This article will attempt to answer the research question: "What effects are social changes having on the way advertising agencies market to women?" » through the compilation and use of various secondary sources, both academic and non-academic. This topic was chosen because gender representations have been an important and in-depth subject of analysis over the past five decades and continue to be so today. Both genders were often portrayed in stereotypical molds, in advertisements throughout the 1900s, with the change in family structures and the increase in women entering the workforce beginning to affect not only society in as a whole, but also the advertisements that reflect their audience. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay. How stereotypes may have changed over time and what movements and campaigns affected these changes in advertisements will all be discussed. In recent years, more and more advertisements are aimed at the modern woman, often called “advertising” (Grau L. and Zotos C., 2016). This shows the importance of studying how and why wider society affects marketing strategies, and how marketers can use this knowledge to their advantage to create engaging advertisements and increase attention to their brand or to their product. In the digital age, failing to make advertisements that follow social guidelines will result in consumers holding the organization accountable via social media. Advertising is generally reflective of wider society and is often seen as the basis for negative stereotypes of women. (Grau, SL, Roselli, G. and Taylor, CR, 2007). Studying how societal changes have affected the way advertisers market to women is an important topic as the majority of products are marketed to the female population and represent over 50% of the total segmentation in the UK; surpassing the male population of “around 893,000” at the end of 2016 (Statista, 2017). In the past and in recent, albeit fewer, advertisements, both sexes have been featured in advertisements in more traditional roles; women do the cleaning or cooking and men in the workplace or repair the car. As women enter the workforce, with an increase of 53% between 1971 and 2013 (Ons.gov.uk, 2013), the feminist movement is brought to the forefront, along with changes in family structure , advertisements also had to adapt (Grau L. and Zotos C., 2016). More and more advertisements show women in more empowered roles, sexually liberated and enjoying more freedom. However, the sexually liberated role is also seen as another stereotype of women, the “seductress” (Holtzhausen, Jordaan, & North, 2011) used by advertisements to attract attention through the use of sexual images of women. the change in attitude towards women was the feminist, or suffrage, movement. The first wave began with the right to vote in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, bringing the idea that women could work and vote alongside men. However, this was initially reserved for upper-class women who owned their own property or wealth. The second wave began in the 1960s, when they began advocating forsocial rights of women are equal to those of men (Kroløkke and Sørensen, 2006). Of course, even though there were social changes, advertising agencies were still behind in this area. the method they used to attract female consumers. Stereotypical, if not downright degrading, advertisements such as a 1963 advertisement for a juicer with the caption "Does anything but clean, that's what women are for" continued to run until 1982. Rena Bartos, a woman who worked at the J. Walter Thompson Company as a senior vice president, was one of the earliest and most influential advocates for better marketing to female consumers. Bartosa published "The Moving Target" in 1982, which brought to the forefront the changing economic and social status of women in society. Bartos emphasized that women were not a single collective mind and “should not be viewed, approached, or solicited as an undifferentiated mass” (Bartos, 1982). (Figure 1. Dyer, 2014) In 1970, the Equal Pay Act (Legislation.gov.uk, nd) was passed in the United Kingdom, thanks to the collective efforts of everyone involved in trying to achieve equality treatment of women around the world. workplace. To continue, as more women worked and were released, there was a shift in family roles and changes in family dynamics. There were more same-sex couples and single-parent households, instead of the traditional nuclear family, which had an effect on society as a whole (McRae, 1999). Advertisements had to adapt to the changing roles of women and move away from submissive roles where women simply cleaned, prepared meals for the family or were submissive to their husbands. To continue, we are referring to the new wave of advertisers who market directly to women. as “advertising” (Grau and Zotos, 2016). As more and more organizations adopt the image of being pro-gender equality, they are being held accountable for their actions. Making a mistake in an advertisement, by having sexist images for example, in the digital age, will ultimately force the company to assume the consequences. A recent Co-op advert for its Fairtrade chocolate egg, emblazoned with the words 'Be a Good Egg'. Call your daughter out for doing the dishes” (Dray, 2017); led to a massive reaction. Pervasive pressure from Twitter and other social media platforms led the cooperative to remove its advertising and apologize for using stereotypical