"Advertising are a kind of communication, not mere manipulation: they help make sense of the world making cases and constructing images. " As stated in the brand new York Times (2003)1, advertising are an integral form of communication, manipulating consumers to buy idealized products as well as form sociable ideologies. Through semiotic and discourse examination we can verify how the building of Maybelline's current beauty advertisement uses signs or symptoms alongside context to market its new make of mascara, and more significantly depict cultural ideologies of female appearance and beauty.
The composition of signs in the advertising campaign creates meaning singularly so that as a unified narrative to market mascara. The prominent iconic sign is a woman's face in close-up, posing confidently at an viewpoint, denoting a more youthful Caucasian girl. Her nude, perfect tone accentuates her stunning eyes, groomed with dense, black lashes. The blue rectangular package framing her gaze further directs focus on her eyes but also disconnects them from the rest of her face. The different "eyes" become an indexical indication that indicates the commodity of mascara (Rayner et al: 18), but also advises eyes are the most important feature of the woman's face, as they connote to feminine gender and sexuality.
It reasserts that amplified sight make women more appealing and seductive, and assumes that their natural sight are bland and masculinizing, drawing attention to the product's capability to feminize common women. The red mascara tube connotes femininity and its own enlargement in the ad symbolizes how mascara can 'magnify' a woman's feminine charm by magnifying their eyes, tempting to women to buy Maybelline mascara.
Behind the model's face, commercial complexes saturated in a vibrant blue indicate a powerful city hub during the night. It really is half obstructed by the model's wrist, adorned with a glistening red and crimson jewel-studded bracelet that connotes metropolitan and sophisticated female glamour. Both sign's positioning above the cosmetically perfected eye of the model implies that they emit the exciting atmosphere, full of city appeal and elegant glamour that both night-life in the location and jewellery connote, further stressing the allure and increased desirability of female from using Maybelline's new mascara. It stresses the myth that all city women are glamorous and advanced, and the mascara, similar to the dressage reason for jewellery, can be an accessories to "glam" in the drab features of women.
The written signs or symptoms in the ad help 'anchor' this dominating reading (O'Shaughnessy et al: 33), and are also symbolic signals that connote to ideologies about feminine appearance. The text, "False Lash Glam" anchors the prestige and illustrious intimate change from using Maybelline's new "Falsies Volum'Express Mascara". However the words "False" and "Falsies" adds the theory that the product is only creating a phony illusion of gorgeous eyes, signifying the solid eyelashes of the model are honed and imitation, but simultaneously seem natural and easy. Thereby the slogan, "It isn't a mascara, it's bogus lash glam in a tube, instantly!" denies Maybelline mascara as a customary cosmetic that covers flaws, but distinguishes it as a distinctive 'instant' accessory to highlight natural femininity. It reiterates the tagline, "Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline", conveying a women's 'Maybelline' increased lashes still look genuine. Semiotician Ferdinand de Saussure suggested that words as a framework, constructs and therefore could shape people's view of contemporary society (Jutel: 3). The text in the advertisement re-accents 'make-up' as natural beauty, creating the ideology that 'fake' beauty is genuine 'true' beauty, that aesthetic products are essential to bring out a woman's true femininity.
The signs or symptoms in the advert combine to create an excellent image that girls desire to have. These signs represent "another image that is achievable" for everyone women (Rayner et al: 24), if indeed they use Maybelline's product, echoing society's expectation for ladies to maintain an excellent image and be concerned about their physical appearance, suggesting that ladies are only worth their looks.
Through discourse research we can examine how the context helps and contradicts these central meanings made by the advert. The vibrant city life signified in the metropolitan background is reinforced by the advertisement's placement in a city milieu, at a bus stop shelter, alongside paved roads, signposts, cars and folks in high-street fashion that connote to urban life. People, especially females passing the bus shelter or looking forward to the bus (as shown in the image) would start to see the advert and absorb it consciously or subconsciously, coveting to have the more female and glamorous faade Maybelline mascara supposedly creates. However, the framework contradicts the advertisement's myth that glamour is an essential trend for city women. Environmentally friendly context illustrates young city females who do not show runway models or show up glitzy and fashion-crazed. The framing of the ad in this specific context is to show mediated images of feminine beauty and appearance from truth. Marketing images of females conveying a certain look, such as the desirability of large eyes and dense lashes portrayed in the Maybelline advertisements, can "effectively organise the world and dispose people to see things and react using ways" (Schirato, Buettner, Jutel and Stahl: 38). Many ladies viewing the ad will think that women should always look presentably stylish if not gorgeous and dazzling. They easily read the connotative beliefs in the advertisements of glamour and prestige as denotative facts of how they are required to look (Rayner et al: 15). It depicts how mediated images of women can be "naturalised or universalised" (Schirato et al: 38), becoming a normal conception for women to look attractive and elegant as they believe that it credits their femininity.
Discursive knowledge is significant in understanding the particular advertisements is conveying and helps identify the familiar manipulation of signs or symptoms by commercial companies. Audiences have to be literate in British to identify the written text with regards to the product also to know that mascara is a aesthetic commonly utilized by women to enhance their lashes. Way more they have to recognize "Maybelline" as a recognised aesthetic brand. This discursive knowledge is mostly comprehended by women who use makeup, thus the advertisements would not seem sensible to the people who do not discuss the same social literacy in neuro-scientific makeup, such as men who may immediately overlook the ad as it is advertising something new and unwanted. Intertextual knowledge on similar cosmetic advertising such as L'Oreal or Revlon, where similar images of smooth-skinned women flaunting their beauty by plastic products, may also cause people to disregard the advertisements and not be swayed by the manipulation of indicators, as they are derivative and exercised by many similar cosmetic advertising.
The visual and written signs or symptoms in Maybelline's advert are manipulated to target women with the dominant conception that Maybelline's new mascara can feminize a woman's charm by enlarging their eyes, idealizing the desirability of buying Maybelline's product. We observe how context both support and contradict the meanings of the advertising campaign. More importantly we observe how images are mediated constructions of actuality that can have a "'powerful ideological force' in culture" (Rayner et al: 26), in this case, creating certain ethnical ideologies about female appearance.
