The Influence of Advertising on the Perception of Beauty

7/29/2019 The Influence of Advertising on the Perception of Beauty

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The Influence of Advertising on the Perception of Beauty

By

Rae Carolyn B. Nantes

ENGLISH 2 (College Writing in English)

W-2R

Loisey Anne Aquino

March 13, 2012


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OUTLINE

Thesis Statement:

Although persuasive communication is used, mass media specifically

advertising has a little effect on the perception of beauty of human because

of different factors such as selective perception, selective exposure and

interpersonal influences.

I. Introduction: Advertising is the largest form of mass media.

A. Advertisement can either be in the form of prints (newspaper,

magazines and billboards).

B. Advertising flows where money flows.

II. Beauty is a currency system like the gold standard.

A. Art is a way of depicting beauty.

B. The presentation of beauty by mass media is used to seek

attention.

III. The persuasive communication of advertising is used to advocate more

patrons.

A. Audience is composed of different individuals or group of

individuals.


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B. Responses to the messages conveyed by advertising differ with

kind of audience.

IV. The impact of advertisement is altered by different factors.

A. Persons with selective perception will only get the information

that only supports their own views.

B. The ability of an individual to control the information he wants to

remember is what selective retention is all about.

C. Interpersonal influences such as family, colleagues and

schoolmates greatly affect the respond of a person on the

information transmitted by advertisement.

V. Conclusion: Advertisements affect the perception of beauty of human

to only some extent.

A. Persuasive communication is useful in seeking audiences

attention but still not enough to change ones behaviour.

B. Selective retention, selective exposure and interpersonal

influences could hinder effective persuasion.


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Advertisement comprises the largest and least subtle part of all the

material that has been designed to produce predetermined responses. It is

also an arrangement of words or words and pictures in prints, motion and

sound added on television or an arrangement of only words and sounds on

radioall designed to persuade you to buy a product or service (Aldrich,

1975).

Advertising is also defined as controlled, identifiable in formation and

persuasion by means of mass communication according to Wright, Winter

and Ziegler in their text Advertising. The advertising industry is very large,

employing more than 400,000 people in all its phases. There are about 8,000

advertising agencies, which employs nearly 85,000 people. Agencies are the

most visible (to lay persons) aspect of the advertising; the advertising

agencies executive who was been both lionized and criticized in the mass

media. And the mass medianewspapers, magazines, radio and televisions

also employ tens of thousands of persons who sell, prepare and schedule

advertising (Pember, 1939).

Different advertisements have their own characteristics; some are

garbage while others are money-generator. Advertisers, too, are variable.

They can either belong to the group of responsible, trustworthy, and humane

advertisers or to the group of selfish, money-digger, and deceitful

advertisers (Aldrich, 1975).

Advertisements rise up during the wave of capitalism although some

other says that it started way back in the ancient times since, traders and

merchants were known to sale wares on the street. Modern advertisements

are usually associated with market economy. The first known advertisement

ever published was in pamphlet which was printed in 1478 by William Caxton

which advertises a book. (Pember, 1939)


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Advertising not just merely sells products, it can also be used to

introduce new products, reintroduce previously known products to

encourage more consumers, and it can also be used to motivate viewers or

listeners to take part in cause like saving the forests to help save the earth.

(Pember, 1939)

Advertising increases the costs of consumers goods (Pember, 1939).

The largest advertiser in the country (US) spends about $100 million

annually, and many spend an average of $10 million a year (Aldrich, 1975).

Since preparing and broadcasting advertisement really costs a lot of

money and time. This money used were charged on the consumers,

companies tend to increase the value of their products more than what is

enough so that these bills will be paid and still their profit will still be

remarkable (Pember, 1939).

Although persuasive communication is used, mass media specifically

advertising has a little effect on the perception of beauty of human because

of different factors such as selective perception, selective exposure and

interpersonal influences.

According to Wolf, Beauty is a currency of beauty system like the gold

standard. Like any economy, it is determined by politics and in the modern

age in the West, it is the last, best belief system that keeps male dominance

intact it is an expression of power relations in which women must naturally

compete for resources that men have appropriated for themselves.

Advertisers use successful women to be part of their product

endorsement to show not what they have been but to show that these

people use their products (Azarcon-dela Cruz, 1988). However, if you will try

to examine closely the different magazine ads, you will discover that they

conveyed a wrong conception about women. Endless ads for cosmetics and


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beauty aids on the other hand perpetuate the fixed idea that eternal youth,

good looks and impeccable grooming are indispensible to being a woman

(Azarcon-dela Cruz, 1988).

