Advertising has changed in many ways over the years, growing and maturing to show us what we should be. Because our own self-esteem is not enough, we rely on advertising to tell us what is beautiful and what is not. Whether we realize it or not, beauty is ultimately defined for us. Products are advertised all around us, telling us that something in our life is missing because we do not have a certain product in our possession. Ranging from make-up to plastic surgery, most of this advertising is geared toward women. This can be shown through the advertisements analyzed in this essay. Both ads depict women who are approachable. The older ad depicts simplicity and innocence, while the current ad shows a more complex, sexual look. The images are described in further detail in the following paragraphs.
The first advertisement is from Seventeen magazine in November 1980 and shows a young girl, most likely a teenager. She is wearing a dark blue sweater, but you are only able to see her shoulder and part of her right arm in the picture. Her right hand is placed behind her neck. On her wrist, she is wearing a thick green bracelet. She is smiling and her eyelashes are thick and chunky with mascara, which is the product advertised in this picture. She has brown and blonde hair that is shoulder length. The ends of her short hair are curled upwards. There is white text over the top of the picture that says, “Not just big lashes. Not just thick lashes. But big, thick, just-won’t-quit lashes.” There is also similar white text on the bottom of the advertisement that states, “Take your lashes to the Maxi.” Maxi is the brand name for the mascara being advertised, which is shown in the bottom right corner of the advertisement.
The second advert...
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... a more sexual look to it. Her eyes are smiling and have a look of lust in them. She also has her lips slightly parted, which is sexy because it makes you almost want to kiss her. The old ad girl is smiling and is almost just staring out of the picture. Her eyes seem to convey a look of complete innocence; there is not much sexuality here.
By comparing these two ads, one can easily determine that advertising between the present day and thirty years ago has changed in a number of ways. Back in 1980, beauty and innocence seemed to go hand in hand. Society seemed to prefer a woman who was much more innocent, vulnerable, and submissive. Looking at the ads that are around us today, beauty is defined in a much different way: through sexuality and flawless physical beauty. Perhaps now you have a better idea of how beauty is defined – through advertising.
First, Kilbourne’s research should be praised tremendously for bringing to light the unhealthy impression of true beauty in today’s culture. Kilbourne challenges the audience to reconsider their viewpoints on advertising that is sublime with sexual language. The evolution of advertising and product placement has drastically changed the real meaning of being a woman. According to the movie, every American is exposed to hundreds and thousands of advertisements each day. Furthermore, the picture of an “ideal women” in magazines, commercials, and billboards are a product of numerous computer retouching and cosmetics. Media creates a false and unrealistic sense of how women should be viewing themselves. Instead of being praised for their femininity and prowess, women are turned into objects. This can be detrimental to a society filled with girls that are brainwashed to strive to achieve this unrealistic look of beauty.
This advertisement appears in the Seventeen magazines, whose readers range in age between thirteen and twenty-five. The visual shows a young, blonde, Caucasian female who is attracting the readers to the COVERGIRL™ product. Placing this sort of ad in the Seventeen magazines is appealing to most young women due to the beautiful celebrity, Taylor Swift, who uses the same product. Also, the colors used, such as the pastel pinks, draws in the reader since they are very feminine colors. Finally, the product itself is appealing to the audience of Seventeen because younger women like to look their best, and to do that, lip-gloss is a handy accessory.
When you look at someone the first feature you look at is their eyes. The mascara industry knows this instinct all too well. Two respected companies in the industry are Covergirl and Revlon. In recent years the two companies have had great success in marketing their mascara products. Two of the accomplished lash products are Covergirl’s The Super Sizer and Revlon’s Lash Potion mascaras. In their commercials, the two brands have a few similarities as well as differences. Both commercials have similar target audiences, promise glamorous lash results, and have attractive female endorsers. On the opposing side, the commercials are different in regards to their theme, setting, and the endorsers chosen.
Have you ever wondered where the saying, ‘a picture says a thousand words’, come from? Well, I do not know who came up with this fantastic phrase, but nonetheless, I will be describing and analyzing two different magazine advertisements, trying to put in words what I think the advertisers wanted consumers to receive when those potential buyers viewed their ads. The two advertisements that I chose, Caress and Secret, try to encourage female consumers of all ages to purchase their hygiene products. Although both ads, Caress and Secret, appeal to the same gender with hygiene goods, they differ in design, text, and message. They attempt to please the female buyer with color, texture, and sexuality. This makes it prevalent, that the agents must grab the attention of possible buyers in order to sell their product. The advertisers must choose a variety of marketing strategies to the reach their targeted consumers.
When we’re flipping through a Cosmopolitan magazine, we often times don’t stop to observe advertisements. Some might catch our eye at first glance and some we may hardly recognize. Dove and Olay chose certain colors, repetition, sayings, size, lines and strategies when they developed their advertisements for body wash. Both companies have good and bad things about the advertisements they had published in the magazine that is aimed towards young adults. The two ad’s might make one feel completely different, while they both serve the same purpose.
Today society has never been more aware of the impact the media has on what is considered to be an attractive person. Those who are most vulnerable by what they observe as the American standard of attractiveness and beauty are young females. Their quest to imitate such artificial images of beauty has challenged their health and their lives and has become the concern of many. As a result, advertisements used in the media are featuring more realistic looking people.
