The scientifization of “green” anti-ageing cosmetics in online marketing: a multimodal critical discourse analysis

Abstract

This paper examines the marketing of trending green cosmetic products containing natural ingredients and coming with claims to keep skin health-enhancing and age-defying benefits. This is fostered by the growing importance of successful ageing and the neoliberal self-care agenda. Adopting the notion of “integrated design” from Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA), this paper looks at the communicative affordances of the web and how marketers of “green” cosmetics connect these to science. The analysis shows that the integrated design of the webpages allows cosmetic companies to connote science while glossing over significant details, leaving causalities, classifications, and processes unspecified. This marketing frames fighting the “look” of ageing as a moral and ethical consumption choice. Such choices relate to self-care regimes of a “successful” neoliberal citizenship.