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Ngoc Thi Bao Nguyen Professor Ozkilic LIB.111.S 26 November 2019 Subliminal manipulation in advertising As the advertising industry constantly develops, companies are always in search of innovative marketing strategies to get customers to purchase their goods. From spotlighting hyper-consuming celebrities to embedding subliminal messages, brands drive consumers to the point of purchase as well as triggering their subconscious responses. On the way to promoting the product’s desirability to the potential customers, brands can possibly undergo advertising puffery. In the latest marketing campaign featured in Glamour magazine last February, Dior launches its new skincare line —Capture Youth with the promises of fighting against free radicals and maintaining a forever youthful skin. Giving promising statements, the company advertises to its potential buyers that they can only achieve flawless skin with Capture Youth as a companion. This idea of false media manipulation and emulating lifestyle are demonstrated throughout “Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption” by Kendall: it creates the perfect standard that everyone feels the desperate need to keep up with. In an era of “timeless beauty” mantra, Dior presses on aging concerns, therefore persuades people to stay young by using their products. As captivating as it seems, there’s still an inconsistency, contradiction, or tension here that needs explaining from the ad itself whether the products align with their somewhat exaggerated promises.

Dior makes a subtle yet subjective approach in its print advertisement. Naming the new skincare line “Capture Youth”, Dior deliberately targets at women in their twenties extending past middle age. Cultural norm of beauty is depicted as youthful appearance, therefore, women’s greatest fear is losing their looks they once enjoyed. Since “the obsession with youth and beauty sends thousands of people to stores searching for a quick fix”, (Ray, “A Revealing Look At Beauty Advertising”), the brand firmly declares its purposes of remedying women’s insecurities about their appearance and maintaining healthy complexions regardless of time. Although it is quite surprising to see a young model—Cara Delevinge— advertising anti-wrinkles products, Dior purposefully urges people to anticipate signs of aging and get into preventative routine at the age of twenty five. From the advertisement, the objectification of women and the portrayal of them with emphasis on desirability are tensions that need addressing. The model’s drastic straight-ahead eyes, together with the posing in stark setting of she wearing a short top that just-covers her breasts, reveals not only the use of sexualized women in this campaign to promote greater desirability among customers but also women being objectified. Kendall has a notable mention of such thing in the seventh chapter, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians rely heavily not only on admiration framing but on price-tag framing,…, a person’s worth is measured by what he or she owns” (212). Apart from the assets and opulent lifestyle, Kardashian’s curvy body image is a registered trademark, which makes her so desirable, enviable, and especially, an endless controversial topic to be discussed by a large population of people in the society. Similarly here, women are solidified into the ideal portraits of beauty—the concept that doesn’t exist. In her article, Blair echoes Kendall by writing, “women achieve power through the seductive sign of woman…women commodify themselves” (2). Rather than advertising, women are objectified to

sell the products through their facial expressions and amount of skin shown. Specifically, the model portrayed in the ad is not whole at all. She is seen as an inanimate object to grab attention from the consumers. Adopting the psychological use of hide-and-seek, the advertisement effectively triggers the viewers, both consciously and subconsciously. Another key point can be interpreted from this Dior’s print advertisement is the false media manipulation, dragging the contradiction and exaggeration along with it. In its advertised skincare products, Dior directly promotes a captivating selling point—youth—one of the vital qualities every woman should possess. By giving an implicit statement: “the new Capture Youth Age-Delay regimen works with the skin’s fundamental natural antioxidant system to strengthen the skin” (Dior), the company enforces the belief that female consumers will be pretty and young if they purchase “Capture Youth”. It subsequently nurtures a strong need in females to obtain the beauty products so as to reach the seemingly perfect standards. Acquisition of the creme and five serums repels the attack of aging and “defy signs of aging before they appear”, (Dior). It promises to protect skin’s resilience and regain its strength throughout the mass destruction of time. The fact that “companies also use time as a means of advertising the east of use of their products, and the speed of their effects”, (Searing and Zeilig 24), implies to Dior’s advertisement when it accentuates the word “now”, suggesting that its products rejuvenate the users’ skins in exceptional speed. Kendall reflects on Searing and Zeilig’s point that such appeal manipulation is perpetuated by media: it “constitute a mental shortcut that helps us formulate our thoughts” (211). As alluring as it seems to everyone, it is mired in manifest contradiction. One question that needs to be asked, however, is whether those drops of essence can “defy signs of aging” and “create a completely customizable range whatever your kin’s identified needs” (Dior). Since human life cycle is inevitable, eventually everyone will end up being at the other side of this