The 1920’s advertisement uses sexual and emotional appeals to their targeted audience to persuade them to purchase their product. The way that the 1920’s advertisement uses both appeals is by having a young attractive woman stare sexually at a handsome man who is pouring Budweiser in a glass. The way she is staring at him is as he might be the most attractive man in the room because he is pouring Budweiser. The emotional appeal is the man in the background who seems to be conversing or just admiring the female in the purple dress. They both have a glass of Budweiser in their hand and it is more about emotional appeal than sexual because you can see the difference in the man and woman’s eyes they have two very different looks. The man’s eyes are softer and have more of the look of admiration of the woman in the purple dress. Meanwhile the eyes of the woman in yellow have more of a sexual intention look by looking at the man as piece of meat. The 2006 advertisement is sexualized because of the half-dressed woman who are the focal point of this advertisement. The woman in the advertisement are dressed in what seems like a one-piece bathing suit that show a lot of leg and cleavage. This would most likely get the attention of males than females because this advertisement is targeted more toward men. The 2006 advertisement conveys that if you drink Budweiser you could possibly get a date or “score” with
The first ad is entitled “The Antagonist.” This ad adheres to the usual standards of Skyy advertisements, and it has an underlying theme of white, male supremacy and the female threat to that power.
Makeup ads are debatably the most persuasive ads our society falls victim to on a daily basis. People, mainly women, love to read and hear that they have a chance to look ‘flawless’ or ‘perfect’. The Revlon Just Bitten Kissable ad is under extreme criticism during this essay because it was put together with weasel words, catchy sentences, and a pretty face. Who would not want to look like a celebrity, have amazing skin, and have the perfect kiss whenever they ware with their attractive partner? No one. That is exactly why ads, such as this Revlon lipstick ad, make their companies millions of dollars a year. Revlon has been one of the leading companies for makeup sales since 1931. With that being said, consumers have obviously been pleased with the results of Revlon products. Even though the products are credible and they have been satisfying customers for eighty-three years, they will not make anything about you ‘perfect’.
In addition, both media texts integrate certain perspectives to serve the purpose they aim to achieve. While the advertisement persuades the audience to buy cosmetic products, the news report is written to clarify that negative body image is initiated by cosmetic advertisements. By transmitting an unrealistic beauty ideal, the “Blushing Beauty” advert stereotypes young Women. However, in most cases even men are affected. Furthermore, the newspaper report contains oppositions to cosmetic companies, similarly, the advertisement symbolizes Jane Irdales’ perspective. On the other hand, “a toxic combination of the media, advertising and celebrity culture account for almost three-quarters of the influence o...
The documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses and examines the role of women in advertisements and the effects of the ads throughout history. The film begins by inspecting a variety of old ads. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, then discusses and dissects each ad describing the messages of the advertisements and the subliminal meanings they evoke. The commercials from the past and now differ in some respects but they still suggest the same messages. These messages include but are not limited to the following: women are sexual objects, physical appearance is everything, and women are naturally inferior then men. Kilbourne discusses that because individuals are surrounded by media and advertisements everywhere they go, that these messages become real attitudes and mindsets in men and women. Women believe they must achieve a level of beauty similar to models they see in magazines and television commercials. On the other hand, men expect real women to have the same characteristics and look as beautiful as the women pictured in ads. However, even though women may diet and exercise, the reality...
The subjective element of beauty involves judgment, not opinion. Many people feel beauty is only something seen by the eyes. St. Thomas Aquinas views beauty in both the supernatural and natural orders. Aquinas lists the attributes of beauty to be found in nature. These are; unity, proportion, and clarity. We will see how these attributes of beauty are seen through the eye and felt by the heart.
Analyzing the advertisement, one may infer that the ad is appealing to both male and female. From a male’s perspective, he would notice the sexy female shown in the ad and think “She’s really hot!” and since she is holding a bottle of Coca-Cola, he may think that if he were to buy one, a female, like the one in the ad, would begin to take interest in him. From a female’s perspective, she notices the woman with a bottle and probably thinks, “If I buy myself a coke, I’ll look just as hot as her,” and also has the mindset that she’ll get the best out of the product that she bought. Also, the audience may also take notice that if they themselves were to obtain a bottle of Coca-Cola, they may become more “cool” and appealing to the opposite
...r young, impressionable mind will have been exposed to more than 77,000 advertisements, according to an international study. Last week, it confirmed the link between the images of female perfection that dominate the media and increasing cases of low self-esteem among young women..” (Shields,2007). The propaganda techniques such as liking, sex appeal, and celebrity endorsements are used in advertisements constantly. Commercials on television, billboards, magazines, and various other advertisement types are everywhere you look in America, and sadly it has become very important for women of all ages to try to be perfect. We come into contact with these messages every day, and the beauty industry is getting bigger and bigger. Propaganda has molded our worldly perception of beauty and will only continue to hurt us and gain from our lack of self-esteem if we allow it to.
Estee Lauder’s beauty product is one such advertiser. In an August 2004 issue of Vogue magazine, enclosed was a two-page ad campaign intended to sell Estee Lauder’s “Future Perfect Anti-Wrinkle Radiance Moisturizers SPF.” This advertisment is appealing to the consumer because it stresses the importance of remaining young by the use of this product. This advertisement then goes further to stress that, “The past is forgiven, the present is improved, and the future will be perfect.” This advertisement includes three alluring models, all of which are of different ethnicity but essentially have the same physical attributes. This image is used to appeal to all sorts of American women. The models all have famished bodies; this includes their angular, somewhat gaunt faces and protruding collarbones. Located right below this image is the company’s slogan which reads, “ESTEE LAUDER. Defining Beauty.” The attempt is made with this advertisement to define beauty with images of starved and malnourished models which Estee Lauder claims to be the standard for beauty.