White Asian skin against tanningWritten by Dana Scripca
It seems that everybody is longing after golden skin. Everybody, except Asian population, not so excited with tanning, sun or sunless, neither. On contrary, Asian people love to be pale skin.The paler skin, higher class Pale skin has had an exciting evolution. Greek and Roman women used to do anything possible to whiten their face skin; whiter their face skin was, more beautiful they were considered. Sun tanning was out of question. By using lead paints and chalks women put themselves in great danger because that ancient beauty treatment could cause death by slow poisoning. It was only too late when this was discovered. The obsesssion with white, "porcelain"- like skin evolved beyond cosmetic reasons, becoming more related to social classes. Skin color became that visible definer separating working classes from ruling classes. A tanned skin disclosed a life of outdoor labor; those wishing to be accepted in high-life had to conform to this requirement: white, not tanned skin. The paler one's skin, higher class. To achieve this, men and women had no limits; any method, safe or not, was used, as being pale was extremely important. Asia: white skin is considered a symbol of femininity The tanning obsession and later, sunless tanning craze took over world. Still, there are white "spots" on worldwide tanning roadmap. Asian people are not so excited with golden skin. And this has a lot to do with their millenary culture, somehow reluctant to these trends. What do Asian females have and others don't? There are few differences to take into account. Teams of scientists and dermatologists who have studied eight Asian cities (Sendai, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Guangzhou, Shanghai and Harbin, China; Calicut and New Delhi, India; and Manila, Philippines (representative of Malay skin) have some interesting findings to reveal: 1. Hyperpigmentation (dark spots) has an earlier onset than wrinkles and laxity (loss of firmness) on Asian skin (compared to Caucasians). 2. The Japanese have lightest skin tone; thus, Japanese women have low melanin and skin redness. The Indians have darkest skin tone, and therefore high melanin content and skin redness. 3. Asian skin has a better behavior during cooler months; because of reduced sun exposure, Asian women's skin has better biomechanical properties such as elasticity and structures (collagen). 4. Skin becomes yellowish with age and this is more visible in Chinese and Korean skin than other racial groups. 5. Japanese skin has best condition (least deterioration with age), while Indian skin has worst.
| | What about Juan Valdez?Written by Iulia Pascanu
Juan Valdez is a most popular figure in advertising world and symbol of Columbian 'cafetelero' since 1959.Juan Valdez is a fictious character created in 1959 to represent National Federation of Coffee Growers of Columbia (founded 1926). His appearance is one of steadiest in advertising world, including allmost mythical moustace, sombrero, poncho and a mule-companion called Lana. In first commercials, Juan Valdez used to wonder-around in coffee fields, picking with his hands ripe coffee cerries, meaning to be representative of those thousands Colombian 'cafeteros' (also called 'caficultores'). He managed to create a rather romantic figure of this guild, an immage that collected many critics on its road to success. The real situation of cafetero in early days of Juan Valdez was often described as dire poverty, insecurity of life because of guerillas and narco-traficants, not to mention DDT treatments of coffee fields, which sometimes came by surprise, when people were at work. However, a situation that Federation failed to represent. Further, Juan Valdez moved from farm to average woman's kitchen, personaly handing her a bag of - you can immagine - freshly processed coffee beans. In TV commercials, Juan Valdez was first embodied by actor Jose Duval (until 1969, when he was no more representative). Carlos Sanchez of Medellin took his place. In 1980's, Juan Valdez commercials used Rolls Royce cars and luxury home residences. In 1990's, a new campaign idea was released: 'grab life by beans', and Juan Valdez had plenty of those. He's prooven it in idilic frames with him surfing or snowboarding. In late nineties however, Juan Valdez dissapeard for several years from public attention, as Colombian government drastically cut on his advertising funds.
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