Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

The old and the beautiful: senior women’s exposure to models in advertisements and the impact on their identity

The old and the beautiful: senior women’s exposure to models in advertisements and the impact on... This study aims to examine how exposure to female models in advertisements can create identity tensions in senior women and how they manage the comparison and develop different adaptation strategies to deal with these tensions.Design/methodology/approachThis research is based on a qualitative approach involving 27 in-depth interviews with French women aged 60 to 79. Photo-elicitation with choice of models as reference points by respondents was used to capture comparison strategies with regard to models.FindingsInterviews with senior women confirm that identity tensions due to appearance arise in the context of ageing, particularly when senior women are faced with advertising models. Three reactions of senior women to identity tensions are described, namely, avoiding comparison to protect the self, engaging in comparison despite its resulting devaluation of the self, proceeding to a positive comparison that reinforces their identity. This paper finds that comparison modalities are specific to each strategy.Research limitations/implicationsThis research opens the way to further investigation, especially with regard to understanding social comparison mechanisms in an advertising context for senior women targets.Practical implicationsThis paper raises awareness of the effects of senior women’s exposure to advertising on their self-perception in the context of ageing. It provides practical guidance to advertising professionals on the use of models in ads when targeting senior women and helps marketing managers in their communication strategies.Social implicationsThis research reveals pronounced identity tensions in relation to appearance among senior women in the context of advertising exposure. By providing more diverse models, advertising representations could help to improve the identity perceptions of senior women.Originality/valueVery few studies have hitherto investigated identity effects on senior female consumers of female model usage in advertising. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Consumer Marketing Emerald Publishing

The old and the beautiful: senior women’s exposure to models in advertisements and the impact on their identity

Download PDF
10 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/the-old-and-the-beautiful-senior-women-s-exposure-to-models-in-0VJ0BQS46m
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
0736-3761
DOI
10.1108/jcm-07-2019-3324
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This study aims to examine how exposure to female models in advertisements can create identity tensions in senior women and how they manage the comparison and develop different adaptation strategies to deal with these tensions.Design/methodology/approachThis research is based on a qualitative approach involving 27 in-depth interviews with French women aged 60 to 79. Photo-elicitation with choice of models as reference points by respondents was used to capture comparison strategies with regard to models.FindingsInterviews with senior women confirm that identity tensions due to appearance arise in the context of ageing, particularly when senior women are faced with advertising models. Three reactions of senior women to identity tensions are described, namely, avoiding comparison to protect the self, engaging in comparison despite its resulting devaluation of the self, proceeding to a positive comparison that reinforces their identity. This paper finds that comparison modalities are specific to each strategy.Research limitations/implicationsThis research opens the way to further investigation, especially with regard to understanding social comparison mechanisms in an advertising context for senior women targets.Practical implicationsThis paper raises awareness of the effects of senior women’s exposure to advertising on their self-perception in the context of ageing. It provides practical guidance to advertising professionals on the use of models in ads when targeting senior women and helps marketing managers in their communication strategies.Social implicationsThis research reveals pronounced identity tensions in relation to appearance among senior women in the context of advertising exposure. By providing more diverse models, advertising representations could help to improve the identity perceptions of senior women.Originality/valueVery few studies have hitherto investigated identity effects on senior female consumers of female model usage in advertising.