and sexist language. Finally, campaigns like Dove's "Real Beauty" (Dove UK, 2004) and Always a Girl's "Like" (Always.co.uk, 2014) were marketed directly to women and paved the way for others to advertisers to follow suit in how they handled advertising. The Dove campaign was a breakthrough in marketing to women of all types of backgrounds, including all body types and skin colors in their advertising. Not only did they improve women's confidence, but they also significantly increased their approval ratings and sales figures (Word of Mouth and Referral Marketing Blog, 2015), illustrating that advertising aimed at women, if it is done correctly, it pays off. The question that will be explored in this article is "what effects are social changes having on the way advertising agencies target women?" » This choice was made due to the volatile nature of the advertising industry, which changes the basic content of its advertisements to reflect wider society, depending on the country in which they market. This subject has been and still is analyzed around the worldwhole, as advertisements generally reflect. society and the values ​​they hold, and now, due to the digital age, every country is able to see advertisements and holds organizations accountable for almost all their marketing exploits. The following four objectives were determined to provide a baseline for attempting to answer the research question noted above: Investigate the different ways advertisers market to women. Evaluate the evolution of how advertisers have and continue to market to women. Explore how stereotypes about women in advertising may have changed. Determine what movements and campaigns may have affected the change in the way women are marketed. The data collection for this article consists of secondary research compiled from various academic and non-academic sources. The document will include a compilation of various qualitative data to best relay the information in an attempt to answer the research question. Information was collected from sources such as statistical and government databases, journal articles, and non-academic publications such as news articles. The research is descriptive to describe changes in society and the effect these changes have had, and continue to have, on advertising agencies and the way they market to women. To ensure the reliability of the research, the majority of works used were published works, with any other information relayed being facts, figures or ideas that could have advanced the research. This article discusses the different ways advertisers market to women and women. how they often depict them in their advertisements. Major changes in society over the past decades that have influenced the way advertisers market to the market were also studied, to highlight the evolution of advertising agencies' marketing strategies. Additionally, stereotypes are a common theme across all demographics in advertisements, with stereotypes about women and how they have changed or remained quite similar over the years being discussed in more depth. Finally, the major movements and campaigns that generated change in society and paved the way for more modern advertisements were deliberate. To obtain accurate figures on the growing number of female workers and consumers, as well as other necessary figures, both Statista and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) were used. Since this is a government source and they use market research, among other valuable data, updated almost daily; To collect information for individual statistics, the data used in this document is both reliable and valid. As mentioned, there was a 53% increase in the number of women in the workplace between 1971 and 2013 (Ons.gov.uk, 2013). . This was mainly due to the second wave of feminism in the 1960s, which advocated equal treatment of both sexes in the workplace. The Equal Pay Act 1970 (Legislation.gov.uk, nd) also made women feel freer in the workplace, as they received the same pay for the same work as their male counterparts. from the International Journal of Advertising under the title “Gender Stereotypes in Advertising: A Review of Current Research” (Grau and Zotos, 2016). This secondary literature presents research most similar to the contentdiscussed in this article, with details and research conducted on the stereotypes of how women are portrayed in advertisements over the past five decades. The research was conducted in the United States, allowing comparisons to be made with other countries such as the United Kingdom. The information was used to compare how stereotypes have slowly changed due to external factors within society as a whole and how, in recent years, advertising agencies have appealed directly to all different types of women. Another documentary source used in this article was under the title "The Representation of Women in South African Television Advertisements" (Holtzhausen, Jordaan and North, 2011). This was used to highlight the assertion that women in Advertisements are not only stereotyped as housewives or babysitters, but are also placed in gender roles to attract consumers and sell products in greater numbers. This research paper compares the roles of Western countries like. the United States and Europe, and Eastern countries such as China and Thailand, to the roles of women in South African advertisements It was found that one of the most prevalent roles played by. women in advertisements was that