A Semiotic Analysis of the Construction of Women Empowerment in Unilever Pakistan's Beauty and Personal Care Advertisements: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

This study examines the evolution of women's representation in Unilever Pakistan beauty advertisements through Roland Barthes' semiotic framework. While these beauty advertisements are increasingly using the language of empowerment, confidence, and individuality, they continue to reproduce patriarchal myths about femininity, beauty, and social value. By using Barthes' concepts of denotation, connotation, and myth, this qualitative study analyzes selected Unilever Pakistan beauty advertisements from different periods to investigate how visual and linguistic signs construct and transform representations of women over time. A purposive sample of advertisements focused on empowerment narratives was examined through comparative semiotic analysis, focusing on recurring elements such as clothing, gaze, body language, setting, color, symbolism, textual slogans, and narrative structure. The findings reveal a significant shift from explicit representations of femininity as empowerment towards narratives emphasizing confidence, ambition, and self-expression. However, this transformation appears to be largely superficial, as traditional patriarchal beauty standards continue to operate beneath modern visual and verbal codes.The advertisements frequently repackage existing ideologies and expectations from women through language of choice, career and empowerment while the semiotics of them allow a subtle persistence of same patrirachal standards . The study contributes to existing scholarship by providing a longitudinal Barthesian analysis of Pakistani beauty advertising and demonstrates how commercial media continuously adapts trending ideologies related to feminism and empowerment while advocating dominant standards for femininity and beauty.