Rough Draft of a Rhetorical Analysis

When I first started writing this essay, I had no idea what I was doing. I knew I had chosen an advertisement that looked familiar to me, and that I was supposed to write about what it meant. For two days I did nothing but stare at the image in confusion. To me a makeup ad had always been nothing more than a makeup ad. It was that simple. However, now I was supposed to think bigger, find a deeper meaning. This was a new concept for me. There was a lot of editing involved, a lot of writing and re-writing. I did plenty of reading aloud, erased a paragraph or two many times. 

Here is my rough draft. It is not very different from my polished draft.

Beauty Ad Campaign- I Am Perfected: A Rhetorical Analysis

A rhetorical analysis is not a summary. It is not a narrative essay, there isn’t a story that’s being told. It has nothing to do with one’s life, it is not an autobiography. A rhetorical analysis is used to persuade a particular audience. The author uses texts and/or images to urge the reader to understand a specific message the way it’s meant to be understood.

It’s no secret that being a woman in today’s day and age is tough. Or any day and age for that matter. Young or old, women constantly feel pressured. Pressured to be better role models, to be thinner, prettier, smarter, kinder, to be better wives, and good mothers. The list could go on. Social media, magazines, or even television has placed this idea in our heads that we aren’t good enough because we don’t look or act a certain way. You can’t open a magazine without seeing a model who weighs around 100 pounds and looks to be about a size 2- and those are the women we idolize. Those are the women we aspire to be like. Why? Why is it that we feel we need to paint our faces with layers of makeup and act like people we may not be, to feel beautiful? 

When I first took a look at this beauty ad campaign, all I noticed was what was being sold. “INTRODUCING COLOUR CORRECTING CREAM“, it says. I view makeup ads on a daily basis, it wasn’t something that was new to me. Then I took a second look. I read all the words, I looked at the models’ facial expression. The model looks so content. She looks like she feels beautiful, she was trying to look convincing. That’s when I realized that this ad had a much bigger purpose. Sure, the image itself is trying to advertise a specific brand of makeup. However, there is a much deeper meaning. ”I AM PERFECTED”, the ad states at the bottom left corner. ”GORGEOUS, FLAWLESS COVERAGE WHILE CARING FOR YOUR SKIN”, I also read. Great! Right? Every woman wants to feel like the woman featured in this campaign ad. Not only that, but I’m such plenty of women view this image and automatically assume all this information is true, without question. Without any sort of proof whatsoever.  When Max Factor created this campaign, I'm sure those thoughts were already in mind. He knew how easy it would be to create such a successful advertisement this way.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the main objective here, the main purpose of creating this image, was primarily for sales. It’s the way they’re trying to persuade their viewers to buy their products that really caught my attention. By convincing women that they can feel just as perfect as the model featured does. This goes back to the idea that women feel they need to live up to a certain standard, or look a certain way, to feel good enough. As if putting on makeup is going to change who you are as a person. As if all of a sudden you’re going to be “perfect” the minute you apply a layer of makeup to your skin. That’s what I took from this imagine.

It was obvious to me that the targeted audience here was all women. Being that most men don’t typically buy makeup or pay attention to ads such as this one. I was actually quite shocked after doing a little research of my own and reading about how efficient images such as this one can be, and how greatly they actually impact a woman’s life. Women all over the world are going to extreme measures and spending ridiculous amount of cash on products just like the one pictured, to live up to a certain image. Actually, according to [People.com], the average woman spends around $43.00 on just a single makeup trip alone. That averages to about $15,000 on beauty products in a lifetime. That’s more than enough money to buy a brand new car. How crazy is that? Woman are spending thousands of dollars to change the look of their appearance.

There are thousands of images just like this one that we view every day. Most of us don’t stop to think about the main purpose of such an ad. We see a photo of a pretty young woman, read about the makeup she has on, and we jump for joy. How exciting is it that we get to be just like a woman featured in a well worded advertisement? We have the opportunity to look just like she does, wear the same products she’s wearing. Gas stations, consignment stores, libraries, you can find these images any and everywhere. The one thing that blows my mind is how well they actually work! I’m just as guilty as every other woman, and I don’t think I've ever even realized or put much thought into it. I don’t even think twice about the amount of money I'm spending if it means I get to look a certain way because of a certain product.

I found this particular advertisement effective. I feel this way because of how incredibly easy it is to slap a pretty face and a couple encouraging words on a platform and have the ability to influence millions. It seems a little too easy to convince women that they “need” to buy these products. Advertisements like this one have been around for centuries, and they’re only getting more and more creative. Which is obviously necessary. I mean, without the help of these images, there would be much less of a profit made off of these products.

    Works Cited

Kratofil, Colleen. “Can You Guess How Much a Woman Spends on Makeup in Her Liftetime? (We Were Way Off!).” PEOPLE.com, Time Inc, 30 Mar. 2017, people.com/style/how-much-does-a-woman-spend-on-makeup/.

“Candice Swanepoel Max Factor Campaign.” Beauty Scene, 6 May 2013, www.beautyscene.net/makeup/candice-swanepoel-max-factor-campaign/.

This essay was difficult for me. It wasn’t until my peers had looked over my paper and gave me useful tips, that I felt successful. My paper wasn’t as terrible as I had thought! They had positive feedback for me. I struggled while writing my entire paper, but those I shared my paper with couldn’t even see that. I found a lot of comfort in that. I felt really accomplished.