Topic > Jean Kilbourne's Impact on Beauty - 1229

It is almost impossible to avoid exposure to advertising these days. Since most people are exposed to advertising, advertising and the values ​​they sell influence society. In Jean Kilbourne's essay, she states that "[an] advertisement sells values, images, and concepts of love and sexuality, romance, success, and, perhaps most importantly, normality" (126). According to Kilbourne, advertisers sell not only their products but also values, and one of the most popular values ​​sold by advertisers is beauty. In today's society, the effects of beauty are scandalous as it increases people's attention towards physical appearance. In the past, women generally regarded beauty as an important value, but now beauty has become one of the most important values. By analyzing the Clarisonic Pedi ad, I will show you how ads leave their mark on people's idea of ​​beauty without them realizing it. The Clarisonic Pedi advert is for the foot cleaning brush. The ad has a white background and images of two feet explaining the effect of the product in the center of it. One of the two feet appears smoother and cleaner than the other and before and after is written under the images. Show the audience that the product can shed its skin just like the skin in the ad. Even though it may take some time, maybe a few days, a few weeks or a few months, the ad only shows the public the final positive effect of the product. Therefore, people who see this advertisement would think that their skin would transform instantly just like the feet in the advertisements. Kilbourne argues that "[a]dvertising consistently promotes the core belief of American culture: that we can recreate ourselves, transform ourselves, transcend our circumstances, but with a twist" (122). While transformation generally takes time and effort, in most advertisements transformations do happen