The presentation, "Looks Aren't Everything. Believe Me I'm a Model," is a TED talk given by Cameron Russell. TED is "a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks" according to the official TED website. Cameron Russell is a world wide famous super model who gave this talk to attempt to debunk common beliefs on modeling and beauty in general. In the current day world, it is a culture obsessed with the ideal look of beauty and dissatisfaction with ones' own body and appearance. Hearing and seeing Russell's powerful examples of false beauty of the modeling world and who she is as a person sans the effects of the behind the seanes of modeling, give viewers much needed perspective of the influence and perception of beauty. Russell's speech is very effective to viewers due to her usage of persuasive techniques such as visuals (including herself), honesty, and by default; her credibility. 

Russell's speech is very effective for many ways through the usage of different persuasive strategies. A major one is that she uses lots of effective visuals; she uses herself physically as well as images on the projector screen behind her on stage. A visual she uses right at the start is herself; she at first comes out on the stage wearing a tight short black dress and red heels. She then puts a long skirt, a sweater, and flats on. She points out to the audience how their perspective of her completely changed just because of her clothing appearance. This technique is effective for multiple reasons, one being that it brings an element of surprise. The audience was surely not expecting this famous model to change her posh outfit to something very conservative especially right in front of their eyes. This demonstration automatically captures the audience's attention from the start. This clothing change was also a successful method because she didn't just tell the audience that their opinions would change; she showed them. Most people generally like to see and understand things for themselves, and by doing this she gave them that. 

 Another visual rhetorical technique she uses is again involving herself, but this time it is by using images on the projector screen behind her. She shows her modeling pictures at a particular age then right next to it, a picture of her that same age in her everyday real life. She looked totally different without all of the makeup and lights and retouching. It shows just how much make up, lights and outfits really can change how a person looks and how prominent fake beauty really is. In one very powerful image comparison it has one of her first model shoot images where she looks easily 25 years old but then an image pops up next to it and it looks as if it could be a totally different girl. It is still Russell, actually on that very same day. She was not 25, but just a normal 15-year-old looking girl. Seeing this evidence as proof helps the viewer feel an emotional connection to Russell. Seeing her as a normal girl with out her presented model looks makes her relatable to the audience and viewers all over. The common perspective of models is that they are naturally perfect people. By showing these images to the audience it continues to help her debunk the idea of perfection and beauty. Like the clothing change, Russell uses these things so the audience can see it to believe it. 

In addition to Russell demonstrating the illusions of the camera she then persuades the audience by speaking honestly with them about her experiences in the modeling world. She truthfully answers questions that people all over the world have about modeling. She tells the upmost blunt truth; especially when it comes to the question of does she get lots of free stuff from being a model. The answer was yes but not in the reason that most people would think. She uses two great examples from her life. One was when she was at a designer store and forgot her credit card, she got all of her dresses for free. Another was when her and one of her friends got pulled over for speeding they did not even get a ticket because in her words she's "a pretty girl". She incorporates humor with the truth through out her presentation as well making it even more effective. She demonstrated with her own body how "walking" shots are captured. She demonstrated how she would simply frolic back and forth back an forth back and forth in front of the camera till the got the perfect shot. The seemingly candid walking photos of models aren't the apparent perfect unplanned images that they seem to be to viewers. The audience wants to hear the truth and how she incorporates it with humor it makes it even easier for the audience to take and understand for them selves. She doesn't sugar coat the industry of modeling and beauty she tells it like it is and how she sees it. She even tells something that she never publically has before; she tells the audience that she is actually insecure. She is insecure because her looks are constantly being analyzed by everyone. It is her actual job to look good.

Russell's use of visual elements makes sense in relation to why she was asked to speak at TED because she is a model, because of how she looks, but this demonstration has another emphasis on society as a whole. This topic of beauty is particularly relevant with the worlds current day perspective and views on body image and self beauty. Cameron used specific statistics in surveys that were taken about young girls in 2011. The results showed that about 50% of 13-year-old girls were unhappy with their body's and that the number jumped to 70% of girls by the time they were 17 years old. A lot of the reason behind this is because of how perfect models seem. Images of perfect looking models are constantly bombarding women and men's every day life's. Cameron explains that she simply won a lottery with her looks from a legacy. The legacy of beauty according to her is tall, skinny, white women and she just happens to fit the cratered. The fact that young girls are having all these body image issues makes her talk that much more relevant. 

The fact that Cameron Russell is a model gives her the element of credibility to talk about beauty and modeling. If it was just any old girl giving this talk it would not have nearly as much credibility making this talk much less effective. The fact that she starts out her talk with sharing that she is a model the giving a brief slide with her career of the past 10 years lets the audience see that this girl really does know what she's talking about and clearly has valid back ground information on the topic. Another thing that gives this speech credibility is the fact that it is a TED talk. TED talks have world wide credibility and they wouldn't just put their name behind something or someone if it wasn't valid and trustworthy. The talk is given on a stage in front of a life audience, not just on any old street corner or a girl saying this at the grocery store. 

The visualization and other techniques that Russell uses are so straight forward it makes it easy for the viewers to see and understand the points she is making. The audience can see that she really is just a normal girl when she presents images of herself in real life with out all the glitz and fancy cameras. The way she is honest with the audience contributes to them trusting her which allows people to be more easily persuaded.  The rhetorical techniques Russell uses make her speech so persuasive since they all have a specific purpose to hit viewers in the most effective way; but also as Russell noted, body image is a huge issue in current day society and viewers want to see and hear that all of the beauty seen from models isn't real. Russell does this for viewers all over.

