So this is still verrrry rough. I know it needs a lot of work with rearranging/grammar/clarity, but you get the general idea. Any suggestions you guys have are greatly appreciated! 🙂
A woman is flipping through the pages of a magazine – what makes her stop to read a particular ad? It might feature a favorite celebrity, bear a witty catch-phrase, or, more often than not, appeal to the woman’s vanity.
Lancome’s ad featuring Julia Roberts pulls readers in mainly through an appeal to vanity – although Ms. Roberts undoubtedly plays her part as well. Women see a celebrity with an apparently perfect appearance and are pulled in by the desire to emulate that look. The elegant pink and beige color-scheme of the ad also plays a part in drawing the attention of the audience; it creates a tone of soft femininity and sophistication, which are both appealing qualities for most women.
This ad seeks to convince women to buy Lancome’s Teint Miracle foundation through creating/exploiting an ideal of female beauty above what is achievable, backing up their product with celebrity endorsement and science, and creating strong subconscious connections between beauty and lancome cosmetics.
The rhetorical strategies of most cosmetic ads are fairly similar and straight forward: a problem is created, and then the product is offered as the solution. The “problem” presented to women reading these ads is imperfection – they display an unattainable ideal of female beauty, and on a very basic, subconscious level (occasionally not so subconscious) they tell women that they do not measure up, that they are not beautiful enough. Notice in this particular ad that Julia Roberts’ face has been digitally altered to be absolutely flawless – she has no blemishes, no wrinkles, she doesn’t even have pores. Women reading the ad will subconsciously compare themselves to the face in the ad, inevitably falling short, which creates the problem.
The copy to the right states “A light emanates from the most beautiful skins. We can reproduce it,” which directly implies this “create the problem, present the solution” strategy. The first statement (“a light emanates from the most beautiful skins”) appeals to pathos: it makes women desire to have their skin be among “the most beautiful skins” and are led to feel a vague sense of discontent with their appearance. The second statement (“we can reproduce it”) presents the solution: don’t worry, if you use our product, your skin will glow as well, making your complexion as beautiful as Julia Roberts’. In this way, the ad presents hope to a negative situation. Although women do not naturally possess flawless complexions, and therefore are brought to feel insufficient when faced with a barrage of images of ideal female beauty, they are told that there is hope, with Lancome’s new foundation, they can reproduce that flawless appearance.
Within the copy itself, the diction adds dramatically to this theme of flawlessness and perfection (it also emphasizes the idea of a natural/bare appearance, but I’m going to focus on the related trend of perfection). Beneath the title of the product, the text reads “Natural light creator – Bare skin perfection.” Below that is the line mentioning “the most beautiful skins.” Towards the bottom of the ad, you see another mention of “perfect skin”, “natural perfection” and then the concluding phrase “Sublimely bare, truly Flawless.” I’m sure you can see the trend – the word choice is used to drive in the notion of perfection as something to strive for. It reinforces the problem; it tells women that they should want flawless skin. It also implies that they don’t already have it; they need to use the product to obtain that level of beauty.
Now, that’s all well and good so far as pathos and the subconscious level of the advertisement go, but the ad also appeals to ethos and logic (logos), both through backing their product with the assurance of scientific research and through the use of the brand name and the celebrity endorsement of Julia Roberts.
The top line of the copy states “Now, Aura is our science.” A few lines down it goes on to assert “30 years of research, 7 patents pending. Lancome invents its 1st foundation that recreates the Aura of perfect skin.” Referencing scientific research, and even the vague mention of science in the first line of the copy builds the ethos of the product, as it increases the consumer’s trust in the product. It also pulls in logical appeals – their foundation “recreates the Aura of perfect skin,” which is, as I previously established, something the audience has been prepped to desire. Therefore, women should buy this foundation in order to pursue the standard of beauty presented to them as ideal.
This emphasis on science is especially interesting in juxtaposition with a repeated use of the words “miracle” and “aura”, both of which imply a certain mystique. They build their product to be a miracle of science – even the name of the product, “Teint Miracle” is rhetorically potent in building its worth.
Advertisers must also consider that the amount of attention lent to the ad may vary; some women will merely glance at the ad, others will take time to read the entire thing. Advertisers must therefore spend some energy deciding how to make the ad effective even for those who spare only a fleeting glance at the ad, in addition to making the advertisement effective for those who read the entire thing.
Notice that the most prominent text is the brand name, “Lancome” directly beneath Julia Roberts’ face (the focal point of the ad), which ensures that even the most casual glance will subconsciously form the connection between ideal female beauty (Julia) and Lancome cosmetics. If that seems like a bit of an overstatement, consider that the vast majority of an ad is processed subconsciously (all but 8%) according to the top advertisement executives in the country. This implies that while a woman might not be able to consciously recall ever even coming across this ad, the next time she’s shopping for makeup she may find herself drawn to Lancome cosmetics due to her mind subconsciously processing this ad and drawing connections between ideal beauty and Lancome cosmetics.
Whether or not these strategies are ethical is a topic certainly up for debate (should advertisers sell women on the idea that they can never be good enough in order to promote consumerism?), however the effectiveness of this strategy is much clearer cut. The best way to get to a woman’s purse is through her insecurities. This ad ,and other ads like it, certainly (though subtly) appeal to these natural weaknesses in self-esteem. Combine that with the use of celebrity and scientific research, a rhetorically sound advertisement is born.