Is femvertising abused for capital gain?
Femvertising has gained traction in recent years, particularly among younger audiences. Originating from a 2014 panel by SheKnows, it aligns with fourth-wave feminism, countering past misogynistic media portrayals. Studies show consumers respond more positively to femvertising than traditional ads, making it a popular marketing strategy. However, concerns arise over its exploitation for profit, with brands like Dove facing criticism for contradictory messaging. The rise of brand activism highlights the importance of authenticity, as insincere efforts can dilute feminism. This study explores whether femvertising is a genuine force for change or merely a capitalist tool.
Chapter 1: Overview
Femvertising, short for female empowerment advertising, has become a prominent theme in the advertising industry (Castillo, 2014). The term ‘femvertising’ comes from a lifestyle site named ‘SheKnows’ which held and advertising panel on the topic in 2014 (Åkestam et al, 2017). It preaches to a younger female audience in a way that is positive and forward thinking in its values. Historically the Feminist movement utilised graphic media such as the American magazine Ms which was co-founded by Gloria Steinem, a socio-political activist. Each wave of feminism has come with its own collection of printed or digital media, the Ms magazine being a part of the second wave. As we enter the fourth wave this media is embodied via femvertising. The fourth wave of feminism comes after the ‘post-feminist’ period in which there was a false notion that gender equality had been achieved (Varghese and Kumar, 2020). This period was characterised by a strong resistance to being labelled as feminists, who were perceived as man haters.
From a standpoint of being a feminist, growing up in a western society and seeing the way women were portrayed in the media, especially growing up in the early 2000s, the onslaught of misogyny left a lasting effect. True femvertising is a key route in beginning to undo that harm. The unrealistic beauty standards pushed onto women, the demonisation of femineity and forcing this ‘not like other girls’ ideology onto young girls has shaped a generation of women who’ve grown up with internalised misogyny, myself included. Femvertising, done properly, is so important not only to undo the mindsets of so many but to have young girls grow up surrounded by media with positive messaging in society.
The notion of femvertising being abused for capital gain is a worrying one but it’s not a new one. As positive as the change of representation in the media surrounding women is, the morals surrounding the feminist movement and reaching gender equality also need to be upheld. Surface level activism only hinders equality as it creates a façade that we are closer to equality than we truly are. This is one of the reasons I believe this topic to be so imperative, if the public can tell the difference between faux feminism and companies who are truly allies to the movement it will force a genuine social impact.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.1 – Femvertising and ad reactance
A large reason for femvertising gaining such a strong stance in the advertising sphere is due to its effect on consumers views of a brand. In a 2017 study by students at Stockholm School of Economics it was found that there was less ad reactance to femvertising adverts compared to traditional ads (Åkestam et al, 2017). They also found that attitudes towards the brands that used femvertising adverts were significantly higher than those toward the brands with more traditional adverts. First off, this clearly shows that femvertising ads have a much more positive reaction from audiences which is one of the reasons they’re becoming so much more popular today. The panel used for the study consisted of 346 females aged 18-40 and, in the study, they looked at adverts from many product categories such as cars, sportswear, shampoo, and telecom companies (Åkestam et al, 2017).
2.2 – Sexualisation of Women in advertising
Some brands lead a legacy of sexualising women in their advertisements, American Apparel being one of the most notorious (Towell and In Marketing, 2018). American Apparel’s brand is simplicity and ‘The American Dream’; their advertising has been controversial and provocative in nature since the early 2000s (Bryla and Gruczynska, 2018). The adverts shown in both figures 1 and 2 are from 2006, which was one of American Apparels’ raunchiest years for their adverts. Figure 1 is an advertisement for a new store opening and hiring staff, it makes you wonder what a woman posed provocatively has in relation to that. American Apparel’s advertising during the early to mid 2000s is infamous and recognisable with its “sex and ‘hostage lighting’ sells” aesthetic. There is an overwhelming theme of sexual behaviour which implies that the models used in the advertisement would be likely to participate in a sexual activity after using the displayed product (Reichert and Lambiase, 2003). As a company American Apparel has been doused in controvosy especially surrounding now-fired CEO Dov Charney, who would take all the campaign photos himself including figure 2, in which he is rumoured to be the man in the photo (Stampler, 2014).
