Seventeen and Maybelline
Talisha Jackson Professor Benjamin Foster Writing 121 10/29/2012 Seventeen and Maybelline Seventeen is a cheap, popular magazine whose pages are full of various fashion or cosmetic tips, articles, and advertisements. Seventeen also focuses on the unknown details of popular stars, movies, celebrities and television shows. Maybelline Cosmetics is a well-known, expensive brand of makeup which is owned by L’Oreal. I will be analyzing both the Seventeen magazine and a Maybelline advertisement, to decide if the particular ad could be placed in the magazine.
On the cover of the 2012 August edition of Seventeen is the Filipino actress Shay Mitchell. She is shown smiling while leaning against a white wall her arms are firmly crossed in front of her, showing off her blue bracelets and ring. Her brown hair is being blown back by an unknown force, revealing her blue and purple earrings which match her bracelets, purple lopsided shirt and purple flower patterned denim jeans. Right next to Shay in bold teal letters is the television series she’s in “Pretty Little Liars”, and under that in smaller plain text, is “Spoiler Alert! The wild plot twist she didn’t even see coming. Shay’s head is slightly covering the magazine’s title “Seventeen”, and surrounding her are the main topics of this edition. Such as: “Redo-Your-Room—For Free”, “Back-To-School Preview”, “805 Fashion & Beauty Ideas”, “Free nail polish”, “Best Jeans for your Body & Budget”, and “The Guy’s Secret Thoughts (what he’s not telling you)”. They’ve also posted the URL for their website in small orange print at the bottom right corner. August is the month where most students in high school or college are getting ready for going back to school, or are already back in school.
Three of the main articles in this edition are about cheap ways to redo your entire appearance. The ‘Back to School Preview’ article is full of pictures of women who are promoting make-up or hair products, and telling the readers ways to achieve these unique styles and what to buy. Such as the Hot Chocolate style “Upgrade your everyday earth tones with rich chocolaty color on eyes and lips. You get an A+ when the finish is matte. ” The article tells the reader to buy MAC Pro Longwear ($20) and NARS Pure Matte Lipstick ($25) n order to achieve this look. Judging by the time this edition came out, some of the main topics, and the fact that this section of the article tells the reader that she’ll get “An A+ when the finish is matte” is safe to say that this magazine targets women in high school through college who want to get the best deals on clothing/cosmetic products and are interested in changing their look. Unlike most magazines, Seventeen does not have a table of contents. It does, however, number its pages which totals up to 175 pages.
Within these pages are advertisements for cosmetic products such as Covergirl, Maybelline, Pantene, and NYC. Covergirl dominants these with 5 full page ads, two of which are located in the first couple pages of the magazine. Pantene and Maybelline aren’t too far behind with 2 full page ads each, and NYC is in last place with 1 full page ad. The first thing you see when you open the magazine is the CoverGirl ad for their ‘Clean’ brand of cosmetics. This ad features Taylor Swift, whose skin looks gray and contrasts with her bright blue eyes and salmon colored pink lips.
In quotations under Taylor is “why do I love clean? Because it’s sensitive to my skin” and under that a small description of the product. The other cosmetic ads are similar only promoting other products like eye shadow, mascara, primer, nail polish, etc. The cosmetic advertisements within the magazine itself reveal that the readers are interested in make-up, but only products which enhance their features and hide their blemishes’. Seventeen attempts to incorporate all different kinds of young women into their magazine.
In the first 51 pages alone they have 49 models who are a minority, and 58 who are Caucasian. These models claim almost equal time as both the main model in the advertisement and as the supporting models. This edition of Seventeen doesn’t include one article or advertisement promoting weight loss or any form of dieting. Instead they have a small article written by an editor who promises that the Seventeen magazine will “not edit a model’s face or body”, “always features models who are real and healthy looking”, and to” celebrate all different types of bodies and people”.
