Surface Criticisms Of Mascara Advertising
Abby Pierro
Maybelline’s “new the Falsies Big Eyes” mascara advertises their new double brush tube that will magically give you glamorous, larger eyes. Being the first of its kind, advertisers claim that women must buy it and try it out. Such claim, that Falsies can create bigger eyes, amplifying lashes 360 degrees, is implicit because it cannot be verified. Women are born with varying eye shape and size that mascara alone cannot change.
According to Potter, there are six different surface criticisms of advertising. This mascara ad contains five of them including, manipulation, materialism, excessiveness, stereotyping, and deceptiveness. Maybelline stresses that it is a new, first-made double brush, manipulating us to believe that it will enhance our eyes and we will buy two for the price of one. Falsies are only one type of mascara out of thousands that we can choose from which only proves that we live in a materialistic world. The advertisement is also excessive. It repeats the phrases “360 degrees,” “Glam,” “Big Eyes,” “Upper,” and “Lower,” multiple times in the ad as well as on posters in the make up sections of stores like Target. In addition to the repeats, the ad stereotypes women by implying that big eyes …show more content…
“360 degrees all-around lash glam,” is a perfect example of the ad deceiving us through puffery. Psuedo claims or false claims are also used to describe the effects of the product - how it “volumizes corner to corner.” Using “new” within the ad is a prime example of a comparison with an unidentified other. We don’t know what the older version of this mascara is. Juxtaposition is amongst the most prevalent deception in this ad. When looking at it, we may think that by buying this product, our eyes will look like the woman’s eye in the ad. In reality, and in fine print at the bottom, this woman has her lashes styled with lash inserts; therefore, our eyes will not look the
Maybelline’s “new the Falsies Big Eyes” mascara advertises their new double brush tube that will magically give you glamorous, larger eyes. Being the first of its kind, advertisers claim that women must buy it and try it out. Such claim, that Falsies can create bigger eyes, amplifying lashes 360 degrees, is implicit because it cannot be verified. Women are born with varying eye shape and size that mascara alone cannot change.
According to Potter, there are six different surface criticisms of advertising. This mascara ad contains five of them including, manipulation, materialism, excessiveness, stereotyping, and deceptiveness. Maybelline stresses that it is a new, first-made double brush, manipulating us to believe that it will enhance our eyes and we will buy two for the price of one. Falsies are only one type of mascara out of thousands that we can choose from which only proves that we live in a materialistic world. The advertisement is also excessive. It repeats the phrases “360 degrees,” “Glam,” “Big Eyes,” “Upper,” and “Lower,” multiple times in the ad as well as on posters in the make up sections of stores like Target. In addition to the repeats, the ad stereotypes women by implying that big eyes …show more content…
“360 degrees all-around lash glam,” is a perfect example of the ad deceiving us through puffery. Psuedo claims or false claims are also used to describe the effects of the product - how it “volumizes corner to corner.” Using “new” within the ad is a prime example of a comparison with an unidentified other. We don’t know what the older version of this mascara is. Juxtaposition is amongst the most prevalent deception in this ad. When looking at it, we may think that by buying this product, our eyes will look like the woman’s eye in the ad. In reality, and in fine print at the bottom, this woman has her lashes styled with lash inserts; therefore, our eyes will not look the