Flattery Will Get an Ad Nowher

STUDIED

Flattery Will Get an Ad Nowhere

By PAMELA PAUL

Published: December 10, 2010

THE GIST Beauty product ads make women feel ugly.

THE SOURCE“The Self-Activation Effect of Advertisements: Ads Can Affect Whether and How Consumers Think About the Self,” by Debra Trampe, Diederik A. Stapel and Frans W. Siero, The Journal of Consumer Research.

APPARENTLY it doesn’t take much to make a girl feel plain. Just looking at an object intended to enhance beauty makes women feel worse about themselves, according to a study from the April 2011 issue of The Journal of Consumer Research.

The study looked at how women responded to an image of something (say, a high-heeled shoe) depicted in an advertisement and as a simple photograph with no advertising context. According to the authors — led by Debra Trampe, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands — advertised products, unlike unadvertised products, affect both whether and how the viewer thinks of herself afterward. In other words, an image of the high-heeled shoe in a stylish advertisement is likely to trigger a sense of inadequacy.

Of course, you’d anticipate ads featuring Lara Stone and Chanel Iman would make most women feel less than lovely. But here’s an interesting catch: the ads in the study did not feature human beings, or the model approximation thereof. While social-comparison theory holds that people gain information about themselves by looking at other people, according to this study at least, they also gain information about themselves by comparing themselves to objects.

In four different experiments with female undergraduates, beauty products were divided into two categories: beauty enhancing, such as mascara and perfume, and problem solving, such as acne cream and deodorant. One group of students was shown ads for both types of products; another group was shown simple images of both, without advertising.

Those who were shown advertised beauty-enhancing products were likely to think about themselves more afterward than other women would. Perhaps not such a big deal. But the thoughts they had about themselves (when asked questions such as “How attractive do you find yourself?” and “How satisfied are you with your body?”) were decidedly gloomier.

In advertising, implicature refers to the implicit message carried out by an image in an ad. The presence of a cashmere scarf next to a lipstick, for example, can imply luxury and softness. This is established Madison Avenue thinking.

But, the authors suggest, the very fact of the ad itself also conveys meaning to consumers. According to the study, “advertisements displaying beauty-enhancing (rather than problem-solving) products are likely to remind consumers of their own shortcomings.” This, in turn, makes them view themselves more negatively. The authors quote Christopher Lasch, who back in the 1970s said “modern” advertising “seeks to create needs, not to fulfill them; it generates new anxieties instead of allaying old ones.”

What does this mean, other than a plummeting sense of self-esteem after putting down a fashion magazine? “You might expect that a deflated sense of self could lead to lower buying intentions,” said Dr. Trampe, a question she plans to explore further. Or, perhaps, the true basis for “shopping therapy.”

A version of this article appeared in print on December 12, 2010, on page ST6 of the New York edition.

HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF AD CAMPAIGNS WHICH DO NOT HAVE MODELS... TELL ME HOW THEY EFFECT YOU..

In Store Magazine rated this jewelry ad as one of the top 10% of all ads they have ever seen. (above)

A Tacori ad featuring diamond rings on a golden key, is this the key to beauty, eternal youth, love or elegance?

-- I know that advertisement aims to trigger an emotional attachment or desire in the consumer that will make them associate a certain product with a feeling. And it is also known that fashion is about never being good enough, skinny enough, beautiful enough, not new enough or expensive enough its all about pointing out people's insecurities and suggesting that your product can solve the appropriate self esteem issue, because after a certain extent fashion is a want and not a need. What interests me is that after decades of having these rules of advertising and fashion being implemented in us we can now look at an advertisement and see a simple shoe and still feel shitty about ourselves... FROM A SHOE! That's just evil...

One brand that does a lot of ad campaigns without any models and have an interesting presentation is Clinique. Here are some examples... 

From these ads what do you think, do you agree with the study?

Do you think ads which do not feature models can still effectively sell and be memorable?

Do you think that Clinique has the same theory as the study mentioned above?

Why does the fashion world constantly try to belittle it's consumers through not only advertisement, but also philosophy, size ranges and price? Isn't there a positive way to make people want to buy your product?

I'm still a little bit confused about this study and I am still trying to figure out if Clinique adopts this theory to their marketing or not... 

Gena