User:Djbaumgarten/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Cosmetics advertising

Cosmetics advertising

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose cosmetic advertising because the industry of beauty and aesthetics is central to multiple avenues of consumerism, but particularly works as a connection to how women are advertised towards, given how something nonessential is made to seem essential culturally. The article is very short and doesn't cover much of cosmetics advertising history, but rather moreso its cultural significance.

Evaluate the article
LEAD: The lead is very short, and sets up that this, in its current form, is interested in the moral implications of cosmetic advertising, rather than the advertising itself.

CONTENT: The content is very conceptual. I'm looking in particular at the way that cosmetics advertising is discussed -- there's not a lot of specifics, and there's not a lot of history. It's very grounded in the concept of what the beauty industry is, rather than even beauty advertising. There's a gap in terms of how cosmetic advertising has evolved, and how beauty advertising works with beauty trends. Who were the major modelers of cosmetics at any given time -- the article discusses that celebrities will model, but don't name any. How has cosmetics advertising changed over time depending on the cultural moment? There's only three main sections here: intro, "persuasion" (which talks about how advertising works), and "criticism" (which talks about why the cosmetic industry can be harmful), without much evidence-based discussion happening. I'm glad to see it address how Black women are disproportionately impacted by cosmetics advertising, given how classically underrepresented Black women are in academic spaces.

TONE AND BALANCE: Given how the article is structured at this point, I'm not seeing an abundance of tone and balance. Because so much of it is focused on maybe a sociological study of the cosmetics advertising world and its implication, I get a sense of a judgment call on the concept of cosmetics advertising in a way that feels a little overt for a Wikipedia article. If one who section is going to be dedicated to how harmful the cosmetics advertising industry is, I'd also want to see a section talking about what it is, where it came from, who were its main players, and how it's evolved.

SOURCES AND REFERENCES: The sources are light, and there's at least one section that has a "citation needed" marker because it's just a judgement call. Most of the sources that were used are marketing-related.

ORGANIZATION: The writing is fine. Again, the content skews it away from facts and factual reporting, but feels more agenda-based, like someone who wanted to come in and write about how harmful the cosmetics advertising industry is, rather than what it actually is (which feels more like the point)

IMAGES AND MEDIA: There's only one image in the article -- of two people who have both appeared in advertisements.

TALK PAGE DISCUSSION: There's not much discussion happening. There was one person from 2016 who wanted to contribute to it, but there is not much remnant of it on the page. Looks like someone should write about this maybe! It's stub status, and it's part of the WikiProjects Fashion group, as well as the WikiProjects Marketing and Advertising group.

OVERALL: I think there's a whole world of historical significance behind the pages and screens and counters of cosmetics, particularly in the 20th century. Class is part of it, as well as race and gender, obviously -- and age, region, and many other identities. This article could be strengthened by discussing that history, rather than just current discussions on the moral implications of cosmetics advertising.