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Reality advertising: Women want accurate portrayal

A study by Winston-Salem NC-based consultancy frank about women (FAW) shows that women want to see themselves portrayed accurately and in a modern way in commercials. In fact, they are deliberately avoiding brands which fail to do so.

Said FAW's Carrie McCament, "Overwhelmingly, women are willing to make purchasing decisions based on the images used in advertising. Ads portraying women who have digitally perfected physiques or who lead seemingly carefree lives are not resonating with many female consumers."

Ad producers should avoid the unnatural, the unbelievable and the unattainable, according to the survey.

Taking the example of motherhood, FAW notes that it is seen as multidimensional. "Advertisers should portray images of single moms, moms with older children, lesbians, working and pregnant moms," said McCament. "They must also avoid the stereotypical images of mothers holding children. Instead, show active mothers highly involved in real-life, un-glamorized activities and settings."

The uses of models is problematic - - but there's nevertheless a disconnect with reality here. They want to see more women who wear sizes 8 or 10, even though 68% of adult women are a size 14 or above. Still, the overall message is clear. McCament noted that most women are "...heavier than the typical models used in ads. They long to see advertisers come to a new understanding of this, especially in fashion marketing."

RBR Observation:

When we first saw the title of this survey, our first thought was of ads which are unrealistic not from the standpoint of having a glamorous cast, but from the standpoint of being, well, unrealistic.

"You're soaking in it," for example.

We thought women may well object to being seen as toilet-paper-squeezing, spray-dusting, sausage-cooking, floor-polishing, pre-soaking, laundry-sniffing household product junkies.

In fact, we'd bet that these images indeed do not resonate well with women any more.

So, taking our own gut reaction and the results of the FAW survey together, we'd say that the worst image an advertiser can use is a glamorous toilet-paper-squeezing, spray-dusting, sausage-cooking, floor-polishing, pre-soaking, laundry-sniffing household product junkie.

We'd bet that the agency that can figure out a way to sell dish soap without going down that route will probably be on the right track.