“Advertising doesn’t sell things, all advertising does is change the
way people think or feel” (Jeremy Bullmore). Evaluate this statement with
reference to selected critical theories. (Past and Present)
Advertisements
are all around us, everywhere we go we are surrounded by the mass amount of
advertisements selling us products. Within this essay I will begin to explore
the ways of how advertising can be persuasive and the ways in which
advertisements can change the way people think or feel with reference to the
Jeremy Bullmore quote. I will use advertisements from past and presents to
critically analyse this statement with references.
The
advertisements in which I will be critically analysing will be beauty
advertisements typically makeup and hair advertisements. The selection of
advertisements will be deconstructed and explained with references to the
Jeremy Bullmore quote. The beauty advertisements will be from past and present.
The selections of advertisements are a mix of print and television advertisements,
which will be advertising makeup products.
As Berger says “Glamour
cannot exist without personal social envy being a common and widespread
emotion.” (Berger) beauty advertisements
which can be classed as conveying messages including glamour wouldn’t have a
place within society if consumers especially women were secure about how they
looked and felt in their own skin. Cleverly advertisers use these insecurities
to toy with the consumers’ emotions which can be described within the
advertising world as self perception. Self-perception can be seen in the mass
amounts of advertisements that surround us and it is commonly used within
beauty advertisements to make the consumer feel the need to better themselves
aesthetically. Advertisers use the consumers’ emotions in order for them to
change the way they think or feel or even to make them buy a product. John
Berger suggests an opposition to the original quote by Jeremy Bullmore, “The
spectator-buyer is meant to envy herself as she will become if she buys the
product. She is meant to imagine herself transformed by the product into an
object of envy for others, an envy which will then justify her loving herself.”
(Berger). This quote suggests that the consumer will feel the need to buy a
product, as she wants to transform into someone else that will be envied by
others. Although this quote doesn’t directly link within advertising I feel it
works alongside it. It explains the consumerism, which is the outcome of the
mass amount of advertising that is shown to us on a daily basis.
Emotion is used a lot within the
advertising field. The advertiser feels it is important to create an emotion
response from the consumer although this doesn’t mean through tears or a sign
of happiness it could be the slightest sign of emotion. As
John Armstrong says “Once people have become familiar with a brand, advertisers
can shift the emphasis from information toward emotion”, (Armstrong, 2010, Pg
85) this can be backed up by Nigel Hollis, who explains, “Too often an
emotional response to advertising is thought to be one that elicits tears or smiles.
But in fact, every ad generates an emotional response, because everything we encounter
in life generates an instinctive emotional response.” (Hollis, 2010, Pg 2). Through analysing and breaking down these
beauty adverts I will be able to explain the emotion response in which the
consumer feels within connection with the advertisement. Emotionally consumers
will response to an advert and these will engage the consumer with the simple
use of visual images. The advertisers want to emotion break the consumer down
to make them eventually invest in that product.
Within most beauty advertisements
there is an image of an attractive model in which technology such as Photoshop
has been used to enhance her beauty. Attractive models or drawings of models
have been used since the 1900 in order to sell beauty products. Figure 1 shows
an advertisement for Sweetheart soap from March 1950. It includes an image of
cover girl model Anne Piron with the title of the advertisement reading ‘Beauty
is my business’. The advertisement is using an attractive woman to advertise bath
soap. It tugs on the self perception as well as emotion of the consumers mainly
women. This advertisement is selling the soap as well as changing the way
people think or feel through using an attractive woman. John Berger says “The
publicity image steals her love of herself as she is, and offers it back to her
for the price of the product.”(Berger), and I feel that advertising does sell
especially beauty products as consumers feel the need to be constantly making
them better whether it is through the use of makeup products or buying a new
car, the consumer is never happy with themselves when surrounded by
advertisements. A study which shows using attractive models to enhance and sell
beauty products can back up figure one. In 2001, Bower and Landreth conducted a
study in which 251 females were shown advertisements for beauty products such
as earrings and makeup as well as products such as acne treatment. These
advertisements used a range of models ranging from ‘highly attractive’ to
‘average’ looking. Advertisements’ with the ‘highly attractive’ led to the
product having higher ratings. This shows women look up to the women in the
adverts due to their aesthetics. From these results it clearly shows that using
‘highly attractive’ models within advertisements will sell a product to
consumers as they will always want to try and achieve the aesthetics of the
models within the advertisements. Emotionally the beauty advertisements are
stripping the consumers in order to change the way people think or feel and
then for the consumers to buy the product.
