Interpretation Of Latent And Manifest Patterns In Beauty Product Advertisements, An Essay.

1. Identify two latent (underlying) meanings found in any of the three advertisements (e.g., The advertisements appear to support gender inequality by the way they portray their products – include explanations!).

2. Interpret both the manifest and latent patterns found in the advertisements in relation to your original research questions.

Latent Meanings in the Advertisements

The power published beauty and fashion magazines cannot be neglected. This has been evident through several journals that have shown massive sales of the beauty products especially those advertised through the display of celebrities around the globe (Backaler, 2018, pp.19-35). The study shows that most young people have struggled to emulate the lifestyle of their favorite media celebrities with beauty brands among other fashion items and practices. However, the question of health implications on the use of the beauty brands has been in question for many years. (Lundgren and MacMakin, 2018) acknowledges that, like any other chemical component, the excessive use or abuse of the products could lead to some side effects despite the parent companies labelling and indicating that the products are health hazard free. 

1. Source

From the chosen beauty brands, the first product in the list of three is the Province Apothecary founded by Julie Clark who is the owner of the Province Apothecary company. However, the RMS Beauty product are manufactured by the Vancouver-based company that was founded by Rose Marie Swift who had a vision to come up with a product perceived to aid the women to claim their right to healthy beauty. On the other hand, the Bite Beauty product is manufactured by the Toronto-based cosmetics company that is claimed to be a worldwide market enterprise.

1. Encoding process

The motive behind the Province Apothecary beauty product was to create a skincare that is free from irritating complexions. The product has the belief that it is made from quality ingredients that are certified to cruelty- and organic-free that are obtained from every province across the country. This description brings out the inclusivity nature of the advert meant to win the customers across the entire Canadian provinces (Dwyer, 2018, p.35). The RMS Beauty products are centered on the motive that they are free from health hazards or medical implications that can be brought about by the use of cosmetic products that are believed to heal and nourish the skin due to their non-toxic nature (Lores, Celeiro, Rubio, LIompart, and Garcia-Jares, 2018, pp.7085-7102). Concisely, the Bite beauty product has the motive that it is hand-made from the natural, organic, and food grade ingredients that are harmless to the body during application of the cosmetic to the lips. These products are aimed to bring out the general motive to the users that they are harmless to the human health during consumption of the products thus clearing their doubts on health hazards and increasing their confidence during purchase to increase the sales.

1. The channel

The advertisements for all the three cosmetic products are done through the online media. The Kiss Nation is a known website that advertises the beauty brands in Canada.  This channel is used as it is also used to broadcast songs for celebrities. By so doing, the website lures the consumers into viewing the advertisements made on the beauty brands in the country. This ensures that more views access the information on the cosmetic products advertised.

1. The message

The themes identified in the advertisements is that the products are free from health hazards and are affordable. This is seen in descriptions of the products by claims that they are manufactured from organic and food substances and the inclusion of a price tag to bring out the feeling of affordability among the clients.

1. The decoding process

Interpretation of the Manifest and Latent Patterns Found in the Advertisements

The decoding process is displayed in the last sub-section of every advert (Edstrom, 2018, pp.77-93). For instance, for the Province Apothecary, it has been made clear that the user is likely to achieve the full brows look without health implications if they use the province apothecary full brow serum cosmetic.

1. The recipient

The recipients are the eligible consumers of the cosmetic products likely to be women. This is due to the use of the lipsticks that is globally dominant among the female than among the men. 

1. Coding the content of the advertisement according to:
2. Frequency

Frequency in content coding is the count in which certain patterns occur in the communication. According to the research questions, the following are the frequencies of the patterns of the information.

• The number of assurances of non-health implications to users in the advertisements is three.
• The number of times the users are claimed to love the products is three.

1. Amount

This can be based on the price indicated in the advertisement.

• Full brow serum - $36
• Cream eye polish in lunar - $39
• Multistick in Papaya - @28

1. Presence/Absence of Quality

The presence or the absence of quality in content coding is used to determine whether the specific aspects are present or absent in the adverts. The presence of quality in this case is determined by the following.