2.3 – Female Empowerment in advertising
On the opposite end of the spectrum to how American Apparel directed their ad campaigns Dove has been a trailblazer in inclusivity. It was one of the first companies to take on the notion of femvertising. Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” promotes self-love and seeks to help boost your self-esteem, whilst selling dove products (Feng et al, 2019). Although, it has been criticised for faux feminism which is “the trend of brands using feminism to create idealistic taglines without actively pursuing actions promoting gender equality either through female representation in leadership roles or by preventing misogynistic messaging in their ads” (Varghese and Kumar, 2020). Dove’s parent company is Unilever; so, it has been criticised for being hypocritical as another company beneath Unilever is Lynx, a male grooming product, which has a history of exploitive adverts (Feng et al, 2019). The dubiousness surrounding Doves “Campaign for Real Beauty” is due to the lack of moral solidarity between companies; one is fighting for inclusivity and aiming to boost self-esteem whilst the other is using stereotypical beauty standards to sell products. This campaign, however, was crucial in kickstarting the ‘trend’ that femvertising would become, emphasising that all bodies are beautiful.
2.4 – Brand alignment
Younger people nowadays are more active on social media and share/post about activism causes they support, this also means brands are more scrutinised for their morals, whom they employ to represent the brand and other brands they align with. Philip Kotler says brand activism is a kind of business intention to engage in solving societal problems as the next stage of marketing (Varghese and Kumar, 2020). Kotler also recognises progressive brand activism as a way for companies to achieve differentiation and purpose driven engagement of Millennials. Millennials and Gen-z are the freshest consumers so brands aiming at that audience must have clear morals and intentions that consumers want to align with. Polls have shown that consumers are shifting loyalties if brands don’t match their values (Varghese and Kumar, 2020). A kind of ‘demarketing’ that refers to marketing to consumers who look past just the products and functionality to see what socio-cultural impact the brand is making (Varghese and Kumar, 2020). A great example of a brand cutting ties with a controversial partnership due to conflicting morals is Adidas dropping Kanye West. Adidas ended a 9-year partnership with Kanye due to his antisemitic remarks, it’s expected to lose $1.3 billion in revenue this year, 2023, as it’s unable to sell Kanye’s Yeezy clothing and shoes (Valinsky, 2023). It goes to show how important upholding the brand image is to retain customers and avoid a boycotting.
Figure 3, Dove “Campaign for Real Beauty” 2019
2.5 – Is feminism being diluted?
Due to the moral loyalty consumers have towards brands authenticity is key, we live in a majority capitalist society where numbers mean everything to companies; this means the commercial use of feminism is on the rise. Advertisements are bodies for commodity narratives and “Turning feminism into a commodity value fetishizes feminism. When appropriated by advertisers and editors, feminism has been cooked to distil out a residue—an object: a look, a style. Women’s discourses are relocated and respoken by these named objects.” (Goldman et al, 1991). Feminism being diluted to sell products has a history, during the post-feminist era many feminist values were being incorporated into popular media. The consumerist culture would initially consider feminist ideology and the values of the movement before finding them to be “dated and passé” leading to them being repudiated (Banet-Weiser, 2018). During this time feminism is used as a framework of denial, where we don’t have to worry about feminist politics and the sociohistorical and political contexts that enabled its emergence (Banet-Weiser).
2.6 – Commodity Feminism in marketing
A similar thing happens today but only behind closed doors, an example of this is Wall Street’s Stage Street Global Advisors installation of the ‘fearless girl’ statue to bring attention to women’s empowerment. After installing this statue to celebrate women they got caught underpaying their top 305 female employees by roughly $5 million (Varghese and Kumar, 2020). The disregard of feminist values whilst simultaneously abusing them to boost surface level public opinion is simply a corporate hijacking of feminism for profit. Marketing strategies have become closely related to feminism as femvertising has developed as part of brand activism which is frequently used to boost a company’s social status (Varghese and Kumar, 2020). Conscious capitalism helps a company to garner better customer loyalty, to benefit from more productive, engaged employees, and to satisfy suppliers and stakeholders (Varghese and Kumar, 2020). This would lead femvertising to prosper due to brand activism in the era of conscious capitalism, and as a form of cultural marketing.
