The Problem with Cosmetic Product Advertising

Have you carefully, I mean objectively, looked at all the ads for creams, lotions, makeup, skin rejuvenators, beauty products including lasers? They all seem to have one vital common thread: twenty-something year olds coyly looking out from the page. Are the ads appealing to us by using youth (de rigueur) to grab our attention or are they promising us youth? Certainly nobody in their fifth decade of life is going to look like these models, no matter how much product they buy. Wouldn’t it be nice to see how someone, in the appropriate age bracket, using the advertisers products looks?! Is the cosmetic industry slightly disingenuous? Slightly.