Media, Power and Modernity: An Analysis of the TV Advertisement of Olay Total Effects - Essay Example

? Media, Power and Modernity: An Analysis of the TV Advertisement of Olay Total Effects Outline Introduction TV Advertisement of Olay Total Effects An Analysis of the TV Advertisement of Olay Total Effects Conclusion The goal of this paper is to critically analyse how Thandie Newton’s Olay Total Effects TV ad appeals to its contemporary consumers. At this period of time, the medium of advertising can be found all over the place. This place we live in is completely stuffed with commercial messages. Different companies are advertising to target a wide array of audience in order to encourage the viewers to try their products. Nonetheless, different advertisements have diverse approaches to the consumers on how to appeal their different target markets. One of the companies that have showed its activeness in advertisement is Procter and Gamble (P&G). P&G advertises its different products which one of those is its brand Olay. As a skin care product, Olay has offered to the market different variants of products that beautify the skin. Its product advertisements range from Anti – Wrinkle, Regenerist, Professional, Definity, Complete Care, Essentials, Total Effects to a lot more others in which the common factor on all these commercials are the beautiful faces of different women. In addition to that, an award – winning British actress in her late 30s named Thandie Newton has been also the face of Olay Total Effects which is claimed to be a 7 in 1 Age – Defying product. In the TV commercial of Olay Total Effects, Thandie Newton tells the viewers that in skin care, she chooses only one product that can remedy her skin problem of ageing. It is Total Effects from Olay which has 7 age – defying effects in just one cream. It is advertised to fight the 7 signs of ageing through its capacity to brighten, hydrate, smoothen, refine the look of pores, make even tone, reduce the look of lines and lock in moisture. Olay Total Effects has the capacity to make the skin younger looking. In this case, it has used the idea of ageing as something to be feared of. Indeed, the concept of ageing which is often connected to unattractiveness is used to create fear among its target market. On the other hand, this TV commercial has also used the fantasy of being able to look young despite the fact that the physical impacts of ageing are certain parts of life. On the one hand, El-daly (2011: 26) described advertising as a powerful type of discourse through which it owns the capacity to persuade not only the how the society has constructed language as well as modality of way of life but on how it can also change the substance of everyday conversation. Indeed, it is the case that conveyed messages of advertising have successfully invaded and influenced the whole social and cultural landscape. In this modern – day society in which we live in, the brand names, logos, trademarks, slogans as well as jingles have been every part of our daily routine (Beasley and Danesi, 2002: 1). Meanwhile, the primary techniques employed by advertising are positioning as well as image – creation. First, Olay Total Effects is positioned as a product that can be used by women to defy the signs of ageing. Second, it has created to the minds of its target consumers an image of being able to make younger looking skin through fighting the 7 signs of ageing. According to Woodward and Denton (1988: 192), advertising is not just about product description on its target consumers but it has also managed to create a product imagery on which the consumer can easily identify. Nowadays, it can be observed how different TV ads offer promise and hope of different sorts to its target consumers. In the case of Olay Total Effects commercial, when one purchase the product, it offers a promise of security against the dangers of ageing. In this manner, it can be observed how advertising penetrates even the subconscious areas of the target consumers’ minds. This is supported by Beasley and Danesi (2002: 15) when they revealed how the advertiser embraces the hidden consciousness of psychic experience. Nevertheless, not all consumers happily take what the advertisements communicate to them. This is because of the fact that some commercials take part in degrading and humiliating our own self – images for example in the Olay’s TV ad, considering the ideas of having wrinkled, dark, rough, bigger pored, uneven skin tone and dry skin as the non – standard understanding of beauty. The TV ad itself stimulates fear among its target consumers through these signs of ageing. That is, ageing has been regarded as an object to be feared of among women. In this regard, the brand Olay offers its target consumers a fantasy of younger looking skin. Through purchasing the product, women can benefit from Olay Total Effects through defying the 7 signs of ageing. It is undeniable how advertising has the ability to fire up a consumer culture to aid extend the ideology which constructs why such product is needed by the consumers (Ang et al., 2007: 220-232). On the one hand, the field of psychology is also able to uncover how advertising is able to successfully employ the persuasion techniques that target the unconscious arena of the mind. The unconscious state of mind contains individuals’ concealed desires, wishes, feelings, memories, images as well as fears that are not permitted from manifestation in the conscious part of the human mind. In Carl Jung’s terms, the unconscious can be further split into two (2) segments such as the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious (Beasley and Danesi, 2002: 32). The former comprises the ideas of emotion as well as intellect that controls of one’s particular life scheme as developed by an individual while the latter suggests the ideas and outlooks fostered collectively