2.7 – Disguising gender inequality
Is femvertising the new greenwashing? Is femvertising a way companies can put up a front and disguise the lack of gender equality in the background? It is common now for femvertising awards to exist, but they mean nothing if the companies winning those awards aren’t upholding the morals they portray in their adverts. In a 2021 paper published in the Journal of Business it was stated that “no significant differences were found in the number of external efforts or representation in female leadership between companies with and without award-winning femvertisements” (Sterbenk et al, 2021). They also found that 81% of the award-winning companies engaged in less than ten of the possible 23 gender-equality Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, showing that the adverts they are producing about female empowerment were not at all aligning with how the brand operates (Sterbenk et al, 2021).
Chapter 3: Research Questions
3.1 – The Research Question
In this article I’m looking into ‘Is femvertising abused for capital gain?’ My objective with this study is to see whether different demographics have differing opinions on femvertising ads and if they believe them to be positive or a marketing ploy. I also aim to get an understanding of each participant’s view on feminism beforehand to see if that affects their opinion or whether their opinion changes after watching the ads.
3.2 – The Research Sub Objectives
To ensure all points of inquiry are responded to I split it down into sub questions which are as follows:
a. What impact does femvertising have on consumers views and reaction to a brand?
b. In terms of authenticity, what are the ethical considerations surrounding femvertising?
c. Does femvertising create false hopes about gender equality and in effect obstruct real progress?
Chapter 4: Research Methodology
4.1 – Methodology Introduction
The aim of this study is to investigate into whether different demographics have differing opinions on femvertising ads and if they believe them to be positive or a solely a marketing ploy, considering previous standpoints on feminism and ethics surrounding a brand. I used a qualitative data collection method as I wanted to learn about individual opinions and attitudes surrounding this topic to gain more of an awareness about specific demographics perspectives. I will expand on why I decided to utilise a qualitive method more in this chapter, as well as why I decided on certain methods of data collection.
4.2 – Research Philosophy
As my research is based around feminism and social sciences, I undertook my study with a Interpretivism standpoint, as it achieves an empathic understanding of how the research subjects view the world, my sample size will be small so I can get more in depth research from each person, all the data I will be collecting will also be qualitive. My research will also have an Axiological element as it’s important to question how should we treat our own values when we do research? As well as how should we deal with the values of research participants? As this is a social study dealing with people and collecting qualitive data on individuals’ views on feminism, it’s important I don’t let my own standpoint be at all persuasives to their answers.
4.3 – Method Selection
There were a few ways I may have taken the qualitive method route, when choosing a method I considered that due to my subject and objective of gaining insights on different demographics views on a subject, qualitive data collection is how I would go about this. I was initially torn between a questionnaire and in-depth interview, the questionnaire could reach more people and gain a larger subject pool, but if I wanted to gain objective opinions on certain adverts without the chance of people reading comments and swaying their initial responses it needed to be more controlled. One-on-one interviews with a handful of subjects seemed my best option, curating a list of questions that were unbiased and neutral which left the subject to answer honestly.
4.3.1 – Semi-Structured Interview
Out of multiple kinds of interview I felt as if a semi-structured interview was the best fit for my research as it consists of having pre planned questions that are open ended. The open-ended questions will allow participants to share and expand on their own opinions without being limited by the bounds of the question. This style of interview is appropriate as the interviewer curating the questions already has broad knowledge on the topic to make sure the questions can hit certain information we’re looking for. Semi-structured interviews also allow room for follow up questions that can help participants expand on their points, as the interviewer has the knowledge of the topic, this means it will make it easier to get the unbiased views as the follow up questions are just for extra detail on a previous point the participant made. All of the interviews will be transcribed so I am able to further analyse their answers post interview.
4.4 – Participant Selection
A key part of my study will be finding a small but diverse group of participants of different ages, genders, and nationalities to gain a variety of opinions and see if there is any correlation between them. My sample size will consist of four participants two female and two male, to have an equal amount of people from each gender will help level the playing field so to speak. The research being carried out is to acquire a variety of demographic’s opinions, subsequently from each gender I will find someone younger than 30 and someone older than 45 to make sure my study doesn’t end up focusing on just one generation. Having a minimum age of twenty will make sure all participants have experienced growing up with traditional advertising and had the media switch towards a more feminist approach within their active memory. The participants in this study will remain unnamed but their ages and gender will be referred to. Each participant will be named as gender(age) for example a thirty year old woman would be F(30).
