Rhetorical Analysis of Maybelline Advertisement.

Throughout history, the issue of beauty has always been a concern for women. In society, it is relatively common for women to be judged by their appearance rather than by their virtue. Society also decides the standard of beauty. This leads to women consciously and unconsciously conforming to this idea of beauty. The idea of being slim and tall like a model, looking youthful, and having flawless skin are some constructed ideas that women aspire to have. The fear of being hideous, which women harbor inside, is beyond what it appears. Thus, entrepreneurs take advantage of this fear and turn it into profits by creating major companies that have more than enough power to control major decisions in society. One of the many successful companies is a cosmetic company called L’oreal. They promote their beauty products by making use of media through advertisements and rhetoric. One of the ads advertises the product by saying: “Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Treatment Makeup”. This Maybelline ad is an example of the rhetoric of power because it appeals to beauty standards that judge women’s social value on their ability to conform to a strict criteria of physical beauty by utilizing the rhetorical elements such as ethos, logos and pathos to achieve its goal.

(Ethos) There are some ways that this ad uses ethos in order to achieve its purpose. First of all, Maybelline is a famous and trusted brand for beauty care. It is supported by a large number of celebrities who work for them for the ads and as spokesmen. Christy Turlington is the model used in this ad. She is a very famous supermodel and many people recognize and idolize her. Due to Turlington’s popularity, women get the feeling that in order to look attractive, they must look like her. With Turlington as the representative of this ad, she increases the trustworthiness of the product by conveying the idea that the product is the secret behind Turlington’s beauty, thus applying the product to oneself would make a woman as beautiful as her. In addition to that, people can acknowledge that the product itself is trusted by seeing the words “7 years of research and 3 patents” on the ad. It lets people know that the product has been tested in a long period of experiments and has been given the approval from experts and authorized group. These appeal to the product’s trustworthiness and at the same time it conveys the idea that women should conform to this standard of beauty.

(Logos) This ad features logos through its use of terminology. The use of pseudo scientific names such as “micro corrector applicator” appeals to logic and knowledge. This implies that the product is created by using new technology. It is all scientifically made and people who make this product know what they are doing with the intention of delivering the best product for the consumers. Despite of being named with a fancy scientific name, the fact that the supposedly ”corrector” is just a sponge you use to spread out the concealer, does not affect the performance of the product. Thus, the use of rhetoric here has succeeded in luring people into buying the product. It is also necessary to mention its logical fallacy. Everyone knows that the use of an eraser is to remove and this “eraser” will do the same in which it will remove the imperfection. Despite the logic, it is impossible for any human to not have pores on their skin. It is important to notice that the ad uses an excessive retouch done by photoshop. It is misleading and so far from reality that it contradicts to what the product can truly give the consumers. From here we can see that the ad gives people a false belief of the standard of beauty and in a way, it says that anything flawed should be erased in order to be beautiful.

(Pathos) The last rhetorical element L’oreal uses is pathos. In the ad, we can see the depiction of a beautiful woman who supposedly has this imperfection in which many average women have;: wrinkles, dark spots, dark underbags, crow’s feet, fine lines, etc. From this point of view, the ad is trying to appeal to women’s emotional state: their insecurity of being unattractive based on their age. The ad uses the comparison of before and after look of the model who uses the product. It shows the parts of the face where the product has and has not been applied. The audience can see that the skin looks better after the product has been applied. It is clearly very appealing to women who want to have skin that looks just like that and thus the ad achieves its purpose of spreading the standard of beauty this way. Other than that, the use of color in this ad is a factor to its appeal. The red color as the background expresses sensuality, passion and boldness. The ad wants to convey a message that says, “Don’t be afraid to make a statement. Show your best face to the world”. It appeals to women by creating the feelings that women can look elegant, bold, passionate and youthful if they use this product.  

    In conclusion, the use of rhetorical elements such as ethos, logos and pathos contributes to the success of many companies such as L’oreal. By appealing to knowledge, feelings and trustworthiness, L’oreal has successfully achieved its goal in of convincing people and society to conform to the standards of beauty. Furthermore, through the rhetoric of power depicted in this “Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Treatment Makeup” ad, the company implicitly reinforces a belief regarding how women are supposed to look and this has surely put women under more oppression in society.