By Kirsten DeZeeuw | October 30, 2019
In today’s digital world, advertisers are scrambling to keep up with and capitalize on the latest trends to sell products. Today, advertising in the beauty community revolves around social media influencers, with consumers relying on their recommendations for sources of information (Christine, 2019). While the savvy consumer might understand how products are currently marketed, what past practices made advertising in the beauty industry what it is today?
Early history
According to a 2003 article from AdAge, some of the first cosmetic advertising appeared in European newspapers in the 17th and 18th centuries. The product that was advertised was a powder that were intended to lighten the face and hair of users to achieve a more fashionable complexion (Adage, 2003).
The 20th century
It was not until the 1920’s that cosmetics and their advertising became commonplace. For the first time, it was socially acceptable for women to wear noticeable makeup. Women embraced this trend, which led to a boom in the number of products that became available to them. Advertisers at this point in history were mostly focused on introducing the plethora of new products to women, and exploiting their emotions and insecurities to sell products (AdAge, 2003).
Advertising in the industry became more recognizable to current consumers in the 1980’s, with the popularization of celebrity endorsements (e.g. Nike’s Air Jordan’s). The celebrity endorsement was a common and effective tactic for advertising, until the “credit crunch” of 2008 and the popularization of social media made consumers more skeptical (Mintel, 2017).
Today
Social media has made celebrities more accessible, so consumers were, for the first time, able to see if celebrities actually use the products they endorse. This accessibility has decreased the credibility of such promotions to the point that these endorsements’ influence on consumers are currently at an all time low. However, it was this drop in credibility that created an opportunity for influencers to gain popularity, particularly on platforms like YouTube (Mintel, 2017).
It was events like these that helped transform the beauty advertising industry into what it is today. Now it is just for time to tell what the future has in store for advertising in the beauty industry.
The Art of Influencing 