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Kaylie Lively
ENG 101
Professor Alicia Bolton
6 October 2014
Making Fantasies Reality
There are advertisements swarming todays population, from the folds of a
magazine to the billboard signs littering highways. Theres no escaping the glossy
women who are plastered on a plethora of ads in order to bring in sales. The
majority of the women featured in adverts have been cut, snipped, and painted
(also called photoshopped) to portray impossibly perfect women. Such women
tend to be light skinned, blonde, and thin with blue eyes and an admirable bust, as
Jean Kilbourne notes in Killing Us Softly 4. Kilbourne also notes that in these
advertisements, women are often silenced, sexually objectified, and edited to fit
the ideal beauty. One such advertisement would be a Covergirl lip gloss
advertisement from a recent issue of Cosmopolitan. The ad features a close-up
of African American singer Janelle Mone. Her hair is big and burly, her hands are
on her cheeks, and her slightly parted lips are adorned with licorice red lip gloss;
shes wearing a white long-sleeve shirt. To the right of Mone (overlapping her
hair) is a palette of available lip gloss colors and a tube of lip gloss. Printed
across her shirt are the words STAY COLORFUL! This advertisement from

Cosmopolitan magazine supports Kilbournes statements that black women are

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often altered to mimic white ideals, sex is often treated as a sly joke, and women
are taught that they need beauty products to be beautiful.
In Covergirls ad, the first thing they so flawlessly do is lighten the shade of
Janelle Mones skin tone. In reality, Mones skin is shades darker than its
portrayed to be in the lip gloss ad. Kilbourne explains that this happens (primarily
to black women) because editors are trying to mimic the ideal beauty, which
happens to be light skinned. So, what kind of message does this send to young
girls, especially young girls with dark skin tones? It sends the message that their
skin tone will never be considered sexy or beautiful. And, after all, those are the
most important things to be: sexy and beautiful. (Ironically enough, the text on the
ad states, Stay colorful! while artificially decreasing the color diversity of their
models.) All in all, Mones skin tone is lightened to be considered prettier, which
discreetly gives off the message that dark skin tones are not attractive.
Below the ads bold statement, STAY COLORFUL! theres a little line in
small black print that reads, New shades that let you kiss and not tell. This is a
play of words on the classic phrase, kiss and tell. It implies that when the wearer
kisses someone while wearing some other brand of lip gloss, her gloss will get
smudged and people will be able to tell that she had been kissing someone.
However, if the wearer has Covergirls lip gloss on her lips, it wont get messed up
when shes smooching someone, so no one will be able to tell that she had been
snogging some guy in the bathroom on lunch break. The phrase itself has a

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promiscuous and sexually adventurous implication. A reader might imagine herself
strutting around with a blood-red pout, onlookers gawking at her how bold and
sexy she is. She can envision herself being attractive enough for a secret smooch
with someone, if only she were wearing Covergirls lip gloss. Next comes the visual
aspect of the line, New shades that let you kiss and not tell. The line is modestly
black and tucked under a large, eye-catching print. Compared to the rest of the
ad, its hardly noticeable, as if the line is a bit of a secret. Its a joke. Its a
sexual, teasing joke to help make the future buyer feel more confident about her
choice. The line is a perfect example of Kilbournes statement that sex is often
treated as a dirty joke in advertising.
Lastly, the entire advertisement is based on selling how flawless and
attractive the model is because of her lip glosshow the lip gloss helps make her
gorgeous. Anyone would agree that, looking at the picture of Mone featured in
the ad, she certainly looks outstanding. However, on a slightly closer look the
effects of photoshop begin to become prominent. Besides for the obvious fact
that Mones skin has been lightened, she also appears to have no pores on her
face (which is impossible). Mone, though beautiful in person, has been edited
and upgraded so that she fits into the box of ideal beauty. The ad goes further to
imply that the reason Mone looks so gorgeous is because of her lip gloss,
though. To support this implication, Mones lips line up with the exact center of
the page and they are coated with a bright red lip gloss. The color choice of the

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lip gloss does two things. Firstly, it draws attention to Mones lips. Red pops out
on her the tan canvas of her skin. Next, the message goes deeper. Red is often
considered the color of passion, love, and romance. Otherwise, red is sexy, and,
to add to that, red lips in particular are often considered a timelessly sexy look.
The ad sends the message that Mone is ultra-sexy because of the fabulous lip
gloss shes wearing. Such messages incline women to believe that they need
beauty products, like Covergirls lip gloss, to be considered sexy and attractive.
In conclusion, this Covergirl ad supports Kilbournes statements that in the
world of advertising women of darker colors are lightened, sex is often referred to
as a dirty joke, and women are told that they need beauty products to be
desirable. When studied, it becomes clear just how unnaturally perfect the women
in advertisements are. Yet, they are still the standard of beauty that most women
hold themselves to. It is advocated for women to try to make themselves look
unrealistically perfect instead of accepting the way they naturally are as beautiful.
This newfound awareness of the advertising industry is something we should use to
reflect not only ourselves, but our society as well.

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Works Cited
Covergirl. Advertisement. Cosmopolitan 257.4 (2014): 37. Print.

Killing Us Softly 4. Dir. Sut Jhally. Perf. Jean Kilbourne. Media Education
Foundation, 2010. Film.

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