“Aunt Flo” Can Take a Hike
Menstrual product advertising in the U.S. has a long history of euphemism. Aunt Flo. On the rag. Crimson tide. Shark week. We have dozens and dozens of (cringy) ways to avoid saying menstruation. Our research shows women are 100% over cutesy terminology to reference their monthly cycle.
Where Have All the Women Gone?
We cannot accurately portray women of any age without hearing and seeing them. Advertisers must seek to understand women, commit to accurate representation, and then roll up their sleeves and do the work.
As our research revealed, women over 40 are thriving. They feel wiser, sexier, more confident, more powerful, more energized, and, paradoxically, younger than ever before, and yet they do not see their experience in ads. Often, ads targeting them focus on products for aging, slowing down, or desperately seeking ways to look and feel younger.
Ending Gender Discrimination in Advertising
To advertise to women effectively, you need to understand their context. For many women, discrimination and gender disparities are realities they’ve faced and continue to face. These experiences are sources of pain, stress and are part of their daily lives. Advertising is more effective when it solves a problem, and many women have a big problem at work, at home, and just living in society.
How Advertising Can Help Solve Gender Equality
Advertising has a problem, and women want a solution. Women want better on-screen representation—to see themselves in ads the way they see themselves in life. And they want brands to wield their enormous power and influence to change society for the better. Our attitudinal segmentation research explores how women feel about advertising and what they want from brands. If advertisers want to get it right, they have to start listening.
It’s not over.
Yesterday I wanted to celebrate the one day that the world pays a little more attention to women. I really did. But then I thought about how very far we have to go to achieve equality. And how despite some gains in some areas basic rights are being stripped from women. Around the world and here at home.
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.
Aging: Finally Coming of Age
Aging is nothing new.
We beings have been doing it since time began. Time passes. We get older. No matter if we’re trees or humans or horses or plankton.
Women, especially, have internalized a societal directive that says stop it, slow it, avoid it, hide it at any cost for, basically, ever.
And that’s powerful.
Should Brands Be Responsible for Debunking Gender Stereotypes? Let’s ask the ladies.
These days women across generational divides, races, and industries are banding together to empower one another and fight for equality in women’s issues and beyond. But, they don’t think they should be doing it alone.
Is advertising messing with women's minds or am I just crazy?
Women and girls have been manipulated by the media in so many ways for so long that it’s simply a part of our culture. My Instagram feed is chock-full of ads for stuff that is meant to make life better but only gives a paralyzing anxiety from not living up to any of it.
Is The Way We Portray Women In Advertising Getting Any Better?
While there are some standouts, where brands are getting it right (Bravo to you GE, Kraft, and Twitter, though really Twitter, please pay attention to the amount of social media harassment of women happening on the platform and actually do something about it...), but women are still largely portrayed in very specific roles that tend to be deferential to others.