of “seductress” (Holtzhausen, Jordaan and North, 2011), after the role of housewife and childcare No previous research has been conducted specifically in South Africa on the representations. women in advertisements. This is therefore a major step forward in the discovery and comparison with the functioning of advertising agencies in other countries. To discuss movements that affected society and their treatment of women, the suffrage and feminist movement must be discussed. Taken from “Three Waves of Feminism” (Kroløkke and Sørensen, 2006), a detailed summary of the effects that feminism has had on the advertising industry and society as a whole has been detailed. From the early days of suffrage to modern feminism in 2006, all have had an impact on the way society views and treats women. And advertising agencies have had to adapt to these changes or risk losing potential consumers and, in the digital age, risking their image and brand as they are held responsible for all sexist or demeaning advertisements. The book titled “The Moving Target” (Bartos, 1982) highlighted the fact that women were individuals with completely distinct thoughts, wants and needs. Before this book was published, advertising agencies were at the forefront of society as a whole in accepting that the roles of women and men were changing. After the book was published, they began to change their methods to keep up with the younger generations, as they rejected businesses that were established in their old ways and instead looked to more modern businesses. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, there was a shift from an economy based on manufacturing to one based on the provision of services, which allowed more women to find work and to reduce the number of men in employment (McRae, 1999). McRae (1999) discusses these changes in his book “Changing Britain. Families and Households in the 1990s,” which also contains details on evolving family roles and changes in family dynamics. One example is that there were more same-sex couples and single-parent households, instead of the traditional nuclear family, because it was much less stigmatized than before; all of which had an effect on thesociety as a whole. As there were more women in the workplace, including in advertising agencies, they had more influence over how advertisements aimed at women were marketed. Even though they didn't yet have much authority to direct individual ads, it was a step in the right direction toward equality. All the mentioned movements have brought us to the current era where direct marketing advertisements aimed at women are called "advertising". (Grau and Zotos, 2016). Grau and Zotos compare the way both sexes are represented in current advertisements to those of the past. They found that men are portrayed in gentler roles and caring for children, for example. And in contrast, more women are being portrayed in roles of empowerment and sexual liberation. This research provided insight for this article that stereotypes were not only changing among women, but also among men. Grau and Zotos stressed the importance of having diverse ads and paying attention to other segments that might have been ignored in the past. This can include for example LGBT people, which will actually bring attention to different types of people within society; normalizing all different types of individuals. Dray (2017) was used in this article to illustrate the type of consequences that could happen to an organization that uses sexist images or words in the digital age. They used the Co-op example for their Fairtrade chocolate egg advert to show that consumers will not indulge in degrading or sexist language. There was undue pressure on Twitter and other social media platforms, which reached the cooperative, which was forced to remove its advertising or face further consequences. Since all consumers are able to communicate and view all of a company's marketing offerings online and share their thoughts across countries, organizations must ensure that their poor marketing choices are not ones that propagate. This can lead to a decrease in respect for the organization's name and will decrease the quality of the brand image. In direct contrast are two companies that have marketed so well to women that their brand equity has increased significantly and they are one of the most trusted organizations within. their industry. The two organizations are Dove and Always, which paved the way for great advertisements that included women of all types and empowered them at the same time. The Word of Mouth Marketing and SEO Blog (2015) was used to demonstrate that marketing directly to women, if done well, will increase an organization's approval rating. It was found that after the airing of Dove and Always advertisements, women's overall confidence improved and their sales figures expanded significantly compared to before the advertisements aired. Through the investigation into the different ways advertising agencies market to women, it is clear that women view ads more favorably that do not categorize all women in exactly the same way, who like and use the same products. The Dove campaign is a great example of a company being inclusive of all body types and skin colors, elevating all women instead of just a few. More organizations should take this into account when marketing directly to women. Clothing advertisers, for example, should include more diverse body types and models, to show which.