Advertising: A love hate relationship
Advertising is both the worst thing on the planet and the best thing since sliced bread (which is subsequently something advertised into common usage). As someone who willingly chose to study this dynamic field…I understand both sides. One of the golden questions that must be solved in any advertising agenda is: who is the intended audience? Whomever is under the microscope is bound to feel enticed to buy the advertised product/service/lifestyle. A goldmine of an audience for practically every company is women or feminine-presenting folks. This group is a viable audience for many companies and agencies, therefore, they have made increased efforts toward inclusivity, diversity, and empowerment. Advertising is a double edged sword that requires constant improvement due to its major impact on women’s self perceptions.
Times are changing…right?
I’m sure we can all picture the advertisements of women being paraded as objects, prizes of sexual conquest, worth only the rank of their beauty. While these stereotypical portrayals are still constant in present day ads, the industry is progressing. To demonstrate these changes, the term “femvertising”, or female empowerment advertising has been added to industry vocab. Popular viral campaigns such as “Like a Girl” by Always and “Reverse Selfie” by Dove are paving the way to a more realistic view of women. Yay women empowerment! But what comes of this positive impact on women? Capital gain of course.
So, while I’m all in favor of more representation and conscious forethought of the psychological impact of advertising, the bottom line is to make money. Unless it’s a nonprofit, every company that advertises behind the curtain of a cause, movement, or social issue is never as committed to impact as they are to profit. That may sound blatantly obvious, but it’s hard to not get wrapped up in the emotional appeal of ads, when they’ve gotten so good. Enough about the negatives, though, let’s explore the positives of this phenomena.
Positive results
According to a study by Neehma Varghese and Navin Kumar from 2020 in India explores the positive effects of this phenomena. Femvertising is based upon these five main pillars that demonstrate its positive impact:
- Utilization of diverse female talent
- Inherently pro-female messaging
- Pushing gender norm stereotypes
- Downplaying sexuality catered to the male gaze
- Portraying women in an authentic manner
Alongside these pillars, the study found that femvertising has the capabilities to reduce the harm of negative stereotypes and improve self-esteem in girls and women. However, more extensive research is still on the horizon, as this study only grazed the surface of such a complex topic.
So what?
While the study took place in India, it’s highly applicable to advertising across the globe and in the United States. In a world where our lives are excessively saturated by media in all its forms, it’s no wonder women judge themselves so critically. The generations that come are exposed to and spend most of their time on popular social media platforms like Tiktok and Instagram. They consume content that doesn’t even look like traditional advertising. Now that it feels that practically everyone is an influencer, younger girls are getting a negative start on this reduction in self-esteem.
Although we don’t pay too much attention to the advertisements surrounding us, they have an incredible impact. With women being a valuable audience to marketers, companies must now juggle the potential impacts on self-esteem and the desire for profits. Consumers have more of a say than ever in media representation, we need to use our voices and support marginalized groups in that regard as well.
The next time you are mindlessly scrolling and see a beauty ad, or perhaps watching your favorite sitcom on TV, examine how the women and/or young girls are presented in that scenario. Often what we see is what we believe, so be conscious and keep your eyes and ears peeled!
ShoutOut! James Madison University 
I enjoyed reading this piece. I think it is incredibly important for companies to consider the potential impacts their advertisements could have on women. When I watched the “Like a Girl” campaign for the first time, I didn’t even consider the profit the company would be making because of the ad’s message. That aside, I believe the media representations of women should be conducted through something like Femvertising because it considers pro-female messaging.
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Thank you for your comment! It really is tricky waters because on one hand femvertising is positive in the impact it has on women. On the other hand, the company advertising their product/service/lifestyle seeks to make a profit.
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Wow, I appreciate this blog post! I am also an advertising student and can battle the morals behind advertising because of its core of profiting a big company in many cases. I think it is important that you point out the negatives and positives of “femvertising,” because it is always important to know both sides.
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I used to be wary of advertising until I decided to pursue it in college. This is why in my future career it is important that I pursue a cause or company with a purpose. I am particularly interested in nonprofits and social movements.
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Thank you so much for your insight which further illuminates the somewhat murky world of advertising. Especially since so many products, companies, and marketing campaigns have found immense profit in positioning their product as a must-have for women to make themselves better. In a sociology of gender class last semester we discussed how difficult this can be for women because so many companies depend on women feeling inadequate as a business model to keep drawing in money. This idea of femvertising is interesting because I would like to believe that there exist ethical brands and advertisers who prioritize women being viewed in this authentic manner and not negating their value to get them to buy a product. The reclamation of being a woman or a femme individual or even anyone who is ignored or relegated to the side or demeaned in advertisements is important because there deserves to be space for more than what we constantly are seeing on our feeds or during commercial breaks. That there is more than hypermasculine men, and hyperfeminine and hyper sexualized women, at that there are queer individuals and people who should be authentically portrayed and honored. There is absolutely a lot of work to be done in the field, but as you are someone who is studying advertising you are able to take this information with you and hopefully implement some of this change that is already happening and can be furthered which is great!
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That was an amazing response, thank you! I do hope to take what I am learning and make change in the industry 🙂 Your point about companies relying on women feeling bad about themselves is absolutely true. If they weren’t told that they needed all these things to enhance their appearance and self-esteem…what kind of ads would we be seeing? I think it’s important that we teach the younger generations how to navigate the media landscape to protect their mental health.
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This is such a great take on the realities of what goes on behind creating advertisements. I have definitely been able to recognize some advertisements that feed into the societal pressure that women feel, and I absolutely agree that many approaches toward marketing are solely for profit! I think there should be ethics involved in creating advertisements for specific groups of people.
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