Research on discourse analysis of Cosmetic

Advertisements

Submitted to: Muhammad Rashid

Submitted by: Athar Nabi, Masood Ahsan, Uzair Abbas

 ABSTRACT
In the given study, the prominent aim is to investigate the use of discourses by the advertisers to
make others buy their products. The research was conducted in different local magazines and
the findings indicated how various strategies are uses to convince or manipulate women by
promoting a more colorful and idealized life.
Key Words: Analysis, Critical Discourse, Beauty Products, Ads.
Introduction:
According to the Advertising Association of the UK –Advertising is any communication, usually
paid-for, specifically intended to inform and/or influence one or more people. Advertisements
are selling us something else besides consumer goods: in providing us with a structure in which
we, and those goods, are interchangeable, they are selling us ourselves (Williamson, 1978). It is
a one-way communication where brands communicate to the customers through different
mediums. Nowadays, it is considered one of the most impressive way of doing business more
effectively and to have maximum consumer rate. Advertisers usually have complete grip on their
presentation of the product but still it needs perfection in order to grab more attention of the
audience. One of the important quality of a good ad is that it should have smart placement where
it will be seen by most of the audience. Moreover, if the introductory lines or words are not
impressive the audience will never go through the whole advertisement. After this, attractive
graphics must be there presenting one main objective of your ad. Advertisements are used to
increase brand awareness and brand exposure in the target market. Informing potential
customers about the brand and its products is the first step towards attaining business goals.
Persuading customers to perform a particular task is a prominent objective of advertising. The
tasks may involve buying or trying the products and services offered, to form a brand image,
develop a favorable attitude towards the brand etc. Another objective of advertising is to
reinforce the brand message and to reassure the existing and potential customers about the
brand vision. Advertising helps the brand to maintain top of mind awareness and to avoid
competitors stealing the customers. This also helps in the word of mouth marketing. (What Is
Advertising? – Examples, Objectives, & Importance, 2019).
Objectives:
The main objectives of this study are:
1. Analyzing cosmetic advertisements in terms of content.
 Verbal and Non-verbal signs, the purpose, message and implication of power
behind ads.
Literature Review:

 Background
Advertisement plays an important role in our society to earn money. It varies from culture
to culture. Advertising is a social practice which does not work in vacuum; it interlinks
many things together like person and object, symbol, symbolism and power, and
communication and satisfaction (Jhally, 1990). Advertising involves promoting a good that
is for sale, but similar methods are used to encourage people to drive safely, to support
various charities, or to vote for political candidates, among many other examples. In many
countries advertising is the most important source of income for the media (e.g.,
newspapers, magazines, or television stations) through which it is conducted. In the
noncommunist world advertising has become a large and important service industry.
 Gender and Beauty in Advertisement:
Kang states that women alone or men alone are mostly used in advertisements, but
women are used in cosmetics as independent and powerful; women are represented in
demeaning roles. It is mostly observed that women show less interest in ads which are
being presented by males. However, women might play a role of sexual object to convince
consumers and this happens because of the increasing culture of being exposed to
pornography. According to advertisers, selling rate of products increases with increase in
sexual appeal.
Beauty is one of the main focuses of media in general and in advertising in particular.
Female beauty is expressed in media with youthful attributes, including wide eyes, full
lips, high cheekbones and flawless skin (Morris & Nichols, 2013).
 Critical Discourse Analysis in Advertisements:
Critical discourse analysis is a contemporary approach to the study of language and
discourses in social institutions. Drawing on poststructuralist discourse theory and critical
linguistics, it focuses on how social relations, identity, knowledge and power are
constructed through written and spoken texts in communities, schools and classrooms.
This article describes the historical contexts and theoretical precedents for sociological
models for the study of language, discourse and text in education. It then outlines key
terms, assumptions and practices of critical discourse analysis. It concludes by describing
unresolved issues and challenges for discourse analysis and sociology of education (Luke).
Methodology:

 Research Design:
We adopted qualitative method for this study. It was appropriate for this type of research
which is about how discourse in advertisement involves people’s construction of
meaning. The first advertisement is about the content given on the beauty product ads.
 While the second advertisement is based on the Fairclough’s Framework (The CDA
Framework).

