American natives

1. Discourse, the Body,
and Identity
Ageist Ideology and Discourses of
Control in Skincare Product
Marketing Alba Amago
Hayat Essaguir
Ana Goberna
Cristina Hierro
Malgorzata Nalborczyk
Sara Periáñez

2. 1. The importance of the face:
Introduction:
Unique
Physical
What is the face? Malleable
Public

3. The importance of the face:
Gloria Swanson once said: “We needn´t
dialogue, we have faces”
•Verbal and non-verbal communication
•Advertisements Influence
Moral agenda (Norms)
Assume responsibility

4. Women:
•Ageing is undesirable
•Assume responsibility to stay young-looking or
to disguise their apparent ageing.
• Is it real?

5. How can adverts persuade women that ageing
process is achievable?
•Faces cream.
•Tanning products: dilemma

6. How can adverts persuade women that ageing
process is achievable?
Rhetorical voices
Age-imaging
Resistance of ageing
Scientific solutions

7. 2. Skin care, the face and ageing
•Western societies
•ageing-process aberration
•Repression: ageing female process unwatchable
•Women
Problem Premium

8. 2.1. RHETORICAL VOICE
Whose ideology?
Ideologies about the ageing face and
body are communicated through
ambiguous authorship.
•Woman’s inner voice
•Advertiser’s authorial voice
Turn your age
Rhetorical voice shapes a negative attitudes towards ageing
and inclines the reader/viewer favourably towards skincare
products. The strategy brings enormous economic benefits for
the advertisers and product manufactures.

9. “ time is on your side
You’re approaching the end of your 20s and that’s great! You’re at your
gorgeous, glowing best...
Approaching your 30s is a scary time for a woman, when it comes to
beauty. Everywhere you look there are images of gorgeous young women
in their 20s looking vibrant, lovely, and quite frankly, irresistible to men.
Even though you know that there are plenty of sex, gorgeous female role
models in their 30s, think of Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, and even
older, like Goldie Hawn, it’s hard not to feel that somehow, something has
packed up shop and gone, never to come back. It’s true that your skin will
never again be wrinkle-free or have that same flush of youth, and you’re
probably having to work harder to feel fit, healthy and glowing…”
Advertising in Shine magazine , November 1999

10. “20, 30, 40, at every age, we deserve perfect skin. Skin Perfect from L'Oreal Paris. The first
range of three creams customized for three ages. Inspired by 10 years of research.
Whitening plus powerful skin actives goes beyond whitening and reduces imperfections in
your twenties, fine lines in your thirties, wrinkles in your forties. Three ages, three creams.
For young, radiant skin. Perfect. Choose the one for you. L'Oreal Skin Perfect only 99
rupees onwards. Because we're worth it.” L'Oreal Paris Skin Perfect TVC 2015

11. 2.2. AGE IMAGING AND AGEIST
ASSUMPTIONS
Ageing as
exclusively
physically realized
and fundamentally
problematic.

12. ● VICHY advert from She magazine (June, 1999)
Introducing the latest intervention in the fight against skin ageing.
Reti C
Pure Retinol and Pure Vitamin C.
A new force in anti-ageing.
Visible results from 15 days.
VICHY Laboratories have perfected the first three-phase emulsion containing Pure
Retinol and Pure Vitamin C in their stable and active forms to correct the signs of
ageing.
Reti C combines the rapid radiance renewal action of Vitamin C with the wrinkle
corrective benefits of Retinol.
Use morning and/or night. Hypo-allergenic. With VICHY Thermal Spa Water.
Effectiveness tested by dermatologists.
Ask your pharmacist for advice.
NEW. Patent pending.

13. ● A more recent example of Vichy Thermal Spa Water
➢ My sensitive skin daily
ally!
➢ Aggressed skin?
➢ Fortifies!
➢ Pharmacie
➢ 15 well doing minerals
Same strategies!

14. ● OLAY advert from New Woman magazine (Feb,
2001)
YOU´VE DISCOVERED HOW TO REDUCE THE APPEARANCE OF SEVEN SIGNS OF AGEING ON YOUR FACE
NOW IT´S TIME TO DISCOVER…OIL OF OLAY
HOW TO REDUCE THE APPEARANCE OF SEVEN SIGNS OF AGEING ON YOUR BODY, ON YOUR HANDS AND ON YOUR
LIPS
TOTAL EFFECTS BODY ANTI-AGEING MOISTURISING TREATMENT
Because skin ageing doesn’t begin and end on the face, total effects body treatment tackles the appearance of ageing,
especially on areas you need it most, such as the chest, elbows, knees, and heels.
NEW TOTAL EFFECTS BODY TREATMENT WITH VITANIACIN
- Intensively hydrates dry skin
- Improves skin´s firmness
- Visibly reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles
- Visibly evens skin tone
- Helps diminish the appearance of blotches and age spots
- Softens and smoothes skin texture
- Transforms skin dullness to a more youthful healthy glow
PROVEN TO REDUCE THE APPEARANCE OF 7 SIGNS OF AGEING
Total effects
It´s all over
For seven signs
Of body ageing

15. ● Olay Professional Pro-X Anti-ageing Skincare TV Ad 2010
Imagine the expertise. A panel of
dermatologists evaluating your ageing
skin concerns. That's what you get with
New Olay Professional Pro-X. A
specialised team of dermatologists
and Olay have designed Pro-X to
resignal your skin so it performs more
like it did when it was younger. Younger
acting, younger looking skin.
Clinically proven results in 28 days or
your money back guaranteed. Potent.
Proven. Professional.
New Olay Professional Pro-X.

