Surface Criticisms Of Mascara Advertising

Abby Pierro

Maybelline’s “new the Falsies Big Eyes” mascara advertises their new double brush tube that will magically give you glamorous, larger eyes. Being the first of its kind, advertisers claim that women must buy it and try it out. Such claim, that Falsies can create bigger eyes, amplifying lashes 360 degrees, is implicit because it cannot be verified. Women are born with varying eye shape and size that mascara alone cannot change.
According to Potter, there are six different surface criticisms of advertising. This mascara ad contains five of them including, manipulation, materialism, excessiveness, stereotyping, and deceptiveness. Maybelline stresses that it is a new, first-made double brush, manipulating us to believe that it will enhance our eyes and we will buy two for the price of one. Falsies are only one type of mascara out of thousands that we can choose from which only proves that we live in a materialistic world. The advertisement is also excessive. It repeats the phrases “360 degrees,” “Glam,” “Big Eyes,” “Upper,” and “Lower,” multiple times in the ad as well as on posters in the make up sections of stores like Target. In addition to the repeats, the ad stereotypes women by implying that big eyes
are beautiful. It suggests that by having big eyes, we will look as beautiful as the woman pictured.
This Maybelline mascara ad is filled with deceptive claims.
“360 degrees all-around lash glam,” is a perfect example of the ad deceiving us through puffery. Psuedo claims or false claims are also used to describe the effects of the product - how it “volumizes corner to corner.” Using “new” within the ad is a prime example of a comparison with an unidentified other. We don’t know what the older version of this mascara is. Juxtaposition is amongst the most prevalent deception in this ad. When looking at it, we may think that by buying this product, our eyes will look like the woman’s eye in the ad. In reality, and in fine print at the bottom, this woman has her lashes styled with lash inserts; therefore, our eyes will not look the
same.
Beyond the surface of the ad, and the product, there are social values portrayed that are positive and negative. Positively, this ad represents the beauty of women. However, the woman pictured is dismembered. Only one part of her body is focused – half of her face. It fails to show important social values such as the remaining parts of the body, her personality, and her morals.
For me, this advertisement evoked various emotional reactions, from eagerness to frustration. When seeing the ad before becoming more media literate, I was excited and convinced my mom that I needed to have Falsies because it would make my eyes larger, my lashes look less fake, and we’d save money. After dissecting the ad, I was frustrated at how much it persuaded me. Instead of focusing on the brand, highlighted writing in purple, the gorgeous woman, and the New York background, I should have read the tiny print at the bottom. I let my emotions control my actions.
Being a make-up ad, some social responsibilities are raised like cost, harm, and stereotypes. People are paying for the production of this mascara that has two openings, two brushes, and a detailed label rather than the product. Even though it doesn’t drastically harm our environment; there are already tons of other mascaras available to people so there is no need for one more. Most importantly, this ad stereotypes women. Women are told that glamorous big eyes are beautiful; therefore, we must buy this product to be beautiful which not helping critics change the way media portrays beauty.