The Lancome Advertisement - Essay Example

The Lancome advertisement Introduction There is not a day that goes by without a constant bombardment of advertisement; we are living in a society that is fully surrounded by advertisements (Alperstein, 14). Whether you fail to read the newspaper, you don't walk or you don't put your television on it has become virtually impossible to avoid any or some kind of advertising. From the local supermarket to the commercial on the television, there is much growing presence as well as influence of advertisement in the society today (Martin, 10). It is well known that the main objective of advertisement is creating awareness of a product among the consumers in order to get the product or service bought. Advertisement is a birth child of the free market economy although it is not focused in promoting free market. For instance, the advertisers are focused into trying to manipulate consumers so that they buy products or a way of life (Martin, 16). A look at the book Amusing Ourselves To Death by N. Postman gives a clear glimpse of the role and the impact of advertisement in the society today. The people have a tendency of medicating themselves into attaining happiness or bliss; as a result, they sacrifice their rights voluntarily. Aspects of television's entertainment represent a way by which the rights of the consumers for entertainment. This is a similar approach in the area of print media such as the magazines. The issues of politics, as well as religion, can be easily diluted depending on how the advertisement messaged is packaged. This essay paper is an analysis of a particular advertisement in semiotic terms. Therefore, this essay intends to show many ways that advertising works, as well as the extent the impacts of advertisement on the audience and the society. The Lancome advertisement This is an advertisement taken from the Marie Claire magazine. In addition, this advert has appeared in several other magazines. From a reader’s perspective, what catches the eyes of most readers is the ugliness of the model that underwent a makeup (Martin, 22). The image is unattractive but for most people, the choice of color is very fascinating. This advertisement covers a sprawling three pages of the magazine. The image on the first page is of a model who has red hair; this image covers almost the whole page. The female model is a woman although she is quite challenging to guess (Alperstein, 18). The reason for this is that mostly with modeling a 25 year old lady can be made to look like a 25 year old. The model is wearing a hat which is of a blue-turquoise-green. She has a scarf which has shiny palettes and a spiky shape. The background where the model is being photographed is very light colored with rose and peach tones which are dominating the blurring background shapes. The woman seems to move forward, her posture is very dynamic (Alperstein, 21). The following pages which are double ones show the similar model in a dark blue-green make-up (Alperstein, 34). Her picture covers the whole of the left page while on the right page sit indicates a dark blue rose and there is a picture of the cosmetic product which is being advertised (Martin, 31). The advert also gives the web-site address for the product (Martin, 29). By showing information in parts of different elements, the advertisement incorporates fallacies as it is not exclusive on what it is really standing for. In undertaking a semiotic analysis of the advert discussed above, this essay paper intends to apply a framework that was proposed by Chandler, as well as by focusing on the important signifies and what they signify. There are a number of various signifiers that could be easily identified from a critical analysis of the main one obviously being the woman dressed up as an insect. The signified -the mental concept the woman represents is 'change'. Of course, the woman as she is depicted in the photograph also stands for conventional norms of female beauty in the form of a somewhat fragile creature. The woman depicted on the front page does not wear make-up. Then she changes into different person on the second page. Therefore, the make-up has transformed her into a different person altogether.  This idea of transformation, which is deeply connected to the use of make-up, has been applied successfully in the advertisement. The advert has given a combination of two narratives which involve the transformation of a lady by the use of make-up and is also related to the change of an insect during growth cycle of development. The Target Audience The readers of Marie Claire readership magazine can be assumed that they do not appear to need any additional information concerning black and white colors (Alperstein, 40). As a result, there can be some more arousal because of the curiosity created by the manner in which the facts are presented. In addition, there is an argument of the ambiguity from the use of the words and how they add to the whole mystical and Gothic characteristics in the advertisement. This tends to point the reader to a different question in semiotic context which is on the relationship of the advert to the reality (Alperstein, 54). A look at the target audience for the magazine shows that he target market is composed of cosmopolitan women