English Persuasive Speech

By Indira Amalia

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. My name is Indira, and I’m here to address the issues of
improper advertising and colourism in the beauty industry. What is colourism? Colourism is the
issue of privileging light skin over dark skin, which commonly occurs among people of the same
race. Imagine this: being discriminated, humiliated, and mistreated for having darker skin by your
own people. Outrageous! This worldwide phenomenon is deeply rooted in our society since the
Stolen Generation and the colonialism era, until today.

The company that contributes to these issues is Garnier. I’m sure that many of you have heard of
this cosmetic brand, as it is very popular and relatively affordable. Their advertisements often
include girls with smiles as bright as their shiny hair and sparkly skin. Desired by men, envied by
women! Wow, what a great life we can obtain just by using their product! Women all over the
world are relying on Garnier’s products thanks to their sweet promises. In Australia, Garnier’s
products are mostly promoted to enhance the skin, which is arguably harmless. However, last year,
they released an offensive advertisement in Indonesia that promotes colourism.

You might wonder; ‘how could this be?’ Well, the visual and auditory techniques that Garnier uses
in this ad is overflowing with the clear favouritism over someone with lighter skin.

Pay attention to the noticeable visual elements of this advertisement that I have summarised in this
slide. The first thing that you would notice is probably the dominance of the colour pink, which is
commonly associated with femininity and beauty. By using this colour, the advertisement
establishes its target user: women. Garnier aims to persuade women who want to be beautiful to
use their products. This is further emphasised by the flowers that seem to be present in every
frame of the advertisement. Sparkles and bubbles are added to position audiences in a dream-like
atmosphere, signifying the purity that a woman should have, and Garnier can give. Also, note that
this character is wearing blue at the beginning of the ad, but then her outfit changed to pink
following her ‘transformation’. This is a visual message that this product can make a woman more
desirable because she will look more feminine.

The auditory features of this advertisement situate audiences to believe that they need to buy this
product. This is achieved by using snarl and purr words that evoke emotional responses from the
audience. The word ‘beautiful’ is literally replaced by the phrases ‘rosy fair’ and ‘glowing’. These
words are giving women a visualisation of what ‘beauty’ defines. On the other hand, the snarl word
‘dull’ is used by this character in describing her ‘less beautiful’ skin. The word ‘dull’ has negative
connotations such as ‘uninteresting’, ‘boring’, ‘tedious’, which means that she positions the
audiences to view her as unattractive due to her skin tone. These substitutions affect consumers by
making them feel like they need to be fair-skinned to be considered beautiful. And, well. “In order
to be fair-skinned,” Garnier says, “they need to use the endorsed skin care treatment.”

Now, let’s have a look at the problematic scenes in this ad. As you can see, fair and dark skins are
juxtaposed to accentuate one over the other. Let’s guess which skin tone is considered more
beautiful according to this ad! That’s right, it’s the fair skin. The character with lighter skin is
constantly portrayed to be happier, more confident, and envied. This makes audiences feel as
though they need to have fair skin to be happy and confident. Do you agree with this nonsense? Me
neither! What this ad does is adding fuel to the fire that is the issue of colourism. An issue that has
rooted so deeply in our society is shoved further down our throats. To understand the severity of
colourism, let's have a look this figure. According to research conducted in America in 2010, women
with lighter skin were sentenced to approximately 12% less time in prison than darker women. Just
by having lighter skin! I’m sure that you agree that this overlooked issue has profound impacts on
many people. This ad implies that people with lighter skin are worthier than people with dark skin,
and that's not fair. How would you feel to have your worth determined by your skin tone? How
would you feel to be loathed by other people just because of your skin colour? Provocative
advertisements like these need to stop encouraging colourism.

At this point, I'm sure that you could see why Garnier is problematic for promoting such beauty
standards based on one's skin colour. As consumers, we have the power to change what needs to
be changed, and in this case, it’s the perspective that Garnier used to market their products. We
need to educate people that colourism is wrong, and no one should have their worth determined
by their skin tone. It's also crucial to showcase a diverse range of people in the entertainment
industry as equally respected. By doing this, people are able to see themselves represented in the
media and thus, appreciate themselves more. Together, we can create a world where one's skin
complexion is not viewed as less than the other. Thank you for your attention.

Bibliography
Sanders, T. (2011, July 5). The Lighter the Skin, the Shorter the Prison Term? Retrieved from The
Root: https://www.theroot.com/the-lighter-the-skin-the-shorter-the-prison-term-
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