Feminism in advertising: Irony or revolution? A critical review of femvertising

ABSTRACT

There is an increasing presence of ‘femvertising’ in the media; an advertising style that highlights women’s talents, centers themes on pro-woman messaging and counters stereotyping. However, no systematic attempt has been made to establish the reasons leading to its increasing social acceptance. This article identifies the major factors leading to femvertising: (1) growing activism around the better representation of women in advertising; (2) brand activism and conscious capitalism; (3) the criticism of corporate and commodity feminism; (4) increasing awareness of gender stereotyping; (5) and increasing scrutiny by regulatory bodies on gender role representations in advertising. We conclude that femvertising is a phenomenon resulting from the combined effect of the five factors above. We propose that future studies in femvertising should address the remaining issues of lack of authenticity, dilution of feminist discourse, interconnection with social movements as well as linkages to increased representation of women in advertising, both to construct a full picture of the current state of femvertising and to understand its future configuration in a shifting social and ideological environment.

Keywords:

• Femvertising
• advertising
• faux feminism
• brand activism
• movement marketing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Neema Varghese

Neema Varghese is a PhD candidate at the School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology. Her research is on femvertising in India. Email: [email protected].

Navin Kumar

Dr. Navin Kumar has been teaching Psychology in the School of Social Sciences and Languages at Vellore Institute of Technology for over a decade. Having worked with the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) for his doctoral research, he is passionate about student welfare and in devising interventional techniques for reducing students’ stress. His research interests are in social psychology, behavioral psychology. Email: [email protected]