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Journal for Studies in Management and Planning Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 03 April 2015

Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 228

The Impact of Cosmetic Advertisements in Television: A

study among college girl students self – esteem and Beauty *Krithika M.R

Dr. S. Nagarathinam Associate Professor and Head, Department of communication, School of

Linguistics and Communication,

Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai – 625 021, Tamil Nadu, India.

E-mail: [email protected]

SUMMARY

The purpose of this study is to investigate

college girl student’s concepts of social

comparison and beauty as well as the

impact created by the cosmetic

advertisements in television. The role of

advertisements in television and the

exposure to media are interrelated to attract

a girl who comes across numerous

advertisements in her everyday life.

Exposure to cosmetic advertisements

affects girls self esteem and this research

proves that with the sample of 500 girl

students take from 5 colleges around

Madurai with the age limit of 18 – 21 years.

In addition there are differences in the

results respective to the age groups based

on the individual subjective preference.

Although the previous studies have

demonstrated the same with reference to

different places around the world, this study

is originally done for the first time in this

particular area. The study also discuss

about the characters played by the cosmetic

commercials and its vital role in the

society, its values and cultures through

content analysis. Statistical tool used to

prove the hypothesis included in this study

which states that the television cosmetic

advertisements creates psychological

impact to its consumers. This resulted in

social comparison and the persuasion

created by these advertisements resulted in

rising beauty conscious among college girls

of the mentioned age group. The results

obtained prove that a city like Madurai with

various cultures included is affected by the

cosmetic commercials and their characters

affecting girl students self esteem and

beauty.

Keywords: cosmetic advertising, social

comparison, self esteem, beauty

consciousness, television impact

INTRODUCTION

“Advertising is the non personal

communication of information usually paid

for and usually persuasive in nature about

products, services or ideas by identified

sponsors through the various media.”(Bovee,

1992) The word advertising comes from the

latin word “advertere” meaning to turn the

minds of towards. Advertising in said to be a

form of business communication used to

encourage, persuade, or manipulate an

audience to take some action to buy the

desired product in the market. It drives

consumer behaviour with respect to a

commercial offering.(advertising, 2014).

Advertisement is a non-personal presentation

of an idea or a product acquired great

importance in the modern India characterized

by tough competition in the market and fast

changes in technology, fashion and customers

taste. It’s a part of social, cultural and

economic environment and created in just a

way that people will want to adjust

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themselves to and acts as a perfect window to

reflect the different aspects of society and

culture. Every advertisement tries to persuade

the people, in the modern competitive market

each advertiser wants to win over his rivals

by effective advertising. In this process, there

are chances of hiding truth and facts in order

to succeed in increased sales and profit. But

the advertiser has social and moral duty or

obligation towards consumers.

ADVERTISEMENT AND SOCIETY

VALUES

Advertising is an art of persuasion, but still

people buy only those goods and services

which they need. What they purchase is the

outcome of the cultural values. The consumer

behaviour is influenced by his family status,

family life cycle, social relations, opinion

leaders, reference groups etc. The value

system is ever changing with the passage of

time. With these changes on value system, the

role of advertising keeps pace with the

changing times. Once a particular set of

values have been accepted by a society, the

advertising as a social and business process

tries to bring all those goods and services

which are made to respect the value system.

COSMETIC COMMERCIALS

The commercials always come out with a

target audience and these target consumers

are unaware of the impact these television

advertisements on an individual. Advertisers

try to manipulate people into buying a way of

life as well as products. The advertisement

industry has a tremendous impact on our

generation girls. What people see on

television, they take for truth? They tell us

what to wear because everyone is wearing it,

what to apply on your face because everyone

is applying it, how to groom up yourself

because everyone is doing it.

The advertisers know how to appeal to our

senses. They use peer pressure very heavily.

"You need to use a face wash regularly

because the particular celebrity is using it

daily to enhance her beauty and everyone else

is going to wear them. You should do make

over every day as "Everyone is doing it".

They have confused with the difference

between "need" and "want.

The whole purpose of cosmetic advertising is

to create emotion that make a desired reaction

in a potential customer, so in effect,

advertising very much can create public

opinions making some people consumer

zombies. In some cases advertising can cause

headaches. The effectiveness of television

advertisement on college girl students is still a

million dollar question. With all these

beautification products, the image of perfect

women in television is hard for us to realize

just how much of it is fake.

CELEBRITY ADVERTISING

Using a famous person's image to sell

products or services by focusing on the

person's money, popularity, or fame to

promote the products or services become a

new trend in the name of celebrity brand. If

the famous person agrees to allow his or her

image to be used, it is termed a celebrity

endorsement “because many consumers are

interested in celebrity activities, they are more

likely to notice your product when a famous

person professes to like and use it.”(Amo)The

promotion might be through formal

advertisements in the media, or it might occur

through the famous person displaying the

products by using them or wearing them.

A celebrity who appears sincere can

lend credibility to a product. Consumers are

more likely to believe the statements the

personality makes in the advertisement and

view the product and the brand positively.

Conversely, regard for the brand becomes

negative if it is obvious that the celebrity does

not share the company’s values.

