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From: chabot@amber.DEC (L S Chabot)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Advertising WRT (with respect to) who buys it?
Message-ID: <4005@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Oct-84 17:15:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.4005
Posted: Thu Oct 25 17:15:35 1984
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Ken Hollis  ==  >
> In reference to advertising, Manhattonization, etc, I have always wondered
> why there are in womens magazines, 95% pictures of women, and in mans
> magazines there are about 50% of either sex? I have read studies that women
> account for the most purchases in the US, but it would seem that even if this
> is so, somewhere around, say 35% to 50% of the purchases would be for men, and
> it seems that there aren't any men modeling.  My 'answer' would be that women
> buy products according to what they have seen, and men go blindly ahead,
> ignoring all that costly advertising, and buy what they like (:->). 

Dream on.  "men...buy what they like" and "women buy products according to
what they have seen"--in other words, men have the strength of intellect to
make wise decisions and not be fooled by lying advertising, and women don't?
Snicker, snicker.

The reference to a statistic about "most purchases" being made by women has
hidden just what sort of purchases we are referring to--if, for example, food
is included, well, the stereotypical family has the wife shopping for groceries.
So, if we're counting up the number of items, then groceries have lots of little
components.  [If we're counting "most purchases" in terms of $$$ or durable
products, then my quibble is meaningless.]

The commonly accepted answer for the preponderance of women models in
advertising is usually phrased "Sex sells".  Or in other words: men like to
look at pretty women so it works to put a pretty woman in the ad (look, you
can't say that those bikini-clad women in electronics magazine ads or auto
parts ads are there to attract women--after all, that's not "girl's business),
and women have been brought up to want to be pretty so seeing a pretty woman in
the ad may convince the woman the product will improve her looks (same reason
they put athletic-looking men in men's clothing ads).  I don't think this is
reasonable behavior on the part of advertising agencies, but it's one that
seems to be popular.

Now, what category do technically-oriented magazines fall into: men's, women's,
or none-of-above (-: ie, gnurds :-).

It seems to me (actually, it seems pretty easy for me to say, since I'm not)
that if I were a man I'd be pretty insulted by the bikini-clad bait posing
next to a box of bolts.  It's like saying: here you animal you--we know we can
fool you into not thinking about the real quality of our product.

On the other hand, a pretty face...a reason I bought my Minolta was that the
buy behind the counter at the photo show had a knock-out smile (-: gee, if I
stand here and talk to him about the camera, maybe he'll smile again :-), much
better than the Pentax guys.  Still, the Minolta salesman was *fully* clothed.
The smile wasn't a major or deciding reason, either.

L S Chabot
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