2009 Wrap-Up
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All I can say is thank you to Sarah Haskins of current tv for watching "hundreds of hours of ads" this year so I didn't have to. This fun video about her observations reveals that we've still got a long way to go, baby. Sarah thought that maybe we can't be perfect wives, mothers, career women, and super-hot sex babes all at once. But then she turned on the TV and remembered that an abundance of stuff makes anything possible. When you're a woman, happiness is just one purchase away.
This video is a perfect testament to why 90% of women feel misunderstood by advertisers. And once again, I will connect that statistic to another: only 3% of creative directors are women. Let's hope 2010 is the year of bringing that first figure down and the second one way, way up.
Labels: advertising to women, Current TV, Marketing to women, Sarah Haskins
Please leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below, even if -- no, especially if -- you don't agree with what I've written.
posted by Kat Gordon @ 8:01 AM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Luckily TV viewership is on the way down. Hopefully online messaging to moms will be more evolved.
I would venture that 90% of all consumers feel misunderstood by advertisers, not just women. That is to say, the issue is not about gender but insight. And execution.
Remember, nobody cared about milk until Goodby steered away from Why It's So Good For You to the deprivation strategy of What Would You Do Without It.
Could it be that the products Sarah mocks in the video don't have much Meaning and that the creatives -- instead of creating Meaning -- are hoping simply to bond with the target audience?
I don't think either gender has a monopoly on lazy thinking or ham-fisted execution. Having more women running creative departments might eliminate some of the dumb stereotypes and cliches we see. It might also replace them with some we haven't seen.
Thanks for your comments, Fred. I agree that great insight is what builds inspired creative. That's why I'm a huge believer in Account Planners, a relatively new job function in advertising. Yet I still feel that turning those insights into creative that connects demands inclusion and representation that mirrors our world. Women make up between 51-53% of the population. By only allowing 3% of women to run creative departments, we are missing countless opportunities to "think different" and move the needle forward. Not to mention the message we're sending to young girls that advertising has a glass ceiling more impenetrable than even math or science.
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