Selling Young Skin
Soap burning bloodshot eyes. Lotion causing skin to burn like a red-head on a 120 degree day. Deodorant causing men to fall to their knees in agony because it’s not doing its job...deodorizing. Let’s face it, when a company is trying to sell certain products, they won’t have the models for the website having the same problems as the ones described above. The models will be enjoying themselves and the products, smiling constantly.
VS
Because of his smiling face, I would definitely buy that shirt. On the other hand, because of her miserable expression, I would not buy that tennis racket.
I wouldn’t buy a product that makes my eyes burn or make others pass out due to my stench; would you? On the Dove website, they use more than just smiling pictures to promote their products and their way of living, there are also articles. One particular article about skin care informs women about what they can do on a daily basis to help their skin receive the glowing radiance of youth again.
In the Beginning, There was an Article
A certain article on the site is called “Skin Care Myths and Rituals: Then and Now” by Athena Uslander. (Before I say anymore, I want to describe the picture on the top of the article. It is of a smiling woman with flawless skin touching her shoulder. By touching her shoulder, she is indicating that her skin is soft and she made it that way by doing exactly what Athena describes in the article…or by buying Dove products. Athena’s audience she is writing the article to is middle-aged women, probably around 40. 13-year-old girls are not going to care about young skin, and for 80-year-old women, sorry to be honest, but it might be a little late.
ADhD Moment
What happens at the magic age of 40? Once a woman turns 40, she panics and tries every possible way to look 20 years younger. It bugs me. One doesn’t see 39 year-olds in the store trying to be hip and relatable to teeny-boppers, but once 40 hits, she pulls out the tight jeans that she fit into 25 years ago, the flashy makeup that shouldn’t even be worn on a Broadway stage, and the beach-blonde hair dye that would make Lady Gaga cry.
Article Continued
The article starts out talking about Athena’s childhood in Persia. She talks about her grandmother taking her and her cousin to the bathhouse every Friday. They would take daily showers at home, but the bathhouse was kind of a glorified bath, combining all the elements of a complete cleansing of one’s body. Athena mentions how bathing is extremely important in Persian society…
The Importance Bathing
When I was younger, I remember a certain sick day. I had the flu and was not going to school. Although I was in and out of sleep, I remember brief elements of the day: sleeping on our couch downstairs, my mom bringing me sprite (which didn’t stay down very long) and watching a movie called “No More Baths.”
In the movie, kids were protesting by not taking baths. This way of protesting would never happen in Persian cultures because of the symbolism in the act of bathing. They splash themselves with water before they pray to symbolize purity and being clean. The weekly bath at the bathhouse also stood as a metaphor of purity and cleanliness. The first step for a bride to prepare for her wedding in Persian culture is by bathing to symbolize a new beginning. It also symbolizes pureness.
…Athena recalls the baths taking all day. They would leave at 8:00 a.m. and return at night. That’s probably about as long as it takes for me to drive from my home in North Idaho to Provo, Utah, about 12 hours. She also describes how harsh the woman would scrub her and how red she would be afterwards. Her grandma would tell her, “If you leave the top layer of skin, the devil rolls it up around your neck and chokes you with it.”
Rhetoric Alert
Grandma used rhetoric on young Athena. Grandma was trying to convince her that the pain and agony was a summer breeze compared to dying a long painful death caused by the devil choking her with the top layer of her skin. Ah, the naivety of childhood.
Double Rhetoric Alert
Athena also is using rhetoric to the audience. Most people feel warm and fuzzy inside when they think of childhood memories, so, in this case, Athena is trying to relate to us. SHE IS APPEALING TO PATHOS! Who wouldn’t want to read an article about a young girl’s childhood memories with her grandma? One would have to have no heart if they turned it down.
Athena’s Tips
Athena tells how the bath made her grandma’s skin soft, but she has five tips for a modern woman to soften her skin.
1. Drink water
2. Use SPF 15 or 30 (waterproof if working outside)
3. Use skin polisher to decrease dead skin an discoloration
4. Use moisturizer with alpha hydroxyl acid (AHA) at night—supposedly, AHA is supposed to make skin more elastic.
5. Use sauna or steam bath in the winter
She then ends the article with, “I can confidently say that I’ve never spent more than $15 on a single skin care product. From everything I’ve read, there is nothing in a jar that can bring back the skin I had at 20. My best advice to others is to take the best care of your skin within reason, and try to remember that smile lines come from smiles, and every line has wonderful memories attached to it.
Rhetoric Alert
The last paragraph that Athena wrote was an extremely smart move on her part. First of all, she APPEALS TO ETHOS because of the fact that she is a featured columnist on the Dove website. She’s legitimate and appears to be qualified to talk about skin. Her five tips are exactly what people are told to do for young skin and she played it safe by not saying anything extreme. With the logical five points, SHE APPEALED TO LOGOS.
Double Rhetoric Alert
By saying she never spent more than $15 on any skin-care product, she again APPEALS TO PATHOS. She relates to women today (especially in the economic crisis we are in right now) who are trying to save as much money as possible. Feeding ones family will be higher on the list of priorities than young skin, or at least it should be higher.
A smile isn’t everything, but it sure helps!
Athena Uslander does not only draw the readers in with the picture of the lady with flawless skin and a smile. She is relatable to the common, penny-pincher house wife, but also to the exotic travel-the-world business executive. By not saying anything radical on her five points, she sounds very credible. What kind of a bonehead would say that drinking water hurts ones skin or that using sunscreen is causing wrinkles? No one can dispute those facts. By establishing her credibility, she can add her other tips like using moisturizers with AHA and applying skin polisher. In a world where image is everything, women need to care for themselves and Athena’s apparent expertise on the fact persuaded me to go take a bath, how about you?
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