What never fails to amuse me are all the different ways of how media decides to invent and reinvent itself to us. Flipping through Vogue Magazine, I find myself confused by an Olay ad. Who knew skin beauty and math could be paired together?
My first reaction to this was, "Why is there a pencil in her mouth? It has nothing to do with skincare." And it literally doesn't. But it does enforce the concept that Olay is reinventing itself into. Using the concept of math, Olay is attempting to deliver the idea that its product, Olay Total Effects Tone Correcting CC Cream, is the solution to skin problems. In math, almost everything has an answer, everything is logical, and everything is solvable. By using phrases "AA+BB=CC" and "It's a simply equation" plus the pencil in the image, consumers can interpret that this product is the answer to their skin problems, the logical choice, and that their problems can finally be solved!
However, breaking down this ad even further, the language used shows a slightly different story.
Under the the double A's is the term "anti-aging" which demonstrates reification with the prefix, "anti." Reification is when a word is more powerful that objective reality. "Anti" gives off such a strong negative connotation that it causes people's definitions of it to exceed its original meaning of "against" and to the meaning "stop" or "end." The advertiser here takes advantage of this assumption and uses it, knowing consumers will instantly think the product will stop aging signs and such. In other words, projection from consumers is predicted as a result.
Sadly, there are a few weasel words spotted in this ad as well. In the smallest print of it, Olay makes some "wiggle-room" for itself by using the words "fight" and "looking" in the statement,
"Fight 7 signs of aging with a beautiful and instantly flawless-looking skin tone."
Olay is promoting the idea that this skin cream will transform skin to beautiful, ageless and perfect skin, but these weasel words placed in there water down this idea. While these words show that progress and advances towards this goal are achieved using the product, it fails to reach the absolute claim, like the equal sign in math, that skin will be flawless and ageless.
Though media does come up with new concepts and different ways of presenting itself, there are instances when it can't back them up, resulting to the sly use of deceiving words for the appearance of truth.
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