“Subconsciously, beauty is white and skinny.” : A qualitative study on colorism in makeup advertisements.

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose with this study is to research how consumers’ view on the inclusivity in the makeup industry and how the skin tones of the models in an advertisement shape consumer attitudes towards the advertisement. Research questions: How do consumers evaluate advertisements based on the skin tone of models used in the advertisement? What are the consumers view on the inclusivity in the makeup industry? Method: A qualitative research method was chosen for this study. The data was collected by interviewing four focus groups. Conclusion: The result of this study showed that makeup advertisement still is not inclusive and diverse enough. The makeup advertisements lack models with different skin tones, specifically darker skin tones. This creates negative attitude among the consumers. The makeup industry as a whole is not seen as inclusive enough and that brands only include darker skin tones in their advertisements because it is trendy now, thus it is not genuine.