Reading The Signs In Public Spaces Ulta Beauty. The Space

Reading the Signs in Public Spaces: ULTA Beauty The space I chose to observe and write about for this essay is ULTA Beauty in the Greenwood Mall. In this analysis, I will be focusing on the impact of advertisements and products within class, gender, and beauty through the study of semiotics, connotation, and denotation. ULTA sells haircare products, skin care products, perfumes and cologne, high end makeup brands, and drug store makeup brands as well. Walking into ULTA Beauty, I already had preconceived notions about who was allowed with in this space. I assumed that ULTA was open to just women but looking deeper, I learned that it is for the middle and upper class women and men of society. Throughout the store prices ranged from as†¦show more content†¦I also made some assumption about the race among the advertisement within ULTA. I looked at many advertisement and saw that there was racial diversity with the models of the advertisements. There was the usual, tan, blonde hair, blue eyed model but there were also African American, Asian, as well as ethnically ambiguous models, which is good for inclusion and representation for all peoples. While walking through out ULTA, one of the advertisement that really caught my attention was a Benefit advertisement. It was for their â€Å"They’re Real† Mascara and it is, for the most part, in black and white and shows a very sultry looking woman with dark hair, dark e yes and more than likely tan skin. Not to mention the most important part of the advertisement being her abnormally large breast, that looked like they were the product of cosmetic surgery. The denotation of this ad implies that â€Å"my breasts are as real as your lashes with mascara on.† The connotation is that it is societally okay to lie about yourself and rely on beauty products and cosmetic surgery to make you feel better. This is a terrible message to send to women and girls of all ages because it implies that if you change yourself through cosmetic surgery you will look like all the models you see in the media. Another ad that caught my attention was a not