Topic: The Semiotic Analysis
of Cosmetic Advertisements on Facebook
Editors:
Publisher: Society for Science and education
Title of book: Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol.7, No.12
Publication Date: 25th December, 2020
DOI:10.14738/assrj.712.9528
Reviewer: Adelaja, Abdulazeez Ayomide (Department of English, Faculty of
Humanities, Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo.)
This article is a 14 paged article on a semiotic analysis of advertisement on Facebook.
The author sees the cosmetic industry as part of a consumer culture which is closely
related to the ideal feminine beauty. Hence, it analyses how “messages are
disseminated through advertisements that every woman should use cosmetic
products so as to reach the ideal beauty which is desired”. Besides this, it “aims to
portray how the ideal white beauty is portrayed on the Facebook pages of three
cosmetic brands in Turkey These cosmetic brands represent different characteristics
in terms of class, social status, lifestyle, and aesthetics. (658).
By using purposive sampling technique, the three cosmetic brands were analysed
with semiotic tools. Lancôme cosmetics, Estee Lauder cosmetics and Flormar cosmetics which are the
three cosmetics brands selected each had 5 images represented in the analysis. The judicious use of
advertising encompassed the use of selected instruments like flowers, balloons, bottles, marble table,
satin fabric, and so on in the advert were used to convey different characteristics in terms of class, social
status, lifestyle, and aesthetics.
The research shows that all the advertisements convince women to use cosmetic
products as it will make women feel sexy so as to be able to transform themselves
to achieve a better look and thus attract their partners. It further motivates women
to purchase more cosmetic products via hedonic shopping by reminding the ladies
that they need various products to achieve the perfect look (670).
In a bid to evaluate this article, no eulogy is too much to commend the effort in selecting the brands,
and the various images for the advertisement. Besides the demographics of the target audience of
Cosmetic brands was mirrored followed by the plausible thought process of the audience and the
attendant effect of or reasons for patronising the products. Similarly, the semiotic analysis is also a
carefully done assessment of the signs, the signifiers and the signified in terms of the visual signs.
In spite of all these, some areas of flaws need to be highlighted. One of such is the mentioning of the
origin of make-up, the ineffective demonstration of the relationship between makeup and cosmetics in
Egypt are what I find immaterial to the context. Besides, the absence of a theoretical framework for this
research which would have guided further on the theory of Semiotics to be used in the analysis makes
this article needing a reassessment. Moreover, this article requires the role of an editor to make necessary
changes as regards some of the errors observed.
Overall, I quite agree with the idea that different images are capable of speaking to different set of
audience thereby influencing their choice of matching up to the ideal white feminine beauty.
Reference
Kalender, G. I. (2020). The Semiotic Analysis of Cosmetic Advertisements on Facebook. Advances
in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(12) 658-671