Hendrex John A.

Olaviaga - ED11Ar
Task 3: Analyzing Advertisement

Source: https://coconuts.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/56685809_10157191316439414_1188012482631827456_o.jpg
Image 1: Glutamax poster ad

To contextualize, Design and content should always go hand in hand. These two factors
should always be considered, especially when creating an advertisement. An advertisement
should capture the audience and be visually appealing in order for the consumers to actually
purchase or at least consider your products. It should also have a strong and unique content
that can be used as the trademark or highlight of your product. This can also lead the people to
have an impression on the goals and scope of your brand.
Glutamax is a well-known brand in the Philippines that sells whitening soap, creams, and
other cosmetics. As you can see in the image, we can clearly see that the context here portrays
a model who used Glutamax to achieve a much “fair” skin or in other words a whiter skin. The
layout approach here is very evident that they are trying to compare two different perspectives
of skin. One is a little darker compared to the other. This clearly depicts social stigma and
racism where the standard of “beauty” and “fair” shall be dependent on the color of the skin.
Judging by the facial expression of the two images, we can clearly see that the image on the left
side of the poster shows an expression of an insecure woman while on the other side, the
woman with whiter skin shows superiority as if having that kind of skin makes her beautiful. This
poster advertisement not only diminishes the confidence of most women with darker shade of
skin but also glorifies social stigmas such as white is beautiful. Another thing to point out is the
use of the phrase “Your fair advantage.”This is very detrimental in information literacy since this
glorifies and normalizes racism in all facets of the society. Why? Simply because they are trying
to say that having fair and clear skin is considered as an advantage on their so-called “norm”
which is very wrong. Glutamax needs to understand that using soap, creamer, and other
cosmetic products is not meant to discredit people who don't have fair and clear skin. These
products are optional and meant for people who wanted to enhance or further improve their skin
and it doesn’t mean that those people who chooses to retain their skin despite being dark for
example, shall be put on the other edge of the spectrum and be labeled as “Not Beautiful” or
“disadvantage” as depicted in this poster advertisement. I understand that these are whitening
products but the approach is just pure racism. There are many ways to show the effectiveness
of whitening products other than visually comparing different skins. Now, to continue my
analysis. I would like to point out that the elements used in this poster ad are equally distributed
or balanced. The use of white background also helped emphasize the context which is about a
whitening product.
Advertisements should take into account both content and design. It should pique the
buyer's or consumer's interest. It should provide customers a sense of how the product looks in
actuality. It should convey to purchasers or consumers what the product is all about and what it
contains.