Women finally "ready for a change".

Good news, ladies! When it comes to vaginal health, our periods and 'all things down there', we are finally ready to face the truth! At least according to Kimberley Clarke, the company behind the "U by Kotex" campaign.


Don't get me wrong: making vaginal health a discussable topic (or "taking the shame out of being a woman" as the Kotex brand guy puts it) is a great initiative and the campaign has some very creative, funny commercials that poke fun at the way advertisers used to talk about all-things-period. 

Indeed, we shouldn't be embarrassed about having our period: we should dispel myths and teach our daughters that it's nothing to be ashamed of. And it's great that Kotex wants to "become a champion for women and a torch-bearer for a momentous cultural shift", but to say that it's because "women are ready for a change", as Andrew Meurer of Kotex says here, is taking things a tad too far. As if Kotex has always been ready to lead us to enlightenment, but we weren't quite ready yet.

Great initiative Kotex - really love the ads! - but go easy on the "torch bearing, trail-blazing category champion" leading women to a new reality bit, please.

A few good women.

The automotive industry is one of the traditional male bastions in business. All men and (almost) no women. But the industry is changing...slowly. Here's a team of female engineers at Ford, making a case for why the industry needs a female touch.

(...and what great PR for Ford, don't you think!)

Getting it wrong for Valentine: Back into the doghouse!

Valentine's Day - the American way.
Remember the JC Penny "In the Doghouse" campaign of last year? (We wrote about it here).

The retailer has continued the successful campaign with an ad for Valentine's day called "Return to the Doghouse". Reading the adwomen blog this morning, I found out that the creative team behind the new ad, made by Saatchi and Saatchi NYC, contained no women. (The creative director of the first ad, Aimy Valentine, was not involved in the making of this ad).

The ladies over at the adwomen blog are right to pose the question: do we think it's noticeable that there was no women on the creative team for this ad? I'll let you decide that for yourself...



Valentine's Day - the British way.
And then there's this campaign, called "HardChorus" by Puma. As you know, this year Valentine's day fell on a Sunday, which in the UK means football. Puma found a very creative, tongue-in-cheek way to defuse the age-old field of tension between women and football. Enjoy!

To our moms we'll always be kids.

I just discovered this new ad by P&G that ties in with the winter Olympics taking place right now.
It's a great example of a very simple yet very effective ad that targets women - be they mothers or not.

As you'll see in the video below, the ad centers on the concept of Olympic athletes always remaining kids to their moms.

The ad works beautifully for a few reasons:

1. We can all relate to always being a kid in the eyes of our parents.

2. The Olympic athlete that is also just someone's kid: it's a disarmingly gentle concept that stands in stark contrast to the cut-throat competitive nature of the Olympics.

3. Many different types of women will be able to relate to it, for even if they are not moms, they are still someone's daughter.

4. It's human, it's honest, it's simple, it's real. And those are just about all the qualities most of us (women as well as men) are attracted to after years of global capitalism and consumerism-at-all-cost.

Sexist Super Bowl ads.

Oops they did it again!

The ladies over at Momlogic.com give us a look at this year's misplaced Super Bowl ads.
It's interesting to note that Dove - for years at the vanguard of gender equality and a beacon of light in the banishment of stereotypes - is on the list too!

Dove recently launched Dove Men+Care a range of personal care products for men. With it, Dove again uses positioning based on gender peer identification to attract men to the brand. I understand why the ladies at momlogic.com don't particularly like the Dove Super Bowl ad (nor do the guys over at Guardian.co.uk, by the way). It's not original nor creative, and it does go through the whole list of stereotypes - for both genders - in less than a minute. But it does have a positive, empowering take-away, so we'll give them credit for that.

Come on Dove, we're still looking to you to go beyond the standard cut-and-paste approach, to inspire us and to break new ground! Don't loose us now!

How to appeal to Hot Chicks (101).

I'm back from my Africa-adventure and ready to dive back into the wonderful world of marketing and marketing-to-women!

What a better way to start off again than by reintroducing Sarah Haskins and her "Target Women" spoof project. Sarah has been in the news lately as "the girl that takes on ad men". Incase you don't know Sarah, she's the lady who puts all the silly, misguided advertising aimed at women back into perspective.Sarah first made headlines in marketing-to-women land with this spoof on yogurt "the food of all women".


Here is her latest spoof "Hot Chicks!"

The marshmellow test and what it teaches us

Watch kids illustrate what happens when one pre-activates the "goal conflict mechanism" in relation to eating when an eating opportunity presents itself. Next time you can't resist that donut, you know why: goal conflict!

Here you can find an interesting study conducted at the University of Leuven on " The Effect of Prior Food Temptation Actionability on Goal Activation and Consumption"

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

Why you need to learn to quieten the Lizard Brain - by Seth Godin

This video is not about marketing to women. It's about life, and reaching your full potential as human being. It's about why some people get stuck at just "thinking it" and others make it all the way to "doing it". Everyone should see this video.

With our Sunshine Shooters project, Inge and I are "shipping". In 23 days - on time and within budget! (watch the video to make sense of that one!)

Friday Fun: 5 Gold Lions at Cannes

I couldn't help but smile at this wonderful clip! Great tongue-in-cheek self promo from the Boondoggle team!