Design Context Blog: May 2014

“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:

https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/11566

[Accessed: 12th January 2014]

5. WISEGEEK (2014) What Is the Effect of Celebrity Endorsements in Advertising? Available from:

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-the-effect-of-celebrity-endorsements-in-advertising.htm

[Accessed: 12^th January 2014]

6. FASHIONTELEGRAPH (2012) Natalie Portman's Dior mascara ad banned. Available from:

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/beauty/news-features/TMG9627573/Natalie-Portmans-Dior-mascara-ad-banned.html

[Accessed 12^th January 2014]

7. COMMUNICATION THEORY (2010) magic bullet or hypodermic needle theory of communication. Available from:

http://communicationtheory.org/magic-bullet-or-hypodermic-needle-theory-of-communication/

[Accessed 12^th January 2014]

8. HOLLIS, N. 4. HOLLIS, N. (2010). Emotion in Advertising: Pervasive, Yet Misunderstood. Available from:

http://www.millwardbrown.com/Libraries/MB_POV_Downloads/MillwardBrown_POV_EmotionInAdvertising.sflb.ashx.

[Accessed 12^th January 2014]

References

1. GOOD READS. (2014) Quote by John Berger. [Online] Available from:

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/506770-glamour-cannot-exist-without-personal-social-envy-being-a-common [Accessed: 12th January 2014]

2. THINKEXIST. (2013) John Berger Quotes. [Online] Available from:

http://thinkexist.com/quotation/the-spectator-buyer-is-meant-to-envy-herself-as/364380.html [Accessed: 12th January 2014]

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. 1^st 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

CoP Evaluation

Throughout the course of the year I have really enjoyed the CoP lessons. They’ve given me insight into the backgrounds of design. Coming from quite a theory based course I am quite used to the lessons and also the writing of essays so it didn’t come as a surprise.

I liked CoP as it went into semiotics and concepts, which related to the practical side of the course. I thought that the lessons related well to other parts of the course and that it set the group up to do their essay as well as the practical.

I thought that Richard was very helpful when giving essay feedback or general feedback. This helped me a lot as I struggle sometimes with the writing of essays.

The group were told from the beginning why we were doing the CoP lessons and that we would have to write an essay as well as design a piece of work that goes alongside. I think this set the group up for the rest of the year, as we knew what was coming.

I thought I’d struggle to do the essay as I haven’t written a piece of academic work in a while but in the lessons Richard helped us to build up a good essay. Also as mentioned before we were given valuable feedback. I liked that we had a choice of essay questions and I really liked that there was a question about advertising as this is one of my strong points and I’ve also researched into this before hand.

I really liked the practical side although I struggled at first with a concept but when on my way with the designing it was very enjoyable. I liked working with the advertising question as it allowed me to make something good as it was a strong point of mine.

I think I’ve gained quite a few skills such as academic skills with the writing of the essay as well as more practical and creative skills for the practical side of CoP.

Overall I’ve really enjoyed these lessons as they give you a break from the practical side of the course. I’ve liked learning different theories and concepts. If I was to give some feedback I’d probably suggest some longer sessions. But overall a great start to CoP in first year.