Because most of the advertisers are multinational corporations, the

stress on colonial consumer patterns, materialistic values and prioritises and

frustrating search for the good lifeare deeply rooted entrenched in the

minds of middle and lower class women. Thus, the lurks the danger of

consumer oriented society penetrating or replacing our own values of

crunchy junk food replacing nutritious meals, of sophisticated home

appliances giving women a false sense of modernity and contentment, of

beauty aids stressing the shallow and superficial (Azarcon-dela Cruz, 1988).

One of the main goals of advertisement is to catch the attention of its

audience. According to Fiske, Attention involves the process of encoding

whereby people take information that is outside of them and represent it

inside their heads.

In order for advertisement to be effective in capturing the attention of

its audiences, it must need to communicate well with them, thus, advertising

agencies uses different mechanisms to be able to catch the interests of their

target consumers. Such mechanisms includes: modifying what is existing;

introducing values or beliefs in a better way; and building an imaginary world

of perfection (Aldrich, 1975).

The process of communication follows a transmit-receive actions in

which along the process, some difficulties may arise due to different factors

such as receivers error of interpreting the message conveyed of faculty

transmission of codes. Such errors in transmitting the message may have

cause different understanding of the true meaning of the message conveyed

(Lazarsfeld, 1965) Messages or knowledge are acquired when audience

are regularly subjected to different media but his point of view on certain


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things remained intact. These results are shown in different researches

(Kunczik, 1984).

On the other hand, Lowest kind of manipulative devices with the

addition of artistic expressions, proper vocabulary and right information used

in an advertisement or series of advertisements (campaign) creates a

great impact to its audience, therefore, acquires more consumers (Aldrich,

1975).

One kind of a manipulative device is the Repetition which is the main

principle applied for every successful advertisement. Repeated messages

targets not only the rational way of thinking its audiences but also the

vulnerable feelings of being a human. Main messages, quirky lines, silly

actions of the models must be repeated with the association with the product

being sold (Azarcon-dela Cruz, 1988).

On the contrary to the effect of transmit-receive actions, Social

scientists, researchers and theorists have different explanation with the

effect of mass media like advertisements to its audiences. Few

communication theorists have generated as much controversy and debate as

Herbert Marshall Mcluhanthe grand free-for-all theorizer about media

effects the theory states quite simply, that the medium itself is the

messagemedia in and of themselves and regardless of the messages they

communicate, exert a compelling influence on man and society. His theory

anchors societal change in the transformations of communication media

(Stanley, 1976).

Azarcon-dela Cruz says that if Marshall Mcluhans theory on subliminal

messages is true, indeed, think of the powerful role print ads in magazines

play in shaping the perception and image of women. With printed materials

so easily accessible to women, it comes as no surprise that women are

constantly bombarded with messages through print ads do not create all


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these realities, however, by cunningly distorting some of these realities or by

presenting some images and myths as realities through constant repetition,

ads have made the womans already difficult task of breaking out of rigid

stereotype an even more formidable problem.

In addition, In the service of national development, the mass media

may be agents of social change. The specific kind of social change they are

expected to help accomplish is the transition to new customs and practices

and, in some cases, to different social relationships. Behind such changes in

behaviour must necessarily lay substantial changes in attitudes, beliefs, skills

and social norms (Schramm, 1964).

The effect of mass media is variable due to different factors such as

interpersonal influences that greatly determines the effectively of the

transmission of messages. Great impact of media can only be attained when

messages are conveyed repeatedly and no contradiction will be presented

that may weaken its stand. Positive responses are likely to be achieved when

new stands are presented to the audiences with less or no idea of it at all,

otherwise, if it contradicts his views, he will reject it. These are the main

points of McQuials understanding of the effect of media in research findings.

In addition, according to Schramm, mass communication can be used

directly to change attitudesif no strong attitudes or behaviour patterns

exists in the point in question or if the change can be shown to be merely an

extension or redirection of an old strong attitude. In such major decisions,

therefore, the mass media can help only indirectly. They can feed

information into the channels of interpersonal influence. They can confer

status and enforce norms. They can broaden the policy dialogue, they can

help form taste, where there are no strong attitudes, and they can be

effective. But for the most part, in the area of entrenched beliefs and

behaviours, they can only help.


