Women in Advertisement

From an ex-marketer stand point, I agree and also disagree with the author or “Advertising.” First, it is necessary to clarify that the goal of advertising is to sell “solutions” to problems. It is the job of a good ad to convince its audience that whatever it is that is been sold “is the solution” to that particular problem. If there is no problem, then the ad has to convince that the product can help the public achieve a better lifestyle, or that it can fulfill their needs. I agree that marketing –like anything else— for the most part is still gender oriented. Even though women are a hefty part of today’s work force, we see that the majority of computers ads, for instance, include man, and the majority of appliances ads include women. However, there are changes on the images we used to see 60 years ago and the images we see today that go beyond the clothing style. The woman in the kitchen of today is clearly more independent and has a job outside her home. We could argue that the image of women in advertising is still in the kitchen (and this is the part that hasn’t changed much), but at least is not a woman with an apron, full of kids…and smiling. And once and a while we can glance at images of powerful women in media (like the ones some of my peers showed in the Pinterest Girlhood Board). 

Besides gender, another important factor that marketers look at is the audience socio-economical status. This factor is essential to set the tone of how sexualized the ad will be. For instance, if we compare the ads of high-end appliances with their low-end counterparts, we might find that one sells the lifestyle idea of high-end entertainment with special hints to corporate women (www.fretz.com), while the other sells to the grab-and-go lifestyle of the blue-collar class (www.kenmore.com). The ad has to appeal to its audience…if the product is selling beauty products, then the ad will show young beautiful sexy women (again, because we are sold on the idea that this portraits women perfection). If the ad is advertising Martha Steward products, then the ad will be a little different because it is gear to a more specific women audience. The point here is that beauty products are geared towards women in general because most of us buy them (and not all of us buy Martha Steward’s products), and that is why we see a lot more of these images on TV. The images of women in advertisement have a lot to do with the fact that certain products, like beauty product, appeal to “all” women (and that is why we see them everywhere), while others appeal to women of certain age or a particular lifestyle. Mass advertisement vs. niche advertisement.

The truth of the matter is that, although ads are still “genderized,” ads have changed and will continue to change at a fast speed due to technology. Marketers have been paying close attention to niche marketing because we don’t tend to watch TV the way we used to in the 60s or even the 90s. Most of us now have cable, or something similar, and skip commercials as much as we can. We are spending more and more time in the Internet as opposed to the TV, and marketers are noticing. We don’t all go to the same internet sites, so ads have to do a lot more work to find us. This is the main reason why sites like Facebook are so important to businesses…these sites attract masses (like radio or like TV did before). I do believe that technology, especially the Internet, will have a great impact on stereotypes. I think the unlimited variety of choices that we have as an audience of the Internet –not to mention the ability to produce our own choices— will force marketers to fragmentize and individualize their offers. If the media changes, so will the advertisements.

Nora