A more recent advertisement shown
in figure 2, which includes celebrity endorsement, is Beyoncé advertising
L’Oreal True Match Foundation. Beyoncé is used within beauty advertisements in
particular because she is classed a beautiful and powerful woman which most
women aim to be. This is more likely to increase the sales of the product if
celebrity endorsement is used within the advertisements. In reference to the
quote I feel that consumers that buy beauty products will have seen the
advertisement and then felt they needed to go on and buy the product. As David
Foster Wallace says “It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety
relievable by purchase.” (Foster, 1996) which opposes Jeremy Bullmore’s quote. Particularly
when advertisements use celebrity endorsement that product will sell more, as
the consumer will be aiming for the look of the celebrity. In this case the
celebrity being Beyoncé who around the globe is classed as a highly attractive
and powerful woman. The advertisement however will have been manipulated using
technology such as Photoshop. It is found that using attractive visuals within
advertisements sell more, a quote from Printers Ink reads, “The busy American
is loath to read. His eye must be attracted, coaxed, cajoled by visuals.”
(Printers Ink, 1898, p227) Although the quote is dated it still relevant, it
suggests that the consumer is dragged in by the attractive visuals used
onscreen or in print. This is why using air brushed models or celebrities works
for this theory as what you’re seeing within the advertisement is drawing you
in simply by the attractive aesthetics. Disagreeing with the Jeremy Bullmore
quote I think that advertising is a tool for companies to draw the consumer in,
strip them of who they are through the use of phycology and then sell them a
product they want which they don’t in most instances necessarily need. Celebrity
endorsements that are being used within a brand will eventually build up which
will increase the brands awareness making the consumer stay loyal to that
brand. Using Beyoncé is a clever tactic with beauty advertisements as a lot of
consumers especially women look up to Beyoncé. Celebrity endorsement allows the
consumer to feel that they have a similar life and look to that particular
celebrity. These advertisements also make the consumer trust the brand as they
have used a familiar face.
An older advertisement as seen in
figure 3 is an advertisement created for the makeup brand Revlon. The caption
within the advert reads ‘Revlon creates the face with the fabulous eyes’; the
word to focus on is ‘creates’. Revlon is suggesting that they create your face
when in actual fact Revlon is only creating the makeup. By engaging the
consumer with the ‘perfect’ face when in fact it is just a dummy. The 3 small
images clearly show that the models face is mass produced. There’s the sense of
perfection with the smooth skinned model which pulls the audience in by making
them want to create the perfect look similar or the same as the model that we
see in the advertisement. The eyes which are the main concept within the
advertisement are detached; they aren’t looking into your eyes they’re looking
past creating a mysterious feel to the advertisement. The mysterious look from
the woman will make the consumer want to feel her emotion; the consumer will
want to find out more about the product due to something as simple as a model
within an advertisement. Using a fake dummy as the model is basically fake
making the consumer feel they need to achieve this look which is inevitably
impossible due to the model not being a real person. As Naomi Wolf says “The beauty myth is always
actually prescribing behaviour and not appearance.” (Wolf, 1991) This quote
shows how the consumers are told to act in a certain way and not actually about
achieving the appearance. So when consumers see advertising with a beauty
product they immediately want it as the advert may tell them they need to.
Finally the last advertisement,
which can be seen in figure 4, is a print advertisement that is advertising
Christian Dior mascara, which was banned by the ASA (Advertising Standards
Agency) in 2012. The reason for the advertisement being banned for the false
advertisement of the mascara as the model in the advertisement is using
Photoshop to manipulate the eyelashes. The advertisement claims that it
achieves “volume multiplying effect, lash by lash” as well as “an unrivalled
lash creator effect”. The advertisement also uses a Hollywood Star named
Natalie Portman. Christian Dior admitted to using Photoshop to digitally
manipulate the eyelashes. As Brené Brown quotes “It's in our biology to trust what
we see with our eyes. This makes living in a carefully edited, overproduced and
photo shopped world very dangerous.” (Brown). This advertisement that has been
banned was giving false hope to the consumers that they could achieve a look
when in fact it was very unachievable. The use of technology on these types of
advertisements is dangerous with reference to the quote, it gives the consumer
false hope and it changes the way they feel about themselves when the product
is actually a lie. An advertisement like this one in my opinion is simply
selling the consumer a product when it instantly is shown, it doesn’t allow for
them to think they just passively take this information in and this theory is
called the hypodermic needle theory. The hypodermic needle theory suggests that
the message for example from an advertisement is passively taken in by the
audience. The audience don’t register the information, it may change the way
people think or feel passively. Whilst researching into advertisements I found that
there could be information taken from these advertisements which is passively
being fed to the audience through the use of mass media. I feel that the
hypodermic needle works alongside beauty advertisements as they are selling a
product which makes the consumer feel they need it for their own self
perception. The message from the beauty advertisements will be implemented in
the consumers head without realisation.
Figure 4 took the trust of the
consumer and broke that trust in essence. It sold something false to the
consumer and when the consumer bought that product they were relying on the
product to produce the same outcome as the advertisement. Trust with the
consumer and brand is a big thing within advertising. It allows for the
consumer to believe that brand will be loyal to them for them to be loyal to
the brand. The goes to show that the power of advertising in the society we
live in is high. Referring back to the original Jeremy Bullmore statement I
believe that advertising does both sell and change the way people think or
feel. This may be through the hypodermic needle theory or through the consumer
loyalty.
