Comments on: If You Want to Sell to Women, Why Not Hire Some?

By: Thinker

Thinker — Mon, 25 May 2009 23:28:58 +0000

Any vendor who uses women’s bodies to sell to men cannot truly value women as competent consumers, much less as equals. But, unfortunately, sexy pictures draw attention and once one’s attention is there, then maybe some of the advertising words will stick. At least that is what I think the goal of the ads is… And we have to admit that the “dumb husband” is too often used, too.

By: Judy Silver

Judy Silver — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:08:54 +0000

Fling Insider, that’s fascinating. If you’d care to share more about the creative and decision-making process, and about how the women involved feel about the reactions they’re getting, we’d love to hear about it. E-mail us.

By: Kiuku

Kiuku — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:52:45 +0000

Hilarious.

By: Bes

Bes — Fri, 22 May 2009 05:02:11 +0000

Fling insider: Yikes that is bad news. The ad is disgusting. It makes me not want to buy M&Ms either and I am an addict. The associated females must have been performing for male approval and they undoubtedly got it. I agree put a Rob Pattison type guy slowly eating the candy bar with his shirt off and nothing else in the ad. That would sell some candy bars. Oh but wait what am I thinking! I guess I forgot the entire half of female sexuality where women sit happily on their average sweat panted bums and check out hot men who are seeking their approval does not exist in porno man advertising world.

By: Fling Insider

Fling Insider — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:54:40 +0000

For the Fling launch, the head product developer is a woman, the Marketing manager is a woman, the VP of Marketing is a woman, the Advertising agency reps were all women. I was an engineer on this project and I am a woman.
The point is, even women can make some really bad decisions and come up with awful, sexist and disgusting Marketing campaigns.

By: Bes

Bes — Fri, 22 May 2009 00:22:42 +0000

Hysterical. This advertising is at least funnier than the crap programing and movies these same morons create and the call “women’s content”. Well boys here is some info that could make you billions…..”women’s content” is content women will pay to consume, there is no other relevant definition. Here is a little piece of advice for you, you need to actually read real sexual research not the load of crap that pornographers pass off as reality if you want to know what women are like sexually. And finally if it is important to you (because it’s the only way for you to make money)to know what women think, ask them, do not ask old men, young men, pornographers, male ad producers, gay men, straight men or women whos primary business skill is kissing the hairy ass directly in front of them what women think. Do the actual research and do it on a cross section of women, then listen and respond to the research. Really, how hard is this?

By: Janis

Janis — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:58:20 +0000

It’s a matter of bringing womeni n at all levels, including the highest ones, and also goes back to the women CEOs post.

The catholic church is OVERWHELMINGLY women. Every priest in every parish in the world is constantly at a loss to figure out how to bring husbands into church on Sunday as well as wives and kids.

So women far outnumber men in practical membership. But there isn’t a single one in any decision-making capacity at all.

We need not only women working in the industry; we need women greenlighting and judging what’s done, and making the decisions.

By: Jenn Q. Public

Jenn Q. Public — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:18:11 +0000

Kali wrote:

Does this mean sexism sells? From the market research perspective it does. From the reality perspective, it doesn’t.

There’s the rub. Market research is reality as far as these companies are concerned, but only up to the point that the bottom line takes over as the best indicator of “reality.” If sales are up and the ad appears to be paying off, the corporate conclusion, nutshelled for brevity, is that sexism does indeed sell. The best way to upset that reality is through social activism and socially conscious purchasing decisions.

With the Verizon/NARAL text message dust-up a few years ago, a Verizon exec called NARAL’s proposed text messages unsavory, but eventually the company flip flopped due to bad press and allowed NARAL to move forward. That’s how we can have an impact on sexist advertising, by making sure blog posts like Judy’s go viral and using this kind of information to guide our consumption.

I should add that I appreciate the thrust of the original post, and would love to discover the answers to Judy’s questions about the obstacles that prevent more women from entering advertising. I just don’t think we can assume that bringing more women into the field will necessarily alter advertising practices that appear to benefit the bottom line.

By: Kali

Kali — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:12:11 +0000

Here’s my experience as a consumer. I need some stuff, e.g. a cell phone plan. All the options offering that stuff have at least some history of sexist advertising and/or unethical/misogynistic practices. Sprint and T-mobile have had sexist ads. At&T gets away with discriminating against pregnant women. Verizon gives preference to anti-choicers in transmitting certain text messages. I finally choose Verizon for some unrelated reasons. Does this mean sexism sells? From the market research perspective it does. From the reality perspective, it doesn’t.

By: Jenn Q. Public

Jenn Q. Public — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:56:48 +0000

I absolutely agree that an array of offensive/embarrassing/ridiculous options is no option at all. But an intelligently run focus group, which granted doesn’t always take place, will include open-ended questions that elicit opinions that don’t rely on comparison. All ads have the goal of getting a targeted group to take a specific action, and market testing should determine if that action is likely to take place. Janis, my experience is with Internet marketing which has highly measurable results and ads that can be tweaked easily and frequently, so I am less acquainted with execs making subjective decisions that run contrary to market data. I’m sure you’re right about that playing a significant role.

We don’t know what kind of market testing was done, so it could very well be that a combination of sexist executives, male-biased creative teams, and either accurate or inaccurate market research is at play here. Ultimately, the marketplace will decide the success of these campaigns, and if sexism doesn’t sell, the CEO will have to answer to shareholders, boards, and consumers.