A celebrity’s reputation is tied to that of the

company after appearing in the company’s

advertising. If a respected celebrity appears in




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advertising for an imperfect brand, the views

of the brand could improve or the celebrity’s

reputation could worsen. Also, if the

celebrity’s reputation suffers, the formerly

positive views of the brand could suffer too.

The market provides an array of competing

choices for a product. The consumer is more

likely to choose a product that is memorable.

Advertising that features celebrities can

ensure this brand recall. It helps a

manufacturer stand out and be more

noticeable.

Mass Media like TV, radio, cinema,

newspapers, magazines and newsletters and

technology such as the Internet and E-mail as

well as other media that may not be as

obvious such as children's comics and

cartoons, theatre, puppetry, dance and song.

The media is a vehicle used to inform as well

as entertain the public. The media is a carrier

of information, ideas, thoughts and opinions.

It is a powerful force in influencing people’s

perceptions on a variety of issues. The media

can be both positive as well as negative in

terms of the position and views of women as

well as a powerful mechanism for education

and socialisation.

Although the media has played an important

role in highlighting women's issues, it has

also had negative impact, in terms of

perpetrating violence against women through

pornography and images of women as a

female body that can be bought and sold.

Overall, the media treatment of women is

narrow and continually reinforces stereotyped

gender roles and assumptions that women's

functions are that of a wife, mother and

servant of men. This is especially so in

advertising.

METHODS

Similar types of studies have been conducted

to determine the impact of cosmetic

advertisements in television, this study is

among college girl students self esteem and

beauty but this study relates to the

psychological pressure created by the

cosmetic commercials among girls in

Madurai city. Primary research consists of

original data often undertaken when some

insight is gained into the issue by collecting

secondary data. Even though there are

numerous forms to collect the data the

method used here is pilot study and survey.

To reveal and find out the deficiencies in the

design of the survey questionnaire, also to

control the time, pilot study is adopted. In

this pilot study is used to cross check the

hypothesis with the earlier framed

questionnaire and to find out the answers to

the research questions. The earlier

questionnaire consists of 20 open end and 10

close end questions to study the participant’s

proper understanding over the framed

questions and the options included.

Based on the questionnaire result retrieved

from 20 respondents initial requirements for

the survey are modified. The answers

received are framed as objectives on the

newly framed questionnaire of 30 in

numbers. Pilot study conducted made the

new respondents to understand and answer

the easily which in turn resulted fully

satisfied answers.

In this survey method of research,

participant answer questions administered

through questionnaire and the responses

were mentioned clearly. In order to receive a

valid and reliable response from the survey

the questions were constructed in a proper

manner. To limit the responses from the

participants the questionnaire is designed

with closed – ended questions with objective

answers to analyse the answers statistically.

Provided 100 questionnaires per college, 5

colleges involved in this survey namely

Fathima Women’s College, Meenakshi

College, Lady Dock, Ambika college and St.

George College. All these colleges are Arts

and Science Colleges especially for

women’s. Altogether form 500 samples

from which the entire research takes over a

step ahead.




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This study is designed with 30 questions

framed with 5 objective answers each of

them paired to be similar with subjective

preference to the participant. These 30

questions are grouped under 3 sections in

which the first 10 questions 1 – 10 represent

the response for the impact of cosmetics

advertisements in television, second set i.e.,

11 – 20 question refers to the social

comparison among girl students and the final

set from 21 – 30 explains about the self

esteem of college girls. These questions

decide the mentality of the target audience

towards their selective products.

In addition to the method mentioned above

content analysis is also included to study

thorough and analyse the technique

systematically, identifying the specific

characteristics of a particular message.

According to this the contents of 10

advertisements under 2 famous brands on

television were taken under the same roof of

cosmetic products. The tendency to be used

to analyse non – numerical data is said to be

qualitative and so in this research content

analysis has been considered as a form of

qualitative research.

Content analysis is said to a systematic

process to examine communication content.

The current study analysis marketing

communication content namely

commercials. The application of content

analysis for studying communication

messages is echoed by Berelson (in

Krippendorff, 2004a:19). This author defines

content analysis as “the objective, systematic

and quantitative description of the manifest

content of communication.” Holsti (in

Harwood & Garry, 2003:481) states that

content analysis studies “objectively

quantify the content of communication

between a sender and a receiver.”

The current study focuses on the particular

role television plays in delivering the

message of self confidence and beauty to the

target audience. In this section the study

employs qualitative content analysis as a

research method defined and the

requirements for its applications are

described.

Purposive or judgemental sampling which

comes under non - probability sampling is a

method of sampling where the sampler picks

the sample from the entire population solely

based on the researches judgement. The

sampler controls to a very large extend

which elements have a chance of being

selected to be in the sample.

To provide a accurate result based on the

impact of cosmetic commercials in

television, students from various colleges

were taken under study on their selection of

products, the adoption and reception of the

product messages, awareness about the

particular product and the psychological

pressure by the tele commercials. As the

study deals with cosmetics college girls were

taken under study classifying four categories

of age group as 18, 19, 20 &21 respectively.

