Framing

The definition of true beauty continues to evolve as generations pass and new ones emerge. Ulta Beauty, a popular cosmetic store, sells products with the aim to make women feel confident in their skin. Their use of advertisements helps spread the word about new, improved product lines and reach out to potential buyers. Selling makeup is the obvious goal of a cosmetic store, but the kind of consumers they attract and how varies between different franchises. When a company displays their products in one shot instead of in a commercial, the task of conveying the message becomes harder. Ulta Beauty persuades women to purchase their products by pointing out buyers’ insecurities while still appearing to promote empowering feminist values.

All around the world in one way or the other, everyone tries to sell an idea or an actual thing. Everyone is always trying to convince each other by using different techniques to sell an idea or a thing. In order to sell and persuade an idea or thing, people have to tell it to an audience by using advertising and rhetorical strategies. Rhetoric is to transform and change a person’s perspective and truly convince them of something. An efficient way that marketers convince through rhetorical strategies is through advertising. A market that uses advertising a lot are beauty commercials like the Dove’s Real Beauty “film” commercial.

L’Oreal heavily utilizes pathos in its True Match Powder advertisement to generate sales. The company itself runs on an emotionally-charged slogan: buy L’Oreal “Because You’re Worth It”, so this comes as no surprise. Recently, many major makeup brands have been under heavy criticism because their products do not cater to a wide range of skintones - L’Oreal attempts to set themselves apart in this advertisement. They use pathos in the imagery on the advertisement, in the text throughout, and in their graphic art slogan on the bottom left.

“Judgment framing” occurs early in the judgment process. The definition of framing follows: Frames are mental structures that we use, usually subconsciously, to simplify, organize, and guide our understanding of a situation. They shape our perspectives and determine the information that we will see as relevant or irrelevant, important or unimportant. Frames are a necessary aspect of judgment, but it is important to realize that our judgment frames provide only one particular perspective.

Rhetoric gives you an avenue to tell a story from your perspective in a way that connects with the intended audience without having to be one hundred percent substantiated. This writing style is evident in almost everything we read from billboards to Internet ads and even political speeches.

Framing as defined by Robert Entman is “to frame a communicating text or message is to promote certain facets of a ‘perceived reality’ and make them more salient in such a way that endorses a specific problem definition, casual interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or a treatment recommendation (Cissel 68).” Framing is an extension of agenda-setting, which is when the media tells us what to think about (Sparks 228).

The 2016 presidential election totes probably the most controversial presidential race in the history of the United States. In an attempt to sort through the rhetoric and cover, a citizen may be left perplexed at which candidate to vote for. The claims of both parties show inconsistencies in character and purpose as they make assurances of what the country will be like if they are elected. The strategy they use, called framing, is effective, but not new, in the realm of politics and journalism. Wikipedia defines framing as a social science technique that “comprises a set of concepts and theoretical perspectives on how individuals, groups, and societies, organize, perceive, and communicate about reality… In the context of politics or mass-media communication, a frame defines the packaging of an element of rhetoric in such a way as to encourage certain interpretations and to discourage others. For political purposes, framing often presents facts in such a way that implicates a problem that is in need of a solution” (Framing (Social Sciences), Wikipedia). The very essence of persuasion hinges on one party convincing another party, through argument, that their way of thinking or solution is better. Thus, framing becomes the tool of persuading the general

“Strong is Beautiful” is the slogan that Selena Gomez is promoting in her Pantene advertisement in Good Housekeeping. It is indeed an excellent slogan that sells the brand well and promotes the importance of self-image, but is what the “3 Minute Miracle Moisture Renewal” actually strong or is it manipulating young women? Reading the fine print and understanding a product for what it actually is will allow costumers to better avoid being swindled by crafty advertisements using beautiful women and empowering slogans.

When organizations want to communicate value, they must determine what message strategies work best for them. Smart organizations determine a product’s unique selling proposition (USP), or specific benefit consumers will remember (tetxbook). An advertising slogan that I believe is particularly effective for developing a unique selling proposition, is L’Oreal’s "Because You're Worth It", which was written in 1973 when a social revolution and a new spirit of feminism was in full swing. The company is using television, radio, magazines and social media mediums to advertise its products.

Rhetoric was first developed as a formal area of study and practice in the mid-300’s BC by Aristotle. It is the study of effective speaking and writing, and has often been called the art of persuasion. Speaking and writing were the predominant means of communication at the time of rhetoric’s development, but in recent years its principles have been applied to the persuasive value of the image, particularly in visual communication. As communication designers we should be aware of various forms and uses of rhetoric.

The attendance quiz question regarding losing and saving lives exhibits the framing theory. This case scenario defines the framing theory because of the obvious variance in the language used to describe the same outcome. The framing theory is that by emphasizing a situation or title using a certain context of wording will activate a certain shelf to influence someone's decision or thought process.

Ford was extremely passionate about coming out in support of an event that was important to “Real-Life” issues and lent her talents as the host at the launch party of the new beauty line. Getting a more personal account of how this particular product spoke to her and how it will serve women, Ford had a great deal share about the importance of women’s self-care and self-love, reminding women that through self-preservation we are able to combat the day to day criticism that we and the outside world project on ourselves. Ford believes that keeping an account for your wellness both mentally and physically makes you a powerful source and that even when you may not feel your best, you can always be a source of encouragement to

In the first approach, Hall explains that context and meaning are highly correlated, same expressions, words or sentences could change his meaning drastically in different context, thus being really important to understand it correctly. (Hall, 1976, pp. 85-104)

“Because I’m worth it” is a successful advertisement tag-line for L’oreal, Plenitude should ride on it, instead of creating a new identity.

More complex than it is fully understood even after decades of research, the framing effect is simply understanding that the wording of a scenario encourages different reasoning or behavioral preferences. It is an example of a cognitive bias, which is essentially our human tendency to source information that supports something of which we already believe to be true or know. People will react to a choice in a variety of ways, depending upon how it is presented such as a loss or gain. They obviously tend to avoid a risk when something is presented in a positive way. On the other hand, they seek risks when a negative frame is present. To fully allow the significance in the use of framing; the best example nearly anyone can understand is presenting a glass as half full as positive framing about the contents of a glass. In contrast, using the term ‘half empty’ offers the same information but in a negative context (Dunegan, 1993).