A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Misleading Cosmetic Advertisements

There are currently many debates concerning the rigorousness of cosmetic advertisement languages. Many cases show that the consumers are misled by the use of the advertising language. And rounds of questionings arise from commercial campaigns of those cosmetic manufactures. This study aims to help the reader or potential customer to see through or to be alert to the misleading or deceptive language used in cosmetic advertisements by examining the use of the language and the reason why it has been used that way.In this thesis, the specific area of cosmetic advertising will be analyzed from the perspective of CDA to reveal from what aspects and how does the advertising discourse mislead the consumers. The analysis will be carried out from two perspectives: (1) from the perspective of genre analysis; and (2) from the perspective of ideology. These two parts are supposed to answer the following two questions respectively: (1) from what perspectives do cosmetic advertisements mislead consumers, and (2) why can the cosmetic advertisements have such a great influence on the consumers. In the part of genre, the analysis is carried out from six perspectives: the schematic structure, phrases, vocabulary, use of scientific terms, use of numbers and presuppositions. In the part of ideology, the analysis carried out to find out what is the consumers' ideology like and what role does ideology play in the process of consumer interpretationIt is hoped that the potential customers of cosmetic products will benefit from this research not only in adopting a wise consuming behavior but also in raising their genre and ideological consciousness when reading.