Women in Advertising

When you were a teenager, do you remember how it felt when the latest issue of your favorite magazine arrived in the mail? I love pouring over the pages, ogling all the fashion and beauty that was so far beyond my reach. 

Compared to now, there was a kind of innocence about media back then - we used to worship untouchable celebrities and models, which is so different to how we carry influencers and content creators in our pockets today. Advertising has become so personal and so clearly instinctual that we’re almost afraid to speak about it out loud. Hello Alexa. 

While I was looking up the history of women in advertising, I found a lot that made me chuckle. An exhibit at Duke University showcased ads with women being portrayed as essential workers while men went off to war in the 40s. That morphed into media showing women as the perfect housewife when the good ole boys came home. The explosion of feminism in the 70s made way for messages about freedom which quickly turned into women as sex symbols with the rise of the 1980s supermodel. What came from that is the idea that women can “do it all” - have a career, take care of the family, and be a stunning, sexy wife to boot. I feel like I can hear your eyes rolling.

The advent of the internet and social media has most certainly revolutionized advertising, and where a trend may have once held up for a decade, things are now changing in what feels like the blink of an eye. As both women and moms of absorbent children, it’s worth at least trying to keep up, right? So let’s find out more about what we are in for. 

With me today is Katie Keating, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Fancy, a New York City-based ad agency that works to empower brands to create meaningful, motivating connections with women. Katie co-founded Fancy in 2011 to change the way advertising works for women but also to help businesses communicate in a way that’s authentic to us as an audience.