Selling a super cosmeceutical

Contextualising risk in direct-to-consumer advertising of Botox® Cosmetic

Bibliographic Data

ID21148788
AuthorsSusan Mello (0000-0003-3931-7075, University of Pennsylvania, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume14
Issue4
Pages385-398
Publication date2012-06-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHealth Risk & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-8575 • E-ISSN: 1469-8331
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13698575.2012.680951
OpenAlexW2072327864
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited31

Botulinum Toxin Type A, otherwise known as BOTOX®, has dramatically changed the face of modern cosmetic medicine. This study examines the communication of the product's risks and benefits in online direct-to-consumer marketing by Allergan, maker of BOTOX Cosmetic, BOTOX Therapeutic, and BOTOX for Severe Underarm Sweating. Findings suggest that Allergan's heavy reliance on existing social norms of ideal beauty – as youthful, gendered, and self-actualised – for marketing BOTOX Cosmetic cultivates a meta-message of greater social and psychological risks associated with not using the product. In addition, the drug's medical indications are routinely conflated with its cosmetic purpose, resulting in a redefinition of the product as a ‘super cosmeceutical’. These observations have important implications for how social representations of risk may detract from consumer perceptions of physical harms and further promote risk-taking in the widespread pursuit of idealised beauty

Advertising · Aesthetics · Art · Beauty · Botulinum toxin · Business · Cosmeceutical · Perception · Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies · Medicine · Neuroscience · Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders · Pharmaceutical industry and healthcare · Psychology · Social Psychology · Marketing

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