This study undergoes with 500 samples

taken from five different colleges on a basis

of 100 samples per college. As the study

involves girls students self esteem and

beauty, women’s arts and science colleges

are alone taken under consideration for

sampling. These 500 students were classified

under four categories of age group as 18, 19,

20 & 21 respectively from all the five

colleges to find out the difference in result if

any.

This particular study started at the month of

February with a sample questionnaire,

slowly the modifications carried out bought

a new life and an entirely updated

questionnaires framed by the month of

March. Here the study continues for the

entire month.

Chi square is a statistical test commonly

used to compare the observed data with the

data expected to obtain from the particular

research according to a specific hypothesis.




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This test is used to test the null hypothesis,

which states that there is no significant

difference between the expected and

observed result. The formula to calculate chi

– square is 𝑥2 = ∑(𝑂−𝐸)2

𝐸. This shows that

the chi square is the sum of the squared

difference between observed (o) and the

expected (e) data, divided by the expected

data in all possible categories.

In this study the age group 18 – 21 are

divided into two different groups 18 – 19

one set of group and 20 – 21 another set of

group. As mentioned earlier these groups are

considered to be the observed data and the

further calculation continues to find the

expected data. This test is applied here to

prove the hypothesis statistically.

SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY

Every individuals view about themselves is

often made out of social comparison.

Festinger in 1954 framed social comparison

theory explaining how individual compare

their opinions about themselves with others

in order to acquire the result and find their

respective positions. This theory focus on

social comparison as a way of self

enhancement, to a further extends it ends

with upward and downward comparisons.

According to Thorton and Arrowood (1966)

self – evaluation and self – enhancement are

the two functions of social comparison and

describes how a person engages based on

this. The upward and downward comparison

was introduced by Wills in 1981. Upward

comparison makes an individual to look into

another who is better than the former. This

type of comparison makes an individual feel

good about themselves.

The downward comparison mostly takes

place where people compare themselves

with the less fortunate and console the

situation with a happy feeling mostly

happens for everyone. Downward

comparison theory emphasizes the positive

effects of comparisons in increasing one’s

subjective well-being. In simple terms,

downward social comparisons are more

likely to make us feel better about ourselves,

while upward social comparisons are more

likely to motivate us to achieve more or

reach higher.

Media plays a vital role in social

comparison, in this study it is found that

equal amount of the girls engaged

themselves in upward and downward social

comparison. The majority of the girls have a

daily opportunity to make upward

comparison by measuring themselves

against some social ideal. Some girls made

upward social comparison in a positive

manner to motivate themselves but the

majority never cares about the comparison in

public.

USES AND GRATIFICATION THEORY

This theory clearly explains about the uses

and functions of the media for individuals,

groups and society. As a reaction to

traditional mass communication research

emphasizing the sender and the receiver the

theory originated in 1970.

As this theory states that individual seek out

the mass media to satisfy their respective

preference. Cosmetic commercials in

television are an outcome of individual

requirement sold out publicly. These

cosmetic commercials educate the particular

individual regarding the product and provide

an option to change the choice of selection

as a plenty of other products are available in

the market. In order to know the motive of

the participants indirect questions on the

same topic raised to understand the

consumer behaviour towards the product.

This research is framed in such a way to

analyse the individual response over a

product or many and how they respond if the

result ends failure.




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LIMITATIONS

1. This study is limited with 500

samples from 5 colleges.

2. Age group not more or less than 18 –

21.

3. Participants are only girls from 1st

year to 3rd year from the mentioned

colleges.

4. No female participants from outside

the college are involved in this study.

5. No male participants are involved in

the survey.

RESULTS

This chapter starts by presenting the findings

obtained from the result, by setting out the

questionnaire. In order the evaluate the

responses received from the samples chi

square test is applied to those important

questions to prove the hypothesis and its

importance. The whole chapter discuss about

the results collected for the study of the

impact of cosmetic advertisements in

television, a study among college girl

students self esteem and beauty. Based on

this some question seems to be repeated one

but actually it’s not the same.

In this study the entire set of 30 questions is

divided into 3 categories namely question 1

– 10 speaks about the impact of cosmetic

commercials in television and the results

were discussed separately, question 11 – 20

reveals the secret about college girls social

comparison where as the results are handled

with care and finally the last one from 21 –

30 provides the result for the self esteem and

its level among the girl students in women’s

colleges.

IMPACT OF COSMETIC

ADVERTISEMENTS IN TELEVISION

According to the respondents reply the

students are sometimes influenced by the

commercials shown even though their

influential is sometimes most of the time

they are impressed by the cosmetic

advertisements.

The result say 50% of the student population

are influenced by the by the brand and the

remaining may not be influenced. Brand

plays a main role in deciding what they

should buy when and it stimulates them at

the right point which confuses the consumer

not to go with a new brand as the familiar

brand is still in the market. The 60% of the

student’s population accepted that these

advertisements pressure them

psychologically which makes them worry

about their skin where as the rest of them are

also affected but rarely.

70% of the student’s population accepted

that cosmetic commercials do exaggerate

good points to better sell their product and

for the remaining it's not necessary to accept.

