by Judy Neer
23. September 2009 06:52
There are two recent articles in AdAge about retouched images. The first “French Lawmakers Want Warnings on Airbrushed Photos” (AdAge 9/21) and the second “The Gulf Between Ads and Reality Captures on German Website” (AdAge 9/22).
Does reality appeal to consumers?
Marketers strive to find that perfect balance of rational and emotional and part of that emotional connection is aspiration. Consumers want to see something they desire to have, but it also has to feel somewhat attainable. In recent memory, one ad campaign that showed reality, and celebrated it, was Dove Real Beauty. Much was written about this and the fact that its success proved you could use more “real” people to sell a product. While the campaign was breakthrough and brilliant, the extraordinary initial sales growth numbers have declined since the launch in ’04 (AdAge 9/24/07).
One has to wonder, should more marketers take this leap or does reality not a sustainable appeal? Each marketers need to look to their consumers to answer this questions because there isn’t a one size fits all answer to retouching.
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