16. 2.3. RESISTANCE OF AGEING:
MARKETING SCIENTISED "SOLUTIONS"
● Women responsible for their physical appearance
● Science as the key element in these kind of products (cosmetics, make-up,
anti-ageing creams...)
● Scientific research
Products: pharmaceutically and medically proven: to verify
efficiency.
Use of technical words to give the sense of expertise.
●

17. ● Big pressure on women of mass media to look younger and having a
perfect skin and physical appearance.

18. ● Companies claim and promise efficiency of their products and really
encourage women to buy them.
● Use of exaggeration and unsupported data.
● Use of percentages and numbers to convince and give sense of truthfulness.
However… it has been proven that skin structure cannot be modified nor
altered.
Effects are just ephimeral and temporal so…
Advertisements have to use careful marker words to mitigate those claims.
Because of these very elaborated and manipulative language, advertisements seem to
lack coherence.

19. Now see lines and wrinkles
visibly reduced by up to 50%.
Diminish
Anti-Wrinkle Retinol* Treatment
Use Diminish nightly and the unique 3 vitamin formula time releases Retinol into the skin
minimising wrinkles visibly - without irritation. After 8 weeks, tests show 50% reduction
in appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Age spots seem to fade.
*Retinol, the purest form of Vitamin A, is one of the most effective ingredients
to reduce the visible signs of ageing.
ESTÉE LAUDER
● Example taken from magazine Vogue - May (1999)

20. ● Example of LANCÔME
FIGHT OXIDATION, FIGHT AGING!
Reveal virtually lineless, radiantly touchable skin.
NEW PRIMORDIALE CELL DEFENSE™
DOUBLE PERFORMANCE CELL DEFENSE AND
SKIN
PERFECTING SERUM
Now, Lancôme blocks 99% of damaging free radicals for visible skin
perfection.
● Powerful antioxidants protect skin cells for visibly fewer lines,
smaller pores and renewed radiance.
● A unique complex accelerates cell turnover for more even skin
tone and texture, revealing visibly perfected, flawless skin.

21. 3. TANNING
3.1. INCOMPATIBILITIES
BEAUTY AND DESIRABILITY = YOUTHFUL-LOOKING
TANNING = SKIN AGEING
ACQUISITION OF A TANNED SKIN = SUN-USE

22. EXAMPLE: NEUTROGENA UV AGEING REPAIR 20 (RED
MAGAZINE 1999)
. ages to understand sun ageing
. 8 weeks to see corrected signs
. skin without wrinkles, fine lines and
age spots reduced
. skin will look firmer, younger and
healthier
. recommended by dermatologists

24. A.BEAUTY AND HEALTH
-SUN-USE IN THE CONTEXT OF BODILY RISK
FACTORS
PREMATURE AGEING AND MELANOMA
-PROLONGED EXPOSURE
-WELL-PUBLICISED HEALTH DANGERS ABOUT SKIN
CANCER
-MAGAZINES AND ADVERTS (SUMMER MONTHS)
a tanned body is a beautiful and desirable body,
and even a healthy one.

25. B.CONSUMERIZED DISCOURSES
TWO CONFLICTING BODY
PROJECTS
1. LONG TERM BODY PROJECT
maintaining youthful-looking skin
(undamaged by the sun)
2. SHORT TERM BODY PROJECT
acquiring tanned skin

26. C. POTENTIAL MARKETING SOLUTIONS
Marketing and ideas promote: looking for
tanned and healthy skin
rectifying damage antidote
redefining the desirability of fair skin
film stars and models (alabaster skin)
Why the Safe Sun Message still hasn't sunk in
solutions: sunscreening agents

28. EXAMPLE: BOOTS SOLTAN. ZEST: HEALTH AND BEAUTY
MAGAZINE
. most people still prefer sexy
golden tone
.achieve it and protect our skin
.ultimate protection, wonderful
tan, fabulous look
.against UVA rays/ contains Cell
Protection System
.helps your skin to defend itself

30. 3.2. New Approaches: faking it,
naturally
‘Fake tans’ meet 2 main
women’s desires:
- Look tanned
- Have an undamaged skin
Around 50 years ago,Hollywood
made tanned skin fashionable
through its association with leisure,
hedonism and glamour

31. Coppertone Tan ad; 1972

33. Rejection of sun-use. Glamour & Glow

35. TusCan TV commercial

36. Conclusion
- In the relationship between the woman, the body and skincare products
there are always issues of control, agency or responsibility involved.
- Ads speak from an authoritative position.
- The body and the face are treated as an age signifier which needs work to
resist the disease (ageing).
- We should embrace other models for living later life that leave us feeling
comfortable with and in our changing faces and bodies.

37. Dove Pro-Age Campaign: Finally…
accepting the age?

38. Thank you !