Advertising and Feminism 1

Feminism in Shaping the Advertisements and Campaigns

Victoria Platea
Glen Allen High School

Advertising and Feminism 2

Introduction:
The purpose of this study is to analyze the idea of feminism as a business tactic used by
large corporations. More and more frequently in todays media, commercials and campaigns
targeting women empowerment are popping up and gaining popularity quickly. More specifically
in this study, the focus is on whether these large corporations are using these feministic
campaigns as business tactics to increase sales or changing because of the change society is
undergoing. Also, if the corporations use it as a business tactic, would it be considered moral?
The research will further look into the particular businesses who have adopted particular tactics
as well as statistical data of sales for those corporations. This review will target the beginning of
this movement, the popular effect it has gained over the past decade, and conclude with the
morals and ethics that follow the business tactic.

Subtopic One: The Beginning

While feminism has been used in marketing campaigns in the past, Dove and their
"Campaign for Real Beauty" started a movement continues to grow even to this day. Looking
back on former commercials which have been known to bring down women in the short span of
just sixty seconds, Ciambriello uses that to show how times have changed (2014). In 1004,
market researchers found that only 4% of women considered themselves beautiful. Dove
executives, Ogilvy and Mathers were put to the task to create a campaign with the missions "to
create a world where beauty is a source of confidence and not anxiety"(Wikipedia, 2015). The
two began their campaign by creating billboard advertisements which included regular women as
opposed to professional models. Then random citizens walking nearby the billboards would be

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questioned as to whether or not the model was, Ugly Spots? Or Beauty Spots? (Wikipedia,
2015).
Once the launch of the campaign hit off, it was smooth sailing from then on (Johnston
and Taylor 2006). Their campaign was quick to gain popularity as was discussed on popular talk
shows, womens magazine, blogs, and news shows. There was mostly a positive response to the
campaign as expected, but the success was gained in such a short amount of time. Not a bad
thing, since this quick positive response soon led to even more campaigns from Dove. In 2006,
Dove launched their video "Evolution," where in just two short minutes people could see the
transformation that models undergo during photo-shoots. Proving to people that the beauty the
see on these advertisements is not really beauty. "Evolution" was able to change the stereotypical
views of women all the while winning two Cannes Lions Grand Prix awards. Dove has been
working on creating women empowering advertisements to keep the Campaign for Real
Beauty alive (Neff 2014).
Though Dove is credited with the start of such a movement, in 2005, Nike came out with
advertisements targeted towards women to celebrate their strong athletic forms (Grow and
Wolburg 2006). Not as popular or well known, it still took a step in the right direction. Nike
came out with certain body positive advertisements targeting women and encouraging them to
love themselves, but also keep active. Targeting certain body parts which include: butt,
shoulders, legs, hips and thunder thighs, Nike wanted women to not be ashamed of working out.
In their advertisements, Nikes spokeswoman Caren Bell indicated the purpose was to show
what is real rather than the ideal (Associated Press, 2005). The advertisements had the target
body part in a close up shot and to the side encouraging statements which were meant to
encourage women to love their body even though it might not be the ideal body type,

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Statements including ones like I have thunder thighs, And thats a compliment because they are
strong and toned and muscular. And My butt is big and round like the letter C and ten thousand
lunges have made it rounder. But not smaller. And thats just fine. And My shoulders arent
dainty or proportional to my hips. Some say they are like a mans. I say leave men out of it. They
are mine. I made them in a swimming pool. Then I went to yoga and made my arms (Associated
Press, 2005) (AdWomen, 2011).
Even though this sounds like a perfect advertisement for women, there were unexpected
roadblocks. Nike Advertisers were stuck in a bind, while their campaign for women to love their
bodies even if it wasn't what society expected it to be, was taking a step in the right direction,
they were also taking a step back. Most women and men were giving positive feedback towards
the company, but some women were speaking out of their dissatisfaction of the particular
portrayals they say in Nike's advertisements. Women were speaking out about how these
advertisements were doing more damage and not sending the right message, but Nike was still
getting positive feedback from other people. Even with the dilemma of figuring out how to
advertise to women, their commercials were still strikingly similar and successful precedent for
selling feminism to women (Grow and Wolburg 2006).

