Impact of still advertisements in advancing the notion of body image among adolescents : a multimodal discourse analysis

Abstract

Advertisements are multimodal texts. They have the potential to achieve a vast and diverse viewership through diverse media channels, thereby enabling precision targeting of specific customer segments such as adolescents through tailored messages aimed at evoking a heightened response, such as the promotion of impractical beauty ideals (Belch and Belch 2009). The available literature indicates that the female demographic is highly susceptible to targeting by advertisers, particularly concerning their physical appearance because of exposure to idealized bodily imagery in advertisements. These ads often lead to heightened self-consciousness and body dissatisfaction among this population.

The goal of the present thesis is to examine the impact that distinct varieties of advertising exert on the spread of body image ideals among adolescents. Moreover, the investigation centers on how the linguistic and visual components of advertisements facilitate the identification and engagement of intended audiences. The thesis pivots around two research inquiries. The present research aims to scrutinize the persuasive influence of visual and linguistic elements in the context of advertising. In addition, the research aims to explore the portrayal of unrealistic beauty standards in advertisements and how it impacts the body image of adolescents. To accomplish this, a thorough multimodal discourse analysis is conducted, employing the widely recognized visual grammar framework proposed by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006). This framework is used to analyze three ads.

This investigation has revealed that women are a particularly vulnerable demographic targeted by advertisers. In summary, advertisements have the tendency to target a demographic of younger individuals, thereby potentially eliciting concerns about body image. Additionally, the advertisements exhibited a high level of persuasiveness as a result of incorporating a diverse range of visual and textual components which made it exceedingly difficult for the intended audience to resist their allure.

Keywords: Unrealistic beauty standards, Body Image, Multimodal Text, Adolescents, Body dissatisfaction, Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Advertisement strategies.