The Visual Content of Magazine Advertisements in the Skincare Market

Despite the observations that visuals are almost always present in skincare ads, and that they are noticed to a greater extent than the text in these ads, there appears to be virtually no publicly available research that has analysed the visual content of skincare ads. The purpose of this preliminary research is to identify some of the types (or elements) and roles (or functions) of skincare advertising visuals and examine the extent to which they are evident in ads selected from the April through August 2005 issues of four popular women s magazines in Australia. 24 elements and five functions of skincare advertising visuals were identified, and their presence or absence was assessed in a sample of 52 ads. Due to the exploratory nature of the analysis, future research is required to fully understand the visual content of magazine advertisements in the skincare market