Proceedings of The 5th Global Conference on Women’s Studies
Year: 2023
DOI:
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Social Responsibility of Advertising and Female Beauty: A Documentary Analysis of Recent Laws and Regulations in Brazil and Portugal
Hadassa Guimarães Oliveira
ABSTRACT:
This work seeks to verify, through documentary analysis, how advertising has been regulated in Brazil and Portugal, noting its social responsibility towards the representativeness and diversity of female beauty, taking into account the mental and physical health of women. So, seeking to compare these countries – which are historically and culturally connected -, it was verified that in Brazil, there are already some norms regarding advertising content for indicating the use of image editing, as well as for identifying the disclosed content to be or not a paid ad. In Portugal, although the journey is taking place more slowly, the country is within the European Union and may be covered by the “Digital Services Act” bill, which aims to regulate advertising content about beauty in order to “provide a safer environment in social networks and protecting children’s mental health” (Dove, 2023). In both countries there are already regulatory laws on the non-objectification of women in advertising content, but there is none regarding the regulation of the social responsibility of advertising towards the propagation of beauty standards that involve plastic surgery and aesthetic procedures that are dangerous, for example. Therefore, there is a need for laws that are effectively in force to protect women for content related to the symbolic violence of female beauty standards in these countries. Accordingly, future studies are needed to analyze this debate, in order to verify what has already been achieved and what impacts it has had on the lives of women in these countries.
keywords: beauty standards, advertising regulation, social responsibility of advertising; Brazil and Portugal, society