Cindy Gallup writes on how the advertising world should change, making women the focus, not just as a sidekick but a very important decision maker.

 

We see too many ads on TV showing women rejoicing over a pair of shoe that she might find cheap at a store. Such ads have become trite –almost objectifying women as sales driven entity.

Plus, retailers have to give  the fairer sex a break because sales no longer are once in a year affair. With a Sale around the corner almost every week, a smart woman knows that if she has to find a deal on something, she does not have to wait for a sale.

 

In about 40% of the households with children, women are the sole breadwinners and women control over $20% trillion spending worldwide. Then, why show such thoughtless ads about women rushing to a so-called sale? Why are we still showing stereotypes?

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7ltE/shoedazzle-com-buy-1-get-1-free-hot-fashions

 

Now look at the above ad, it ends with hurry don’t wait –buy one pair and get the second free. The focus of the ad is appealing to the woman’s sale mentality, which thanks to the slumping retail industry, women now realize, she does not have to hurry, there will be another sale around the corner or she could just use the “price match” feature and she will find a shoe that she wants at the price she wants. [youtube]http://youtu.be/o4ENkkibWyM[/youtube]

In the above ad, women are shown devouring over shoes and ends with being shocked at the prices. Well, that actually doesn’t exist. Unless the woman has not been shopping for the last 10 years, she has a fair idea about the prices-please don’t reduce women to dimwits. Today’s woman smartly compares the various prices of different things she needs (and that is not limited to just shoes and clothes) online and gets it at its fair value.

 

Media and advertising have a social responsibility in shaping the societies, and when the TV is buzzing with Ads about a group of women showing off shoes, we are reducing the power, the integrity, and the scope of the woman. Yes women like to shop, but so do men. Do we have ads where men are ogling over electronic devices, as if nothing else matters to them?  It’s time when the advertising world learned to  “lean in” to show the woman as a smart, thoughtful buyer in control of her life and spending.

 Written by Suchitra Sharma