• The presence of the full brow serum Province apothecary in the entire country according to the first research question.  
• The ability of the cream eye polish to help in healing and nourishing the skin concerning the second research question.

1. Typology

Typology in content coding is the practice of sorting the communication into different categories. For instance, in this context, we could categorize as,

• Health hazard
• Non-health hazard

1. Intensity

This is how strongly the content can be differentiated by certain present elements. Under intensity, we could code the information into

• Non-medical implication, for example, the organic raw materials.
• Global influence of the publications on ideal beauty, for example, the existence of the published materials across all the provinces in Canada.

1. Creating a sample coding form

A sample coding form of beauty brands advertisements
Brand name		RMS Beauty
Product		Cream Eye Polish in Lunar
Gender		Female
Quality	Presence	Healing and nourishing skin
	Absence
Latent content		Organic in nature, non-toxic, light reflexive, raw minerals pigments that won’t dry the skin
Intensity		Health hazard free
Amount		$39
Latent frequency		3
Key concepts: v Quality – The measure of the absence or the presence of specific patterns or aspects in a communication.  v Frequency - The count in which certain patterns occur in a communication. v Intensity – Determines how strong certain information is in a communication. v Amount – The value of the product as displayed in the communication. v Latent content – Is the hidden meaning underlining a certain pattern in a                    communication.

According to (Seo, Yoo, Choi, Kim, and Han, 2018, 1-15), the latent content is an interpretive meaning that underlines the communication in a given context. The first latent displayed across the advertisements is the non-health effects that can be brought about by using the cosmetics. Another latent content is the ease of use or application of the cosmetics that can influence other users into impulsive buying of the beauty products. This appear to influence the global use of the beauty products thus influencing the ideal beauty among the female. 

The manifest content is the visible content displayed in an advertisement (Hart, 2018). The manifest pattern is displayed with pictures, which indicate where the cosmetic is applied. For instance, in the third advertisement as shown below where the lips are displayed.

Additionally, the word “bite” is used as a brand label, which is in line with the functionality of the product that is related to lips biting during application. Another manifest pattern is the price tag attached onto the products that brings out the sense of affordability of the products among the consumers.

However, the latent patterns used in the advertisements are meant to give the consumers the assurance of health safety during the use of the products. The pieces of information shown in the advertisements over the use of the organic materials in the manufacture of the products are aimed to boost the confidence of the consumers during purchase. On the other hand, the ease of use of the products is aimed to prompt the female users into buying of the products for conveniences brought about by the simplicity of the products (Czarnecka and Schivinski, 2018, pp.343-353). 

Backaler, J. (2018). Levels of Influence: Key Characteristics of Modern-Day Influencers. In Digital Influence (pp. 19-35). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Czarnecka, B., & Schivinski, B. (2018). The Effects of Acculturation to Global Consumer Culture on Impulsive Buying and Attitudes Towards Advertising in General. In Advances in Advertising Research IX (pp. 343-353). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.

Dwyer, K. (2018). Communication: It's our accountability. IQ: The RIM Quarterly, 34(3), 35.

Edström, M. (2018). Visibility patterns of gendered ageism in the media buzz: a study of the representation of gender and age over three decades. Feminist Media Studies, 18(1), 77-93.

Hart, C. (2018). Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Research Imagination. Sage.

Lores, M., Celeiro, M., Rubio, L., Llompart, M., & Garcia-Jares, C. (2018). Extreme cosmetics and borderline products: an analytical-based survey of European regulation compliance. Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry, 410(27), 7085-7102.

Lundgren, R. E., & McMakin, A. H. (2018). Risk communication: A handbook for communicating environmental, safety, and health risks. John Wiley & Sons.

Seo, Jiwan, Karam Yoo, Seungjin Choi, Yura Alex Kim, and Sangyong Han. "The latent learning model to derive semantic relations of words from unstructured text data in social media." Multimedia Tools and Applications (2018): 1-15.