Fear not.
It was fear that created bad breath.
In fact, it was the very ad series above. “Halitosis makes you unpopular.”
Do you know what halitosis is? Probably.
100 years ago, though, nobody did. It was an obscure word pulled out of a medical journal that was old even at the time.
But because it was Latin, it sounded medical-y. And so The Lambert Pharmaceutical Company, makers of an antiseptic for cleaning out mouths before dental surgery, decided to find a new market for their Listerine Mouthwash.
But it wasn’t a market that existed before. Sure, people had bad breath. It was something that mankind knew from the time someone got close enough to kiss another person. And Lambert Pharmaceuticals weren’t the first to think “you know, people might want to have fresh breath.”
3000 years ago, the Egyptions boiled herbs and spices with honey to create what are arguably the first breath mints.
And about 600 years ago, the first toothbrushes were made in China, from boar bristles.
But Lambert Pharmaceuticals knew that most people didn’t really care.
So rather than creating a market by selling the benefits of their product, they created a campaign based on fear.
“Enter Edna, a beautiful young woman with all of the charm and social graces that made her desirable, except for one fatal flaw – Edna suffered from halitosis. What made it worse was that she didn’t even know it! Not even her closest friends would tell her and so Poor Edna, despite all of her charms, was ‘always the bridesmaid and never the bride.’”
See what they did there? They sold their product to women based on the fear that they wouldn’t be desirable if they had stinky breath. They created a “don’t be an Edna” campaign.
In the first episode of Mad Men, Don Draper says "Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And do you know what happiness is? … It's freedom from fear."
Create the fear, then create a solution to that fear. The idea has been used over and over again.
Sometimes the fear already exists. After the 9/11 attacks on New York, the Hummer was sold as a safe, secure vehicle for driving about the city, to keep you safe from the fear of terrorists.
And during a bout of bird flu, advertisers used fear of illness to sell antibacterial soap, even though regular soap is just as good.
Heck, remember how much hand sanitizer was sold during Covid, even though washing your hands for 30 seconds with plain old soap was just as good?
But sometimes, as above, fear is created.
One of my favourite examples of this is the example of dihydrogen monoxide.
Here’s the Materials Safety Data Sheet for dihydrogen monoxide:
Dihydrogen monoxide:
is also known as hydroxyl acid, and is the major component of acid rain.
contributes to the "greenhouse effect".
may cause severe burns.
contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape.
accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals.
may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes.
has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.
Despite the danger, dihydrogen monoxide is often used:
as an industrial solvent and coolant.
in nuclear power plants.
in the production of styrofoam.
as a fire retardant.
in many forms of cruel animal research.
in the distribution of pesticides. Even after washing, produce remains contaminated by this chemical.
as an additive in certain "junk-foods" and other food products.
Of course, it you know your latin, di means two and mono means one. Two hydrogens and one oxygen make water.
All the information presented is accurate, but the way it is presented is designed to instil fear into people.
And fear of missing out is so prevalent, it has become an acronym: FOMO.
All this is to say my goal here is not to scare you. It’s not to say you need to lose 20 lbs or that you need to buy this item to make you more beautiful.
My goal here is to identify those fears that society is trying to impose on you—fear of missing out, fear of not getting married, fear of not fitting in, fear of bad breath—and maybe provide an inoculation against them.
Maybe I am trying to create fear around fear-based marketers. I’m trying not to. Instead, I just wanted you to know that you are beautiful the way you are.
Yes, take care of yourself. Brush your teeth. Bathe. Exercise. But don’t be fooled into thinking that it makes you a better person. Do it for your quality of life. Do it because it makes you happy. Don’t do it because you saw an ad showing claiming that you would never get a date because you didn’t use Listerine.
It’s hard, because we are influenced more than we care to admit by our monkey brains, our lizard brains. But if we are aware of this fact, we can hopefully not allow ourselves to be ruled by them.
But what does this all have to do with Boudoir? Just this: you are not less beautiful because you decided not to do the shoot. Yes, I believe that seeing ourselves through someone else’s eyes—through the eyes of someone who sees the best in use—can be a powerful tool in helping us accept ourselves. But it’s not the only way. And it’s not the way for everyone. I have heard from many women how they did a boudoir shoot and it made them feel worse about themselves, not better. I know many people who just aren’t in the right headspace to make that leap. Because even though I will create images with all kindness and gentleness and love and respect, if you’re not willing to see yourself with kindness and gentleness and love and respect, all you’ll see are your flaws.
So I’m not going to promise that a boudoir shoot will make you a better person. That it will grant you empowerment and that all the issues you have with your significant other will immediately go away. As much as I would love that, it is beyond my abilities as a photographer. What I can promise, though, is that I will create images that present you in the best possible light, that will capture your beauty in a way that is as unique as you are.
And I apologize if my words have ever caused you fear. I don’t want you to be scared of missing out, of somehow being lesser because you didn’t do the shoot.
But I want you to know that I am here, when you’re ready to shoot. Not out of fear, but because you want to. Because you choose to. Because you’re ready to show the world—or at least yourself—a glimpse of the badass that you’ve become.