Further Oral Activity: Your Reflective Statement

NAME : Mar Motial

At the end of your activity, you are required to write a reflective

statement about it.
This reflective statement should contain the following:
(Write about 250 words)

Date: 3rd October

Name: Mar Motial

Type of Presentation: Speech with visual aids (slideshow)

Topic: How does advertising affect Indian women’s confidence

in their naturally darker skin colors?

My Aim/s for the Presentation Was

To unpack the advertising techniques used in LORÉÉ AL’s skin whitening cream
advertisement and how these techniques helped LORÉÉ AL project the message that
you are only beautiful if you have fair skin. I then wanted to explore how the
message of the advertisement influences the audience to help fulfill the purpose of
the advertisement. The purpose being to persuade the audience member that they
need to purchase LORÉAL’s skin whitening cream in order to be beautiful and thus
gain societal acceptance.

Furthermore, I wanted to analyze the advertisement so that I could evaluate how

this advertisement connects to the issue I was exploring (mentioned above) as well
as how language in the mass media has the power to undermine Indian people’s
integrity when it comes to their identity.
How Well Do I Feel That I Achieved This Aim?

I think my presentation was focused, I analysed the techniques well and I was able to
draw a specific conclusion as to how this advertisement affects Indian Woman’s
confidence in their naturally darker skin colors.

My speech itself was organized well and I used connectors and pauses to transition
from one point to another. However, I think I covered too much ground and was not
able to dig into this ground as well as I should have been digging. In other words,
instead of covering 5 techniques (copy, diction, celebrity endorsement, statistics and
association) among exploring social and historical context, it would have been more
effective to cover 4 techniques but go into the effect of the technique on the reader in
more detail. This would have allowed the audience (and myself) to develop a better
understanding of how and why the techniques used in the advertisement evocatively
convey the message of this advertisement to us.

In terms of my delivery of the speech, I think I was confident, loud, emotive and
enunciated my words. The passion with which I approached this issue from the
beginnning did show through the expression and hand gestures with which I spoke.
However, I could have slowed down as I had sufficient time left (I spoke for 7
minutes and 10 seconds). Slowing down would have also let my points soak into the
audience’s brain better as I would have given them a few seconds between my points
to comprehend and analyse what I was saying.