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Smart Serum

Today while I was flipping through the ‘Spring Preview’ issue of the magazine Bazaar, I came across an advertisement for Clinique’s Clinique Smart, which is supposedly a new ‘custom repair serum’. For those of you that don’t know, Clinique is a cosmetic company that sells over-priced makeup and skin care products. This new product is claimed to be capable of using its patented technology to custom repair skin as needed, where needed, for all ages and ethnicities. The advertisement also says, “Meet a serum smart enough to understand your skin’s past and change its future.”

First of all, can we just talk about how ridiculous it is to personify a skin care product!? Not only do they talk about this product as if it has mystical powers, they also speak as if this product can mentally “understand your skin’s past” and physically “change its future”. I don’t know how effective this product is, as I have never used it, however, my guess is that it does not actually have these powers. To personify a product and claim that it is smart is actually quite misleading. Also, by claiming that Clinique’s Clinique Smart is intelligent is snob appeal in a way, by saying that the product should be purchased because it is smarter than other products. This is how Clinique attempts to persuade consumers to purchase this product. Their argument is completely invalid though, because not only does it personify a skin care product, it uses a fallacy to try to convey that their product is somehow superior to other skin care products because it is more intelligent. This technique is completely ineffective because as a consumer of many products such as these, I can tell you that I am not convinced.
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Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 21, 2015 at 4:02 PM

    It is sad that many women actually get convinced by this kind of advertisements and spend a lot of money on expensive beauty products.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 25, 2015 at 9:36 AM

    I see these kind of advertisements all the time and I think the same thing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownMarch 26, 2015 at 6:16 PM

    When I see things like this it irritates me. A huge multi-million dollar corporation doesn't know about that time that you got sunburn at the beach, or your freckles, or your scar from falling off a trampoline. The company doesn't know you and their product certainly doesn't either!

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownMarch 27, 2015 at 7:31 PM

    I strongly agree with Selena. Within the beauty industry, the use of appeal to emotion is extremely effective. Women are particularly susceptible to these types of ads even if they don't make sense.

    ReplyDelete
  5. JeremiahApril 7, 2015 at 9:58 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. JeremiahApril 7, 2015 at 9:59 PM

    I feel like it is also targeted towards people who dont know a lot about skin care products like guys. If I were to get something like this for a girl, and if I were an idiot(shut up Clay), this would be the type of stuff I would get simply because I dont have to think about it if the product can do it for me

    ReplyDelete

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