Taking
ADvantage
Me, Myself and I: Self-Esteem and
Advertising
Part Three of a Three Part Series
by
Richard F. Taflinger, PhD
This
page has been accessed since
29 May 1996.
For further readings, I suggest going to the Media and Communications Studies website.
This continues the discussion of how self-esteem can help a person. If you have not read Parts One and Two, I suggest doing that first.
SELF-ESTEEM IN ADVERTISING
Clearly, for advertising to use the subconscious appeal to self-esteem, it must use different strategies depending on whether the target audience is male or female.
Ads
aimed at men will show how the product or service will allow the purchaser to
raise his status in his hierarchy. For example, some business machine (copiers,
computers, etc.) commercials will have one man accomplishing something well by
using the product. He then refuses to tell how he did it. This places him in a
superior position that he maintains through secrecy. The aim of the commercial
is to sell the product to men who would like to do the same.
Personal grooming products, such as deodorants, colognes, shaving aids, hair coloring, etc., are also sold using self-esteem through improving appearance. Most of these ads use the idea of drawing the attention of attractive women, of increasing sex appeal and sexual success (and thus self-esteem) because of a smoother face, sexier smell, or younger-looking hair. An interesting point about that last: some ads emphasize that the change from grey to natural looking hair color occurs gradually. For many men there is a loss in self-esteem if people know they are insecure about their appearance, which would be obvious if they suddenly went from grey to dark hair. By having the change occur gradually they not only get what they consider a better appearance, but other people won't notice such a slow change. Thus there's no conflict in self-esteem.
Occasionally hair coloring ads will imply having grey hair can be detrimental to a man's job. That is, if he looks old he won't be considered for an assignment, a promotion, or even a job. This approach depends on a man believing that "young is better" or that employers discriminate against older people.
Other products, such as memory aids, learning methods, or "stay in school" public service announcements also use self-esteem as an appeal. The implication of these ads is that a person can achieve a superior position in knowledge or intelligence, to know more or synthesize better than other people.
The point is, the ads directed at men that use self-esteem as an appeal are showing how the product or service can raise the purchaser's position in a hierarchy. They will be more attractive, more intelligent, richer, stronger, younger, but certainly in some way superior to others.
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Ads aimed at women will show how the purchase of the product or service will enhance their connection with those people with whom they wish a bond. For example, there is an ad for a weight loss program. The woman says that she couldn't lose weight on other programs, and she was so fat that her kids couldn't even put their arms around her. However, the sponsor's product allowed her to lose the weight she wanted to. The implication is clear: using the product enhances the bond with the children, since they can now make a meaningful physical contact -- they can get their arms around her.
Many food products, which research shows are bought mostly by women, are sold to women by using self-esteem. As in the commercial at the top of the chapter, products such as coffee are shown as aids to connection through conversation. A recent coffee commercial opened with a husband and wife waking up, obviously uncomfortable with each other because of the unresolved fight of the night before. The man gets up and makes the coffee. When the woman arrives, they smile at each other over their cups -- they're back together, connected, and the coffee was the catalyst.
Other foods show how a woman can increase the love and closeness of her family and friends because she serves them the product. When the point of the product is its convenience, the ad often shows the woman using it, but pretending how much work she is doing. Thus, when she gives the food to her family, there is an outpouring of sympathy and love in return for her sacrifice for them. In any case, the product is not shown as making the woman superior as a cook or homemaker, but that it brings her closer to those that are important to her.
Personal grooming and hygiene ads, such as for cosmetics, hair coloring, skin creams and lotions, douches, napkins and tampons, etc., also use self-esteem through connection. Using cosmetics, hair coloring, and skin products aids appearance. A woman's physical appearance is often important to men in finding her attractive and wanting to be with her. Improving her appearance can bring the buyer closer to a loved one. It can also increase the number of men that she attracts, improving her possibilities of finding and getting a man that satisfies her criteria for a mate. The same applies to the reducing the appearance of age.