by the species that are directive of its life pattern in general (Beasley and Danesi, 2002: 32). In this case, the TV ad of Olay Total Effects aims to support the changes in the lifestyle behaviours. It reflects the changes on skin care that already exist in popular culture. TV ad of Olay happens to be psychologically effective because according to Johnson – Laired (2004), the commercial is able to tap into deeply – ingrained imaginary and representational constructions of the mind. According to Bailey (1987: 1), advertising is all about acquiring what the people have in their minds and making them act these ideas in their heads. In the case of Olay Total Effects’ campaign, it has used the idea of ageing as something to fear of, has created a fantasy of being able to make them look younger through purchasing of the product being promoted. Through further evaluation of the TV ad, it can be observed how Thandie Newton, a woman, has functioned as the object of the commercial. This scenario can be analysed through the psychoanalytic term of “gaze.” According to Sturken and Cartwright (2009: 94, 103), gaze has created influence on the historical, economic, cultural and social milieu in which it has become vital element of the approaches on how to look within the modern world. It is the case that the concept of gaze is usually associated with desires and fantasy. On the one hand, Lacan (1988: 215) suggested that there is a relationship between the ideal – ego or the imagined self – identification image and the ego – deal or the imaginary gaze of another person. For Lacan (1988: 215), this gaze is a portion of desire of a person that will complete himself or herself through the other. In Lacan’s point of view, gaze is a feature owned by the object because it is a manner which enables the subject to look at the object. For Sturken and Cartwright (2009: 103), this gaze makes the subject look as if he or she is lacking something that the object has. This idea of gaze aids on how we can further understand how the advertisement of Olay Total Effects function to make the target market desire to have that younger looking skin which Thandie Newton has despite the fact that she is already 39 years old. The gaze of the subject or the target market on the object permits the understanding of how the advertisement works. As target markets of ad, in particular, the women who are getting older, they do not have this younger looking skin in which the Olay Total Effects promises. This promise of benefit drives these women to desire what they do not have. Moreover, the concept of gaze also explains further how the TV ad of Olay Total Effects entices its modern – day consumers. According to Sturken and Cartwright (2009: 103), gaze is central to the structures of ideas and power regarding knowledge. Through the power of gaze, people modify how they behave because of the idea that they are being constantly observed even if they do not know who are watching them. The consequence of real or unreal surveillance is self – regulating effects (Sturken and Cartwright, 2009: 106 – 108). In this regard, women who perceive themselves to be lacking on an aspect of beauty, younger looking skin, will adjust to the ideas on beauty promoted by the advertisement. Meanwhile, in the seminal article, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Laura Mulvey has a different idea of gaze. From the Freudian psychoanalytic approach, she used the concept in a political way. Freud referred to gaze as the pleasure that one gets in looking at the object, often the body of people. It is the case that the psychoanalytical way of gaze is centred on how the subject positions are constructed by the conveyed messages of advertisements. In contrast to the Freudian idea of gaze, Mulvey (1992: 27) suggested that the media had resorted to objectifying the female characters. She also claimed that the media has the capacity of voyeuristic process of identification with a self that one has imagined or aspired to be (Mulvey, 1992: 27). It is also the case that in this patriarchal society, there are different ways of having the pleasure in looking. It is divided between how the male and female gain pleasure in spectatorship. For Mulvey (1992: 27), the male gaze is active whereas the female gaze is passive. The male gaze is active in the sense that it can be regarded as controlling subjects in which in their eyes, women are the passive objectified entity. Women serve as objects of men’s sexual desire (Mulvey, 1992: 33). Women are presented as images to be looked at while men function as the owners of the look or that they do the looking on the women (Mulvey, 1992: 27). When the audience perceives the advertisement on a lens of a heterosexual man, male gaze occurs. In relation to the TV ad of Olay Total Effects, the socially constructed ideals of beauty are not including the wrinkled, dark, rough, bigger pored, uneven skin tone and dry skin. Having these signs of ageing makes women unattractive in the eyes of men. That is to say, such signs of ageing create fear among women. In this regard, Thandie Newton’s face has been lingered over by the camera. This is because Thandie Newton has been objectified in such that she has been looked at as a sexy and beautiful object of the ad despite her age. The patriarchal society in which we live in could not be overlooked in this sense. This is for the reason that the power of men is still dominant in the advertisement. Thandie Newton is a passive object to the active gazes from men. On the one hand, Murvey (1992: 27) also suggested how gazes of men and women converge. This is through women’s way of looking at themselves within the men’s standards of beauty. Going back to the target market of the advertisement, women perceive themselves to be lacking on some aspects of beauty which men desires. So, in order to satisfy the aspects of beauty