"Hey!" says comedian Sarah Haskins, as she dumps an array of Yoplait, Activia and Dannon onto a table at the beginning of a viral video. "Why am I holding all this yogurt? Because I'm a woman. And yogurt is the official food of women."
Marisa Meltzer uses a post at The Daily Beast to put the three-minute satire into context: "Haskins is a comedian and culture critic whose short-but-sweet segments called 'Target Women' on Current TV's Infomania have already become a kind of girly Daily Show, making fun of the many merciless ways consumer products are marketed to women."
Haskins pulls no punches in her critique of female-oriented yogurt ads. While running clips from TV spots in which two female friends kvell over the wonderful qualities of their yogurt, Haskins nods enthusiastically in faux agreement while spooning some into her mouth. "Say more stuff I generically relate to!" she says.
She then switches back to commentary mode. "Yogurt eaters come from every race, but just one socioeconomic class. The class that wears gray hoodies. It's the 'I have a master's but then I got married' look," explains Haskins. And it will come as no surprise that they all seem to have another stereotype in common. "These ladies are on diets," she says with heavy emphasis.
There's some more fun before Haskins concludes with this scathing summation. "Yogurt," she says. "What else could a woman possibly need?" And this leads directly to your Marketing Inspiration. When using advertising clichés to reach women, be aware that some in your audience won't appreciate such an obvious approach.
More Inspiration:
Jeanne Bliss: Chips For Humanity: How Frito-Lay Earns Market Share
Paul Barsch: When Strategic Planning Gets Locked in the Basement
Paul Dunay: When Will Amazon Go Social?
by Christina "CK" Kerley
Comments
by Andrea Learned Fri Jul 31, 2009
Oh my, Sarah's satire is incredibly telling and watching her Target: Women segments would be very helpful education for anyone marketing to women. In a way - she is making this "Don't Think Pink" idea more accessible to the many brands that still don't seem to quite get it (why this is so difficult a concept, I have no idea - but I'm looking into it!). You can tell the best practice stories till the cows come home, but it doesn't absorb or translate to other brands/industries (i.e. everyone's holding up Dove as the ultimate example of successful marketing to women - except, their approach can't simply be cut and pasted onto other products...) The worst case/you flubbed it big examples - like the ones Haskins' shares, REALLY get the point across. For more on what Target: Women teaches, check out my April 1st post: http://learnedonwomen.com/2009/04/lessons-target-women/