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I agree with Stanleys statement (1976) where he claimed that The

effects of mass media are difficult to explain or predict for several reasons.

The media function through a complex nexus of mediating influences. There

is no direct communication-response link. Other stimuli intervene, and there

is a time lapse between the origination of the message and the receivers

response. Truly, if a message transmitted was filtered through a lot of

factors, the message itself may be altered or modified, thus, different

interpretation of the message from the original one will be transmitted to the

receiver. So, if that is the case, it can be said that these messages from the

media does not directly affects us since there are filters that modifies it.

Schramm says that quantity of exposure to media does not readilymean that it will be a factor for the conformity of the society. Social change

must not only mean changes within a group of people but are changes within

the entire society, in every individual included in this society. But according

to some social scientists, selective exposure which is the control of over

the information received. The information we usually seek are the things that

is within our own principles (Pember, 1939). People usually exposed himself

only to the things that interests them or the things that support their own

point of view. They may also read or expose themselves to the topics that

oppose their beliefs only to give more reasons why they should be against it.

Furthermore, according to Leon Festingers theory of cognitive

dissonance, the individual avoids discomfort and uncertainty by selecting

information likely to reinforce his convictions. Similarly, he would reject

information that conflicts with previously held ideas. (Pember, 1939).

This statement of Kunczik (1984) summarizes the effect of mass media

specifically on that of the advertisement, Today, if I were to give an outline

of the most important findings of 40 years of research into the effects of the

mass media, I would have to tell roughly the following: the effects of the

mass media appear to be negligible.


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This effect of mass media is due to some factors. One of which is what

was called as selectivity. It is how different people see and remember

different things form the same picture, at the same story (Pember, 1939).

When a consumer starts to sort out information by filtering the things he

wants to retain which interests him, and throwing out the information he

thinks are useless after he had understood the messages conveyed in an

advertisement (Aldrich, 1975).

On the other hand, selective perception is when focusing upon the

same communication of messages; different people tend to see different

things (Pember, 1939). An advertisement with a Caucasian woman which

was advertised in the Philippines were people admired white complexion,may have better response than when it will be aired in Western countries.

According to Schramm, another factor why social change is not as

simple as a piece of cake is that the relationships within the society are

important or which is technically known as interpersonal relationships.

People always consider the people that surround them like their colleagues,

family and co-workers.

A broadcast in a radio about the invasion of Martians on Earth creates

a chaos in a state in America. At first, researchers concluded that the mass

media really has a great impact to people but after sometime, other

researchers pick a hole in this conclusion. They have found out that other

residents in that area got the information about the invasion of Martians

from people who got the information from the radio. This conclusion created

doubts on the persuasion power of media. (Pember, 1939).

Hence, the perception of the consumer on physical beauty does not

really get affected by mass media, specifically by advertising since people

tend to have different views about the same topic; also they are only

divulging themselves to what they are fond of and avoiding things that


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contradict their will. Most importantly, the opinion of the people surrounding

them is much important than any other factors.

Bibliography:

Aldrich, P.G. (1975). The impact of mass media. New Jersey: Hayden

Book Company Inc.

Azarcon-dela Cruz, P.S. (1988). Fromvirgin to vamp: Images of women

in Philippine media. Taguiug:Asian Social Institute.

Fiske,S.T. (1995). Social cognition in Abrahan teaser (Ed). Advanced

social psychology. New York:McGrawhill,Inc.

Kunczik, M. (1984). Communication and social change: A summary of

theories,policies and experience for media practitioner in the third world.

Brunswick: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.


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Lazarsfeld,P. F. & Berelson, B.(Eds).(1965).The effect of mass

communication (3rd ed.). New York:The Free Press, a Corporation.

McQuail, D. (2000). McQuails mass communication theory.

London:Sage Publishing Ltd.

Pember, D. R. (1939) Mass media in America (5th ed).Chicago:Science

Research Associates, Inc.

Schramm, W. (1964).Mass media and development: The role of

information in the developing countries.Stanford, California:Stanford

University Press.

Stanley,R. H.& Steinberg, C. S. (1976). The media environment:Mass

communication in American society.New York: Hastings House Publishers,

Inc.

Wolf, D. (1990). The beauty myth: How images of beauty are used

against women. London: Random House UK Limited.

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The Influence of Advertising on the Perception of Beauty