A detailed result on how these cosmetic

commercials convince the consumer by

showcasing the competitor’s product down

by highlighting some of the ingredients not

available in the latter product and available

in the former one. In such case the students

experienced and accepted that the fact is true

on a certain basis and most of them didn’t.

It also say 50% of the student population

partially nodded for the acceptance of the

advertisements to force them to use 2

cosmetic items a day to keep their skin fresh

and feel good while the other side people are

partially unconvinced as it’s not necessary.

80% of the student population accepted that

these television commercials help them find

a numerous item under various brands of

their choice while the rest of them said it

isn’t.

SOCIAL COMPARISON AMONG

COLLEGE GIRLS

This category of questions were taken to

analyse how college going girl students

compare themselves with the equivalent

other or either with the models from the

respective advertisements. In this few




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questions are taken for the chi square test to

prove the hypothesis. The section follows

will give clear data define the state of

comparison the students perform.

Most of the cosmetics commercials now a

day’s comes with a lot of natural ingredients

to attract the target people to encourage

them on buying their product. In such case

the participants showed interest in those

advertisements which promote the sales in

the name of natural ingredients along with a

celebrity to recognize the product by the

consumers and portrayed them as the best

girls ever in the universe to go with the

nature.

According to the respondent they think that

advertisements are a part of media hype

which creates more than it does in real with

some celebrities to even more establish the

particular product. According to most of the

girl students don’t have any idea about the

female models but the rest of them said that

it gains the attraction and at some point it

boosts the products sale in the market.

80% of the students are taking well care

about their skin and so they want to improve

their skin appearance but for the remaining

ones it’s not that necessary. The reason most

of the girls said on buying cosmetics is to

improve their skin tone which comes after

the comparison made with any other of the

same criteria match. This comparison makes

a big rush in the consumers mind to

purchase any cosmetic which comes with the

label of skin protection along with the

promise of improvement in the complexion.

According to that girls who decide to

purchase cosmetics will consider on one

condition to improve their level of

confidence and they believe in that too,

which the advertisements also assures to

give them on their first usage itself.

The advertisement in recent days portrays

any girl with lack of confidence can become

more confident after using the cosmetic of

that particular brand which gives more fame

than before to improve the thought of being

perfect beauty about their look and makes

the consumer run behind the product until it

shows no difference after the comparison

with the same criteria match people.

The 50% of the student population found

themselves comfortable and beautiful with a

new change in their attitude but the

remaining felt nothing.

SELF ESTEEM AMONG COLLEGE

GIRL STUDENTS

The 70% of the student population are

confident about their appearance but still

want to be over confident with the help of

cosmetics whereas the remaining found

nothing. After the cosmetics came to rule

the beauty world every single girl is worried

about herself that without cosmetics she may

look unattractive. This makes them lose their

confidence and to depend on cosmetics to

give a boon of beautiful face which has

never before as per her thought.

80% of the student population use at least 2

cosmetics daily to the maximum of 6 to

highlight their skin tone and to feel those

good than before. The remaining felt nothing

like the above ones. In recent days the

number of cosmetics decides the beauty

within you to come out. This made college

girls pay more attention on their cosmetics

which is advised by the media professional

through advertisement on how much to

apply and how many times a day to look

them youthful.

It is concluded that when a product fails

while trying for a new product they carefully

find out why it failed what has to be in the

next product to have a better result. So they

check ingredients carefully to know the

product fully along with that they also

consult a beautician to know about their type

of skin and what combination can be used to

repair it.

It is concluded that they never compare

themselves with the product models fully but

partially they compare the kind of attraction




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they get after using the product. The level of

self esteem among girls always depends

upon the comparison they make out of the

best possibilities. Media easily provides a

character of same feel the consumer does

and shows the difference in them which

automatically reaches the target people in no

time.

It is concluded that 90% of the student

population are ready to admire their natural

beauty in the absence of cosmetics and they

can feel themselves original but the

remaining felt nothing.

The survey question 30 says that these

students of 60% from the population tells

that they don’t need any of those cosmetics

to beautify themselves as they create

psychological impact on them to compare

themselves with the other and the remaining

found nothing.

ANALYSIS

This research includes content analysis of 2

top most brands to even more explain the

results retrieve through the survey. The two

brands taken for analysis are owned by

Unilever. The first one is Ponds which is a

familiar since 1910 is a brand of beauty and

Dove which entered the market by the year

of 1955. These two provides a numerous

products especially for women and beauty

since the day it launched.

Under these 2 familiar brands for coding 5

cosmetic products from each brand is taken

for analysis. First let’s take the brand ponds

in this a product known as ponds white

beauty promises its consumers to give a fair

complexion in 7 days to ensure the stability

of the consumer for a long period of run.

This product has so many sub products with

the same name but different in output.

As a well known brand over the world

population ponds talcum powder gains much

of the attention from the consumer as the

tagline itself says that the start should be

good always so use ponds powder which can

change the routine. This powder attracts

mainly because theme reaches the public

easily than anything.

