Posted on 11/19/2008 5:53:45 PM PST by MyTwoCopperCoins
LONDON: The golden rule of advertising - thin models lure more people towards the product - is actually a misconception, claims a new research. The study revealed that skinny models are a ‘turn off’ to consumers in TV commercials and other advertising.
According to scientists, images of super-thin models carry no edge in encouraging young women to buy and for the majority of adult women ads showing skinny girls actually discouraged sales whereas plus size models encouraged them to buy, the study found.
To reach the conclusion, the study psychologist Phillippa Diedrichs, of the University of Queensland, Australia, created a series of ads for underwear, shampoo and a party dress.
Each ad was made twice, once using a skinny size eight model and another featuring a size 12 woman. When the ads were shown to 400 young women, they produced no difference in the likelihood for them to buy.
However, when women aged between 18 and 25 saw the adverts they felt better - and more likely to buy - after viewing the images of the larger models.
"For anything to change, research has to be convincing, not just to government and health researchers, but also to people in advertising who actually make the decisions," the Telegraph quoted Diedrichs, as saying.
"Often people make the argument that thinness sells, and that’’s why they use slim models.
"But we can change the images we see and still sell products but also make people feel better about themselves," the expert added.
There have been concerted campaigns against the ultra-thin "size zero" with fashion weeks in Madrid and Milan banning models from the catwalk who were of a weight deemed unhealthy by the Body Mass Index measure.
Not ironically, probably the best model to sell products to both women and men would be the “ideal fertility body shape”.
It was noted that particular torso proportions and shape are seen by both men as women as the “most fertile” female shape. Men see that shape as most likely for reproduction, and women see that shape as a strong competitor. Surprisingly, not a competitor to dislike, but a competitor to pay attention to.
“Large-breasted, narrow-waisted women have the highest reproductive potential, according to a new study, suggesting western men’s penchant for women with an hourglass shape may have some biological justification.
Women with a relatively low waist-to-hip ratio and large breasts had about 30 per cent higher levels of the female reproductive hormone estradiol than women with other combinations of body shapes, found Grazyna Jasienska, at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland and colleagues.”
Stevie Wonder trying to grab her ass ?
Each ad was made twice, once using a skinny size eight model and another featuring a size 12 woman. When the ads were shown to 400 young women, they produced no difference in the likelihood for them to buy. However, when women aged between 18 and 25 saw the adverts they felt better - and more likely to buy - after viewing the images of the larger models.
Since when is size 12 a plus size?
Spinal Tap bump
Will someone give this person a cracker.
You know what else designers don’t want to do? They don’t want to design wedding gowns (or any gowns for that matter) with SLEEVES.
It’s harder to do, and it doesn’t use as much fabric. Meanwhile, brides who wish to get married in church have to jump through hoops got find a decent dress. Or they have to have a tailor tack on an awful-looking “sleeve” made of chiffon or something.
Thank heavens I was married when you could get a “church wedding” dress.
Regards,
PS: By “decent” I don’t mean a dowdy sack. I mean like...uh...Grace Kelly’s dress. You simply cannot find them today. I feel sorry for today’s brides who wish to be more modest than what’s readily available today.
The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand Or so I have read.
“The golden rule of advertising - thin models lure more people towards the product - is actually a misconception”
No models lure people toward any product, unless they’re from the same pool as voters for Al Franken. And in the case of Franken, they must have poor eyesight as well.
I am so sick of these tube dresses with satin and satin gloves. Looks so cheap.
I agree; when I was a model (really..lol), for some reason the designers of wedding gowns LOVED me and hired me often for runway shows.
I HATED those shiny satin dresses. You better not have one single flaw, or it will be seen. Even at 6 ft tall and 120 pounds (then), if you had eaten a PEA it would show in those things. Fortunately, that wasn’t really the style then and I didn’t have to do it often.
My own dress was of raw silk, not shiny at all, with an extended cathedral train. I’d buy the same dress today, with one modification: While it didn’t have overly puffy sleeves, I would nevertheless decrease the amount of mutton in the mutton leg. ;)
Regards,
The idea is that they're supposed to be basically clothes hangers- designers don't want girls with too many curves to mess up the intended look of the clothes.
b/c I sure don’t see the sex-appeal in a lot of the famous fashion models who need to seriously pack on some weight.
Runway models are showing clothes that are being sold to women, not men- the consideration of whether they are sexually attractive to men isn't all that high on the list of factors.
Those satin gloves they have are so tawdry. Real ladies wore kidskin gloves and the tarts the shiny ones. I mean, when you look at what type of gloves were worn at the opera compared to the gloves sold today...
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