I Want to Keep My Adolescent Skin

What is make-up? Make-up is a product and a right of passage for young girls. At an early age children learn what make-up is, usually by watching their mothers apply it each morning. Some children may grow-up to learn the phrase, “I can’t leave the house without putting on my face” as heard from their mothers. What a strange comment to tell your children. According to Jean Kilbourne, who wrote the Killing Us Softly series, “Youth learn at a very early age that appearance is of utmost importance and that it is not acceptable to leave the home without looking your best.” As children grow older this stigma of appearance begins to embed itself within the child’s way of thinking and even acting because awareness of advertisements gets introduced and becomes mainstream as we grow older.

Advertisements affect everyone, from the very youngest to the very eldest. Are advertisements merely trying to get us to buy a certain product or is there “something” more to the ads we see everyday and everywhere? Kilbourne claims that “Advertisements sell not only products but also the look of youth. And they tell us who we are; who we should be, and provide women with the idea of what and ideal women should look like.” However, is you peeling back the layers of advertisements and view them through a microscope, one can learn that there is much more to advertisements than just “face” value. Advertisements today target a variety of consumers, however; make-up advertisements target women and adolescent girls. And these ads send a message that society values appearance, has a deeply rooted fear of aging, and values women who appear 10 years younger than their true age.

In analyzing three advertisements for make-up: Avon, Covergirl, and Maybelline, i...

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...nd every corner we turn? The message is simple – America has a deeply rooted feared of growing old and appearing to look ones age. Society says that it is acceptable for women to pride in ones own appearance and promote a look of youth and adolescence. However, the message that advertisers send is that in order to achieve this goal she must “hide” behind the make-up she wears that helps her achieve her look of youth, which in turn tells our youth that it is acceptable to wear a “mask” and that aging is not an acceptable form of being a women in society.

Works Cited:

Kilbourne, Jeanne. Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women. DVD. Media Education Foundation, 2010.

ANew Platinum. Advertisement. Avon, Campaign 16: 80. Print

Covergirl. Advertisement. Marie Claire, August 2011: 8. Print

Maybelline. . Advertisement. Marie Claire, August 2011: 74. Print