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Semiotic analysis of an advertisement
Advertising and its impact
Advertising and its impact
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Cover Girl Cosmetics
Why Cover Girl is one of the most successful cosmetic organizations since the 1960’s?
Cover Girl cosmetics have been the top-seller since 1961 and are still going strong. It is hard, with all the advanced lines of make-up for one product to go as far as Cover girl has, so how does Cover Girl cosmetics do it? A lot of Cover Girl’s strong, on going successes are due to changing the look of the product, exceptional promotions which the public can’t look over, giving a cosmetic appeal to both older and younger aged women and most importantly by using near perfect women and teens to model their products. Although it’s wonderful that Cover Girl has been and still is so successful, it has put a dentation in today’s society in what women’s appearance should and shouldn’t be. Women and young adolescence are confused of what their appearance should be. Cover Girl has many famous models; one inparticular is the famous country singer Faith Hill. Faith is tall, skinny, and flawless. When women see models like her doing the advertising for Cover Girl, they automatically feel that they should look the same. Later in this paper I will go into semiotics which derives from the Greek word semeion meaning sign, it basically describes how people interpret different signs, such as models, and how these signs might effect one’s life and self-esteem. Proctor & Gamble are the owners and starters of Cover Girl cosmetics. To keep up the success of Cover Girl they must keep on top of the advertising game to stay above the competitors. To do this they do many promotions, some include using famous singers, changing displays, giving away samples and one of the most important advertisement of all is the models Cover Girls incorporates in their ads. Cover Girls did one promotion with Target stores to promote their product. They used the famous group 98 Degrees to make a sweepstakes called, “Fall in Love with 98 Degrees Sweepstakes.” The grand prizewinner of this sweepstakes is an appearance in the new 98 Degrees music video. This advertising doesn’t just take place in the Target stores; it also takes place in Teen magazine, stickers on the new 98 Degrees CDs, a national radio campaign, and the national Teen People magazine. Because it’s teens that mainly listen to the music that 98 Degrees produces, it’s the teens that this particular promotion is focused on. I s...
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...so very successful because of their unique forms of advertising and promotions. Contacting certain audiences which is their main target during different promotions is a wonderful way to go. Understanding advertising will better help you understand yourself and make you realize whom you really are and whom you will always be no matter how many cosmetics you buy.
Works Cited
Adweek, L.P. “Cover Girl to sponsor a special June issue of YM on topic relationships.” Mediaweek 26 April 1993 v3 n17 p4 (1)
Adweek, L.P. “Cover Girl Sweepstakes Ties to Target Stores.” Brandweek 26 July 1999 v40 i30 p1.
Adweek, L.P. “Makeover for Makeup.” Brandweek 6 Sept. 1999 v40 i33 p1.
Cosmetics International Cosmetic Products Report, “Cover Girl Bolsters it’s Foundation.” July 1999 v15 i174 p11.
http://www.covergirl.com/models/sara/sara1.html, “Sarah Thomas.” http://members.xoom.com/ XMCM/faith/news.htm, “Faith Hill.” http://www.aber.ac.uk/~ednwww/Undgrad/ed30610/nnr501.html
“Semiotic Analysis.” Progressive Grocer, “Wicked for Halloween.” Oct. 1999 v78 i10 p122
Sloan, Pat. “Cover Girl Pays Attention to Both Brand and Product.” Advertising Age 3 March 1997. v68 n9 P12 (1).
The above advertisement for Olay Total Effects Pore Minimizing CC cream demonstrates modern day fixation on celebrity culture and photographic subterfuge to avoid truth. The model represented is a conventionally attractive woman whom, because of how healthy she appears, looks prosperous. The quote beside her “I’m not an airbrushed kinda girl, I just want to look it” conflicts with her appearance. From this we learn that she is an average woman infatuated so much with the celebrity look that she too wants to display herself as one. “air brushed kinda girl” implies that those who constantly look airbrushed (celebrities) possess negative personality traits ergo, one would not like to act like them. The assumption that celebrities are
Stephenson, T., Stover, W. J., & Villamor, M. (1997). Sell Me Some Prestige! The Portrayol of Women in Business-Related Ads. Journal of Popular Culture, 255-271.