Although skinny models dominant the magazine itself, models of all different shapes and sizes have their place somewhere in its pages. Seventeen includes everyone in its pages, and caters to any type of young women who is into fashion. The women are not the only thing that ranges. Being a cheap magazine, Seventeen’s advertisements promote not only expensive brands such as Express and American Eagle but cheaper brands such as Target and Jcpenny.
One of their main articles is about shopping for jeans on a budget, which delivers the readers some options for picking out jeans to match their funds. This ‘article’ is seven pages long, shows seven different brands of jeans and how much they cost. In the Aeropostale ad they show three women running arm and arm. The first female on the left of the ad is wearing floral jeans, the girl in the middle is wearing acid green skinny jeans and the last girl is wearing coral colored skinny jeans.
All of those jeans cost around $25, while the adjacent ad’s jeans average around $55. Throughout the magazine, Seventeen has also added in several coupons, like buying a pair of Aeropostale jeans for $20, and another one for 20% off your entire purchase at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. They’ve also placed a coupon for free mini nail polish, and tips on how to redecorate their room for free. These show that the readers of the magazine include people from all different income levels and don’t cater to one particular income level.
Advertisement is a multi-billion dollar industry which is always looking for new ways to sell the consumers a product they usually don’t need. It plays with the consumer’s wants, needs, fantasies, and insecurities to market their item, while promising that it’ll be faster, better, and more efficient than the rest. When pertaining women fashion, dieting and cosmetic products dominant much of the advertising world. The advertisements promise that if the readers wear this particular item, or use these products they’ll be attractive. The Maybelline New York advertisements’ are no different.
This particular ad for Maybelline presents their new lineup of anti-aging products, named “Instant Age Rewind”. The advertisement plays with the whole minimal effect by not including a model, not having a background and not adding any words other than the ones on the make-ups’ packaging. This in terms draws the reader’s eyes to only their products, and allows the reader to come up with their own descriptions. They probably went this way since their original “Age Rewind” advertisement was banned in the UK, for their model looking perfect through the use of Photoshop.
On every bottle or tube of the five “Age Rewind” products, clearly displaces the words “Instant” and the word “New”. The word Instant promises that the effect will happen instantaneously. That as soon as the customer puts the product on their face, they’ll instantly look younger. The word new either means that this is an entirely new product, or a slight modification of a previous product. Other than “New”, there is no other weasel word, which means that the product promises to instantly make the customer appear younger, and not “Virtually instant”.
Both of these words will help market their product by promising the readers a brand new product which will instantly make them look younger. In the ad the five “Age Rewind” products are lined up left to right, starting with the “Finishing Powder”, then the “Skin Transforming Primer”, “The Eraser”, “Radiant Firming Makeup”, and ending with the “Conceal”. Just by reading the names of the products, you already have a slight perception of what the product is suppose to do. The “Skin Transforming Primer” is supposed to hide every blemish, wrinkle, and age spot while making the customer look younger. The Eraser” is supposed to ‘erase’ all of the blemishes hopefully permanently, and the “Radiant Firming Makeup” is supposed to firm the consumers face while giving it a radiant glow. Whether these products do this or not, the titles themselves is enough to sell to people who want to look younger. All of these products are either packaged in glass or plastic, with a burgundy colored plastic lid, top, or cover. The burgundy color helps attract the attention of possible customers, while standing out from the rest of the cosmetic products, which are normally red, yellow, or purple.
Burgundy is a more mature color than most of the other color choices, which will help in attracting the older generation of women. Maybelline’s “Instant Age Rewind” products are aimed at the older generation of women who want to reverse time and look younger. The Anti-aging products are aimed at women in their late 30s and beyond. The ad will not fit in with the Seventeen magazine, which is aimed at women in their late teens to early twenties. Seventeen’s readers are more worried about hiding pimples rather than turning back the wrinkles they don’t have. Therefore this will not be a product they’re interested in.
