Real You: Here We Go Again . . . Honey, Clothes Make the Girl

Posted on | August 22, 2008 |

By Kaira Sturdivant Rouda

For those of you who are moms—and for those of you marketing to moms—it’s that special time of year where our summer schedules are ripped to shreds and we gear up for the BIG CHANGE. School. While some moms celebrate, like the fellow football mom on the sidelines last night who told me she was happy because back-to-school was when her summer starts, others like me see it a bit differently. How in the world will I get all of these schedules aligned, kids picked up, school clothes and supplies purchased, sports uniforms signed for, teacher forms completed, and still have some semblance of a work life? Fortunately, my work team is understanding, and my husband relatively helpful.

But we all know who makes the purchases (me/moms) with an average spend of $590 per household on back-to-school items, who sets the house schedule (me/moms), and who holds the stress (me/moms).

So the last thing I need—with higher prices on all things I buy and less time than ever—is condescending advertising served up to me in my moments of high stress. (I can handle it better when it’s not times of big change, just a note to the boys/men who comprise 85 percent of the big ad agency creative departments nationwide.)

Wal-Mart, who follows only amazon.com as the retail beneficiary of the most back-to-school spending nationally, stepped into my stress with a particularly troubling spot featuring a mom standing weirdly in the hallway of a high school talking about all of the things she can’t do (What? She does everything, remember?) for her teenage daughter. As we watch, the daughter finds the right friends because she has the right yellow shirt. The shirt also appears in a poignant moment as the girl stares into the bathroom mirror and feels confident because she is wearing it.

A second spot shows the mom of a boy sitting in his class again talking about all the things she can’t do for him, but he excels in class and gets applause for his presentation because he is smart and has a laptop. The mom ends by saying: “I love my job.” Her job, I guess, being to not do anything except spend money to buy said computer. Clearly, she isn’t working as she is lurking in her son’s classroom all day.

Hmm. The more I see these ads, the more their gender stereotyping bothers me. My three boys care just as much about their clothes as my daughter, who also has a laptop because she’s smart.

Isn’t it time to get past messages about clothes making the girl popular? Huge advertisers with huge budgets can get creative, tap into today and bring me and my daughter empowering and inspiring back-to-school messages. I would welcome those. But I’m finished with being talked down to, and so is the next generation of purchasers: my daughter and her generation. Because, all they’ll “have to do, is be themselves”. And that’s not about what they wear.

By the way, according to my friends at Brand Keys, following amazon.com and Wal-Mart as beneficiaries of the consumer’s $590 average spend are: J. Crew, Foot locker, Target, Stride Rite, Staples, Nike, L.L. Bean and Radio Shack. So now you know.

Kaira Sturdivant Rouda is the creator of Real Living, the first national women-focused real-estate brand. She has more than 20 years of experience marketing to women and is the author of Real You Incorporated: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs. To learn more, visit www.RealYouIncorporated.com and join the community.

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