Whitening Ideals in TikTok Platforms: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of Soap Product Descriptions in the Philippines
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54536/trvfq619Keywords:
Critical Discourse Analysis, Discursive, Text, Tiktok, Whitening SoapAbstract
This study aimed to critically analyze the discourse in TikTok product descriptions of whitening soaps in the Philippines, focusing on textual, discursive, and social practices. Guided by Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) model, the study sought to explore how verbal and visual features, production and circulation strategies, and broader social ideologies construct and normalize skin-whitening discourse. A qualitative research design was employed. Fifteen TikTok advertisements of popular whitening soap brands were purposively sampled. Data collection involved transcribing verbal content, screenshotting visual elements, and coding features based on linguistic categories and visual features. Data analysis followed Fairclough’s CDA framework, examining the construction of textual meaning, discursive practices, and social ideologies. Findings revealed that advertisements consistently employ hyperbolic claims (“10x whitening,” “extreme brightening”), scientific terminology, and K-beauty aesthetics to construct whitening as desirable, attainable, and modern. Visual strategies, including pastel and white color schemes, glowing filters, and before-and-after imagery, reinforce this discourse. Discursive practices highlight influencer-mediated promotion, rapid circulation, and algorithmic amplification on TikTok. Socially, the product descriptions reproduce colorist ideologies, associate light skin with femininity, youthfulness, and social mobility, and normalize globalized beauty standards in the Philippine context. In conclusion, TikTok whitening soap advertisements operate as multimodal texts that shape consumer perceptions through verbal, visual, and social strategies. Recommendations include promoting ethical advertising practices, raising consumer awareness of colorism, and encouraging further research into the psychological and sociocultural impacts of beauty marketing on social media.
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