Subtopic Two: The Popularity in Media

The feministic movement could not have gained all the popularity it did if it had not been
for all of the different types of media. With the invention and high popularity of the internet,
YouTube, Facebook, and more, campaigns like the ones Dove and Nike have created and
published had an easier time getting out to the public. The domain that has gotten these
companies into the spotlight time and time again is YouTube. Dove has created more than ten

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videos that have been posted onto YouTube and quickly gained success. Doves Like A Girl
campaign has more than 56 million views on YouTube alone.
But Dove isn't the only company to gain large followers and popularity through sources
like the ones listed above. Other companies that pride themselves in creating feministic
advertisements have successfully used these outlets to get their message out there. GoldieBlox, a
company that encourages young girls to become engineers, has more than 3 million views on one
advertisement alone. Verizon, who recently released a commercials to encourage parents to push
their daughters to continue their studies in the sciences, has a video that has close to 4 million
views. Pantene, whose campaign attempts to get women to stop apologizing so much, nearly has
15 million views. And HelloFlo, a company created to support young girls going through
puberty, has multiple videos on YouTube but their topped watch video has over 30 million views.
When these video advertisement are uploaded on YouTube more people will be able to
watch them. Televisions are still widely popular, but the computer is more successful because
there is immediate access and the convenience that comes with it. With more online
advertisements, businesses can get more people to see their advertisements online rather than on
television. Unlike on television, advertisements on the internet can be shared onto even more
sites with even more people looking at them. For example, the website HelloGiggle.com, an
online community for women, has shared multiple advertisements from companies like Dove
and Aerie. This interconnected sharing from website to website like YouTube to NBC, ABC to
Tumblr, or Twitter to Google News, has allowed major and minor businesses and companies to
expand where their campaigns are being viewed to not just television commercials, but also they
are expanding who is watching the campaigns. Because campaigns are easily being thrown from
one website to another, different types of people are able to view them. From the teens on

Advertising and Feminism 6

Tumblr to the adults on NBC, everyone has the same opportunity to watch these and take in what
these advertisements are sharing.
Large scale businesses like the ones mentioned before saw the wide popularity the Dove
has gained since releasing these video campaigns. Under Amour also launched a video campaign
titled I Will What I Want featuring Misty Copeland, an African American ballet dancer for the
American Ballet Theater, encouraging young females to go after their dreams even if they seem
too far out of reach. Her determination is what got her that stop in the American Ballet Theater
and she wants other young girls to have that same determination. After the premier of this
campaign Under Amours revenues jumped 30 percent and profits went up 21 percent (Davidson
2015). No longer are companies simply making poster advertisements to share with people, these
videos are better able to portray what the companies want to prove. They are able to bring out
more human emotions and sway the audience. Instead of simply having her face with a quote
next to it, young girls can actually and physically see Misty Copeland say what she has
accomplished and that she wants girls to strive for difficult goals. Seeing and hearing
advertisements sometimes have a stronger effect on people than just reading on a billboard, but
that it isnt effective.
Other social media outlets are largely female based and companies, while some have
noted that and shaped their advertisements, other are still ignorant to the numbers. Davidson, a
female writer for the Telegraph, noted how on Facebook females account for 58 percent of uses,
they have 8 percent more friends than male users, and an overall count for 62 percent of shares in
social media (2015). This is a big deal considering how Facebook allows advertisements to be
placed on their websites. And if the advertisements are tempting enough to the women, they will
click on them and possibly buy from that company.

