Susan Mello published in Health, Risk & Society

Susan Mello

Annenberg doctoral student Susan Mello has published the article “Selling a super cosmeceutical: Contextualising risk in direct-to-consumer advertising of BOTOX® Cosmetic” in the journal Health, Risk & Society (Volume 14, Number 4, pages 385 – 398).

 

 

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-actualized – 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 idealized beauty.