This chapter cross checks the research

question to find out the proved hypothesis

for the 3 questions are framed in a purpose

that to analyse the answers based on

hypothesis framed for 3 different categories

in the survey question of 30 in number. Here

the hypothesis proved for each research

question will give you and detailed note on

the results obtained through survey in

respective to the age group.

Research question 1: What is the

psychological impact does the cosmetics

advertisements create over girl student’s

social comparison?

To analyse this question the result for the

survey questions 11 – 30 should be verified.

The result states that all the cosmetic

commercials influence the buyer to perform

a self analysis before purchasing the

product. This proves the H2 - the dominant

influence is predominantly seen in college

girls affecting their social comparison and

rising beauty consciousness. While

performing self analysis target group find

the problem in their appearance.

To make sure they put themselves under

social comparison which comes out with a

negative response. Receiving upon the

response the advertisements keep on

insisting the area to be repaired in the target

group’s physic which makes them worry

about their skin. This results in social

comparison numerous times to make sure

they don’t have any issue. The repetition of

the comparison creates psychological issues

which results in the decision of purchasing

the product which pointed their issue. This

way the target population’s idea about

beauty reaches its peak resulting in

comparison number of times a day.




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To this question H3 – the extend to exposure

of television cosmetic commercials affects

girls self esteem and pressure

psychologically to purchase the product also

gets proved partially in terms of

psychological pressure the students receive

from the commercials to undergo

comparison to believe what they said is true.

Research question 2: Do the cosmetic

advertisements affect girl students self

esteem?

The proved hypothesis for this question is

H3 - – the extend to exposure of television

cosmetic commercials affects girls self

esteem and pressure psychologically to

purchase the product. This hypothesis is

tested on the questions from 21 – 30 which

says that girls are highly affected by the

commercials lose their self esteem they had

over them for a long time. This happens

because the comparison they make with the

product models makes them believe to have

not exactly but at least a comparative

difference in them. When this fails they go

under pressure to stop using cosmetics.

Students at this age group are showing a

negative sign for self esteem on them when

compared to have on the cosmetics. To them

they can be confident only upon using the

cosmetics for a regular period of time. Even

though they feel good to look natural they

reject it immediately when a brand promises

them to retain their original beauty in a short

period of time on using their product. Hence

this states that there is problem with girls

self esteem after they fall for cosmetics.

Research question 3: How the television

commercials attract their target audience?

This question can be proved with H1 –

cosmetic advertisements in television play a

dominant role to create an impact among

college girls. The hypothesis stats that to

provide various choices of products makes

the target group get confused. Once the

initial part is done they classify the group

out of total population into various

categories to reach the consumer with the

decision of purchasing. They start with the

issue the user have or you might have in

future to ensure that they worry about the

consumer’s skin more than they do.

This type of relation makes them feel better

when the commercials advice them of

natural ways the skin get polluted with daily.

To avoid they will prefer some natural

ingredients which can be either found in or

around the home. When the target group

hears the name of natural items they trust

fully and advertiser’s stat not all the natural

ingredients can be used to have a better

complexion, but the items used by them are

more valuable as it is a mixture of natural

plus chemical to produce a result in a short

period of time. This makes the target group

to go behind the product until it fails them.

The advertisers first analyse the category

they fall in and based on that they try to win

the heart of their valuable consumers to

maintain a good relationship with the

product to stay in the market for long run.

Hence the research questions proves that the

hypothesis adopted for the survey questions

results that not all the students are affected

by the commercials shown in television but,

most of the students lost their level of

confidence among themselves which results

in social comparison. It’s proven along with

the hypothesis.

THEORETICAL COMPARISONS

However, Festinger (1954) considered self-

enhancement as a comparison motive briefly

in his original theory by specifying an ego-

enhancement function termed a

"unidirectional drive upward." Self-

enhancement is defined as an individual's

biased attempts to maintain positive views of

him/her to protect or enhance self-esteem.

Thornton and Arrowood (1966), Hakmiller

(1966), and Wheeler (1966) found support

for the existence of a unidirectional drive




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upward, a self-enhancement motive, and

comparison to others who are dissimilar (i.e.

those of superior status) with respect to

personality traits. To determine what

motives are in existence, studies have

generally employed rank-order paradigms.

For example, Thornton and Arrowood

(1966) employed a rank-order paradigm in

which subjects were administered a bogus

personality test described as measuring

either a positive or negative trait. The

subjects received a bogus score on the

personality test and then indicated which

score in the rank ordering they wished to

see. The authors interpreted the results in

terms of self-evaluation and self-

enhancement as motives for comparison to

others.

Upward comparisons occur when one makes

comparisons with others who are superior or

better off in some way. Thus, self-evaluation

is served when one evaluates his/herself

against a higher standard. Self enhancement

may also occur by avoiding social

comparison. This study concludes that girls

do compare themselves with the models

portrayed in the commercials. Erikson

(1968) wrote, "The individual judges

himself in light of what he perceives to be

the way others judge him in comparison to

themselves and to a typology significant to

them; while he judges their way of judging

him in light of how he perceives himself in

comparison to them and to types that have

become relevant to him." The idea that

social comparison affects self-esteem was

even implicit in Festinger's (1954) original

conception of social comparison theory.

