Posts Tagged "advertising"
All but typical
It’s no secret that I am an avid sports fan; something that is completely lost on the bf, who doesn’t really care for sports (even my dad was perplexed by this. Seriously, he once asked me what they were supposed to talk about!). Women sports fans aren’t aberrations either; I know a lot of women who are die hard fans. There is a growing number of women who tune into the NFL regular season and the Super Bowl (last year, female viewership accounted for 46%) but it still seems that advertisers are completely clueless to who is actually watching these games.
[Source: Mashable via BlueKai]
According to this year’s Super Bowl Advertising Infographic I snagged from Mashable, it seems to advertisers that the typical Super Bowl viewer is male, golfers, owners of SUVs, in sales, into sci-fi movies, are husbands, and in the market for Kindles, Sony and Vizio brands. Let’s see, and I am exactly none of these things. And you know what? It really sucks being overlooked like this. I have money too (well, I will have money soon) but it doesn’t feel like that matters. According to the subject matter of the ads, I have no buying power (okay, I don’t at the moment but will by next month). But that the fact that I do have buying power is simply inconsequential. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH ALL THIS MONEY?!
Look, I know that the majority of Super Bowl viewers are in fact male (last year they accounted for 54% but even that gap is slowly evening to an even split), but it would be so nice to have a couple of commercials that don’t use provocatively dressed women to sell beer, cars, or web services. Are women not buying cars? Or beer? Or Doritos? Or interested in fiscal independence? You know what women get?
John Stamos and yogurt. YOGURT.
Really advertisers? You think the only thing I could really care about is yogurt? And please don’t get me started on the farce that is the “New Adventures of Old Light Brown M & M.”
It’s time that brands and advertisers stop ignoring half of the population to shill their products during the biggest commercial event of the year. It’s not fair to barely be pandered to during the rest of the year, only to be systematically ignored on the largest platform known to business. I’m good enough to spend thousands of dollars on but not millions? That’s not a message you want to send to your potential customers.
I’m hopeful that, with the increased female viewership, brands and advertisers will finally wise up and begin to create commercials that appeal to both genders.
Because really, no one should be subjected to the nonsense that is GoDaddy.
Read MoreDear Kotex,
Your recent marketing blitz for your newly redesigned product really caught my attention. I always appreciate the value of a rebranding campaign, as I am a little bit of a marketing nerd, and I love breaking them down but I must say that I almost fell for yours. Almost.
Your concerted effort to make your target market aware of the ridiculousness and almost cookie-cutter like propagated by other tampon commercials made me laugh, think, and notice these visual signatures in your competitors’ commercials. A bit of an a-ha moment.
But upon further investigation thanks to the promotional pack that was sent to me, I was disappointed to find that this slick rebranding effort resulted in nothing more than brightly colored packaging. And I love good packaging [hehe]. The product is obviously still the same: the liners worked like normal, I didn’t like the regular pads, and the little tampons that I was excited for because they were compact [great for secreting away into the bathroom] were very disappointing. If you slide the plunger even a millimeter too far, it falls completely out and then you’re left fumbling with the applicator. So in essence, the neon colors did not make up for the overall product dissatisfaction. Fail.
Now, I know the greater good is for “empowering girls and women to take control of their health and bodies” which is a noble and fantastic goal, especially so for the young girls who are beginning their periods and are completely awkward about the whole thing, but really? You couldn’t do this without the brightly colored wrapping paper? And did you focus so much on the packaging that you failed to make sure your product stood up to practical use?
Look, I understand the power in embracing being a woman and all that it entails and I know having my period every month is not a big deal. It happens, big whoop [it would be a bigger whoop if it didn't happen]. But that doesn’t mean I want to broadcast the fact that I’m on my period to the world every time I need to make a change. Seriously. Especially not as a teenager.
I was awkward enough dealing with the whole period thing in junior high and high school [yes, it took me a while to come to terms with it] and there is no way I would have wanted to use a product that draws attention to itself because it’s brightly wrapped like candy. It screams “Look at me! I’M ON MY PERIOD!! I’M BLEEEEEEEEEDING!” I don’t want that. I want to be able to discreetly handle my business. No need letting everyone else know. I’ve never been the type of person who openly complained about the effects of my period [mainly because I don't have many that are newsworthy] because why would I want people to know? Why would people want to know?
Wanna know what helped me? Going grocery shopping with boys in college. There was no way around it. I had to buy the stuff so I owned it. And it didn’t involve anything brightly colored. Thank goodness. But I don’t fully knock your effort. It’s definitely novel and gets us talking [look at me, I'm talking about my period on my blog! Say what?!] but the florescent colors are just not my style. I’d rather use a product I can trust that isn’t fantastically packaged than a smartly packaged mediocre product.
Sincerely,
Me
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