Self-Love is the strong sense of respect for and confidence in oneself. It is different from narcissism in that as one practices acceptance and detachment, the awareness of the individual shifts and the individual starts to see him or herself as an extension of all there is. Ultimately, the identification of “I” from a personal individual perspective, shifts to “I” from a perspective of consciousness or life being experienced from the perceptual point of view that we call by our individual names.
Self-love can be taught in childhood through honesty, acceptance and unconditional love. Since most parents have their own self-doubts and limiting beliefs, they project these onto their children and the cycles of self-rejection and self-abuse repeat themselves. In 1956 psychologist and social philosopher Erich Fromm proposed that loving oneself is different from being arrogant, conceited or egocentrc.
He proposed that loving oneself means caring about oneself, taking responsibility for oneself, respecting oneself, and knowing oneself (e.g. being realistic and honest about one’s strengths and weaknesses). He proposed, further, that in order to be able to truly love another person, a person needs first to love oneself in this way. We don’t know how to call the advertising campaign below: Self-Love or Self-Obsession?
Marc Jacobs stripped down to be the face and body of his new men’s fragrance BANG. “Once I agreed to be the model, I couldn’t see what I would wear to express this. We tried it with clothes, but it didn’t work. Then Juergen [Teller, who shot the campaign] had the idea for the silver Mylar, and it all came together,” Jacobs said. Posing nude was Robert Duffy’s idea, but not all markets have seen the full version of the ad.
The “Midwestern” image is cropped at the shoulders and the Middle East ad is just a picture of the bottle. Both Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs have the self confidence (or maybe the self obsession) to use themselves as models in ad campaigns for fragranceor fashion. However we consider this a bad tasting advertising and hope any other serious designer will repeat.