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Businesses have also started using hashtags to communicate and connect with women all
around the world. Soraya Nadia McDonald, another female writer but for the Washington Post,
commented in February of 2015 about how the Super bowl was used as an outlet for companies
to reach out to females. This is where the Dove Like A Girl Campaign premiered and gained
popularity which in turn increased their sales. Like Dove, Nationwides commercial, who
featured Mindy Kaling, gained popularity with humor but also got people thinking about women
of color. A wide generalization, but more often than not true, white men and women are the main
spokesperson in commercials, but by having a woman and that woman being of color, lead a
commercial which purpose is to prove that they arent invisible is a starting point to something
big.
Twitter has also been used as an outlet to promote feminism, but it has not always been in
the most positive way. Hobby Lobby made the news when the Supreme Court case regarding
providing birth control for female employees. The hashtag #HobbyLobby went viral with
positive, but mostly negative comments regarding the decision. Outrage broke out among
women, and Hobby Lobby gained some popularity, good or bad that is up to the business but
either way their company is being talked about (Plank 2014). People were talking about the
hastag and new reports were being written about the topic, so Hobby Lobby was getting
business. So even though it was negative, it still got people talking about their business. Susan
McPherson compiled a list of empowering women through hashtags and one particular hashtag
titled #MediaWeLike which was created by The Representation Project and was sued to bring
light to all the companies who are correctly representing women (2014).

Subtopic Three: The Effect on the Company and People

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When there is a rise in popularity of a campaign or commercial a positive effect of that

would a rise in sales and a positive rise in consumer attitude toward the products and company in
general. Clifford, a female writer for Entrepreneur, gets straight to the point in mentioning how
this business tactic is not only ethical but its good for the business while she often notes how
this type of business is also helping women(2015). Rogers, a female write for Womens Media
Center, explains how Dove started a movement ten years ago and how it has blossomed into such
a large thing which is also bringing in loads of money and press. Also Rogers notes how other
companies are jumping on board with this idea of creating campaigns dedicated towards women
and showing women that they are wonderful and beautiful just the way they are, such as
CoverGirl and donated money to the effort, whether it be to organization specifically dedicated
toward a feministic movement or other companies like Dove to encourage them. (2014).
According to Lauren Davidson, a female writer from the Telegraph, the company
Unilever publically acknowledged that Doves Self Esteem Fun and Evolution advertisements
caused breakneck growth in sales in 2006. In 2013, Davidson also noted how the Sketches
advertisement, which was where women described how they though they looked and then a
random stranger described them to show women that they dont believe they are as beautiful as
others see them, caused a 1 percentage jump for US sales, but a jump of 3 percentage for the full
year. Which is a big deal when it was one commercial that sparked such a change. Business
CEOs and executives have seen this rise and then changed the way they were advertising to
appeal to women. CEO of Nike, Mark Parker accredited their 15 percentage gain in quarterly
revenues to their companys change to cater to their female customers with their advertisements
that showed women that they dont have to look like a model to love themselves and even if their
body parts arent skinny or pretty they still worked hard and they are still beautiful (2015).

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Businesses not only need to cater to women due to the overwhelming amount of women
on social media, but because women are also the ones making the purchases for the family.
According to Professor Gloria Moss, 83 percent of consumers are women. And in that 93 percent
of women buy all groceries, 96 percent buy beauty products, and 55 percent buy computers
(2013). With this information being so forcefully dominated by women, businesses need to and
are switching their business tactics to cater towards females. And the good news is that most
companies are realizing that women are important and they need to be represented more in the
media. While along the way there have been some hiccup events with failed advertisements that
make some people shutter, the good outweighs the bad and the mistakes are being mended and
improved daily.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, this study is focusing on the development of feminism as it shapes the
business industry. More and more companies are incorporating feministic ideals into campaigns
and commercials and they have seen a positive rise in overall popularity and sales. But along
with this movement to incorporate feminism into business, some companies are using what some
would consider immoral tactics to get their point across. Again the focus is on whether these
large corporations are using these feministic campaigns as business tactics to increase sales or
changing because of the change society is undergoing? Also, if the corporations use it as a
business tactic, would it be considered moral? I believe that businesses taking a keen interest in
women empowering commercials and campaigns is a mix of both the society change and a way
to make money. Women have been fighting for rights and equality and these commercials have
been proven to make a change and all the while they are also gaining money from it. Using this

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tactic to gain money is very moral because while it may seem greedy, it is being done for a good
cause. It is helping the company thrive and also empowering women, a win-win situation.

Reference List:

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AdWomen. (n.d.). Controversial Nikes campaign for women | AdWomen. Retrieved May 11,
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Ciambriello, R. (2014, October 3). How Ads That Empower Women Are Boosting Sales and
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