There’s a cream for that: A textual analysis of beauty and body-related advertisements aimed at middle-aged women

ABSTRACT

This article explores the magazine advertising strategies and tactics used by health and beauty products to target middle-aged women. Advertisements found in the April 2013 issues of Shape, Fitness, and Women’s Health were analyzed using intersectionality to determine how these advertisements are presenting messages pertaining to age, gender, and sexuality and how these messages can “other” and marginalize certain identities. The findings suggest that advertisement strategies implement pseudoscience, heteronormativity, hegemonic beauty, and body ideals to establish an idealized version of middle-aged womanhood.

KEYWORDS:

• Advertising
• aging
• beauty
• body image
• intersectionality
• middle-age
• women