Advertising to Women Via Internet

Since today’s technology is mostly online, so many people are spending too much time on the Internet. Women spend more time on the Internet than men, which is why advertisers try to target women in most of their online ads. Companies spend millions of dollars for advertisements and buying spots on the internet to advertise their products. Online advertisements put pressure on women health and life especially with those ads that come with pictures of thin models that affect women body image and self-esteem. To solve this issue of the effect of online ads on women, there should be some regulations made by the government to minimize these effects such as the Federal Communications Commission rule (FCC).

Why Women?
Women are becoming the most important buyers in any industry. Adult women, like mothers, have the largest purchasing power out of all different groups because they manage financial condition of household or tend to control the family budget. Studies show women make up to 80 percent of household purchase decisions even though makes the dominance of men on the creative side of the business is more striking (Bosman, 2005). In the other words, women purchase most of items for house and living in general. They go grocery shopping, buy clothing for the family, and give other family members advices on what to buy.

Effects of Advertisements on Women Body Image and Gender Roles

Body Image and Gender Roles

“Monteath and McCabe found that nearly 44 percent of women express negative feelings about their bodies (as a whole and in terms of individual body parts). Also, in a 1997 survey, 56 percent of female and 40 percent of male respondents reported being dissatisfied with their overall appearance” (Davis & Davis, 2009).

Body Image
Davis and Davis (2009) mentioned that the exposure to pictures of exaggerated perfect figures of a female body has been associated with a loss of self-esteem, depression, and eating disorders. A recent survey by Teen People Magazine showed that “27% of the girls felt the media pressures them to have a perfect body”. Another survey, done in 1996 by the International Ad Agency Saatchi and Saatchi, discovered ads made women feel they are not attractive or old. Researchers said advertising media negatively affects a woman’s body image, which causes women to have unhealthy behavior by encouraging them to make every effort to have the perfect thin body shown in the media (Body Image and Advertising, 2008).

Eating Disorder
“Women frequently compare their bodies to those they see around them, and researchers have found that exposure to idealized body images lowers women's satisfaction with their own attractiveness. One study found that people who were shown slides of thin models had lower self-evaluations than people who had seen average and oversized models” (Body Image and Advertising, 2008). Girls stated in a body image survey that “very thin models made them feel insecure about themselves.” Also, in a sample of Stanford undergraduate and graduate students, “68% felt worse about their own appearance after looking through women's online magazines.” A lot of health professionals are worried about the popularity of idealized body image among women, which will lead women to compare their body to those in the media. “Seventy-five percent of "normal" weight women think they are overweight and 90% of women overestimate their body size” (Body Image and Advertising, 2008).
According to Body Image and Advertising, the exposure of the huge amount of online ads of thin models makes women and even young girls worry about every pound they gain. “Over 80 percent of 10-year-old girls have dieted, and currently, 50 percent of women are presently dieting in America” (Body Image and Advertising, 2008). Consequently, women are developing eating disorders and “millions are suffering from illnesses like anorexia or bulimia”. These women are affected by the ads that convey “a perfect life of 90 pound models” (Konrad, 2008). In addition to that, studies discovered that “a third of American women in their teens and twenties begin smoking cigarettes in order to help control their appetite” (Body Image and Advertising, 2008).

Online Ads
Buchanan, (2008) said that both men and women are using the media a lot, but women use it more than men. “The gender study estimates that 52%--or 91.2 million--of the 175.4 million Americans online this year will be female” (Eric Chabrow, 2005). He pointed out that “if advertisers want to reach her in that medium, they have to be in relationship-building mode.” Women have different purposes why they go on the Internet, and advertisers have to know these purposes so they can use them as a key to attract women to their ads. One way to target women online is to use celebrities to advertise the product. According to prlog.com, the fashion industry is using this following message as a way to reach women “if a famous person wears this – it must be cool and therefore you must have it too!” This message is a guarantee for both the fashion industry and celebrities who do the modeling. Advertisers are looking for the most viewed websites by women and post their ads in the banner. These banners usually include pictures of beautiful celebrities who match the perfect modeling standards. Advertisers may also create an online version of a print magazine (prlog.com, 2010).