Advertising is a form of media in
itself that needs no introduction which has been pervasive and for all to see.
This pervasive and potent nature of advertisements leads to the fact that it
has a certain kind of impact on people from across all age groups but the
viability and the probability of that impact varies across age groups and that
posits a very interesting juncture. This particular juncture leads to abundance
of ideas and plenty of questions regarding the influences that these
advertisements have particularly in reference to Indian markets and to what
extent the individual customer is influenced.
Advertising draws “heavily on
psychological theories” which talk about how to create subjects, enabling
advertising and marketing to take on a ‘more clearly psychological tinge’
(Miller and Rose, 1997, cited in Thrift, 1999, p-67). Increasingly, the
emphasis in advertising has switched gears from providing ‘factual’ information
to the symbolic connotations of commodities and thus, by altering the context
of such representations, there are multiple interpretations that seek the light
of the day. These interpretations may project various voices and reflect imbued
socio-cultural factors that have
continued to mark their presence in overt and covert ways and across several
age groups including the age of adolescence where the young minds are in the
stage of learning and understanding and imbibing those changes in their daily
lives. This forms a preface and a blue print of the research study where a
person’s interpretation of oneself has several underlying contexts which are
more or less prominent in the age groups under consideration. In other words,
the age of adolescence is considered a very vulnerable age where attitudes are
formed and exposure to various issues- good or bad define the way in which the
particular individual is in turn, informed and influenced who for the purpose
of this study are adolescent girls and would be referred as young women for
establishing the simple fact that the representative sample under consideration
grows increasingly susceptible to the messages because of many biological
changes that set in with time along with cultural norms that the media
including a large chunk of advertisements perpetuate, as ‘the mass media are
the communicators of social and cultural standards’.
Consider, for example, the
advertisements of cosmetic products, slimming and beauty products such as Fair
and Lovely Cream, Kelloggs Special K, Himalaya Herbal face wash, Olay skin
lightening cream, Dove Moisturising cream, White tone powder with a tagline
saying ‘for a spotless skin’ and many such advertisements that portray certain
notions. Many hold that young women are
‘the prime targets because they are new and inexperienced consumers and as such,
in the process of learning their values and roles and developing their
self-concepts’ (Kilbourne, 1999). This emerges from the observation that young
women are much keen towards experimenting coupled with inquisitiveness towards
concepts about the self, looks and overall physical appearance that contributes
to engagement. In addition, the researcher wants to look at the various
connotative and denotative meanings attached with transformation from the
care-free days of adolescence to the responsibility attached with being an
adult. Yet, these changing notions do not seem to change the mandatory
requirements of looking and being desirable as a young woman and perhaps, even
later in life that seem to form a relationship with advertisements and hence,
the need of this question at the first place. Advertisements are not something
new. The ancient Chinese used to advertise their circuses and their gladiators.
17th century England advertised the coffee that it had begun to import. At its
inception, advertising was merely an announcement which took a modern avatar
with the invention of printing. Printed advertisements joined other forms of
advertising shortly after the printing of Bible by Gutenberg in 1480. The first
advertising using movable type was a handbill for a book of ecclesiastical
rules, posted on church doors in London by William Caxton.
