Cosmetic Advertising Lowers Self-Esteem

We are all aware as consumers that cosmetic products are an expensive luxury that we are all capable of living without. Marketers, whose job it is to create needs for products, figured out a way to persuade us to spend money that could go to essentials such as groceries because they want that money to go towards their products. When a new product is about to be released in the market, what happens next is companies need to find a way to put that product into the mind of the consumers while creating a need for said product. Cosmetic advertisers have come up with a way to target consumers’ self-esteem to get them to think that they need their products to become “less ugly” and fit more into the beauty standard, therefore resulting in purchasing their products.

This unethical practice originated back in the year 1912, with one of the most famous beauty advertisements titled “The Curve of a Woman’s Arm” which was an advertisement for a staple everyday product, deodorant. This was not always the case, back then deodorant was used only as a medical item and their solution to smelling good was showering regularly and wearing intense amounts of perfume. As all Marketers do, Edna Murphey, a high schooler who wanted to sell the deodorant that her father invented, knew that she needed to reposition deodorant in the consumers’ minds to get her product into their everyday routine. She decided to put the idea of fear in every woman’s mind specifically, and make them think that they do smell bad enough where they needed deodorant by going after their social status and love life.

The advertisement goes on to say that perspiration is “A frank discussion of a subject too often avoided” which implies to the readers that when they do smell, others are aware of it but instead of telling you, they will gossip behind your back about it. Men everywhere will be disgusted by it as well. This style of advertising is known as shame advertising. The main purpose is to make the reader feel bad about themselves to make it appear that the only solution to feeling better is using their product. Although this advertisement was created over 100 years ago, shame advertisements are still prominent in today’s media, just not as obvious. For example, an anti-aging advertisement from 2014 from L’oreal promoting their Youth Code Serum, stated that “now you can instantly improve skin quality while revealing the new youth of your skin” which is still shameful advertising. This advertisement is implying that when your skin is at its highest quality is when you look young. Older women seeing this advertisement will start to feel like their mature skin isn’t good-looking and therefore be more persuaded to purchase the product, which is what companies want.

Feeling like you need to look like the models in the advertisement who fit into the beauty standard is the “ultimate goal” of the Social Comparison Theory. This was founded by American psychologist Leon Festinger. This theory states “the idea that there is a drive within individuals to look to outside images to evaluate their own opinions and abilities” which explains how advertisements affect our self-esteem. It is in human nature to constantly compare ourselves to other people, typically those who are “above us” because we believe that the way they look is realistic and attainable. Once we look like those to who we compare ourselves, then we fit into the elite status they hold as well as feel better about ourselves.

When women view shameful advertisements for cosmetic products, they begin to get the message that the way that they naturally look is considered an imperfection. The human need to compare themselves to others, to please society happens in the subconscious. This is where 95% of all buying decisions are made, Marketers use this to their advantage because humans don’t even realize that they think this way so it comes automatically to them. They started comparing themselves to those who have the “perfect results” and believed that if they bought the product, they would fit in with the higher status that they hold. They then develop a need for the product and unless they have it, they will have this ongoing thought that they are not good enough for society. Once they purchase the product, the unmet need for fitting in and having high self-esteem would be satisfied, and therefore the marketers would complete their goal by creating and satisfying an unmet need that satisfies their target demographic.

For years advertisements have shown tall, thin, fair-skinned women with a virtually clear skin which leaves those who do not look like that to compare themselves with the people they see in the advertisements and believe that look to be the standard of beauty. For those who do have low self-esteem, it is more likely that it can develop into something more serious. The University College of London did a study on how your brain maps out self-esteem, starting from the time you were a child, the study resulted in finding that “Low self-esteem is a vulnerability factor for numerous psychiatric problems including eating disorders, anxiety disorders, and depression.” When women or young girls, in particular, are exposed to these advertisements that purposely try and make them feel worse about themselves, it can affect their self-esteem as a child, and that can then carry on into adulthood.

When there is cosmetic advertising aimed at women of any age, there is a higher chance that more women will grow up dealing with mental health issues and eating disorders than ever before. It is a company’s job as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility to try and always make ethical decisions to enhance society as a whole while making a profit. These forms of advertisements need to change as making customers feel worse about themselves to get them to spend their money is not ethical.

Businesses should consider their consumers’ feelings and begin to create advertisements that send the message that everyone is beautiful and that the “beauty standard” does not exist. If more brands begin to adopt this practice then women everywhere will stop comparing themselves to the models that have unrealistically airbrushed skin and start to appreciate their natural beauty.

References

Martin, Mary & Kennedy, Patricia. (1993). Advertising and social comparison: Consequences for female preadolescents and adolescents. Psychology and Marketing. 10. 513 – 530. 10.1002/mar.4220100605. 

Festinger, L. (1957). Social comparison theory. Selective Exposure Theory, 16.

Beauty Redefined: How Beautubers and Influencers Changed the Industry. (2020, March 5). HASTAC. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://www.hastac.org/blogs/meaganspeich/2020/03/05/beauty-redefined-how-beautubers-and-influencers-changed-industry

University College London. (2017, October 24). Self-esteem mapped in the human brain. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171024103319.htm

Magazine, Smithsonian. “How Advertisers Convinced Americans They Smelled Bad.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 2 Aug. 2012, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-advertisers-convinced-americans-they-smelled-bad-12552404/. Staff, the Premerger Notification Office.

“L’Oréal Settles FTC Charges Alleging Deceptive Advertising for Anti-Aging Cosmetics.” Federal Trade Commission, 3 July 2014, https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2014/06/loreal-settles-ftc-charges-alleging-deceptive-advertising-anti-aging-cosmetics.