4.5 – Ethical Considerations
As this topic is one that’s personal to me its of the upmost importance to keep my personal opinions to myself so they don’t sway the participant. Staying completely neutral as the participants answer so any negative or positive reaction on my behalf doesn’t guide their answers. All participation is completely voluntary, and participants are free to opt out at any time, they also will be made aware they will remain nameless, only referred to by their gender and age. I also need to consider whether any questions I ask could be considered triggering to avoid causing any participant’s psychological harm.
4.6 – Data Collection
For this study my data collection consisted of four semi-structured individual interviews with the participants, I favoured this approach due to qualitive research being so popular in social science studies. The semi-structured interview method meant going into the interview I had a list of set questions to ask, which were standardised across all four interviews, but depending on the participants answers I could ask short follow up questions to expand on their points. I chose to do individual interviews rather than group interviews as expressing an opinion can be rather intimidating and I didn’t want any participant to feel as if they just had to agree with the most dominant member of the group to avoid confrontation and only disagree in private. The interviews were held in three stages; an initial interview which is followed by the participants being show two adverts, one femvertising and one traditional, ending in a post interview to gain their opinions on the adverts and whether their initial opinions had changed.
4.6.1 – Initial Interview
To begin the interview, I wanted to gain some background on each participants knowledge levels when it came to feminism and femvertising. Also asking their stance on issues such as whether gender equality has been reached to see if any of their opinions change after seeing traditional and femvertising ads. Having an initial insight into their opinions without showing the ads will elevate room for analysis on that specific demographic and is much rawer than showing the adverts first.
4.6.2 – Video Reaction Aspect
In my study as well as just asking questions on the topic of feminism and femvertising I also decided to show participants one traditional ad and one femvertising ad to gain their attitudes towards them. Carrying this part of the interview out will help participants understand what femvertising is if they did not before and showing it to them during the interview may remind them of certain thoughts on the subject.
The two adverts I used for this study were:
- Carls Jr - Memphis BBQ Burger - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liRiFN31llI
- Always – ‘Like a girl’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joRjb5WOmbM
I decided not to use adverts from the same industry as I wanted to show participants that something as ‘unsexy’ as a fast-food restaurant still manages to utilize women’s bodies to sell burgers. Both these adverts are great examples of the drastic differences between traditional and femvertising adverts, they were also both shown on national television within roughly five years of each other for people of all ages to see.
4.6.3 – Post Video Interview
After the video portion I wanted to wrap up and conclude whether any opinions had changed and participants thoughts on the adverts shown. There were less questions following the video as I wanted participants to lead the convocation with their thoughts and opinions, so it was less structured as not to direct participants answers.
4.7 – Limitations
Certain limitations such as time constraints hindered the sample size I could interview, especially as they were individual interviews. The pool of people I surround myself with also have similar morals as myself when it come to this topic, so I had to search for participants outside of the people I usually associate with. I tried to mitigate any researcher bias but as I am a outwardly feminist woman people, especially men, may not be as willing to share their negative views on feminism or talk about the sexualisation of women as comfortably. As the interviewer I also made sure to consider any cultural biases as the participants were varied.
Chapter 5: Discussion
5.1 – Initial Findings
The consensus amongst participants is that feminism is positive; all participants had decent knowledge on the topic. All participants also agreed that gender equality had not yet been reached however M(26) did say “I think we’re almost there”. Even just from these answers it’s safe to say there may not be too much variation in standpoints when it comes to the opinions of the video adverts, everyone has positive outlooks on feminism. It became more interesting when the question of how they believed women were portrayed in the media was asked, both female participants brought up the pressure of beauty standards. F(20) stated “Unfortunately, women are definitely sexualised in the media and there is an ever-changing beauty standard that we have to fit into in order to be ‘beautiful’ and the media just amplifies that. Especially now with social media.” I think its important to note that the younger female brought up social media whilst the older female (47) only spoke about mainstream media, goes to show a slight generational divide of what we class as ‘media’. Both male participants answered acknowledging that women’s beauty is used as marketing but “don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing”. M(56) answered “The legacy of just being seen as pretty things continues, no problem with that per se as long as female intelligence is advocated.”
