Caught in a trap – women and the beauty industry

Just reading the product marketing information has the desired effect so carefully thought out by clever marketers.

An anti-wrinkle product promises to de-age, lift and firm my skin while I sleep. I must be in a bad way as Misty advised me I needed a concentrate or high performance treatment. The more intensive the better she said to me pointedly.

One product promises re-surfacing followed by repair and recovery. I checked that I was still reading the packaging of a skin care product and hadn’t accidentally stumbled upon the RTAs plan for flood-ravaged roads.

Who said using expensive beauty products makes a female feel glamorous? With product names such as “Dermo-Crease Reducer”, there is more glamour in the waste management business.

There is “Night Repair” and then there’s “Advanced Night Repair”. Later, I checked the Oxford Dictionary. Repair: “to restore to a good condition after decay or damage.” Decay! I wanted to ask what happened if “Advanced Night Repair” doesn’t work but assume you’re a lost cause by then.

A colleague of Misty’s then showed me before and after shots of product users. It was obviously a well rehearsed part of the sales pitch. Was it my imagination or did she emphasise the before shot a little too much?

I was urged to hydrate and re-hydrate. Evidently, beauty product marketers are oblivious to water restrictions.

Finally, Misty and her friend convinced me that I couldn’t go through life without using a product containing the very serious sounding “corrective serum”. Neatly packaged in a miniscule thimble-like container I meekly succumbed, and handing over an exorbitant sum of money, received a smug smile and a written guarantee for a new face overnight.

Did I really need the product I bought? Has it enhanced my life at all? No, but somehow in that 15 minute sales and marketing assault I became convinced that I did need the product and that I would be happier person for buying it. For a teenager of the 70s who made do with Clearasil and thought using a chapstick was a beauty routine, the world has changed, led by a very smart and savvy beauty industry.  

Message to the beauty industry - be gentle. Contrary to what Misty says, we’re not all thick skinned.