Beauty Product Ads Killing Sales, Self Esteem
After seeing a beauty ad, are you more likely to go shopping, or dig into a fresh pint of Ben & Jerrys? While advertisers bank on the former, new research shows we're more likely to do the latter. The New York Times reports that in a new study published in The Journal of Consumer Research, undergraduate females who looked at advertisements featuring beauty-enhancing products reported feeling less attractive afterwards. So if beauty ads lower a woman’s self-esteem, what happens next? Does she lounge about in self-loathing or head to the mall for a facial and those hot new heels she saw in Vogue? Ads equal sales, right? Not so fast.
A Story about the Future of Advertising
The latest news from the upper-echelons of marketing and advertising is that storytelling is the path to advertising’s future. There’s still a lot of what can be called “TV thinking” hanging on stubbornly, but no one any longer denies the basics — which, if you’ll allow us a short moment of tooting our own horn, is exactly what we’ve been preaching at Story Worldwide for the past five years.
These Guys Want to Lure You into Their Van
When it comes to marketing campaigns, the CPG world is blander than tofu. The forward-thinking folks over at Gillette seem to be on a mission to dispel that notion, however – much to the chagrin of all those refusing to hitch a ride on the post-ad bandwagon. Gillette's new campaign is centered around the two dudes to the left. Who are they? Nobody special, but if you happen to come across them, be nice and say hello. They're packin' a lot of razors.
Old Spice’s Shirtless Isaiah Mustafa is Talking to You, and Only You
For anyone who thought deodorant and body-wash marketing was nothing but lather, rinse, and repeat, Old Spice is proving, yet again, that there's much more to it with the shining genius that is the Old Spice Man—a soaped up slice of comical manliness that went viral and has now evolved into a masterful multi-channel juggernaut of success. For all the single ladies who were convinced that the Old Spice Guy's "tickets to that thing you like"-cum-diamonds were just for them, well, now they are. The viral ad is now personalized!
