Advertising for Women

If you are a woman, you may have noticed that advertising seems to be targeting you. For example, your relationship status on the popular social networking website, Facebook, may be engaged. And, since changing your status to engaged, you may have noticed a lot of different advertisements on the right side of your Facebook page, most of which relate to weddings, honeymoons, and bachelorette parties. You might search for a specific dress or purse and then notice that there are advertisements for these items on your social networking page as well. Online advertisers have been using cookies, which are files that basically identify things about you, such as your age, your gender, and your personal preferences. These cookies basically track the types of things you do while online and they are used to target you for certain things.

In the meantime, there have been two attempts made by advertisers to target women offline, not through the Internet. And, these attempts have caused a lot of controversy between different people who are on either side of the fence. The Because I Am a Girl campaign, which was designed by Plan UK, actually uses facial recognition software to identify women when they get to a specific bus stop. If a woman’s face is recognized, a video advertisement will be displayed, urging them to support young women in other countries who are in need of education. In the meantime, men who see the advertisement only see a few statistics and a website URL that they can visit. This advertisement has caused some controversy as many people feel uncomfortable with advertisements targeting them based on the recognition software.

In the meantime, because of advertisement tracking, a man found out about his daughter’s pregnancy without her even saying a word. The popular Target Company simply assumed that the girl was pregnant, based solely on her buying habits and search habits. They sent her coupons for different baby products before she got the chance to tell her family she was even pregnant. It is believed that some women do not mind this but some women will find it uncomfortable, to receive coupons and other information about pregnancy without even saying they are pregnant. It will definitely make some people out there a little uncomfortable. Studies also show that if women feel as if they have been spied on, they will be less likely to use the coupons. But, if women do not feel spied on, they will use the coupons with absolutely no problem.

And, it makes sense why different types of companies are trying to target women specifically. Women actually control more than $20 trillion of the consumer spending that is done around the world. That statistical information was provided by BusinessWeek.