Journal

Journal of Consumer Marketing – Emerald Publishing

Published: Jun 29, 2021

Keywords: Senior; Ageing; Model; Advertising; Identity; Social comparison

References

  • When feeling younger depends on others: the effects of social cues on older consumers
    Amatulli, C.; Peluso, A.; Guido, G.; Yoon, C.
  • Take your pick: kate moss or the girl next door? The effectiveness of cosmetics advertising
    Antioco, M.; Smeesters, D.; Le Boedec, A.
  • The subjective importance of being religious and its effect on health and morale 14 years later
    Atchley, R.C.
  • Alternative age measures: a research agenda
    Barak, B.; Gould, S.; Hirschman, E.C.; Holbrook, M.B.
  • Who are you calling old? Negotiating old age identity in the elderly consumption ensemble
    Barnhart, M.; Peñaloza, L.
  • Possessions and the extended self
    Belk, R.W.
  • Changes in status and age identification
    Blau, Z.S.
  • Evidence that social comparison with the thin ideal affects implicit self-evaluation
    Bocage-Barthélémy, Y.; Selimbegovic, L.; Chatard, A.
  • The advertising performance of non-ideal female models as a function of viewers' body mass index: a moderated mediation analysis of two competing affective pathways
    Borau, S.; Bonnefon, J.F.
  • The self-deceived consumer: women’s emotional and attitudinal reactions to the airbrushed thin ideal in the absence versus presence of disclaimers
    Borau, S.; Nepomuceno, M.V.
  • Les effets des modèles retouchés par ordinateur sur l’évaluation du produit et sur l’estime de soi des jeunes filles
    Borgès, A.
  • Older women’s relations to bodily appearance: the embodiment of social and biological conditions of existence
    Dumas, A.; Laberge, S.; Straka, S.
  • Mirror, mirror: national identity and the pursuit of beauty
    El Jurdi, H.; Smith, S.
  • A theory of social comparison processes
    Festinger, L.
  • Are we there yet? Data saturation in qualitative research
    Fusch, P.I.; Ness, L.R.
  • Jeunes: les stigmatisations de l’apparence
    Galland, O.
  • Growing up with television: Cultivation processes
    Gerbner, G.; Gross, L.; Morgan, M.; Signorielli, N.; Shanahan, J.; Bryant, J.; Zillmann, D.
  • Context effects on older consumers’ cognitive age: the role of hedonic versus utilitarian goals
    Guido, G.; Amatulli, C.; Peluso, A.M.
  • Antecedents of subjective age biases among senior women
    Guiot, D.
  • The nature and influence of ageing process on the older consumer behaviour: a theoritical framework
    Guiot, D.
  • Talking about pictures: a case for photo elicitation
    Harper, D.
  • Social comparison goals and the consumption of advertising: towards a more contingent view of young women's consumption of advertising
    Hogg, M.K.; Fragou, A.
  • Facial attractiveness signals different aspects of quality in women and men
    Hume, D.K.; Montgomerie, R.
  • An investigation into the ‘match-up’ hypothesis in celebrity advertising: when beauty may be only skin deep
    Kamins, M.A.
  • Processes of opinion change
    Kelman, H.C.
  • Self-perceptions of aging: do subjective age and satisfaction with aging change during old age?
    Kleinspehn-Ammerlahn, A.; Kotter-Grühn, D.; Smith, J.
  • La vieillesse et ses masques. Quelle place pour le corps âgé dans le maintien de la subjectivité?
    Macia, E.; Chapuis, N.
  • Sampling for qualitative research
    Marshall, M.N.
  • Sample size and saturation in PhD studies using qualitative interviews
    Mason, M.
  • Life-changing events and marketing opportunities
    Mathur, A.; Lee, E.; Moschis, G.P.
  • Retired adults’ motivations to travel: the influence of aging studied through the theory of gerotranscendence
    Moal-Ulvoas, G.
  • Determining sample size
    Morse, J.M.
  • Denying diversity: perceptions of beauty and social comparison processes among Latina, black, and white women
    Poran, M.A.
  • Are portrayals of female beauty in advertising finally changing?
    Pounders, K.
  • Writing: a method of inquiry
    Richardson, L.; Pierre, E.A.; Denzin, N.K.; Lincoln, Y.S.
  • Social comparison and the idealized images of advertising
    Richins, M.L.
  • Materialism, transformation expectations, and spending: implications for credit use
    Richins, M.L.
  • The role of labeling processes in elderly consumers' responses to age segmentation cues
    Tepper, K.
  • The role of social comparison in the effect of magazine advertisements on women’s mood and body dissatisfaction
    Tiggemann, M.; McGill, B.
  • Triangulation in practice
    Turner, P.; Turner, S.
  • A cross-country construct validation of cognitive age
    Van Auken, S.; Barry, T.E.; Bagozzi, R.P.
  • La négociation identitaire des personnes âgées dans un contexte de mobilité. Le cas des voyages en train
    Welté, J.B.
  • Cognition, persuasion and decision making in older consumers
    Yoon, C.; Laurent, G.; Fung, H.H.; Gonzalez, R.; Gutchess, A.H.; Hedden, T.; Skurnik, I.
  • Integrating social psychology and aging research: toward a social-developmental theory of behavior
    Zebrowitz, L.; Montepare, J.