The result says that the majority of the girls

from the selected population have a daily

opportunity to make upward comparison by

measuring themselves against some social

idea. Even though it can be made in positive

manner many of the girls took this into the

negative manner which motivates them to

proceed for a beautiful, youthful skin for a

long period.

Evidence for the negative effects of women's

social comparison with media images is

plentiful. Research has found that women

who report frequently comparing themselves

to other women, especially women in the

media, are more likely to show signs of

negative mood and body image disturbance

(Schooler et al., 2004). Tiggemann and

Mcgill (2004) found that women

participants' brief exposure to media images

of females (11 images) led to increased

levels of body dissatisfaction and weight

anxiety. This finding is disturbing because

the number of images used in the study is far

less than what is present in any women's

magazine or shown in most television

programming.

Tiggemann and Slater (2003) found music

television to be a powerful instigator of the

social comparison process in young females.

Their study found that exposing girls to thin

and attractive images of women portrayed in

many music videos led to increased levels of

body image disturbance. In addition, the

study showed that videos portraying the thin

ideal triggered more self-reported social

comparison than control videos that did not

contain such images.

The extent to which females engage in social

comparison processing may be an important

indicator of whether they will be profoundly

impacted by exposure to ultra-thin media

images of women. The level at which a

woman reports comparing herself to other

females seems to be associated with the

level at which she internalizes the thin ideal.

Tiggemann and Mcgill (2004) found that

women who displayed high levels of social

comparison were more likely to be

negatively affected by exposure to different

forms of media. It has been proposed by

many researchers that social comparison

may be the mechanism by which unrealistic

media standards are translated into actual

body image disturbance in an individual.

Women who report higher levels of social

comparison are at greater risk to develop

extreme preoccupation with weight and




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appearance, and are also more likely to

display disordered eating patterns and/or

clinical eating disorders. This finding

suggests that programs aimed at decreasing

females' levels of social comparison may

have some efficacy; women who are taught

to not compare themselves to unrealistic

standards and be critical of images they see

in the media are less likely to internalize and

aspire to an unrealistic standard. Several

programs with such goals have been

researched, and evidence has shown that

such interventions seem to hold some

promise (Tiggemann & Slater, 2003).

Uses and gratification says cosmetics

commercials are an outcome of individual

requirement sold out publicly by explaining

the category of the product users who fall

under various products. These cosmetic

commercials educate the needy about the

product for the first time and provide an

option to change the brand or product based

on the review or output of the product shared

by any media or the experience shared by

another product user.

In order to know the motive of the consumer

towards the product advertisements comes

up with a lot so similar questions to

understand the behaviour of its target group.

In this research the product users faces direct

questions from the advertisers and are drawn

under the category in the which the

advertisers place them without their

knowledge e.g. lakme is registered in the

mind of consumers as a brand of royalty

where as ponds a brand for anyone who

seeks to be beautiful.

Apart from this the respondents are taken

under categories of age, appearance, skin

colour and status to well demonstrate the

product which suits them the best. Based on

that they generate a list of items matching

their preference from various brands. The

brands also explain them what to use when

and under what condition should be used.

They even launch products based on

climates to make sure the consumers stay

with them all through the year.

Every individual want to get special

preference in terms of beauty and these

advertises make well use of that. They

identify the requirements of the consumers

for their skin and offer various products to

repair and inhale the freshness of a young

and youthful skin. These are the factors

influence the decision of the buyer or the

target group or the respondents to stay with a

particular product and lose their self

confidence after the product failure.

The results based on Fathima college for

women’s says that majority of the students

are affected by the media hype created by

the cosmetic commercials. In terms of social

comparison they make less comparison

unlike others they prefer upward comparison

with the female models. The level of self

esteem for this college girls are high and

they never get down of any product failures,

never worry about their skin. They found

themselves as natural beauty.

The results for Meenakshi government arts

and science college for women’s says that

majority of the students are affected by the

media hype created by the cosmetic

commercials. Here the students irrespective

of age compare themselves with the models

or with the product users to self evaluate

their beauty. They love to buy product with

natural ingredients and gives a royal look.

Their level is self esteem to weak that they

openly agree the psychological pressure

created over them by the cosmetic

commercials.

The results for Ambika college of arts and

science says that majority of the students are

affected by the media hype created by the

cosmetic commercials. Here the students

make upward comparison at least once a day

to make sure they are beauty enough. To

them they trust only branded products in the

market which produces the output in a short

duration of time. There level of self esteem




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is very low that they break down after the

product failure and lose self confidence in

them to face the real world.

The results of Lady Dock college says that

the majority of the students buying decision

on cosmetics based on the familiar brand

and often they get confused on a variety of

choices available in the market. Their results

say that products with natural ingredients are

highly preferable. They use cosmetics to

increase social and employment

opportunities better than others to gain self

confidence. According to them self esteem

rests with their natural beauty. They never

worry about their skin without cosmetics but

it can be used to create more attraction

among a particular population.

