I intend to create a print advert that is both historical and radical, for the purposes of advertising a brand of mascara. My focus is to create one radical and one reactionary product to display different representation. I intend to use iconic signifiers of the products and a dominant signifier of the model’s face, in addition to indexical signs and a strapline to emphasise the product.

The radical advert is set in the 1950s era. My style model is a Maybelline advert from the 1950s, which I aim to replicate. The strapline is ‘Eye makeup smart women prefer’ which is an entirely different and commendable attitude toward how woman were usually perceived in the 1950s. Women’s occupations were to be housewives and stay at home cleaning and cooking for their husbands’ and looking after their children. However, this particular advert has a very different approach, it is a counterstereotype of the typical 1950s women, it presents as women who are intelligent and the model on the advert is dressed as though she works at an office with her neat hair and polished makeup. This shows that the model is not adhering to this negative stereotype and is opposing to the patriarchy as it implies that she goes to work, creating a more positive stereotype for women of that era.

The model in the advert I replicated for the radical advert is wearing a dark coloured outfit to exude an air of sophistication and place emphasis on the strapline that states “the intelligent way to make up your future” to imply to the wider audience that the model and user of this particular brand of mascara are of an ‘upper class society’, have an excellent educational background and an individual that is highly sought after in the employment market. The name of the product is ‘Infinite mascara’ as it indicates that women are capable and intelligent enough to achieve an infinite amount of things.

The type of audience that would be drawn to this advert are women who work in an office between the ages of (approximately) 30-45 years, as they would have most likely been to university and attained their qualifications and have had experience at work so they would be able to relate to the strapline and the dominant signifier of the advert.

The kind of company that would make my product would be a kind of brand that is timeless and classy, for instance Chanel, that women who work in an office would be able to afford.

For the contemporary advert a reactionary approach is used. I use a female model as the dominant signifier whose photo displays someone who is happy and gregarious and who is not afraid to show their fun side modelling with a blow up ‘hot pink’ flamingo, sporting a flower garland as indexical signs and wearing her hair in a plait style. This contrasts the former advert as it shows femininity can be fun and expressive too. The strapline ‘Fantastically fun lashes!’ reinforces this idea.

The style model for this advert was an advert for a makeup brand called Too Faced, which I took inspiration from for my contemporary advert as it shows a girl who appears to be very carefree and fun loving as she is posing smiling and and is in a relaxed as well as being on the telephone and has her hair down.

This advert represents itself as a reactionary advert as it it follows how females would be typically as happy go lucky and expressive. At the same time, it is a positive stereotype of femininity as it is a counter stereotype of how many females are portrayed in adverts such as mascara, mainly to appeal to the male gaze and that is what is considered feminine. Although in this advert, it does not. It depicts that whilst still being feminine, though self expression and being fun loving it does not need to follow this negative stereotype of makeup being worn to please men but that women can wear makeup for themselves to make them happy and express their individuality whilst doing so without trying to impress anyone else.

The kind of audience that would consume this product would be a younger age group of 19-30 year olds who are able to afford this product which can be purchased from a number of high street beauty stores, which would be in the category of ‘The Mainstreamer’.

The type of company that would produce this product would be a high street brand such as Revlon or Maybelline as their adverts tend to be expressive and their price range would appeal to a younger audience as well.