In the American capitalist society, the media is often an agent used to perpetuate ideals and to inform consumers of products that they can purchase by using multiple advertising techniques. In an attempt to counter the thin body ideal for women, some companies have begun advertising their products by using plus size models, such as the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. The purpose of this research is to examine college women's perceptions of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, an advertising campaign whose goal is to reverse the stereotypical body ideal for women and broaden the definition of beauty. Some sociologists have criticized Dove for sending conflicting messages. This study is the first that focuses on women's perceptions about this potential conflict. Through the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study examined if, how, and when women changed their initial perceptions toward the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty based on two separate scenarios brought to their attention. This is important because the findings suggest how consumers can change their perceptions regarding a company, in this case one that is a part of a multi-million dollar parent company, based on how a company advertises its products.

The current study explores the influence nontraditional framing of beauty and ugliness has on college aged females' interpretation of beauty. Focus group sessions were used to assess this influence, during which the women were asked several questions within two open discussions of beauty. The television sitcom Ugly Betty, which features an alternative framing of beauty standards, was shown between each discussion and used to analyze the media's influence. The results show that the discussion and the new framing of beauty and ugliness in the clip influenced the women's interpretations by either creating new understandings or re-enforcing existing beliefs. The women also considered media images of beauty to have a third-person effect with younger audiences being more impacted. Social comparison was used slightly in explaining beauty definitions and standards for women. / Master of Arts

This master thesis The magic and power of red lipsticks represents theoretical-empirical analysis that argues how red lipsticks influence our perception and how we communicate through them with our surrounding. The thesis stems from the basic assumption that red lipstick is truly important and bold communication mean that is able to talk to our surrounding in a completely different ways than other colors or color shades. The aim of the thesis was to find out whether the aforementioned assumption matches the reality. Key questions for this master thesis were as follows: How do women communicate with their surrounding through red color (red lipstick)? What do they expect from these communication means? How do they feel when they communicate through these means (when they wear red lipstick)? How to they perceive reactions for this mean of communication? What are these reactions like (men- and women- wise)? The master thesis is based on researches from the field of beauty, human attractiveness or perception of red color that have already been done and it presents several different theories about human beautification as well as cosmetics evolution and evolution of perception of beauty itself. Except these, the thesis focuses on media content and the ways in which media, mainly social media and other...