Role Beauty in advertising campaigns

General opinion of the target group of woman

Initially, it is necessary to mention that participant´s first associations which came spontaneous in their minds when they thought on the portrayal of women in advertising and the media can highly be categorised into the role of beauty.

In particular, women in advertising campaigns are mostly represented in a slim, beautiful and perfect styled way. They increasingly advertise for fashion - /luxury products such as shoes, clothes and personal-care products. Furthermore, advertising campaigns often represent beautiful women (only beautiful ones) in combination with cars. They are all retouched, meaning, they do not look like women in normal life and they often represent mousses or hair colours which help to gain youthful appearance.

Besides this, beautiful women increasingly advertise for healthy food such as light -, organic - or even diet products. Advertised products are for example vegetarian -, slimming products or smoothies. The reason behind the representation of women in advertisements for healthy food is that the target group of woman pay more attention to their weight and as a consequence thereof they are the main buyers for healthy food. In contrast, advertisements for example pizza are highly advertised by men because if men are alone at home they prefer to have a quick meal and thus the main target group for convenience food is men.

Although the topic of women in advertising as sexual objects is already covered in chapter 3.3.1.3. Role Non-Occupation in advertising campaigns, representation of women as sexual objects can also be categorised into the role of beauty in advertising campaigns. Participant´s opinion is that women in advertisements are

highly represented in a sexy way, no matter what product they advertise. Closely associated with this topic is the representation of women in advertising campaigns in underwear. They are represented either naked or in underwear to gain attention from customers.

Representation of women in advertising as young, slim, tall and attractive with wrinkle-free - and depilated skin

As already mentioned, all participants agreed that women in advertisements are mainly represented as young, slim, tall and attractive with wrinkle-free - and depilated skin. In other words, nearly all models are extremely thin and tall wearing size zero and are all the time styled in a perfect way.

One group member additionally stated that one can see a kind of trend in the advertising sector representing tender aged female models. Another main argument is that men are portrayed as beautiful in advertising campaigns as well.

The participants noted that one reason behind the representation of women in advertising as so-called young supermodels is that this kind of representation is the prevalent beauty ideal in European societies and everyone wants to look like this.

In other words, females want to pick the ideal and not what they are anyway. In general, female and male customers are looking for products they can buy in order to get better and nicer.

Another salient point is that advertising experts try to represent everything in a perfect way all the time and thus, women in advertising are portrayed as perfect beings as well.

Representation of women in advertising in a sporty, dynamic, health-conscious and vital way

All participants agreed that women in advertising are increasingly represented in a sporty, dynamic, health-conscious and vital way. The older group members (age group of 35-65 years) stated that in general more men are portrayed in advertising campaigns for representing sport activities. As already mentioned, if women in advertising campaigns are represented in a sporty environment, they are often portrayed in connection with health products. Examples are healthy granola, activia, actimel and sparkling water.

Health and wellness is the latest fashion in our society, and thus everyone wants to be healthy and fit and to look like the sporty female models represented in advertising campaigns. Besides this argument, for the target group of woman it is kind of motivation to give their best to look like them when they see women in advertising campaigns in a sporty, dynamic, health-conscious and vital way.

Representation of women in advertising for cosmetic surgeons

In general, only women advertise for cosmetic surgeons, men are hardly represented in such campaigns. Reasons behind are that women are more interested than men in beauty topics. Furthermore, stereotypically women have to be young and beautiful, men can be fat and old, but they still get the 20-year-old girl. In addition to this, aged men are becoming more interesting. Chapter 3.3.1.6. Role Age in advertising campaigns discusses the topic of age with regard to the representation of women/men in advertisements in more detail. Participants stated that women are mainly portrayed in printed media such as magazines to promote cosmetic surgeons, but hardly in television - or radio spots. In particular, advertising experts portray women in print advertisements for representing cellulite reductions, botox splashes, tummy tucks and liposuctions. In general there are less advertising campaigns emphasised on the topic of cosmetic surgeons as it is treated in a discrete way until today.

Advertised products by women in advertising campaigns

As a brief summary, the participants mentioned that female models advertise for cosmetic products, shoes, clothes, shavers, articles for babies and children ranging from nutrition to diapers, healthy food and general household products.

Another salient point is that nearly all participants stated that a portrayal of women in a working -, meaning, in a less traditional role do not make the product more desirable for the target group of woman, than if women are represented as housewives, mothers or as sexual objects. One main reason is that women in advertising have to be confident when representing a certain product independent in which role or stereotype they are portrayed. Furthermore, the perception of female customers highly depends on the product itself. Women in advertising campaigns representing a certain product have to be authentic and they should be in a position

to present their advertised product in a reliable and honest way. Moreover, the older group members mentioned that it highly depends on the target group´s opinion about the product. If one is not willing to try the product, it does not matter how and by whom it is represented. As a brief summary, it increasingly depends on the advertised product itself and on customer´s opinion and character.

Beauty roles in advertising campaigns / evaluation

Only two participants stated that they do not really care about the portrayal of beautiful women in advertising and thus a change is not desired. In their opinion main customers for beauty products are women. As a consequence thereof, beautiful women should be inserted for advertising those products. Another opinion is that although women should not be forced to emulate that beauty ideal, it is appealing and beautiful to look if women in advertisements are portrayed as slim, beautiful and tall. Nine members noted that women in advertising campaigns should be represented less often as beautiful and slim supermodels. One reason behind is that this kind of representation of women in advertising campaigns is too much exaggerated and far away from reality. In particular, young girls often feel compelled to look like the advertised supermodels. In many cases young girls think of doing diets because they learn from an early age to strive after that beauty ideal which dominates our society. As already mentioned, the topic of beauty is highly suggested in our society. If women are thin and beautiful, they can achieve everything in life.

The participants noted that beauty is strongly associated with charisma. As a consequence thereof, advertising experts should portray women who are not as wrinkle-free, but where just the face shows nice charisma. One participant mentioned that although it is important that women in advertising campaigns should not always be represented as perfect, she will rather buy a product when a super nice woman is represented. Only one member noted that beautiful women in advertising campaigns should be represented more often as she is interested in beauty and this kind of portrayal appeals to her.

Highly associated with the role of beauty in female advertising campaigns is the representation of women in the famous advertising campaign of the Ogily & Mather agency with their Dove-campaign for body-care products. The agency approached confident average women with good charisma on the road, and selected them for

their campaign. Images that are seen in magazines and newspapers, on billboards and on television portray not slim women in underwear.