Ad Analysis Rough Draft

Carmen Smith

English 101

Begert 

It is no secret that Americans are bombarded with advertisements everyday. They are on our televisions, in our magazines, on the radio, plastered up on giant billboards on our drives to work, and even on our Facebook pages. Most of the advertisements directed towards women are for products and services to make them beautiful, playing on the notion that every woman wants to feel beautiful. Their products promise to give you “red carpet ready hair”,  “a perfect beach body”, or to “get rid of that pesky cellulite.” The ads always feature young, skinny, beautiful women that have most likely been edited, airbrushed, and retouched to perfection. Ads like these tell women and girls that they are not good enough the way they are; they need these products and services to make them beautiful and to look like the models in the ads, which will in turn make them happy and successful.

For example, the Maybelline ad above for their new ‘dream satin liquid’ foundation promises perfect skin. The young woman’s skin is soft, smooth, and glowing. She has radiant blue eyes that happen to be looking right at you no matter where you are. The woman is wearing barely detectable traces of mascara and eyeliner to keep the focus on her skin and to show that the product is natural-like. Additionally, she is naked, wearing no jewelry, and her hair is back loosely. Maybelline is trying to convey that their foundation is so light and natural; it gives you perfect coverage without weighing you down.

            To the left of the model’s face is the text “Picture your dream skin without pores or flaws.”  The word ‘dream’ is slightly larger and in a different color for emphasis. Phrases in the description of the product like “air-whipped”, “seamless coverage”, “satin smooth finish”, and “picture perfection” are meant to stand out and catch the reader’s attention. With this ad, Maybelline has told women that their dream is, or should be, to have smooth skin with no flaws or blemishes and that this foundation will give them that.  The ad sets unrealistic and unachievable standards and expectations for the results of the product. The woman is very beautiful and obviously has perfect skin. However, this is due to clever editing and retouching, not the foundation itself. But, Maybelline uses this to play on women’s insecurities and desire to be beautiful to get them to buy the product.

Another example of an advertisement designed to make women feel as if they are not good enough the way they are is this ad for Quick Trim, a diet regimen for weight loss.

 

This particular ad features Kim and Khloe Kardashian, famous reality TV stars. Their big smiles and confident stance is designed to show women that using Quick Trim will make them proud of and happy with their bodies, just like Kim and Khloe are. They are both wearing tiny purple bikinis to show off their flat stomachs and visible abs, the advertised results from using Quick Trim.

            This ad aims to make women feel bad about themselves and their bodies so they will buy the product. The rhetorical question being the main way it does this. By asking “How hot can YOU be?” Quick Trim implies that you aren’t good enough the way you are and that you should be “hotter.” Women will see this ad, read that question, compare themselves to Kim and Khloe, and then feel bad about their own bodies. Quick Trim is counting on the ad triggering this negative response in order to make women feel that they need to diet, and therefore they need this product.  Quick Trim is exploiting women’s insecurities about their bodies to sell products.

            Another major component of this ad is the celebrity endorsement with the Kardashian sisters. Many women and girls are fans of the Kardashians, so seeing them dieting and using Quick Trim products will make them think that they should be too. The ad is using the Kardashians to show that if you use Quick Trim products, then you will have a great body and be “hot” just like them. Also, the phrase “Keep up with Kim and Khloe” is a play on words of the reality show ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’, but it also plays into women’s emotional desires to fit into society and to be as beautiful as the celebrities they admire.

            A more drastic ad that is also along these lines this one for The Shore Center, a plastic and reconstructive surgery clinic.

 

The woman’s face is split into what appears to be before and after pictures of a face procedure. The left hand side (before) of the woman’s face has bags under her eyes, wrinkles by her lips, flat lips, wrinkles on her neck, and an overall gray-ish tone to her skin. The right side (after) however, has glowing, vibrant skin, brighter eyes, lighter hair (with highlights), perfectly shaped eyebrows, no wrinkles, and full, plump lips. Everything about the woman has been enhanced, even things that plastic surgery cannot do, like the hair color, eyebrows, and eye color. The ad is trying to convey that after a cosmetic or reconstructive procedure, you are refreshed, a new person on the path to a happier life.

In this context, the phrase ‘Save Face’ has a double meaning. First, to avoid any humiliation of having your face, and your body, not being perfect. Second, to literally “save” your face from the effects of aging by having one of their procedures. The main text of the ad being just simply ‘save face’ is meant to make the audience think that the decision to get plastic surgery is a simple and necessary one, even though any surgery, let alone an elective procedure, is not a light decision and should not be made for you by advertisers. The picture of Dr. Mohit Sood is placed in the ad to give it a more personal touch. It is as if it is he telling you to have an operation from him. The text below has phrases like, “Defy the negative effects of time”, “newest, most advanced- and best- practice in the fields of plastic and reconstructive surgery”, “state of the art facilities, the most advanced surgical techniques, and superior outcomes” that are clearly there to convince people that The Shore Center is the best place to get a cosmetic or reconstructive procedure. For many people, their wrinkles and laugh lines are signs of a life well lived. However, in this ad, The Shore Center is explicitly saying that those are bad and should be defied, or erased. They have created another way for women to be insecure about their looks. Their solution for this insecurity is for you to undergo one of their “state of the art” and “advanced” procedures to fight aging and to be beautiful once again.

            The targeted consumers in the Maybelline, Quick Trim, and The Shore Center ads are all women.  Although they are for different products and services, their overarching message is the same, that you are not good enough how you are. You need the Maybelline foundation to have flawless skin, Quick Trim for the perfect body, and The Shore Center for surgeries to be more beautiful. They exploit women’s insecurities about their looks and bodies and their wishes to be beautiful and flawless. They set unrealistic, unattainable, and unhealthy standards of beauty that women and young girls endlessly strive to achieve.