which men desire, women attempt to beautify themselves. Indeed, such can be regarded as indication of unequal power created by the conscious and the subconscious states of mind or between the gazer and the gazed. Thus, the standards of beauty are constructed within the ideals of men. Women who lack such aspects of beauty are enticed by the ad to purchase and try the product through re – telling these women that the signs of ageing are making them unattractive but still, Olay Total Effects can do something about their skin dilemma. Thus, the promise of Olay Total Effects that it can defy ageing makes women to strive for attractiveness not for themselves alone but to be attractive to the ideals of men as well. Furthermore, aside from the ideas of psychoanalysis that are used, Olay Total Effects TV commercial can be further analysed through Stuart Hall’s Encoding – Decoding Model. As a cultural theorist, Hall developed this model which explains the systems of meaning communicated via television. According to Gurevitch and Scannell (2003: 139), the basic principle of Hall’s model is that the medium of television functions as means of production, circulation, distribution or consumption as well as reproduction of meaning in the modern capitalist world. In the case of Olay Total Effects commercial, it produces, circulates, distributes and reproduces the idea that ageing is something that women should fear of because of the fact that the signs of ageing can make them ugly. Thus, with how patriarchy constructed the ideals of beauty, women perceive themselves within the ideals of beauty on how it has been socially constructed. Moreover, Marxism has greatly influenced Hall because of the concepts of power, class dynamics, exploitation, politics, economy, hegemony and ideology (Gurevitch and Scannel, 2003: 139). In the mechanism of encoding and decoding model of media, Hall (1980: 128 - 138) suggested that the meaning of text is situated between the producer (encoder) and reader (decoder) of message. The meaning is found between how the encoder framed the meaning in a certain way and how the decoder interpret this differently based on his or her own context. In analysing the TV ad, first, it is important to note that it is a commercial which means it is business – related aiming to market a product. In this regard, it is essential to keep in mind that the main goal of the ad is to convert the consumers into purchasing the product. This is because in this capitalist society in which we live in, the main goal is nothing but to maximize profit. In this manner, TV ad of Olay has touched the unconscious minds of people regarding their ideas of beauty. The commercial has used the strategy of telling its target market what is lacking on them in which the product of Olay can give remedy. The encoder tries to transfer his or her own version of a particular meaning of aspects of beauty based on his or her personal and cultural beliefs to the encoder whereas the encoder adapts the original meaning communicated to him or her into a new variety that has adjusted into her own ideals and particularities. Indeed, it is the case that Hall’s model produces implications other than this one once the manifestation of own meaning among the decoder or the viewer of ad has started. In this critical analysis of the television advertisement of Olay Total Effects, it is now understood how the advertisers use the ideas of psychoanalysis on how to appeal their target markets in this modern capitalist world. First and foremost, it can be observed how the ideals of beauty are constructed in our society. In this society dominated by men, the standards of beauty are created under patriarchy. This is something that not all people are aware of. Moreover, the ideals of beauty are regarded as a pro – young looking skin and an anti – ageing skin. That is how the Olay Total Effects communicated to its audience that ageing is something to be feared of. In this manner, the product offers a promise of younger looking skin to its target consumers. Through touching the subconscious and unconscious states of human minds, the advertisement has used this strategy to offer its target consumers what they are lacking. By offering what they are lacking, Olay Total Effects has successfully appeal its target market. This has been the established way of advertising within this capitalist world. References: Ang, Swee Hoon, Lee, Yih Hwai, Leong, Siew Meng. 2007. The ad creativity cube: conceptualization and initial validation. Journal of Academy of Marketing Science 35, 220-232. Bailey, H. 1982. The copywriter's biggest job. Adweek. Beasley, R and Danesi, M. 2002. Persuasive signs. New York. El-daly, Hosney. 2011. Towards an understanding of discourse of advertising: review of research with special reference to the Egyptian media [online]. African Nebula 3: 25 – 47. Available at Accessed [04 April 2012] Gurevitch, M., Scannell, & Paddy. 2003. Canonization achieved? Stuart Hall’s “Encoding/Decoding”. In E. Katz, Canonic texts in media research: are there any? should there be? how about these? Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 231-248. Hall, S. 1980. Encoding/Decoding. In S. Hall, Culture, media, language. London: Hutchinson, pp. 128 – 138. Lacan, Jacques. 1988. Seminar one: Freud's papers on technique. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mulvey, Laura. 1992. Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. In Caughie et al. (Eds.). The sexual subject: a screen subject reader in sexuality. London: Routledge, pp. 22-34. Sturken, Marita and Cartwright, Lisa. 2009. Practices of looking: an introduction to visual culture. Oxford University Press, Inc. TheNomadness, 2011. Olay Thandie. [video online] Available at [Accessed 4 April 2012] Woodward, G and Denton, R. 1988. Persuasion and influence in American life. Prospect Heights. III: Waveland. Read More