Boo Fuscone
CMC 100
8/18/12
In the August 2012 issue of Food Network Magazine, the CoverGirl ad with
Taylor Swift displays a contrast between reality (who we are) and fantasy (who we'd like
to be). Through a textual analysis, I argue that this contrast demonstrates how young girls
are expected to both hide and stand out from their peers. The Food Network has strong
demographics, and an audience base of mostly woman and married couples from ages
eighteen to fourty – eight1. There are about 5,000 women who read the magazine and
about 4,000 of that percentage is married2. From the magazine, sixty – six percent of the
people make the recipes showed in the magazine and another sixty four percent visit the
website after reading the magazine3. The Food Network Magazine is a widely read and
well-known magazine that gives its readers recipes and a means to love cooking. This
CoverGirl Ad is the only beauty ad in the entire magazine and demonstrates the needs of
desire and fear through advertising. The fear that young girls will have of missing out on
what is becoming popular socially and through the media and the desire to want to be like
a famous person and hold that sense of popularity amongst others. In this Ad, they show
the sides of Desire through make up and being able to achieve that perfect beauty that
Taylor Swift has through CoverGirl. If young girls were to see this ad, there is a feeling
of want and the fear that if society is moving on, then they have to be as well.
“Food Network Media Kit” last modified April 29th, 2010.
http://images.foodnetwork.com/webfood/pkgs/2010/media-kit/FN_MediaKit_042910.pdf
2
“Food Network Media Kit” last modified April 29th, 2010.
http://images.foodnetwork.com/webfood/pkgs/2010/media-kit/FN_MediaKit_042910.pdf
3 “Food Network Media Kit” last modified April 29th, 2010.
http://images.foodnetwork.com/webfood/pkgs/2010/mediakit/FN_MediaKit_042910.pdf
1
Taylor Swift is an influential, famous and beautiful celebrity in our world today,
who made her fame through connecting with young girls and writing songs that were
relatable. Young girls look up to her because of how famous she is today and what she
has accomplished, girls want to be her and boys want to date her. In our culture and
society, being famous is a right of a passage and if you hold that right than nothing can
stop you, you are on top of the world. This is the fantasy that young girls want to achieve
and believe they can if they look, dress and eventually feel as if they are that celebrity.
Young girls look up to Taylor Swift as if she were untouchable and in their eyes she is,
she is a fantasy to them and through advertisements and media, people can feel closer to
her and other celebrities.
All the makeup that she is wearing in this ad is listed in the bottom right corner.
Implying that if you wanted to you could attempt to look like Taylor using these
products, but you should be your own person at the same time. They are very
contradicting statements, but they want to make fame and the feeling of being as
beautiful as Taylor Swift achievable through these make up products.. Every young girl
wants to be like their idol, dress, look and feel as though they are that person because in
society, being accepted means being popular. Fantasies is what keep people going in this
world, if you have nothing that you are trying to achieve then people feel like they are
living for nothing. There is a large amount of consumerism in our world today. Schor
says “Social Comparison and its dynamic manifestation—they need to “keep up”—have
long been apart of American Culture4. For young girls, even to feel the beauty that Taylor
4
Dines, Gail, and Jean McMahon Humez. Gender, race, and class in media: a critical
reader. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications, 2011.
Swift feels, is acceptable for most yet there is a defining line between reality and fantasy
and what is actually achievable.
In the eyes of young girls and their peers, the lives they are leading are too
ordinary, their reality is simple and not exciting and that is why they like to live through
celebrities. Especially Taylor Swift, through her music she has related herself to so many
girls which makes it seem like she is there when in reality she is no where near them. For
young girls to achieve beauty through these products would make their own realities
seem like a fantasy which is what every young girl wants.
In this CoverGirl ad Taylor Swift is wearing a purple dress and is only
photographed from the chest up. Her hair is red, giving her a more edgy look which
people are not used to seeing because she is seen as so innocent and her look appeals
more to young girls. The CoverGirl logo is in purple, which is the same color as her
quote, the dress and the eye shadow, using all one color, denaturalizes her and makes it
more real for the audience. The quote from Taylor Swift, in the bottom left corner reads
“don’t live in someone else’s shadow!” which makes it seem like she is more personable
and playing down her fame, when in reality CoverGirl wants people to buy these
products to be more like her.
The quotation in the middle of the page is so ironic because Taylor Swift is
implying to not be like her and to instead look and feel like your own person, then in the
bottom right hand corner every piece of makeup that she is wearing is listed because what
girl is not going to want to be like her and go out and buy all of that? CoverGirl makes
her seem so real and present as if she is talking to you and making it seem like she is right
there, when in reality she is not. By placing her in all blue, with the writing and the
makeup as well, it denaturalizes her, which makes her seem even more real and her
beauty seem possible to young girls.
The Food Network magazine has an impressive audience, but none of their
audience is aimed at such a young level like the fans of Taylor Swift. This ad, being the
only beauty ad in the magazine makes it stick out more than other fashion and tabloid
magazines because of the immediate image that is put into your head. CoverGirl and the
Food Network value fame and using Taylor Swift as a high profile celebrity speaking to
young girls, teens and women is a way of promoting their beauty campaign as well as the
improving the Magazines demographics. However, the beauty and fame that they are
advertising is unachievable for so many and not a realistic dream, which many girls do
not want to accept. The level of beauty in this ad is immensely powerful, first because of
how fierce and powerful Taylor Swift is being played up to be which is not what the
public is used to seeing and because they are implying that YOU can live in the shadow
of Taylor Swift if you choose to by buying these amazing beauty products featured.
Young girls in our generation today are expected to look, act and dress a certain
way according to the media. In this CoverGirl ad with Taylor Swift, this idea of
acceptance is being encouraged through the beauty and fame they are showing. Every
young girl lives a reality and not in a fantasy world and when they are shown everyday
how beautiful and important celebrities truly are, it makes they want that same fame and
feeling of splendor which is unachievable in most situations. A beauty ad is enhanced
when there is a celebrity on the cover and every girl strives to have that same beauty.
CoverGirl knows what their goal is and how to achieve by using the distinction of
celebrities to sell their products. Taylor Swift is an idol to some and because of the media
young girls will buy these CoverGirl products to achieve that possible dream of fame in
spite of their realities.
“On my honor, I have read the assigned material in its entirety, and I have not given,
received, or witnessed any unauthorized collaboration on this work.”