is to study, understand and explain eight young women's experiences and attitudes towards society’s ideal of beauty, and what it is that makes them want to or go through beauty changes. The study has its starting point in our two questions: (1) How do young women experience the current beauty ideal? (2) What are the driving forces for young women to undergo beauty changes? This study, is a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with eight young women in Halmstad. Our theoretical perspective used are reflexivity of modern society, objectification and impression management. These theories will be the sociological analysis tools in order to understand and explain women's attitudes to the current ideal of beauty. The results indicated that the young women's experiences of the current ideal of beauty meant that the women should be young, slim, beautiful and fit. Today's current ideal of beauty proved to be the ideal that was considered most healthy, comparing to previous beauty ideals. The young women were very inspired by social media when it comes to beauty. The women were positive about cosmetic surgery and plastic surgery was considered out to be a tool to improve the appearance and enhance women's self-esteem and self-confidence.

Since 2004, the Dove personal care product brand has received much praise for widening the definition and discussion of beauty through the use of nontraditional models in its Campaign for Real Beauty advertisements. This study examined the content of the Campaign for Real Beauty ads and the content of ads in magazines that ran Campaign for Real Beauty ads. This textual analysis of a series of five Campaign for Real Beauty billboards, commonly referred to as the Dove Vote Ads, sought to determine whether the message of the Dove Vote Ads was consistent with the Campaign for Real Beauty's stated mission of societal change and widening the societal definition of beauty. The content analysis portion of this study examined 785 female models in fashion magazine advertisements in a longitudinal analysis spanning the five years surrounding the introduction of the campaign. While the textual analysis questioned whether there were conflicting messages inherent in the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty advertisements, the content analysis sought to determine whether there was a measurable change in the appearance of stereotypical beauty ideals and gender role portrayals after the introduction of the advertising campaign. This was accomplished through an examination of the 785 female models that appeared in the September 2004 and 2008 issues of Cosmopolitan and Glamour, the highest circulation fashion magazines. This mixed-method study addressed two research questions and seven hypotheses. The manifest message of each advertisement, which encourages the audience to rethink standard notions of beauty, is contradicted by the latent themes. The five years between 2003 and 2008 saw a significant increase in diversity of the female models shown in advertisements. Additionally, women were shown as more powerful in 2008 using a variety of techniques. These shifts, if sustained over time, will serve as evidence of the social and cultural influence of advertising campaigns.

The content of the Diploma is the introduction and analysis of body image including historical development, cultural and social impacts and the differences of men's and women's images. The marketing view of this problems and the introduction of interesting campaigns in the body image is important as well. In the next part of Diploma I compare two lifestyle magazines from two different countries -- the Czech Republic and Sweden -- with the help of comparative analysis. The aim of the analysis is to compare the meaningful differences between the body images in both countries, which will appear during the research of the magazines. Thanks to evaluation of a lot of categories the very interesting results developed. The most important of them is the fact that a wide range of multinational advertisements appeared in both magazines. In spite of it some cultural and anthropological differences were discovered.

To produce norms and beauty ideals through visual representations - A semiotic and multimodal study of how companies construct the “perfect body”.The aim of this qualitative study is to investigate how clothing companies, with the help of visual representations, construct, confirm and/or whether they challenge different norms and ideologies regarding the "perfect body". Based on the above-mentioned research aim, this thesis aspires to answer the following research questions:- How do visual representations on Instagram contribute to constructing, confirming and/or challenging beauty ideals and norms? - What are the norms regarding each gender according to the analyzed visual representations?In order to address the study’s aim and research questions, this study adopts a case study design which is based on qualitative methodology. More specifically, this thesis conducts a multimodal semiotic analysis of a Swedish clothing company’s Instagram posts. Based on a purposeful collection method, the study offers an in-depth analysis of six Instagram posts, considered to be representative of the company’s overall marketing strategy.Drawing from theoretical perspectives such as, social constructivism, social semiotics, self-discrepancy and poststructuralist feminism this thesis shows cases that both can confirm and contest society’s norms and beauty ideals. In summary, this thesis shows that the company under investigation both constructs and contests ideals and norms regarding the "perfect body", for the individual gender. These ideals are confirmed by creating visual representations where only people who meet society's ideals and norms are presented. The company thus does not challenge the notion of the "perfect body", which is a fit and thin body.

The last decade has seen the rise of a new trinity of supermodels, the so-called Insta-girls, Kendall Jenner, Gigi, and Bella Hadid. Besides mastering the art of digital self-promotion, they belong to famous Californian families with strong ties to show business. Their impressive climb to the top has made them the most followed and paid models in the fashion industry. Nevertheless, their role in contemporary visual and celebrity culture has been scarcely inquired about by academics. The aim of this thesis is to explore through a critical visual analysis of their representations how and if the newfound role of social media as a source of stardom is challenging established myths of celebrity and ingrained high fashion beauty ideals. Firstly, through the use of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of the ‘Field’ and Olivier Driessens’ schema of ‘Celebritization’, it is analyzed how the Insta-girls have designed their personas, their public mask, mimicking previous templates of the fashion modeling field. Secondly, through the lenses of Sandra Lee Bartky and Susan Bordo, two feminist theorists who have assessed and discussed how women regulate and discipline their bodies, this thesis shows how the Insta-girls, despite their celebrity status, have been scrutinized according to the rigid body standards required of fashion models.

This diploma thesis is concerned with the problematic of the links between self-presentation on social networks (SNS) and female beauty ideal. The thesis defines the beauty ideal as social construct, because every culture has its own beauty ideal and every period held its own standards on what is considered as beutiful. The thesis is also based on assumption that definitions of beauty are multidimensional and is focused on several beauty ideals. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate ways of self-presentation of women on social networks in the context of ideal of beauty. The research is based on the analysis of profile pictures on social networks and is also based on qualitative method of grounded theory. The final results show that the dominant way of visual self-presentation is represented by selfies. But the research has also shown that in each group there is a minority group of women who present themselves in accordance with the chosen ideal of beauty. Differences are described at the end of the thesis.