who are mainly single and belong to the middle-class (Martin, 50). About 48 per cent of all the female readers are not married while about 72 percent are from the same age group which is between 18-40 years. The readership is less 'classy' than Marie Claire is. This suggests a new trend in Lancome cosmetics (Alperstein, 64). The emerging advertisement shows that the company is expanding to younger audience. Gender and Socio-economic Issues Projected There seems to be no connection with the reality except by the product being sold to the consumers in the society (McGraw, 17). The narrative in the advertisement is seen as a clear fantasy: the woman is basically wearing costumes that depict her as an insect and transform into a Gothic figure by applying the make-up. The Lancome advertisement does not function as a realist representational concept. The Signs and Symbols Applied in the Advertising Whether the people experience the society through speech, the printed word or the television screens, the media always classify the world for us, sequence it, frame it, enlarge it, reduce it, color it, and argue a case for what the world is like (Postman, 10). The connection between various individual signs is manifold. The meaning of the different signs can be defined by the omission of certain features. It can be argued that the absence of wording on the front page has the effect of leaving a reader in a state of innocence concerning the advertised. The reader is involved with the photograph easily because she does not know that it belongs to the advertisement (McGraw, 38). She would have turned the page faster if she was aware the image was part of the following advertisement. The relationship between the image on the first page, as well as the image on the second one, is of importance for the advert. In the case the image was left out, there must be some supporting reasons for that. The image on the second page would, therefore, appear as distorted. The contrast between the first lady who has a natural look and the second lady who has applied some make-up tends to bring out the importance of using make up. The American culture Cosmetics and make-up connote beauty in the American culture. Apparently, in the contemporary American culture, use of cosmetics and make-up enhances beauty, which is also common in other parts of the world. The notion of transformation is also deeply associated with make-up and it has been so even over history and presentation of different cultures. Make-up can create various looks and most ladies have a belief that they can alter their outlook by just applying specific kind of make-up. It is important take into consideration the target group of the advertisement (Martin, 68). The Lancome advertisement functions due to the knowledge shared in the society that make-up promotes beauty. In the American culture make up are used by the ladies and, hence, they tend to identify easily in the context that the product is communicated in. By taking the emotional part of the American women, through the make-ups, the advertisement robs off the prospective buyers, their aspect of faith in reasoning and they enter into a fallacious judgment of the notion of beauty. This method of presentation of the advertisement joggles the mind of female buyers, and they are likely to enter into an irrational thinking as they consider purchasing the new Lancome as they associate with beauty modeling. Change in the Advertising Message The context of the Lancome advertisement indicates how far advertising has transformed in the recent years. Today, most advertisements tend to apply quite sophisticated approaches of combining both informative articles and advertisement in a manner that is user friendly. Some other aspect of semiotics can be the analysis of the various concepts involved in an advertisement because the meaning of any sign depends on the concepts within the advertisement. The concept of color can be of great interest. For a female prospective buyer, color obviously has associated meanings and importance, which is beyond the scope of this paper’s discussion. Conclusion The use of semiotic approach has assisted in undertake a comprehensive analysis on the impacts of cosmetic advertisement. On the other hand, one can be easily led to assume that only the semiotic terms alone are not sufficient to give a description, as well as analyses, of an advertisement sufficiently (Martin, 78). All advertisements have a target audience for which they are designed for. Hence, it is crucially important to take into consideration the audience reaction in terms of societal factors within the society. A product in a conversation can influence the perception through the techniques of communicating (Postman, 24). Works Cited Martin, Morag. Selling beauty: cosmetics, commerce, and French society, 1750-1830. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009. Print. Alperstein, Neil. Advertising in everyday life. Cresskill, N.J: Hampton Press, 2003. Print. Author. Gender, race, and class in media: a text-reader. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2003. Print. Postman, Neil. Amusing ourselves to death: public discourse in the age of show business. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Penguin Books, 2006. Print. Read More