The idea Covergirls mascara is used by celebrities to get consumers attention and motivates them to use the same products as their favorite actress. Queen Latifahs flawless appearance and natural beauty make the advertisement convincing. The focus of the image of her is highlighting the effects Covergirls product has on her. Her emotions reveal she is very satisfied with Covergirl mascara and her smile makes Queen Latifah look as she is happy with her appearance, as a Covergirl aims to make consumers feel when wearing their products. Covergirl popular celebrities such as Queen Latifah to promote their products so the audience will want to use the same makeup as celebrities they admire. This advertisement gives you the attention of the models and the actress Queen Latifah which is someone that you want people to look up to
In order to make us want to purchase, buy, own, acquire something, advertisers rely on the fact that we aspire to be like that which it is we seek to purchase. Or like others, the product says, who use it. In the case of magazines a persons magazine rack reflects their aspirations, not necessarily actual lifestyle. The magazine cover's job is twofold, one, to arouse interest in a casual viewe...
“Women in advertisements are getting younger, thinner, and more racially diverse.” Marketing to Women. June 2002. EMP Communications, 2002
Venkatesan, M., Losco J. (1975), "Women in Magazine Ads: 1959-71," Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 15, October, 51.
Behind the Hype: Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign”. Street Cents: Episode 2(2005).http://www.cbc.ca/streetcents/guide/2005/02/s07_01.html 8. http://www.ogilvy.co.uk/ogilvy-advertising/index.php/2008/11/05/dpve-campaign-for-real-beauty-takes-silver-prize-at-the-ipa-2008-effectiveness-awards/ 9. Image Courtesy : Google Images.
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.
In the Dove Real Beauty Sketches commercial, the Forensic Artist interviewed different women to do their sketches and it captivates women as an acceptable target audience for this advertisement. Women be more concerned about their appearance than men does and sometimes women also worry about how society view them in public. For example, at first the women in the video was unsatisfied
Lipstick was one of the few cosmetics that avoided the “rationing” during the war and was considered a necessity to “maintain national morale”. This gave rise to the so called “lipstick theory” that when the sale of other products and services reduces during a recession the demand for beauty products increases. By the 1950’s over 90% of women used lipstick and rouge which reflected the expansion of the middle class. During 1960’s-70’s feminism took hold in the Western World and women began to go natural without makeup. The feminists believed that make-up made women sex objects rather than
Anderson, Susan. Wallace, Amy. "Glamour Girls." Los Angeles Magazine 54.10 (2009): 148. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 26. Feb. 2014.
Often times, magazines use images of youthful looking models to promote lingerie. In the case of the Victoria’s Secret advertisement the target audience are adolescence to middle aged women since the models in the commercial appear to be young in age. Beauty is seen as youth in this advertisement since all of the women in the photo appear to be young in age, with no signs of aging. Youthful looking women in advertisements are seen as vulnerable and show the weakness of women in a patriarc...
4) Kilbourne, Jean. Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising’s Image of Women. Dir. Sut Jhally. DVD. Media Education Foundation, 2000.
While turning the pages of the January 2010 Seventeen magazine, suddenly a lustrous, dripping image catches one’s eye. Looking closer at the image, the person’s curiosity races and wonders: What is that? Glossy swirls and fruit-like colors begin to put the images into perspective. It is the new SHINEsensational lip gloss by Maybelline. Placing the lip gloss in Seventeen magazine promotes that it is affordable and unique, two product characteristics that Seventeen magazine is known for. Typically Seventeen magazine reaches towards teen females who are interested in beauty and relationships. To fulfill this criteria, “how-to” tutorials teach girls how to alter their image along with promoting the products that are used. Keeping the content interesting, relationship advice is shares love and trauma stories. Accommodating both categories, the lip gloss allows self confidence to grow and relationships may spark from that. Knowing this, the ad effectively persuades teenage girls by the style of the magazine, images of fruit, the flawless appearance of the advertisement, and the typography that subconsciously enter their minds.
For Maybelline’s price they offer low competitive While stating in text the lipstick is truer and crisper from their rich pigments and creamier and more sumptuous feel from their nourishing honey nectar. The consumer can actually read those objectives off the advertisement. For a visual aspect you can physically see a flower dripping nectar onto the lipstick, as the lipstick glistens. In addition, the consumer can also see a beautiful model wearing one of the shades of pink to see how rich the lipstick really is. CoverGirl uses both verbal and visual messaging to accomplish the advertiser’s marketing objectives.