Margaret Thatcher had a famous quote: “If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.” So, with this being the women’s issue of The Media, I thought we could look at the role of the fairer sex in the advertising, media and communications industry, and just how things are changing.
In a global context, equality of the sexes has become just that. No longer are women fighting for equal rights, pay, and recognition. Faith Popcorn, the prime icon of “woman power”, puts it most succinctly, with these stats on the United States:
Women own 53% of stocks
Women-owned businesses have an annual turnover of US$2,3 trillion
Women employ 18,5-million workers
Some 8-million, or 33% of US firms, are owned by women
And it’s not just a US phenomenon – in Japan, for example, 4 out of 5 small business owners are women.
The above has had a major impact on how, where and to whom one markets a product. Take the retail jewellery sector. We still see the ads of the adoring husband tearfully placing extraordinarily expensive diamonds on the hand of his beloved. Wrong! In 1993, for the first time, women in fact bought more jewellery than men. Much as men reward themselves with a new putter, so successful women (often not encumbered by a spouse) reward themselves with a precious bauble. But the marketing community just haven’t caught on —and it’s ten years later.
Advertising and communications has had to adapt rapidly to the changing circumstances of the past few decades. More women are working, deciding and spending. They are voracious consumers of media. So too has TV programming had to adjust. To give just one example – how come the most feared, controversial, uncompromising, acerbic TV personality today is not some hard-nosed TV talk show host, but a tiny red-haired English woman, Anne Robinson, whose catch phrase “You are the weakest link” is now entrenched as a saying worldwide?
The magazine publishing industry also clearly demonstrates the trend. There would in fact be no industry without female titles, and there must be at least 5 female interest magazines surviving very profitably to every one that’s aimed at a predominantly male audience. And from O to Glamour to Heat to Seventeen, they just keep coming onto the market.
Further, if one examines the make-up of the communications firms in South Africa, it becomes really clear that women dominate. A number of the largest advertising agencies now have women directing and orchestrating the business. Just look at The Media Shop as an example – over 80% of our staff complement are female, and almost half our board. And we’re certainly not unusual.
But why has this all happened? One can look at societal, educational or financial reasons, but personally I don’t buy any of them. I’m pretty certain that the reason is very simple – women ended up “getting” the essence of men. Understanding exactly what made them tick. And then not telling us! And how do I know this? From Barbara Bush (remember George W’s matronly, white-haired mom?) She let the cat out the bag when she opined: “Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks, or where he lives. But he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is!”
So the ladies have finally taken their equal place in society? Nope, I have to conclude they’ve actually gone too far. The jobs were fine. The equal pay was fine. The vote was fine. The Ms. not Mrs was fine. But could they not leave men just one thing that was sacred? I mean, do we really have to have a SA Woman’s Rugby team?
Harry Herber is group managing director of The MediaShop