Why are only women used to sell products?

I have always wondered why women are used to sell products, concepts & ideas. I mean, I am not against women making good money by smiling…but why should it always be women?

Amongst my girl friends (78% of whom have at some point or the other been my fiancées) there are two camps – one that is happy that women adorn all the billboards and the other that is upset over it. I can`t really decide my favorite camp because 39% of my ex-fiancées belong to each.

It is not just the billboards. Even corporate websites use women to sell – take Airtel`s website for example.

I feel pathetic about the advertisers using women on billboards, websites and magazine covers. What about the men? What is it that women have and we don`t? Now…don`t answer that one!

Don`t we look handsome? Are there no men who can cause highway accidents?

Some companies – and they are very few – do believe in the power of men and place photographs of good looking men on their billboards, websites & magazines. Take this company called Ouchmytoe Inc – they have a nice looking guy on their website.

I had plans of writing the second part of the art of farting but read an article a few minutes back which made me swerve like a lady driver and write on this topic.

According to the article, a pub in Halifax, Canada offended the ladies when it carried a billboard saying “Our waitress uniforms were designed way back when ‘harass’ was two words”. I wonder if you got the pun on ‘harass` …if you didn`t why don`t you jump into a glass of water?

I wonder why the Halifax women found it offending…..was it because no woman was shown on the billboard?

Just for the heck of it, have added some of the funniest billboards featuring women in this post. They are not my photographs 😉

By Jamshed V Rajan

Jammy, as Jamshed V Rajan is affectionately called, is a wannabe stand up comedian. He has a funny take on most things but documents only some of them. If you are interested in chatting up with him, do drop him an email at jv.rajan@gmail.com or message him at +919650080255.

14 replies on “Why are only women used to sell products?”

interesting metaphor here

made me swerve like a lady driver

and really, the question is not why women are used to sell products. I have a tough time figuring out why celebrities are used to sell products. especially those that are not even exclusive celebrity-kinda products. naked women sellin beer isn’t any more puzzling than movie stars selling soap!

I guess Jayne got it right. Men look at women (well, most of them at least). And women look at women too – probably to find how they fare in competition (how well they dress, look etc). The other reason is that most products are aimed at men (who decide or influence major time in the purchase) and men look at women. The other reason (that my marketing professor used) is that men get hooked looking at physical attributes, while women don’t get turned on with physical attributes of men. Guess I’ve got very serious here!

lol. I’ve been meaning to write about this very thing, you stole it before I could get around to it :P. It’s tantamount to using a sleek car with crisp angular lines to advertise an Adult Show, don’t you think? 😉 Still on the lookout for billboard like that; haven’t given up hope yet…

-g

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