This is a rant. You’ve been warned.
I’m getting really peeved about Internet ads lately. Especially those found on women’s health web sites and social networks like MySpace and Facebook. I am not a fan of ads in the first place, but I understand their place in the business world. What I DON’T understand is companies that FLAT OUT LIE to make the sale. Sure there are a lot of legitimate products out there in the marketplace and women’s beauty and health products is a particularly crowded and competitive field. But LYING TO US? C’mon! :o
Here’s what I mean. Have you ever clicked on an ad out of curiosity and when the page loads the “person” telling you how great the product is just happens to mention that they live in or near the same town as you? Well, gosh, then whatever they are promoting must really work. NOT! Ladies, don’t fall for this! I am a web developer and I know exactly how they are manipulating the code to insert those little pieces of information designed to make it look authentic and “from the woman next door” in your town. They pick up that info from your Facebook profile or your IP address or the keywords in your Google search. It’s not that hard to program. There are even videos for sale showing non-programmers how to add those code snippets into a basic web page. Those video folks are making money by teaching other people to lie (but that’s another rant).
My point is: The ad is a LIE. And if they are lying to you in the ad, then what other lies are they trying to sell you? /:)
Fight back ladies. Knowledge is power.
6 comments
Jocelyn
Thanks for your support, Gretchen!
gretchen
Awesome – I just signed it!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cleaning_ads
Jocelyn
I did an activist project pertaining to this issue for my women and media class. If you want to have your voice heard, please sign my group’s petition. Your help at fighting these advertisers would be much appreciated!
Tricia Binion Gardner
Gretchen, I have been pointing this out to anyone who would listen for YEARS, now! I hate those ads and, ideally, would like to be able to choose the kind of ads that I look at while I’m on my favorite websites. I mean, seriously, who wants to look at a half-naked woman that “really” a mother on 8, works 60 hours a week, and had to do NO exercise to look like a model?!? lol
gretchen
Jennifer – that is a fabulous observation. =d>
I never realized that before, but you are right. They do feature women on cleaning ads. Marketers know that women typically do the shopping so I’m sure that is why we are targeted. I don’t watch much tv, but I will pay closer attention to ads there and on other media sources.
Jennifer Hansen
I have to agree with this. In the same vein, the thing I really despise is that, almost 40 years after the “Women’s Lib” movement, ALL cleaning product ads still feature ONLY women, implying that cleaning and caring for a home is “women’s work!!” Do men not clean their homes? (Okay, no comment.) How can a society move past stagnant views on gender and gender roles if Madison Ave still shows us the same images that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers saw?! We need to not only have equality in the workplace, but in the home as well.