Abstract:

During the past decade, many studies have been published on the manner in which women are portrayed in mass media advertisements. This paper presents data from a research study which focusses on the comparative marketing effectiveness of two styles of advertisements - modern and traditional - for the same brands. Four brands were included, each from a different product field - Hand soaps. Detergents, Wall coverings and Newspapers. Two recent advertising treatments, one traditional and one modern, were identified with the help of a panel of judges and the impact of them on the target audiences was compared using the Buy Test (C) developed by the Sherman Group. The evidence strongly indicates that the manner in which women are portrayed in advertisements has a substantial impact upon their persuasiveness.