It seems that Mr. Barack Obama’s campaign crew has reached a superb, and humorous, ability to spread the presidential candidate image around the world.

Meet Mr. Cláudio Henrique dos Anjos, 39 years old, the brazilian Barack Obama, as he presents himself, in his campaign running for Belford Roxo city hall.

Who is the real deal?

Belford Roxo is a poor city near Rio de Janeiro, and has never been governed by a black man or woman.

Mr. Obama (the brazilian one) is one of the six candidates in Brazil that uses Mr. Obama (the original) name in order to catch a hike along publicity between voters.

I could write something about how diminishing this is for a serious candidate and for brazilian electoral process. But I’ll leave it to you. This time, this post will stay with the funny part of it.

We are beer bottles

Dictatorship of beauty is a well known concept in western countries. The United States and Europe are, in my point of view, the icons of this modern and sad culture to glorify good-looks, leaving behind the true beauty of a fruitful mind.

But Brazil does not stand far behind. In fact, our behinds are way more advanced than other country’s. And this is not a joke, it’s a matter of national care. Here, having a perfectly shaped body that matches the common pattern of beauty may represent the only way to have a way in life.

We see beauty clinics opening and advertising everywhere, aiming to attract both the rich and the poor to a massage table or to a surgical center. Gyms pop out from nowhere and get packed everyday, no matter how much they cost. Stores specialized in selling supplementary products, like amino-acids, proteins and fat burners are easily found wherever you look. It’s not even difficult for a normal citizen to find and buy prohibited steroids in some gyms and drugstores.

There are plenty of factors that contribute to this paranoia. The main one, in my opinion, is the large influence of TV and magazine ads.

Brazilian women are definitely amongst the prettier of the world. But it’s a shame they’re treated like garbage by ourselves. Actresses are compared to beer bottles; auditorium TV shows have their peek of audience when the camera zooms almost inside of their soul; sex tourism is one of the main income activities of some cities, and nothing is done to, at least, try to cover it up a little.

And, thanks to the massive brainwash, a large quantity of women think this is ok and actually work hard to become the most desirable object of the society.

For me, the most dramatic issue of this regards young people. Not just girls, but boys too are unsatisfied with their bodies, even tough they all have no apparent reason to feel this way. Beauty treatments (even surgery) are attracting more and more teenagers to a situation that can definitely ruin their health. And nothing is being said about it.

I believe there should be a more reasonable way of creating ads, specially those made for men. If the message continues to be sent like is being sent today, maybe tomorrow no one will have brains to understand that the ad is to buy the beer, not the woman.