An unusual one is the use of connection in ads for feminine hygiene products. In these ads, the implication is that finding out about and using the product will bring you closer to someone else, often mother and daughter, sisters, or close female friends. The daughter will ask her mother about what she should do about a hygiene problem. Mom will share her knowledge and experience in a loving way. Thus, the sharing of such personal problems and solutions connects the two women. This connection carries over to the consumer's perception of the product. The two women represent all women, women who can understand and relate to the problem, and thus to the mother and daughter. As they now relate to the problem, they hear a solution given -- the product. The close bond between mother and daughter as they understand each other's very sensitive and personal needs is extended to a bond between them and the audience. The audience buys the product/solution because of the bonds of understanding and trust that have been established.
It is interesting to note that some products, designed for use by both men and women, almost exclusively show women as the users. One such product is adult diapers. The ads show women as the purchasers. This would seem strange were it not for the gender difference in regarding self-esteem. It is relatively easy to show how the product can help a woman connect with others; she can get closer, she can hug, she can be with them without worry. However, it is almost impossible to show how needing the diapers can make a man feel superior to others. On the contrary, the ads would remind him of his lack of control, and thus lower his self-esteem. That the lack of control is not his fault he wouldn't consider, only that he lacked it.
Types of ads
Two basic types of ads are used most often when the appeal is to self-esteem: the testimonial and the slice-of-life. The testimonial is common when there are real-life examples of the efficacy of a product to improve someone's esteem. The weight-loss program example above uses a testimonial, as the woman talks about her own experience, and thus became closer to her loved ones. However, testimonials aren't used a great deal for many products marketed to men. A testimonial shows how a person can be equal to, not superior to, the person giving the testimonial. Exceptions are ads for products that aim at increasing knowledge and intelligence or appearance. Superiority to the attestor is possible to achieve by applying the product or service to a greater extent or with greater ability. For example, products aimed at reducing baldness use ads that imply that the purchaser is already attractive. Using the product will simply make him more attractive, certainly more so than those "baldies" that don't use the product. Technical college or correspondence school ads imply that the attestor is doing so well because he used the service, and that the purchaser will do even better.
The second type of ad, the slice-of-life, is quite common when using self-esteem as an appeal. Since people base their self-esteem on finding their relative relationship with other people, the easiest way to show how a product fits into a relationship is to show people relating. That is the basis of the slice-of-life ad.
For ads aimed at women, the slice-of-life ad will show how using the product or service will provide connection (as in the feminine hygiene ads discussed above) or bring people closer together (as in the food product ads discussed above).
For ads aimed at men, the slice-of-life is also used, but shows men relating to each other in a hierarchical pattern. For example, they will argue, or engage in witty banter, but often use a conversational pattern that results in a game of oneupmanship or humorous put-downs. For example, the Dockers clothing ads have men engaging in such conversations.
Other slice-of-life ads could be called slice-of-death. The effectiveness of a product to provide superiority to those people using it can often be shown best by illustrating the consequences of not using the product, or of using an "inferior" (read, competition's) product instead. The implication is that using the sponsor's product will allow a purchaser to avoid these consequences, thus proving his superiority to those who don't use the product. For example, an AT&T commercial shows a consumer who went with the MCI Friends and Family© service. The man is then shown as criticized and ostracized by his "former" friends because his choice resulted in MCI pestering his friends to join the service also, for the man's advantage. The commercial ends with the man saying, "It's just not worth it."
SUMMARY
Self-esteem, unlike self-preservation, sex or greed, is to a large extent cultural rather than a biological factor in human behavior. However, a strong basis for human culture is human biology, particularly sex and greed. The appeal of self-esteem is thus a powerful influence on people.
Bear in mind that self-esteem is generally created and maintained differently for each gender: men find it in a hierarchy, women in connecting with others. Fortunately, unlike using the sex appeal in an ad, using self-esteem to appeal to one gender will rarely offend the other. Men may be confused, nonplused, or amused by an ad aimed at women, and vice versa, but not offended.
Nonetheless, people need self-esteem. It gives them the sense of self-worth that allows them to like themselves, like others, and find life worth living. By appealing to this need in people, advertising has a powerful tool for selling.
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