The advertisements that I have
analysed are all relevant to each other and not just through them advertising
beauty products. All of the above advertisements include a female model that is
considered attractive to drive the sale of that specific product. This shows a similarity
between all beauty adverts within the mass media, which mostly all use a model
that is considered as said before, highly attractive. It is found that using
either a male or female model is more likely to work if it has relevance to the
product. For example it is more common to match a car advertisement to a man
model will be used as target audiences for cars mainly focus on men. This can
also be seen as self-perception as the man seeing the male model in the latest
car will make them want that same car for many different reasons. Similarly
when creating makeup advertisements it will make more sense to use female
models, as this is primarily the target audience in which you’re aiming the
product at. All the advertisements that I have analysed and broke down all
include female models as the target audience for these products are females.
Also the age of the model will affect the target audience, a younger model such
as the True Match and Christian Dior advertisements use celebrity models who
have the age range of around 20-30, as this is the target audience the brands
are trying to hit. Whereas the Revlon advertisement seems to show a slightly
older model around 40, this suggests that the target audience is the older
woman. Through matching the models with
the specific target audience this will help the brand sell their products more
as the advertisement will seem more real and relevant to the specific consumer.
The target audience has to always be considered to make a successful
advertisement that will sell.
In conclusion with the
advertisements and theories explored within the essay I have come to the
conclusion that the original quote from Jeremy Bullmore “Advertising doesn’t sell things, all advertising does is change
the way people think or feel” (Bullmore) is not incorrect but I feel that both
the selling of the products and changing the way people think or feel are both
aspects of advertising. Both aspects go hand in hand with each other. My
reasoning for this outcome is because I feel advertisements are fed to the mass
audiences in order to sell, the selling of the product could take days, weeks
or months but eventually it will sell the product which in my opinion is the
whole point of the advertising world. It will draw the consumer in and then the
end will be the consumer buying into that particular brand. As well as this I
feel advertising does change the way people think or feel through the power of
advertisements and because we are always surrounded by the mass stream of
advertisements it has almost become natural which is where I feel the
hypodermic needle relates to the context of the essay. Us as the consumers are
almost attacked by advertisements whether they’re on billboards, in magazines
or on the TV and if we take notice of these advertisements we will eventually
buy into them as they have changed the way we think and feel. A quote that
really puts the points into context quoted by Ben H. Bagdikian “Advertising is
the art of arresting the human intelligence just long enough to get money from
it.” (Bagdikian, 2000, Pg 185) This quote is saying that advertises capture the
intelligence just quick enough for them to make a profit off of you as the
consumer. Overall with analysis and deconstruction of the advertisements which
were based on beauty I feel that advertising has the power to change the way
people think and feel as well as sell the products which are on screen or on
print.
Bibliography
1. ARMSTRONG, J.S. (2010). Persuasive Advertising. Basingstoke. Palgrave Macmillian.
2. WILLIAMSON, J (1978). Decoding
Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising. London: Marion Boyars
Publishers.
3. CIALDINI, R.B. (1999). Influence: Psychology of Persuasion. New York: William Morrow
4. UO LIBRARIES. (2011) Celebrity
endorsements and advertising effectiveness: The importance of value congruence.
Available from:
[Accessed: 12th January 2014]
5. WISEGEEK (2014) What
Is the Effect of Celebrity Endorsements in Advertising? Available from:
[Accessed: 12th January 2014]
6. FASHIONTELEGRAPH (2012)
Natalie Portman's Dior mascara ad banned.
Available from:
[Accessed 12th
January 2014]
7. COMMUNICATION
THEORY (2010) magic bullet or
hypodermic needle theory of communication. Available from:
[Accessed 12th
January 2014]
8. HOLLIS, N. 4. HOLLIS, N. (2010). Emotion in Advertising: Pervasive, Yet
Misunderstood. Available from:
[Accessed 12th
January 2014]
References
1. GOOD READS.
(2014) Quote by John Berger. [Online]
Available from:
2. THINKEXIST.
(2013) John Berger Quotes. [Online] Available
from:
3. ARMSTRONG, J.S. (2010). Persuasive Advertising. Page 85 Basingstoke. Palgrave Macmillian.
4. HOLLIS, N.
(2010). Emotion in Advertising:
Pervasive, Yet Misunderstood. Page 2.
5. Wallace,
D.F. (1996). Infinite Jest. 1st
Ed. USA: Little, Brown and Company
6. ARMSTRONG,
J.S. (2010). Persuasive Advertising:
Evidence- Based Principles. UK. Palgrave
Macmillan.
7. WOLF, N.
(1991) The Beauty Myth: How Images of
Beauty are used Against Women. London. Vintage 1991.
8. BROWN, B.
(2010) the Gifts of Imperfection. Let go
of who you think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you are. USA.
Hazelden
9. BLORE, B.
(2000) The Media Monopoly, Sixth Edition, (Beacon
Press, 2000), p.185.
Figures
1)
2
3
4
