Depictions of women in advertising has frequently changed throughout the years. It is important to draw attention to some new modern strategies for advertising. There has been a critique of many brands who only use size 2 models for their fashion campaigns. This creates unrealistic standards and does not relate to most women. Now, many companies are realizing that they need to diversify their marketing strategies. But this change in strategy can come in more ways than one. This doesn’t just mean a diversification of models, but a diversification of the team creating the campaigns. In order to create campaigns that all different types of people can relate to, agencies and brands need different kinds of people to bring their own perspectives and ideas.
In her article, Diversity and Inclusion: Rewriting the rules for Marketing, Shelley Zalis says “It’s not just about making sure ad campaigns feature different races, genders and ages; it’s about making sure that different kinds of people are portrayed in a fair, accurate and realistic way…” She goes on to explain that more than 1,000 brands, with $40 Billion of US ad. Spend, have been striving to create accurate representations of women and girls in the media. Clearly, there is a lot of money being invested in new kinds of ad campaigns, not only to eliminate stereotypes in the media, but also to create sales profit for these various brands.
In her article Models Need not Apply: Macy’s Casts Broad Range of Women, Adrianne Pasquarelli describes Macy’s new Fall 2018 campaign. It is called “Remarkable You”, and features 6 real women, with real careers, who all have different body shapes and sizes. In conjunction with their advertising and media firms, Macy’s goal of this campaign is to inspire real women, and show them that you do not need to look like a model to be successful, have style, and be beautiful. The Ad for this campaign can be seen below.
More and more fashion companies are beginning to realize they need to have more appeal for the real women who are actually buying their products. More relatable brands and Ad Campaigns are becoming a more and more popular way to market to key demographics and to eliminate bias in the media.
https://adage.com/article/deloitte-digital/diversity-inclusion-rewriting-rules-marketing/311262/
https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/models-apply-macy-s-casts-real-women/314865/
The Advertising Implications 