 Sampling:
Two advertisements have been taken from Weekly Family Magazine Nawa’iWaqt. First is
Olay Anti-aging beauty product while the second is Dove Body Lotion. In order to find out
why people use beauty product and in which age they wear make-up the most, we have
selected a sample of 100 participants and talked to them about their interest in beauty
products.
Data and Analysis:

 Content Analysis of the target advertisement:

This advertisement is taken from Weekly Family Magazine Nawa’iWaqt

Advertisement 1
Olay Anti-Aging Beauty Product:
This advertisement is an Olay company beauty product which is basically a cream. The
thesis of the product is that buy our product and look younger in a few weeks. The image of a
beautiful woman celebrity id given on the ad. She has a bright and fair skin which attracts the
audience. A big seven is marked in the ad and seven signs of aging are accompanied with that
mark representing the targets to look beautiful and young. A sentence “Join me in the battle
against aging” is mentioned on the ad that tells the audience that this product is defensive against
the aging problems. It also urges women to pay more attention towards that product. Not much
words are written on the ad which represents a kind of reality. Words are written in white color
on a golden background.
Audience:
In this ad, fantasy, imagination and dreams are given free wings to fly. It not only triggers
the emotions of middle aged women but forces them to believe that only this product is the
solution of their aging problems. Old women who lost their beauty and wrinkles came up to cover
their faces are dreaming of getting rid of such wrinkles. They are liable to believe whatever been
told to them; they are eager to look beautiful and younger, and with smooth skin. The targeted
age in this advertisement is above 40s. Wrinkles are likely to appear on the face of a woman at
the age of forty, and sometimes before. At this age, women feel desperate and they start fighting
to search for something which makes them look younger and more beautiful. They have wild
dreams and history which is full with pictures when they were young and beautiful. Now, when
they look back they hope they can get younger again and beautiful. This advertisement points
the old or growing-old women: we have the myth solution for your concern if you have horrible
wrinkles. Just use this product for four weeks to see a beyond imagination result. You, my dear
customer, will look like this beautiful woman in a short time. Do not hesitate; come to buy it;
especially when it is on promotion like now.
Myth in the Advertisement:
As we all know that aging is a natural process which cannot be stopped. women by nature
do not like to grow old or to look old; they dream of looking young forever. Such dreamy women
are easily targeted by this advertisement. In this ad we can see how the myth is employed to
distract women fighting with the wrinkled skin and seeking for a beautiful and younger skin. The
white color is used to write the letters and the golden background is to reflect safety and
simplicity. The advertisement conveys a message by using white color in writing letters to show
that this product is safe and simple. Colors are an integral part of our daily life. They are used in
a special way in advertisements to attract customers; they convey deep meaning. Right colors
please the eyes and send positive messages.

Semiotics in the Advertisement:

The picture given in the advertisement represents the beauty that women can have after
using this product just for four weeks. If you have a rough wrinkled skin, you can easily get a
younger, beautiful, smooth and wrinkle-free skin in a very short period of time. The theme of this
ad gives a connotative as well as a denotative sign. The denotative meaning of the picture is a
beautiful woman after using that product while the connotative meaning is broad. It refers to
beauty, charm, vigor, the powerful effect of the cream, and the dreamy world with no fear of
ageing or wrinkles.
Syntactic Features in the Advertisement:

 Simple words are used in the ad to make it understand for the person of every level.
 Short simple sentences are used so that people read and understand it in a short time.
 The first short sentence at the top of the ad is represented in a very clear and attractive
way in order to distract people towards the ad.
Advertisement 2
Dove Beauty Soap:
This advertisement is representing a new product by DOVE which is a skin care soap. It has a
woman pretending to switch from her old soaps to Dove Beauty Soap after using Dove or a couple
o days. The woman has a very beautiful skin which shows the result of that soap which is a fair,
shining and smooth skin. It targets the emotional appeal of the people in different ways. First,
there is no background to distract the attention of the audience. There is only a product and a
woman who looks satisfied and confident in switching to a new beauty product. The color white
is used to symbolize that with Dove you can look forward to a brighter future. The only phrase
“I’m Switching” is a very confident term used by the advertiser to make people believe that the
product is that much effective that you will definitely change it with your old soap.
Comparing Both Advertisements:
Both of them use myth to promote products and target dreamy women. They make use of colors
to affect audience. These advertisements are using women as a model and as the target audience
as well.
These ads are using different colors but for the same purpose. The first advertisement uses words
more effectively than the second one.

Result and Analysis:

After deeply analyzing two different advertisements, we concluded that the beauty product
ads main concern are women. Moreover, representing ads through women and impressive words
increases the selling rates.