Believe It? Or not?

Usually it takes bright colors and a catchy slogan to catch my attention, but not in this case. When flipping through August 27^th 2007’s issue of In Touch Weekly, I noticed an article featuring this Britney Spears’s latest print ad for the launch of her new perfume Believe. The headline read, “Is this Britney’s body? A gorgeous, too-perfect ad for the pop star’s new perfume has fans scratching their heads.” I wasn’t really sure what to believe after reading the article, so with the help of the wonderful World Wide Web, I done some additional research and came to my own conclusion.

First off, I took a good look at the ad. I can defiantly associate the perfume’s name with the advertisement because I don’t ‘believe’ this is 100% Britney. Photoshop can do wonders these days, which I realized after watching the Dove 'Real Beauty’ Commercial on YouTube the other day in class. The first thing that popped into my mind is obviously that isn’t Britney’s real hair! I guess her almost bare head of hair would be a totally turn-off for the ad though, causing her product to probably not be as successful. Next I noticed something just as surprising. If anyone has been keeping tabs on Britney, or just glancing at magazine covers at the grocery store, you would know that she has defiantly put on a little weight. Her body in the ad appears toned and with some pretty impressive abs! In reality, she he hasn’t looked that trimmed in quite sometime. My conclusion: This must be the result of the ‘Photoshop Diet!’

The tone of the ad is very calm, but the birds and bird cages don’t really make any sense to me. The only reason I can think of off the top of my mind is maybe the scent is somewhat nature like, yet I could be completely wrong! Actually, this ad leaves me clueless about what the new perfume will smell like. Shouldn’t that be what they are trying to sell? It appears to me as if they are trying to market Britney more than her perfume. Apparently it’s not something fruity or they would have used brighter colors. Maybe they are leaving it up to our imagination to where we will have to purchase it at the end of September to find out.

On a more positive note, the one aspect I particularly like is how they placed the nicely designed bottle on the ad. Myself, I tend to buy products simply because they look pretty. Of course when it comes to a perfume, the smell does matter, but the looks of the bottle is what grabs my attention. I’m not going to pick up an ugly bottle of perfume to smell it! In my opinion this is nicely designed and something that I would consider worthy enough to sit out on my dresser. I also give the company kudos for using somewhat the same hue of green for the logo’s text as the bottle, yet considering that is about all of the color in the ad, hopefully it is enough to get one’s attention.

Rumors have circulated that it isn’t even Britney in her own ad, but possibly another person’s body with Britney’s head. Of course that is very possible, but after reviewing others' comments and concerns about this ad, I have come to my very own conclusion: I 'believe' this is really Britney, but who ever Photoshoped this ad, should get a raise! Although this isn’t an ad that would necessarily catch my attention and persuade me to purchase the perfume, I do personally believe the ‘Photoshoper’ done a pretty great job, considering what they originally had to work with. So…what do you ‘believe’?