The result based on St. George college says

that the majority of the students are affected

by the media jargon created by the cosmetic

commercials. They feel that the media

provides a numerous choices to make in but

confused with the reliability of the product.

To them cosmetic commercials persuade to

become like that model to gain self

confidence and to be the centre of attraction.

The natural ingredient gets the first

preference. Their level of self esteem is good

enough to try a new product if, the earlier

product fails to result the output claimed.

They can be with and without makeup which

doesn’t even worry about them much.

CONCLUSION

The current study offered some meaningful

insights about the relationship between the

media and the consumers. The study started

to find the need of cosmetics in a city like

Madurai. Generally girls are fond of

makeovers and hence the cosmetics came

into the marketplace to sell their product, so

as to enhance women’s beauty. After

television became a substitute of radio and

cinema as it’s said to be the audio visual

medium, it started providing various choice

of products based on the demand of the

consumer.

As advertising started providing a wide

range of products it kept its viewers depend

on it for any product information. In such

case repetition of same products created an

impact towards the product users and finally

that particular product becomes the best

among the choice list of the consumers. The

television advertisements influence them to

purchase all the cosmetics shown so as to

create confusion. While buying a product the

brand name of a particular company

influences the buyer’s decision which

resulted in favourable situation.

These advertisements create a psychological

impact among the consumers on keep on

insisting about their skin, appearance, and

complexion makes them to go for a social

comparison with the equivalents. Based on

the results most of the respondents said that

they are under pressure of these

advertisements. To promote their product

which consists of one natural ingredient, it

repeats the same line again and again to

make the consumers believe that it goes with

nature and the usage of that product will not

harm their skin.

Once after a cosmetic advertisement is

shown in the television the buyer goes in

search of the result shared by any other

product user to cross check the output

claimed. But most of the time commercials

over claim their product to be the best in the

market to give a big shot to the consumer to

stay with them. This affects the faith of the

consumer towards the company in terms of

the output result.

Companies now a day’s comes up with a

short duration of output to attract the buyer.

The promises made by the companies are

blown up in the air after the usage of the

product. Respondents say that no immediate

result is noticed by the consumers as

promised by the advertisements. This itself

fails the product users to use it.

Often the promises made by the cosmetic

commercials, their duration of the product




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output, their target audience are always girls

especially those in between the age of 18 –

21. This is because a teen girl can always be

in need of a cosmetic to take care of her

because he steps out the school for the first

time and the 21 years old steps out the

college in search of employment

opportunity. This is the mantra for any

cosmetic commercial to target those people.

Advertisements are divided by the markets

into multiple categories to reach exactly the

user designed for their product. These users

are identified by the class group they fall

under due to socio economic status, colour,

appearance, physic, and finally the heat to

purchase the product. Based on these

categories only the target company’s work

on the target population.

Most of the results based on the survey say

that people consider cosmetic commercials

as a media hype which makes the worse best

and the best worse. The valid point is many

of the respondents are clear in their need and

they never believe the advertisement to be

true but yes it persuades them for a moment

to get hold of that item. There is always an

objective behind every commercial e.g.

ponds want its customers to feel like a

family so that the adoption of the product in

that family becomes easier.

Recent day girls are less confident if it’s

about their skin. They always need a skin

specialist to explain and repair the damage

caused by the products. Especially when

their product fails they come to conclusion

that they should never use cosmetics to stay

away from negative results. The

immediately lose their self confidence and

start worrying about the side effects caused

by the failure product. They never want to

stay natural without cosmetics but can stay

with the side effects. Very few girls

responded that they will definitely try for a

new product for a better result. After all its

just cosmetics not some internal damage.

The research tried to find out the what will

be the reaction of the girls whose product

fails to give them the promised result, they

said next time while buying they will check

for the ingredients which now become

familiar after using a lot of brands. Some

said they will consult with a beautician to

find the nature of their skin then to decide

what suits well in them.

The very interesting part of this research is

how the girls compare themselves with the

models show in the cosmetic commercials.

They said that the direct comparison takes

place after the particular duration given by

the product is over. If no results come out

they go for the second level of comparison

attraction.

Girls always needs some kind of attraction

to show off they are noticeable in a

population. They admire the same characters

to appear in their life to make it more

realistic to the advertisements seen like vivel

soap portrays a girl named dull divya who in

turn becomes dool after using vivel soap.

This kind of noticeable reaction they expect

from others.

Therefore the study concludes that in every

walk of life a girl crosses so many

advertisements irrespective to the subject.

By nature she develops the imagination

power and makes comparison from the

childhood. The development occurs when

she exposed to the advertisements and

realises it. The exposure to these

advertisements creates an influence in the

buying decision of the product user by

offering various products. The user after

trying every product expects to be the

perfect beauty, but in real there is no such

thing. So when the product fails

automatically a comparison arise in the mind

of the user.

When the user compares themselves socially

with the other then social comparison takes

place. They compare and the result found

makes them lose their level of confidence




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resulting in lack of self esteem regarding

their beauty.

