Essay Proposal

  I seek to propose an essay that deeply analyzes the targeting of young girls in numerous appearance based advertisements. As time progresses, people become more and more obsessed with their appearances and with maintaining a more youthful look no matter how low their age is. Cosmetic companies, clothing companies, and even cosmetic surgery advertisements are a few of the many groups who took note and continue to take full advantage of this fact. In my essay, I will use articles addressing this issue and a makeup advertisement from Cosmo Magazine that clearly welcomes a younger audience. In an article titled Young Girls Targeted By Makeup Companies, Mercedes Cardona writes about Cover Girl’s attempt to broaden their horizons to appeal to more preteens as they question girls as young as eight years old. This shows a direct display of the attack on the younger generation. Another article taken from CNN’s website is titled Adult-inspired lingerie marketed for young girls and discusses a line of loungewear/lingerie for girls ages four to twelve. This is prime evidence that any and all mature companies are going after the younger kids. The last online article I can draw from is from The Huffington Post and shows an advertisement that is glamorizing and pushing breast implants onto young girls with the draw that it’s quick, easy, and in a sense fun. I can reference this to show that even the most dramatic companies are finding ways to appeal to the youth. I also can analyze an advertisement I found that’s promoting Revlon Age Defying Color Corrector Cream. One line from the ad states “It’s never too early to fight aging” and explains that the cream has multiple benefits for any user as well as the purpose of fighting aging. This is showing that even a product with a title purely aimed at older women trying to look younger can find ways to bring younger people into the audience for the product. Some opposing viewpoints that may arise in my analysis of this issue include the fact that the makeup available for kids is safe and subtle, the “loungerie” is just the same as a child wearing a bathing suit, and the girl in the breast enhancement advertisement was styled to look a lot older than she was so you cannot tell as much that it’s a teenager. When it comes to creating and promoting makeup products for children, the fact of the matter is: makeup is makeup. Although they may be safe for kids and are not very noticeable, they still hold the purpose of changing one’s appearance. These advertisements are telling young girls that they should change the way they look in order to be pretty and happy, which is something that we should stop promoting to women of all ages. To the argument of the “loungerie” being the same components as a bathing suit, I can say the same about underwear. Girls wearing fancy lace undergarments around is another idea that should not be promoted to the youth. In regards to the breast implant advertisement, although she is wearing heavy makeup and has a more developed figure, the fun carefree vibe and the spoof-like title give a strong nudge to younger girls. All of this evidence proves that there is a prominent target on younger girls’ backs from leading women’s beautifying product companies that is very hard to deny.