Visual Analysis Of Hands By Casa Do Menor

In Casa do Menor’s 2009 campaign advertisement entitled Hands, a little blonde girl is standing in the middle of a living room, naked. However, innumerable masculine hands that seem to be touching her in a sensual manner array her body.Also, she is holding a blonde Barbie doll in her hand with her gaze fixed at the camera. The background setting is of a normal living room with a coffee table, sofa, chair, and photographs on the wall. There are also books neatly stacked on top of each other on a small table. Oddly enough, there is an evil looking toy clown on top of the books. Yet another anomaly is the teddy bear that is carelessly laid under the sofa. Other than that, the lamp at the corner of the room shines brightly in contrast of the darkened
The lighting’s contrasting effect causes the nude little girl to grab our attention first compared to the whole setting. Only then, our eyes would wander to the dimmed background that is made to represent the child’s hidden secrets of being abused. Consequently, the reader’s focus is drawn mainly on the girl, thus noticing her every gesture. She is staring at the camera while bearing an “empty” expression. She does not appear frightened nor does she look like she is struggling. Instead, the look on her face shows that she is numb, as if she is used to the violence. Moreover, readers can feel like she is fixing her gaze directly at them and this pulls their heartstrings that a little girl can bear so much pain at such an early stage of life. Nonetheless, the combination of the hands and her unclothed body in the picture alone can already relay the message of sexual abuse to the
Nevertheless, instead of symbolizing that purity, the contrast between the clothed doll and the bare child makes the ad more twisted, as if dropping the doll would mean losing all of her purity. To illustrate this further, the teddy bear is sprawled under the couch. The couch should provide comfort and relaxation for a family, but instead, it engulfs the stuffed bear the same way the abuser, who would seem to come from a trusted company, engulfs the girl’s innocence. Indeed, the little girl is left alone in the darkness of her tainted world just as the bear is left alone in the darkness beneath the couch. On the contrary, the bright light coming from the lamp at the corner of the room offers a glimmer of hope for the little girl. Next, the colorful toy clown in the foreground draws our attention because its colors contrast the dark subtle colors of everything else. Even though a clown is a symbol of comedy and entertainment, it is normal for kids to consider a clown frightening due to its static facial features. Kids tend to see clowns as an evil and intimidating figure. In other words, clowns are the prefect definition of a childhood nightmare. Likewise, in the eyes of the girl, the abuser is like a clown; evil and intimidating, her worst