DISCUSSION

Lau et al. (2006), in his article mentioned

that there were seven factors that influenced

consumers’ brand loyalty towards certain

brands. The factors were brand name which

is in the market for a long period of time and

well know to the consumers, product quality

which depends upon the duration of the

output which companies in a competition

gives short period of time for a long impact

in the quality of the product, price decides

the quality of the product as per the

consumer good products are priced highly

well non – branded products are low priced,

Design is the main factor which attracts the

user to decide whether to buy or not and

even makes a strong mark in the users mind

that whenever the decision of buying occur

they will remind the design of the product,

store environment play a important role in

placing the right product at the right place to

gain the consumer attention, promotion of a

product informs the consumer that this is the

right thing for which they searched for a

long time and finally the service quality and

the promise made by the company should be

maintained to get hold of the valued

consumer.

According to Kohli and Thakor (1997),

brand name is the creation of an image or

the development of a brand identity and is an

expensive and time consuming process. As

the consumer reminds a brand first with its

easy brand name and the correlation of that

brand with anything he would love to hear or

watch. It helps in developing a brand image

among the target population to remind the

name of the brand before it reaches the

market make the use wait to buy that.

According to Cash & Cash (1982), the

women’s use of cosmetics was found to be

the public self consciousness which is

positively related with the use of cosmetics

regularly. Because for most of the women

who lack self – esteem are made to be self

conscious through cosmetics. He also states

that the adornments are used to blend into a

world of beauty these self-conscious women

do not fit into. So he concludes that a big

market around these women’s and girls’

where they are trapped to be inside to serve

the orders raised by the cosmetic companies.

Women’s are more easily attracted to the

advertisements portraying girls are confident

enough any tough thing in the world. These

powerful tools of media provide them with

numerous choices to fulfil their purchase.

This is actually a reflection of the society

where all types of people live together, in

such case the culture of one people can be

easily copied by the other on being

impressive. This is how the media plays with

the general public in reality. “The mass

media – television, internet, radio,

newspapers, magazines and film – is part of

our

everyday life. It is a powerful tool that

provides us with information and

entertainment. It

reflects our society and it influences the way

we think. ”(women and media, 2014).

The advertisements creates a measure which

can never be done by any normal girl in her

life time that she can become fair, wrinkle

free and confident in a very short duration.

A cosmetic company insists every girl to

make a routine of looking into the mirror to

check what kind of improvement she had

after using cosmetics or what she don’t have

for which she seeks out the help of

cosmetics.“For the most part, what a woman

observes in the mirror is what she uses as a

measure of her worth as a human being”

(Lerner, Karabenick, & Stuart, 1973).

Girl in between the age of 18 – 21 are

considered to be the best target people to

make a try of any cosmetic products which

can provide them with better result. So girls

at this stage are said to be less confident

about themselves and go for a hunt to catch




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up the thing which can add up their

confidence level to the next stage. “The

qualitative data also indicated that women at

midlife did not seem to have higher levels of

self-esteem when they were in college than

contemporary young women.” (Fritton,

2009).

Our society is made up of so many cultures

which always provide you a chance of

changing your preference to live with. This

is applicable for cosmetic commercials also,

as it deals with the culture their target people

are one among any one of the cultures in the

world. To gain their attention is to move

with the cultural background. “According to

consumers while selecting cosmetics, culture

influences their selection. Cosmetics are

selected in the framework of personal

culture and rituals performed. Along with

that the language and symbol on the package

influences their selection.” (Patil, 2012)

A cosmetic commercial mostly creates

psychological pressure among the girls to

feel that they are less confident without the

use of cosmetics. The commercials come up

with an idea beauty concept which no girl

can compete with in her entire life which

didn’t even exist in the universe. When they

find this appearance to be impossible they

get down on themselves and begin to feel

inadequate, just as the model Britney felt.

For many girls depressed from the exposure

to the ultra thin air brushed pictures need to

be “informed of the measures that are taken

to alter many images in advertisements in

order to clarify that humans do not naturally

look like those illustrations”, therefore they

shouldn’t compare their bodies with these

photo-shopped illusions of perfection (An

Intervention for the Negative Influence of

Media on Body Esteem, Haas et. al, 3).

Cosmetics are traditionally been confined to

the target population to feel the comfort

from an external thing, “female consumers,

cosmetics have been traditionally used by

women to control their physical appearance

and, presumably, their physical

attractiveness. Although, the literature is by

no means voluminous, several researchers

have examined the psychological correlates

and consequences of cosmetic use” (Cash

and Cash, 1982), (Miller and Cox, 1982),

(Graham and Kligman, 1985) (Cash et al.,

1985), ( Cox and Glick, 1986), ( Etcoff,

1999).

Cash (1980), reviewed some of the available

research evidence and, from a self-

presentational perspective, argued that

cosmetics use specifically and grooming

behaviours in general function to manage

and control not only social impressions but

also self-image (for example, body image

which differs from every single girl to the

other, self-perceptions, and mood states that

they are ready for a try on a new product).

According to Kashima (2000) Core values of

any country shape its national culture.

Culture can be conceptualized as dynamic

production and reproduction of meaning by

concrete individuals activities in particular

contexts. To maintain a culture is like

proving the one to be in the nation where all

follow one rule to survive.

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