Covergirl Ads
12/10Ayesha Curry ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqVg9QepxWk
Zendaya ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjyV0_JE1-Q
First, I came across a Covergirl commercial featuring Ayesha Curry in which I immediately noticed the implicit message, 'If you wear our mascara, you'll be a star like Ayesha'. The ad opens with a close up of Ayesha Curry applying Covergirl's new mascara in her glamorous dressing room. Then, she walks onstage in slow motion as her voice says, "No matter the arena...I'm always in the spotlight." I feel that this line perfectly showed the technique Covergirl used to appeal to the audience. Covergirl focused on Ayesha's glamorous celebrity lifestyle, which translated into heavy use of Transfer/Association to satisfy the 'need for attention' and 'need to achieve'. I know that these techniques are very often used in the world of media, and that made me think about Covergirl's repeated messages and techniques. I considered that Covergirl's use of celebrity personalities could lead to patterns throughout their ads.
So, I searched for another Covergirl commercial to see if my theory would prove correct. I found one featuring Zendaya that, again, focused heavily on her spotlight lifestyle and showed very similar target appeals and techniques. It began with a close up of her face and her voice saying, "My parents always told me: 'Zendaya, you were born to shine,'" which drove home the implicit message: 'If you wear our BB cream, you'll be a star like Zendaya' right from the start.
I concluded that the very face of Covergirl has been created to fit these techniques and meet the appeals of viewers with the message: 'wear our makeup product and you too will achieve stardom'. Each advertisement is carefully produced so that the lifestyle and personality of the celebrities that represent Covergirl show through in order to accomplish the Transfer/Association technique. This technique should tackle the 'need for attention' and 'need to achieve', as all of the celebrities pictured are very successful and prominent in media culture. Due to this careful manipulation, I feel that Covergirl executes the ads it puts out in a way that well thought out and produces good response from the public.
However, the message that Covergirl sends out could also imply the questions that would NOT appeal to the public in a positive way: Does this message imply that if you are not a 'star', you are unsuccessful and undesirable?
Regarding your concluding question, I think the answer is yes, they are implying that you aren't successful unless you're a star like Zendaya or Ayesha Curry. They're trying to tell consumers that unless they act like those women by wearing Covergirl, they're destined to be unsuccessful. They're use of the word "spotlight" seems to highlight that message well. A spotlight is used to make someone bright so that everyone can see them, but it's also used when the rest of the room is dark and not meant to be visible. This is a symbolic message telling viewers that not only will they stand out if they wear Covergirl makeup, but also that they'll fade into a realm of meaningless nobodys if they choose not to buy their product. It's too bad that Zendaya is choosing not to shake up the advertising industry. Hah.
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ReplyDeleteIn relation to your final question as well as RJ's comment, I would also say that the answer is yes. Based on the heavy use of certain words that imply being of a celebrity status, it seems to be spreading the message that you are not a star without their product. I found it quite interesting that I had not noticed it before. I would assume this would be very prevalent among other realms of advertising, including other makeup companies. I would even wonder if the celebrities, especially people like Zendaya who normally stand up for everyone being beautiful and important no matter how they appear, etc., notice the techniques used by Covergirl in order to sell their product. Great job! :)
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