(Un)filtered: Cosmetic industry Instagram advertisements affecting purchase intentions, self-esteem, and social comparison

Beauty and skincare brands that fall under the cosmetics industry are one of the leading markets worldwide as well as one of the most influential ones when it comes to female consumers. The online presence of these brands on social media platforms and especially on Instagram has revolutionized not just how brands market their products but also how consumers decide to purchase them. Over-edited online content that focuses on clear and flawless skin is the line that brands follow in order to increase revenue and urge more and more women to purchase their products by highlighting primarily emerging beauty standards. This study focused on the relationship between advertisements and purchase intentions while also attempting to bridge this connection through self-esteem and social comparison, two factors assumed to impact how females react when dealing with photoshopped content. Theory revealed various frameworks that all these aspects can be linked to one another, concentrating mainly on the effect of photoshopped or not content on females’ self-perception and further on a product’s efficacy and final buying intentions. Finally, self-esteem and social comparison were two aspects that were highly associated with ideal online portrayal and self- identification and were predicted to lead to negative aspects and views of the self. An online experiment was conducted in order to establish the above relationship. For this reason, 176 female participants were recruited and in a random way allocated to three experimental groups i.e., the control group, the photoshopped group, and the unphotoshopped group. Participants were presented with an advertisement photo based on the group they were distributed and were asked to answer to some questions related to purchase intentions, self- esteem, and social comparison. The findings of the online experiment that was conducted demonstrated no significant effect for none of the variables examined. The only significant association found was between social comparison and purchase intentions, however, this did not validate any of the formed hypotheses. Thus, although the findings did not support the research question, they offered room for further research on this topic and a deeper investigation of the cosmetics industry.