When it came to the knowledge of femvertising only F(20) had any knowledge on it but F(47) had heard of it before, this meant the majority of participants were going into the video portion with no expectation. This defiantly showed in the reactions as F(47) described the burger advert as “just gross” whilst M(26) said it was “bit uncomfortable”. The always advert on the other hand gained reactions such as “it’s sad to see older people have less belief in girls but heart-warming to know that young girls are growing up with that sort of confidence” from F(20), this points to the internalised misogyny the younger generations have been brought up with and how now were become aware of it we can begin to undo that and instil a confidence in young girls. The ad reactance and attitude towards the brands I used in my study matched those found in ‘Advertising “like a girl”: Toward a Better Understanding of Femvertising and its Effects’ (Åkestam et al, 2017).
There was also a route of questioning surrounding brands you wouldn’t buy from due to lack of shared morals both M(56) and F(47) said there isn’t a brand they’d not buy from because of this. On the opposite side of the spectrum both F(20) and M(26) mentioned boycotting Starbucks due to the conflict occurring in Palestine, F(20) said “Maybe Starbucks and those brands supporting Israel at the moment because of the whole Palestine thing.” This again shows the generational difference which follows what was mentioned earlier with millennial and Gen-Z aligning with brands who share similar values (Varghese and Kumar, 2020). When asked whether they believed if femvertising is solely a marketing ploy M(26) compared it to “when some influencers use activism to boost their platform even though they don’t care for the cause at all.”
5.2 – Final Thoughts
The objective with this study was to see whether different demographics have differing opinions on femvertising ads and if they believe them to be positive or a marketing ploy. The results I gained matched the studies and literature I was reading which backs up that femvertising is positive and gains good reactions from audiences. I believe the method I used to research was effective as it allowed me to gain true opinions and thoughts from the participants. There were a few limitations, I would’ve like to have a larger subject pool if time allowed; with people who thought feminism was negative, as an insight on how their thought process worked around femvertising and the view of women in the media.
Chapter 6: Conclusion
This article has allowed me to explore both the positive and negative aspects of femvertising. It’s a fascinating subject as it’s an ongoing issue in the world today, even though the feminist values are becoming more acknowledged there are still some companies who don’t implement them in the workplace yet use them as promotion for their brand. It’s clear femvertising is more digestible to the public and that is becoming exploited, the wall street statue mentioned earlier being a great example of this. Femvertising is abused for capital gain but it’s also a great example for younger generations to see in the media. Companies need to be scrutinised to see whether they uphold the morals they embody. The faux feminism exercised by some companies is hindering gender equality as it creates a falsehood that the general public sees as the truth.
Works Cited:
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Images Referenced
Figure 1 - Charney, Dov. “Now Open”. American Apparel, 2006, https://wordpress27649.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/american-apparel-poster-feminist-and-beauty-in-advertisement/.
Figure 2 - Charney, Dov. American Apparel, 2006, https://time.com/2901435/charney-american-apparel-ads/.
Figure 3 – Ogilvy. “Campaign for Real Beauty”, 2019, https://www.effie.org/legacycases/case/5F50_2019_E-335-405.
List of Interview Questions
Pre-Video
1. What is your view on Feminism? Positive/Negative?
2. Do you believe gender equality has been reached?
3. How do you see women portrayed in the media?
4. Are there any brands you choose not to buy from due to conflicting morals? Who?
5. Do you know what femvertising is?
6. Would you consider femvertising a marketing ploy?
7. Attitudes towards the brands in the adverts? Positive/Negative?
8. Did you think any of the adverts were faking activism for monetary gain? Which ones? What made you think that?
9. Any changed views from the beginning of this study?
Post Video
1. Attitudes towards the brands in the adverts? Positive/Negative?
2. Did you think any of the adverts were faking activism for monetary gain? Which ones? What made you think that?
3. Any changed views from the beginning of this study?
