By Ken M.W. From Feb. 2011
False Images: Buy This and Be Just Like Me
As you look into her eyes, you are mesmerized.
Her gaze says she cares for you. Her flawless face is a vision of true
perfection, and if you follow her, she will lead you to this place of
perfection. This style of appealing to our visual appetite is just one of many
advertising tools used to convince magazine viewers that products being
advertised by celebrity models are the best thing for them. This form of
advertising has propaganda at its heart and is trying to convince the viewer
that if the pill is swallowed it will transform the viewer into the model being
presented. The problem is, very few if any of the tween, teenage, and twenty
something viewers are ever going to look like these celebrated stars. The
illusion of celebrity has its place firmly planted in the mind of the young
American woman. Having advertising like this is causing harm to our youth and
is only helping to propagate this illusion of what true beauty is. These
propaganda techniques play on the psyche of our youth and their need for
acceptance, and in doing so, place a bar so high that it is rarely, if ever, reached.
People reach for the bar without even knowing they are playing a game. Examples
of this game being played can be found in advertisements on the web and at
local super markets. Finding an example requires looking no further then an
issue of Elle magazine.
Advertisements placed in the current
issue of Elle show the game being played as it has been for years. Show
a person just how beautiful they can be and they will want to be that beautiful
as well. The problem is, most of us are
just not born that beautiful on the outside, and in fact, neither are most of
the people used in these advertisements. They have been subjected to hours of
preparation for a photo shoot that produces fifty to one hundred acceptable
shots. These shots are gone over by the
photographer for flaws and the proper psychological effect. Take the first celebrity
advertisement, the cover. It is of Katie Holmes standing with a seductive smirk
on her face and a perfect slim body, in simple dress pants, blouse, perfectly
placed jewelry, and most of all, perfect makeup on that pretty face. The
wording used on this cover is “Katie Holmes on Tom, Suri, and coming back to TV
~ as Jackie O.” We are to believe that
we are invited into her world to see just how down to earth and homespun she is.
She is telling you to buy this magazine and you can find out all about her, her
famous husband Tom Cruise, their family and careers-but wait, there is more.
The next celebrity advertisement we come to in Elle
is of Beyonce. L’Oreal make up has paid to have her in a life size facial
presentation on the first page and in a seductive full-body pose on the next
page. The close up facial advertisement on the first page is flawless. Her face
does not show one wrinkle or eyelash hair out of place. This photograph is a
work of art. The advertisement is enticing you to buy this product so that you too
can look like this beautiful, sexy, flawless work of art. True harm comes in at
this point, because not even Beyonce looks this good all the time. The advertisement
is not real; it is a fake representation that is being used to sell a product.
Spending an hour or more with a professional makeup artist, and some money, may
end having you look like this image, but spending fifteen to thirty five
minutes in front of the bathroom mirror each day putting on some make up will
never achieve the flawlessness of this advertisement. The harsh reality of
attempting to reach the bar becomes more evident each day as most young people
want to look their best, and the fact is their best is never good enough to
match this advertisement by L’Oreal (55).
Next up in this issue of Elle is Drew
Barrymore in an advertisement for Cover Girl makeup, and again, the viewer is
subjected to a youthful looking woman who has not a flaw on her face. Even the exposed
shoulder and curve of the back are perfect and if you just trust Cover Girl
makeup, you too can be this perfect. This advertisement goes even further then
the first two by incorporating the propaganda technique of name calling. It
does not actually say the competition by name, but it states, “No more masky,
heavy makeup-try the lightweight Clean formula that’s just right for you” (63).
What is being said is, only our “Clean Makeup” is not heavy or masky like the
other make up products on the market. Is masky even a real word? This
is more evidence that no trick is too clever or lowdown to use. Sell the
product at any cost; even make up your own language to sell it if need be. If
any of us buy into this propaganda and actually believe that the looks and life
of Drew Barrymore are readily attainable, then disillusionment is at hand. She
was brought up in a wealthy Hollywood family, trained in acting, well educated,
very attractive, and if you think you are going to have a life like hers, it is
going to take much more then Cover Girl makeup. The advertisement indicates go
ahead and buy the makeup anyway because you can be just like this. This selling
of external beauty in America
is a good example of what is going on in America . Look at our outsides,
worship the external beauty, use up more time and money playing the game of chasing
this illusion and forget about working on what is really important, how we
treat and view one another. Please don’t
think too much about that; there are more advertisements to be distracted by.
Yes, the advertising in this current
issue of Elle is really good at distraction. Just look at “Earn my
affection.” (140). It is for Purrs, a fragrance being sold for and by Katy
Perry. She is displayed in this colorful advertisement dressed in a skin-tight vinyl,
form-fitted, catlike, outfit. She is so well proportioned that it is hard to
tell if this is an actual photograph or a computer generated image. She truly
has a perfect shape, and she is telling us to earn her affection. Please, all of
the young males go out and buy this perfume for your girl, and in turn, you
will be shown some real affection. Here again is another celebrity perfectly
presented to stimulate involvement. The basic pathos surrounding physical
attractiveness invokes emotions in this piece of propaganda with the express
purpose of selling perfume.
All of these advertisements are
designed to play on many of the psychological needs. These include being liked,
being accepted, being attractive to the opposite sex, as well as the most basic
survival need, being repopulated. These corporations are manipulating through
the use of many propaganda techniques that include card stacking and name
calling, but the overwhelming propaganda technique used in all of these
advertisements is testimonial. As Anne McClintock states in her essay, “Propaganda
Techniques In Today’s Advertising”, “The testimonial capitalizes on the
admiration people have for a celebrity to make the product shine more
brightly.” (207). Therefore, if someone famous uses the product, it has to be
better and is worth purchasing. What’s really being questioned here are not the
methods used, but on whom. The tween, teenage, and twenty something viewers of
these advertisements are being, in some ways, forced to believe that this is
what we in America
find attractive and they need to become. They need to reach for that bar, no
matter how high it has been placed. Is it any wonder why there are so many
plastic surgeons on the top physician money maker lists in America ? If we
have the money, we can now be manipulated by surgery to look like Katy Perry,
Beyonce, or Drew Barrymore. All of the diets, makeup, clothing, surgery and
perfume are not worth changing the gift we have been given, the gift of our own
life. If we had advertising that showed the value and beauty of just being
alive, instead of showing us how beautiful we are supposed to be, then maybe we
could start becoming more compassionate and caring for one another. From the time
of our birth manipulation is taking place, especially by those profiting from
it, and it is designed to make us into something other than who we are. Finding
joy in who we are, just as we are, is what is really important. When we realize
the harm of the game being played by advertisers on our youth, and that this
unattainable goal cannot be met, then we can better understand the impact it is
having on all of us as we grow into adulthood. Realizing this type of
manipulation is not the only answer to becoming a truly beautiful human being, but
it may be a start. Remember, falsely
portrayed images are just that, false images.
Works Cited
Clean by
Cover Girl. Advertisement. Elle Feb. 2011.
Print.
Color
Rich by L’Oreal. Advertisement. Elle Feb. 2011.
Print.
Magazine
Cover. Advertisement. Elle Feb.
2011: 1. Print.
McClintock,
Anne. Propaganda Techniques In Today’s Advertising. The Longman
Reader, - 9th ed. Brief ed. Judith Nadell, Boston , Pearson, 2011. 204-209. Print.
Purrs by
Katy Perry. Advertisement. Elle Feb.
2011. Print.
