Spegel, spegel på väggen där. : En semiotisk analys av Sephoras reklam: The unlimited power of beauty

Sammanfattning: The goal of this essay is to examine Sephora’s video commercial in the context of wokewashing and femvertising. The question constructed for that aim which is the basis of this essay reads as follows: How does the clip use symbols and speech to emphasise a feminist stance in their commercial, and could the movie be used as an example of wokewashing? Different feminist views on makeup and beauty are presented under background to give context to facilitate discussions about whether this is wokewashing and/or femvertising. A brief history of Sephora as a company and their work in different political questions are also presented to further understand them as a company. The movie is then subjected to a semiotic analysis where different aspects are brought forth proving that the movie is based on feminist theories and ideology. The different aspects assessed in result is how gender is presented as well as how the overlying monologue in the movie affects this. When it has been established that the movie indeed takes inspiration and theories from feminist discussions the commercial and these findings are then problematized and considered in the analysis. The analysis concludes that the movie is indeed an example of wokewashing since the message portraid in the movie and Sephoras own company structure do not align. This is to say that the company is found not to be actually fighting to change the normative gender structure that is problematized in the commercial. The concept of wokewashing and the relativity of the concept are brought up and problematized under discussion where the different views on makeup from a feminist point of view are again discussed to further understand the implications this could have on the dialogue concerning wokewashing.