Pictures of Science!
February 26th, 2009 | by TJ |Being unemployed at the moment, I’ve had the time, between frantic bouts of throwing away everything I own, to do some intense and serious internet research. And by that, I mean that I smash the crap out of my StumbleUpon button for a good bit of time every day.
Couple of weeks ago, I came across the videos of this woman, Sarah Haskins, on current.com. She does a bunch of things, but she has a series, her own little segment, called Target Women. It’s a whole bunch of short videos about advertising targeted at women.
Now, being a woman, and being the target of said advertising, I can’t say I’ve ever really thought about the particular marketing genius that goes into making women in particular want to buy things, but after watching a few of Sarah’s videos I can tell you two things:
1. Marketers have most likely never met an actual woman and
2. This shit is hilarious.
The videos are funny, and there’s one video in particular, the Target Women Special – it was the first one I saw – that combines segmnets from all of her best videos into one long epic on How to Be a Perfect Woman. I laughed out loud so many times that I watched all the rest of her videos as well.
But while Sarah’s scripts and tones are obviously meant to be humorous, at the same time they manage to make you realize how ridiculous marketing towards women really is. I have thought “Wait a second – this is the shit they sell to me, and THAT’S how they choose to sell it?” so many times since I’ve started watching her videos. But I also can’t think of a way to improve it. I mean, if I was a guy – show me electronics or women or beer or sports or some one getting hit in the nuts, hey, hilarious, I’ll buy that product. But as a female, not only do I find these commercials ridiculous (now that I’ve thought about them – it really never occurred to me before), I’ve realized that marketers must have a tough job because I can’t tell you what I want to see, what is likely to make we want to buy a product, but I can tell you that it’s certainly not PICTURES OF SCIENCE!
Anyway. Make sure you check her out for the pure hilarity factor, along with the “Holy crap, I never actually thought about that!” factor as well. And since I’ve been puzzling over it for a while, since I started watching her videos, I would also like to know what women (that would be some of you guys) think WOULD work for them as far as advertising goes. I suppose that somewhere some demographic research or something like that has indicated that I respond well to “sciencey words” and pictures of women laughing with their friends because their yogurt is so good. BUT DO I? DO I REALLY?
Some of my particular favorites:
The View
Number Two
Sarah Palin
Yogurt Edition
There are a whole bunch more, though. Check them out, Internet. Have I ever steered you wrong? Don’t you remember how I directed you with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer towards Julia Nunes? Trust me!
By Awlbiste on Feb 26, 2009
I don’t know, I think beer or electronics or dudes getting hit in the nuts would work just as well on me as it does on guys. Then again, I’m an unsubtle person who laughs at the misfortune of others.
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By Siha on Feb 26, 2009
Sadly, this stuff actually _does_ work on people. Amazing, but true. (The marketing, I mean, not the skin care junk.)
Our national broadcaster did a really cool series called The Gruen Transfer last year, all about the inner workings of marketing, with weekly discussion panelists from people working in the industry. It was amazing to hear how these tactics – that just look cheap to you and I – actually *work* on people.
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By Bluetiger on Feb 27, 2009
Speaking of ads (funny you bring this up, I’ve thought about this all week) – I’ve been annoyed at one set of ads all of this week (at least the five minutes each morning I stand looking at them in the subway). I say ads because there are two of them, side by side, advertising… I really don’t know. BUt just one glance tells me that one of the products are for women and one are for men. On both there’s the outline of a body (female for female and male for male) and the outline is filled with a kind of jungle theme. But the female outline is filled with flowers and ocean and pink and blue. The male outline is filled with orange and red and volcanoe eruptions and tigers…. I get a bit miffed and so obviously targetted comercials. But I agree with Siha .- this stuff works. Except for this particular ad where I can’t remember what it was for :P
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By lenebean on Mar 4, 2009
I LOVE SARAH HASKINS! My faves are “Yogurt Edition” and “Wedding Shows.”
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