Where’s the Fun? How Sexual Wellness Brands Are Failing Women Over 40—and What Needs to Change
Women between 40 and 60 aren’t slowing down; instead, they’re waking up. They’re stepping into their power, letting go of preconceived notions of what middle age should be (or could be!), and yes, ohh yes!, reclaiming their pleasure. So why does the sexual wellness industry still talk to them like they’re broken (if they talk to them at all)?
Beyond Demographics: The Deep Work of Understanding Women.
Surface-level audience research isn’t enough—especially when you’re marketing to women. If you want to build trust, relevance, and resonance, you have to go deeper than age, income, and symptom checklists. You have to understand her values, her lived experience, her cultural pressures, and the emotional landscape she navigates daily.
How to market to women without pissing them off.
Women have plenty to be pissed off about right now—your brand shouldn’t be one of them.
In 2025, too many campaigns still rely on stereotypes, euphemisms, and half-baked empowerment slogans that miss the mark. Women notice when you get it right. And they really notice when you don’t. So how do you market to women without pissing them off? Start here.
Women Want to Buy From Brands That Support Them
Ultimately, you can choose how you show up as a brand. This is privilege, and it is power. You can pander and prioritize your profits only. You can do the bare minimum to meet your bottom line. You can come up with any number of excuses why you can’t do more (“We’re just a brand!” “That’s not our responsibility.” “We don’t have the time or resources.”) Or, you can change minds and lives.
Join Women’s Conversations to Create Better Ads
Women often don’t see themselves in the body types, clothing choices, careers, lifestyles, emotions, and more presented in ads. The bar isn’t going to raise itself. It’s up to us. Can’t we create ads that resonate more? As far as we’re concerned, an ad hasn’t done its job unless the women in the audience can say, “I feel seen.”
Harness women’s purchasing power and financial influence
Advertising’s biggest miss is failing to recognize the purchasing power of women. Here’s how you do it right.
600 women will tell you what they really want from brands and how to talk taboos
Advertising has failed to reach women since its inception. Call it stereotypes. Call it too few women steering the ship. But either way, women want you to call it like it is. Women are tired of brand silence on the issues that matter most. Our taboo research proves it.
When it comes to health & wellness decisions, FemX marks the spot.
Fancy just partnered with Health Mavens on a new survey to dive into the what and why of how FemXers, women 40-60, make their health & wellness decisions.
How Old is a mom?
When you picture a “mom” in your head is she 25? 35? How old are her kids? Newborn? Pre-schoolers? School-aged? Mothers in their 40s, never mind 50s, are largely left out of the motherhood conversation brands are having no matter how old their kids are.
Our Mothers, Ourselves
Have you all seen all the hullabaloo about the new "Not Your Mother's Tiffany" campaign? Wowza is there ever a lot of passion around that! The good news is that Tiffany certainly learned it had a lot of fans. The bad news, of course, is that all of these people are now royally pissed off.
Let’s be honest here.
Women over 40 have seen and heard a lot. They’ve been bombarded by messages from advertisers, Hollywood, magazines (because women over 40 actually read magazines!), men, mothers and mothers-in-law. They’ve received criticism masquerading as advice. Advice sold as a must-do. And opinions laid out as fact.
hey mama, we know you’re more than a mom
Motherhood can be defining. It can be exceptional. It can be transformative. It isn’t everything. The pre-motherhood self does not simply evaporate, replaced by selfless devotion to others and instant knowledge of laundry cycles, sheet pan dinners, and where the extra AA batteries are. That person is still in there. And advertisers would be wise to appeal to her.
What I want for Mother’s Day
Here is the kind of advertising I hope to encounter in my social feed on Sunday when someone brings me a cappuccino and an almond croissant in bed (hint, hint!), what I’d like to see when I treat myself to a pedicure and get 45 minutes to myself to flip through fashion magazines, what I wish would grab my attention from those cool video triptychs that are popping up all over the subway.
How can we make working work for moms?
Oh baby, was Erica Fite's story about secretly bringing her 5-month-old son on a shoot in LA so she could keep breastfeeding a crazy one. As she said, "it was a total parenting disaster" but really, 20 years ago, what choice did she have?