world; the pledge of eliminating signs of aging is an irrational claim. By using “those buzzwords to appeal to a wider range of consumers and to market to new generations”, (Ray, “A Revealing Look At Beauty Advertising”), Dior generates a constant demand for its products, which in fact, brings the users not even a centimeter closer to the sublime. On the path of gaining credibility to customers, the brand, without notice, poses a patent paradox. The celebrity endorsement in the print advertisement constitutes an unresolved tension— the emulating lifestyle in existing society, in which many individuals’ desire is to elevate themselves to the higher tier. Tapping Cara Delevingne— a world-famous fashion model— for the beauty campaign, Dior aims to exert a favorable and comprehensive impact upon the potential customers. It makes sure that her flawless portrayal and hypnotizing stares strongly attract every eye. Glancing at Cara, female consumers feel a driving need to look as glamorous and youthful as she is, for “all consumers believe they must achieve the level of perfection shown by the models in the ads” (Ray, “A Revealing Look At Beauty Advertising”). Constantly encountering unattainable beauty standards, customers develop a greater tendency “to think of themselves in terms of an image and to purchase the products as part of the beauty ritual that enables the construction of that image” (Blair 3). The advertisement presents a problem “you are aged, meaning you are not beautiful”, and in correspondence, it suggests a resolution “buy our products and you are all set to be forever young”. This phenomenon consequently results in “rampant consumerism”, in which people “purchase items to render them equal to people above them” (Kendall 211). Through Kendall’s lens, it drives them to the insatiable demand for farfetched qualities possessed by the others, and in this circumstance, it is the glamour that Cara Delevingne enjoys. Selling the idea of youthfulness denotes beauty, Dior gets people to chase after the absurd dream of acquiring timelessly youthful appearance by using its skincare

products. In other words, it creates the peculiar notions of feminine beauty and assumes it to be the exact definition. It causes people “to lose the distinction between the real view of beauty and the idealized image they have created for themselves” (Ray, “A Revealing Look At Beauty Advertising”). They idealize their life and lose track of reality without knowing it is nothing but a fantasy world. The advertisement exacerbates a population of viewers’ self-esteem for the feeling that they are inadequate to meet the perfect standards. Dior’s print advertisement has done its job of promoting the objective of skin revitalization and anti-aging by usage of “Capture Youth” products. However, there are critical contradiction and tension that deserve sufficient explanation and interpretation. “Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption” by Diana Kendall sheds light upon and puts a proper perspective of the issues arising from the advertisement. It is undeniable that advertising plays a key role in the economy as it substantially boosts the sale and production. Nevertheless, its dark sight brings about adverse effects to people by affecting their lifestyles and gives rise to misconception in the society.

Works Cited

Ray, Amanda. “A Revealing Look At Beauty Advertising.” A Revealing Look At Beauty Advertising, 2015, www.artinstitutes.edu/about/blog/a-revealing-look-at-beautyadvertising.

Blair, Kristine. "Selling the self: women and the feminine seduction of advertising." Women and Language, vol. 17, no. 1, 1994, p. 20+. Gale Academic Onefile, Accessed 25 Nov. 2019.

SEARING, CAROLINE, and HANNAH ZEILIG. “Fine Lines: Cosmetic Advertising and the Perception of Ageing Female Beauty.” International Journal of Ageing & Later Life, vol. 11, no. 1, Jan. 2017, p. 7. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=edo&AN=123499991&site=eds-live.

DEAR TUTOR, PLEASE READ THE ASSIGNMENT INFO BELOW AS A BASIS FOR YOUR FEEDBACK! Essay 2: Lens to Argumentative Synthesis The Lens to Argumentative Synthesis essay uses one text to shed light on another in order to show readers something they would not have been able to see if they had examined the texts in isolation. The primary goal of this essay is for students to be able to achieve a baseline reading of some piece of culture using a lens text. In other words, you should be able to defend some central claim about the text you are examining by linking moments in that text to categories or ideas in the lens text. The main challenge of the lens essay is that it requires you to analyze texts on a theoretical level in addition to the thematic level that was emphasized in the close reading essay.

For this essay, you will need to choose a recent American print advertisement from a major newspaper or magazine (not the internet). Once you have selected your ad, you will perform a 5-page analysis of the advertisement using “Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption” by Diana Kendall as a lens (*see link on Blackboard) in addition to 3 outside sources from the MCPHS Databases. How does the essay enrich, alter, or complicate your interpretation of the advertisement, and how do the outside sources respond? In essence, you’ll set up a conversation among different voices and perspectives around ONE singular, specifically defined issue. You will continue to work on the goals you had with Essay #1: developing and stating a clear thesis, supporting your argument with textual evidence and analysis, structuring your essay in a logical, non-repetitive way, and orienting your reader. However, the new challenge is adding additional sources. You can fruitfully use secondary sources to (1) establish a problem or question worth addressing, such as motive, (2) supply context, background, or information, (3) provide key terms to concepts, and (4) grapple with another opinion or interpretation (such as found in literary criticism). Using secondary sources merely to support or authorize your own point of view is the weakest of several ways to integrate this kind of material into your essay. I urge you to find an ad that evokes issues that interest you. Please digitally attach a copy of the ad you are using to your paper...