Task 5: Critical Investigation Detailed Plan

To what extent does the beauty industry advertising promote dominant ideologies that female audiences are influences by and adopt?

Introduction

·         Range of beauty products having exaggerated conventions, settings, clothes, lighting;

o   All are glamorous

·         Celebrity endorsements creating consumer aspirations

o   Desire, ambition, fashion, body image

§  ‘brand and celebrities can be described as mutually beneficial’

§  http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/mmagpast/MM36_Collab_Celeb_endorse.html

·         Why do females adopt these styles?

o   Desensitised into ‘fake’ realities (theory)

§  ‘Make our choices on the basis of those semi conscious or hidden memoires’

§  http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/mmagpast/MM24_Ads_M&S.html

o   Attract men, male gaze (Laura Mulvey)

·         Example Rihanna’s perfume Reb’l Fleur

1^ST PARAGRAPH

·         Dominant ideologies of women

o   Domestic, sex objects, controllable

·          ‘Women spend most of their time either pregnant or producing milk.’

·         ‘Women contribute to the important business of providing food by growing vegetable, milling grain, making clothing and shelter’

§  NEED DOMINANT IDEOLIGIES QUOTE OF WOMEN

2^ND PARAGRAPH

·         Alternative ideologies of women

o   Powerful, successful, entering workforce

o   Change in historic society

§  ‘26,000 women in this decade went to study higher education and advertisers celebrated these new women’

§  Video - http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/greater-freedom-for-women-in-the-1960s/3515.html

3^RD PARAGRAPH

·         Effects of advertising – conventions

o    Consumer behaviour is influenced by: demographics, psychographics (lifestyle), personality, motivation, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and feelings.

o   (Sandhusen, Richard L.: Marketing (2000). Cf. S. 218)

·         The effects on self image

• “promise centres on higher order status and self-esteem needs such as the desire to be seen as fashionable, socially popular or successful”
• http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/mmagpast/MM24_Ads_M&S.html

4^TH PARAGRAPH

·         General discussion on how consumers are desensitised into ‘fake’ realities   

o   How women aspire to be like the protagonist on screen

o   Feminine, attractive, develop male gazes (Rihanna ad)

§  ‘Women who are insecure about their bodies are more likely to buy beauty products, new clothes, and diet aids.’

§  http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty.cfm

5^TH PARAGRAPH

·         History of advertising

o   Developments, conventions, social/political change

o   How these effected women in advertising

§  Compare Rihanna and Young Love perfume adverts

§  Elicit the differences in MIGRAIN

§  Relate to social change – feminism, rights, economical differences

6^TH PARAGRAPH

·         Examples of other celebrity texts

o   Cheryl Cole, Eva Longoria – L’Oreal

o   Estee Lauder

o   Beyonce – Heat, Pulse Perfume

o   How these portray aspirations and desire for female audiences

Conclusion

·         Outline and evaluate findings, people who become obsessed