Sex Sells. Or Does It?

*Advertising for Women: The Good, The Bad and The WTF!* *Shoreditch House* *31st March*

There are some talks you go to where you come out feeling more alive, energetic and idealistic than when you went in. This was one of them.

I’m a woman. And I think feminism is a tricky subject to talk about. We’re human beings, and that makes us contradictory creatures. Some days we’re confident, some days we’re not. Some days we’re very sexual, other days we’re not. Some of us are girly, others are tomboys. We’re women. Multi-faceted, beautiful, contradictory. Not just a pair of tits and arse.

And yet, a quick browse at the Daily Mail website and all I can see is tits and arse. Kim Kardashian’s bum is out again. Miley Cyrus with her tongue sticking out. Are these empowered, independent women in charge of their own bodies or victims of a sexualised society ruled by the porn industry?

I was looking for answers, so I went along to Shoreditch House’s talk on Women in Advertising. It felt genuinely exciting sitting in a room filled with ideological minds who dared to question the status-quo, and do something about it. The atmosphere wasn’t confrontational; it was intellectual, compassionate and strong. All the female speakers agreed that men should not be left out of the equation. I didn’t come to any clear answers, but I did come out with a lot of questions.

Why does this matter to advertising?

Consider this. 2/3 of the world’s purchasing power is held by women. That’s twelve trillion dollars. And here’s another thought – 75% of women in the UK go out to work. That’s a lot of woman power, and a lot of mis-representation.

Advertising is a cultural driving force. And that’s exciting. We are best when we connect brands with people. Not stereotypes. Throughout the night the same motif came up again and again – that the most powerful adverts come from a place of truth and authenticity and relatability. Isn’t it in the brand’s interest to create a positive dialogue with women, to celebrate women for their human imperfections instead of constantly upholding them to perfection?

What if, instead of bowing down to an imposed sexualised ideology of what women should be like, we depicted what the world is like from a woman’s perspective?

What if we represented their outlook instead of the standard they should live up to?

What if we defined them by their achievements rather than their responsibilities?

What if we could be the cultural driving force behind a better, more equal world?