When will advertising people get that not all women fall the same segment. I get annoyed when I see advertising which targets the woman who only cooks, shops or gets her hair done. Like these two ads for example.
The first one was for a Kuwaiti Women forum, it just talks to the Kuwaiti woman who just wants to change her look, loose weight, find a recipe or shop. It there are so many successful, intelligent and amazing Kuwaiti women out there. Politicians, artists, scientists and so much more. I didn’t click because I was so annoyed and they might have other topics that might be interesting but they marketed themselves a little on the shallow side. Even the picture they chose was not very expressive of your average Kuwaiti woman, unless she’s shopping crazy. The second one is for mobile internet connection. There’s a billboard by my house that has this ad and every time I pass by it it aggravates me. Yes, i do look for recipes online and yes I window shop online. But there is so much more that I do on the internet. Why isn’t there an ad that targets professional working women, who use their internet connections to do research or business. University students use the internet to study, that too might be a healthier more positive image. Even friends connecting would be a better image even though it might touch another stereotype of women being too talkative. How about a mother and her children looking at educating websites or looking for childcare articles. I sometimes wonder about the effectiveness of these ads. Has anyone every studied ads, women and the middle east. Do women even care or is it just me? Is anyone else offended from this kind of sexist/stereotypical advertising?
all in all, marketing here sometimes tend to be random and some agencies are forced to comply with requests of those companies asking for these designs – campaigns. It works with some target clients while the rest stand there resilient
I know it is not really totally the advertising people’s fault.
It’s because the others don’t bring in as much short term revenue. Plus in a GOOD marketing campaign when they study demographics they shouldn’t look at age but rather where in the life cycle people are (teenager, adult, career oriented etc). A bad combination of foresight and stereotyping (Arab women sit at home watch Oprah and cook) is what leads to the above
And also watch Turkish soaps
I’m extremely offended.
How come they still use old stereotypes in such ads? But again, having a look around you, you’ll find that many women help boost, spread and further establish such stereotypes.
I guess some women do help reinforce such stereotypes, but the women who don’t are usually disregarded.
Maybe they don’t address the professional women because they already know what to do online.
But there is a really provoking ad on the tv. Mobily I guess the Saudi mobile provider advertising its blackberry package and there is that young girl thinking the package is good because she will tosalaf tool el yoom ma3 folana fi USA and folana in china.
I really hate this ad.
hehehehe I always find tesolaf very funny. It is a shame, women make up at least 50% of the population, it is an untapped market if you look at it from the business perspective.
3aaa! the ad i totally abhore is the one of a girl who goes to a job interview (to become a model or singer or something) and they reject her but once she starts using the lotion thingy that makes her face skin fairer (was it the “fair and lovely” product?) she goes back and instantly gets the job!!! eih el araf dah!
Fair and Lovely as a product just makes me angry. These products and ads are so damaging to young girls’ self esteem and just create negative body image associations.
I live in Amman – Jordan and people at university used to treat me as a Barbie doll ’cause I am blonde!! They never saw me as a talented lady or a remarkable student.. That really did upset me as for no one took me seriously back then.. Now things are fine -7amdulilah-.. Maybe it is because the type of people that I used to deal with has changed..
That must have sucked too. It usually is related to the people you are dealing with and their set of prejudices.
Mesh 3arfa leeh madye2neesh el e3lan. It all depends on supply and demand.
Thank you so much, there aren’t enough posts on this… or at least i cant find them. I am turning into such a blog nut, I just cant get enough and this is such an important topic… i’ll be sure to write something about your site
Thank you so much, there aren’t enough posts on this… keep up the good work
Too good dude! I enjoyed!!