Week 8: Advertising

For this week’s assignment I decided to look at the ads in the most recent issue of US WEEKLY. Based on the contents of this weekly magazine, I would suggest the target audience would be anyone interested in celebrity gossip. However, when looking at the ads more closely, I think the major audience of US WEEKLY must be women between the ages of 18-40. The ads in this magazine were mainly for beauty products, weight loss products and television programs on Bravo and Showtime.

The first ad that caught my eye was an ad for Aveeno POSITIVELY AGELESS Rejuvenating Serum. At the top of the page are three close-up pictures of the faces of three different women. The women are all pretty, white, smiling and appear to be in their 30s, maybe 40s. Right underneath the pictures, in bold print is the statement and question: “Everyone ages differently. Does your skincare know that?”. Underneath that large bold print is smaller bold print describing this product: “Introducing the first self-adjusting serum for your unique skin”. Then, in smaller text in the middle of the page, there is a more detailed description of the ingredients (contains shiitake mushrooms, “…long believed to enhance vitality and slow aging”), qualities of this product, as well as some statistical evidence to prove its worth: “73% of women saw reduced lines and wrinkles in just 4 weeks”.

This Aveeno ad relates to discourse of femininity and beauty, and is playing on our insecurites associated with beauty and aging. To be beautiful is to look young, and we will only be beautiful with smooth, wrinkle-free skin if we buy this product.

When reading this week’s chapter on advertising, I was most struck by the amount of advertising of alcohol in programs geared towards adolescents. I was especially surprised that “All of the 15 most popular shows for adolescents had alcohol ads” and “…adolscents were 93 times more likely to see an ad promoting alcohol than an industry ad discouraging underage drinking” (Beach, 2007).

I decided to do a spoof on alcohol awareness/prevention ads that so often use celebrities. I choose Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie for the beginning since they have both received DUIs. I then chose Lindsay Lohan since she is only 20 years old, but she has been a staple at popular clubs for years and she’s already been to rehab. Lastly, I chose Britney Spears, for her well-publicized post-pregnancy, post-divorce partying and more recently, her stint in rehab. View my spoof at jumpcut:

http://www.jumpcut.com/view?id=1F34343EDAE611DBAB00000423CF0184