Gender and Advertising

It is common practice to use sexism in advertising.  This tried and proven method of objectifying women successfully garners sales for companies wishing to increase profits.  Although this method is successful, the ramifications of such shrewd advertising have long-reaching negative effects on women and society.  Therefore, it is imperative to find an alternative method of advertising. Not only is it morally sound, it is also financially sound to use a different advertising strategy.  For example, Dove’s Campaign for “Real Beauty” has successfully increased their sales through advertising women of various age, shapes, sizes, and ethnicity.  Therefore, alternative advertising strategies are just as successful, if not more so than the traditional sexist advertising strategy.  Such alternative advertising strategies and goals includes the promotion of health and longevity.

            Going against the mainstream images of beauty is certainly what Dove’s Campaign for “Real Beauty” has done.  Why is it different?  Dove advertised using women of various age, shapes, sizes, and ethnicity.  These women are not the “idealized” appearance typically seen in the media. Rather, these women are of various age, shapes, sizes, and ethnicity.  Through these women, the campaign promotes a redefining of “real beauty” being that of all age, shapes, sizes, and ethnicity.  With this alternative advertising strategy, Dove has increased their sales in Europe and the United States by 700 percent in the first six months.[1]  At the end of the first year of this campaign, Dove’s global sales have reached over $1 billion, which returned $3 for every $1 spent in the campaign.[2]  With this achievement, the campaign was awarded a Grand EFFIE in 2006, which honors the most effective initiative in marketing communications.[3]  Therefore, it is possible to use alternative advertising strategies to effectively garner more profits than the traditional advertising strategy.

            With the success of Dove’s alternative advertising strategy, more companies should employ this positive advertising strategy.  Morally, companies should use this advertising strategy to begin with because advertising sells much more than a company’s products.  According to Kilbourne’s “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising,” advertising also sell values and concepts of success, worth, love, sexuality, popularity, and normalcy.  With such a powerful tool to skew public perspective and affect the lives of many individuals, morally, companies should use advertising in a responsible manner.  However, most companies fail to uphold any standard of morality when it comes to advertising.  According to Wolf’s “Culture from The Beauty Myth”, companies and advertisers discover that people will buy more things if they are kept in the “self-hating, ever-failing, hungry, and sexually insecure state of being aspiring “beauties”.”  This is achieved by advertisers defining the “ultimate image,” which is naturally unattainable.  Therefore, the “ideal image” can only be obtained through the purchase of vast quantities of products.[4]  Although this advertising strategy is successful in increasing company’s sales, it promotes an unhealthy self criticism, which is harmful to consumers and companies in the long run.  As a result, companies’ target audience is more likely to develop depression and eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia.  Therefore, in the long run companies would have trouble sustaining their sales because their customer base has a shorter life expectancy and disappearing quicker.  More effort would then have to be made get more people to buy their products.

            An alternative advertising strategy that promotes health and longevity will prove more successful than the traditional advertising strategy.  With an emphasis on health, a company’s target audience would be swayed to live a healthy life style.  Therefore, the company’s target audience will have a longer life expectancy.  As a result, the company’s target audience will have more opportunity to purchase their product.  With promoting such a positive healthy image, people’s trust in the company would increase.  As a result, people would be more likely to purchase related products the company offers.  Having a positive image for the company would also help lower cost of advertising because consumers would engage in word-of-mouth advertising.  For example, Dove’s Campaign for “Real Beauty” received free advertising from media coverage on television show, such as The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Today Show, The View, and CNN.[5]  Therefore, with positive advertising strategies and goals, a company would be more successful in the long run.

            Advertising with the traditional strategies of promoting negative self criticism might be effective but it is not the only effective advertising strategy.  Examples such as Dove’s Campaign for “Real Beauty” have shown that alternative positive advertising strategies are just as successful, if not more so than the mainstream advertising strategy.  With the promotion of health and longevity, a company’s customer base is more likely to live longer.  Therefore, the repurchasing power of their customer base would be stronger.  Sales would continue with less advertising dollars required due to word-of-mouth advertising.  Customer loyal and trust would also develop using this positive advertising strategy.  The company would also create for itself a positive image, thus, making the company more valuable.  Therefore, more companies should discard the traditional advertising strategy and start employing the alternative positive advertising strategy.

           

Works Cited

Cortese, Anthony.  “Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads: Sexism in Advertising.” Provocateur: Images of Women and Minority in Advertising.  United States: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2008: 45-76.

Falcione, Olivia and Laura Henderson. “The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty: Case Study.” Public Relations Problems and Cases. March 1, 2009. <http://psucomm473.blogspot.com/2009/03/dove-campaign-for-real-beauty.html>

Kilbourne, Jean.  “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising.” Media&Values.  United States: Center for Media and Values, 1989.

Wolf, Naomi.  “Culture.” The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women.  United States: Morrow, 1991: 58-85.

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[1] Falcione, Olivia and Laura Henderson. “The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty: Case Study.”

[2] Falcione, Olivia and Laura Henderson. “The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty: Case Study.”

[3] Falcione, Olivia and Laura Henderson. “The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty: Case Study.”

[4] Cortese, Anthony.  “Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads: Sexism in Advertising.”

[5] Falcione, Olivia and Laura Henderson. “The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty: Case Study.”