When it comes to women, no two are the same, yet for decades advertisers have approached women with a one-size-fits-all approach. What women need and want is as varied as women themselves. Trying to take a cookie cutter approach, or painting women in an unrealistic light doesn’t work anymore. It looks like advertising executives are finally figuring that out.
Ads That Celebrate Women And Girls Are Winning
Marketing campaigns that pay attention to women’s varied backgrounds and purchasing power are winning by featuring ads that celebrate women and girls rather than objectifying. According to a recent article in Huffington Post, an Advertising Week 2014 panel dedicated to “femvertising” had experts discuss the rise of “femvertising” and how it has shaped brands’ approaches to female consumers.
In preparation for the AdWeek panel, 628 women were polled about their thoughts on femvertising and how it impacted their purchasing. They found that 91 percent of respondents believe how women are portrayed in advertising has a direct impact on girls’ self-esteem, and 94 percent agree that portraying women as sex symbols in advertisements is harmful.
Companies Are Embracing The Diverse Roles Women Play
The days of portraying women as hyper-sexualized objects, bad mothers, and bossy coworkers are gone as more companies embrace the diverse roles women play. They are being helped in part by Getty Images’ Lean In Collection, which features a library of more than 2,500 images of powerful women and those that help support them. Since Getty created the collection, it has seen 65% growth in sales, which proves that the realistic depictions of women are having an impact, both culturally and commercially.
Women want to use a brand that understands them, and it’s not just the advertisers that are catching on. The magazine industry seems to be waking up. Joanna Coles, editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, believes that misrepresenting how women really look with tools like Photoshop is both a disservice to the reader and the subject. Coles says she will make the call to edit out someone’s blemishes because everyone wants to be presented as their best self, but she draws the line at shaving pounds off women or dramatically changing their appearance.
Women, And Their Purchasing Power, Are Being Respected
It looks like, at last, the industry is changing. Women, and their purchasing power are finally being shown some respect. To find out more about the AdWeek panel, go to Fast Company, and to get a glimpse of some of the femvertising campaigns that work, go to Huffington Post.