Appeals to the need to nurture in advertising

by Melissa Abourashad

From baby dolls to real babies, from caring for your puppy to caring for your family, from lip-gloss to lipstick, from dressing up Barbie to closets packed with designer clothes, females have the need for attention and the need to nurture from a very young age. Advertising understands the needs that females have and uses it to their advantage throughout a female’s life. From ads about taking care of your baby doll and the best new doll that actually drinks a bottle, to ads for the best formula that will keep your baby healthy, advertising knows how to read women and these needs are reflected in their ads. Due to the strong urge women are born with to receive attention and to nurture their friends and family advertising is able to sell products that fulfill these women’s needs from a very young age.

From a young age, advertisers try to implement the needs of girls into their advertisements. Beginning with the need to nurture, advertising uses commercials like ones for baby dolls to show little girls that they should play with babies and take care of them. From looking at the Toys R Us website, in just the first 2 years girls are introduced to baby Elmos, baby dolls and books entitled Guess How Much I Love You. In the range from 5-7 they are introduced to things like Barbie, and subsequently the color pink floods the screen. Although boys from the 5 to 7 age range are introduced immediately to Tonka trucks and action figures. The divide is so evident and it makes sense for advertisers to promote pink, dolls, and babies to girls. Due to this early upbringing of Barbie and baby dolls girls immediately begin to form the needs to nurture and the need for attention.

The need for attention is much more prominent on the Barbie website. Immediately in seeing the website the words “Fashion, Fun, and more” pop up. Little girls look up to Barbie and therefore find fashion and fun to be two important things because that is what “Barbie” thinks. From this early stage in their life they are introduced to the many different kinds of clothing and the attention Barbie receives from them. Then these girls turn into women and are controlled by the need for attention. Women want to impress not only men but their peers and look just as good as if not better in order to attract their attention.

Women especially have the need for attention from men or the object of their desire. Ad’s like “Gentlemen prefer Hanes” (Fowles, 83), make women believe that if they wear Hanes they will attract men. This is the problem, just because women are wearing Hanes, Dolce and Gabanna or any other type of clothing does not make them attract men. Although, when women see these types of things in advertising with commercials, where an attractive man is swooning over the woman wearing the product they are convinced it might work for them. The strength of the need for attention grows throughout a woman’s life and peaks at their early 20’s but is something advertisers instill in them from a very young age.

Barbie is something that little girls from every walk of life in America look up to. She is pretty, talented, has friends, and has a boyfriend. She can accomplish anything and is almost a great role model for girls, what they don’t know is the fact that her life is completely unreal. Little girls look up to Barbie and believe if they dress like her they will have all she has, but again her life is only in Barbie World. Advertisers use Barbie as a way of getting little girls to recognize if they buy Barbie and be like Barbie they will get attention which is something that all little girls want. Therefore as they grow up they will retain the same needs but their product range will expand into clothing companies that take advantage of this instilled need. Girls go from thinking if they buy Barbie they will have a great life to saying, “If I buy Calvin Klein jeans…I’ll be the object of fascination” (Fowles, 83). Therefore I think that many clothing companies actually have Barbie to thank for their wide range of customers and their high product sales because the brainwashing done by Barbie’s creators had made these customers into the materialistic people who confide in advertising to show them what they should like.

Females are also taught from a young age to fit in and have the attention of their friends. Clothing companies and cosmetic companies also start at a young age introducing these things to girls. From when girls are young they have things like fake eye shadow and lip gloss which makes them feel girly and feel like they are one of the clan. Also clothing stores like Limited Too and Kids Gap allow girls to be in style just like their friends. This need for attention from their peers only grows rampantly as they get older. When women get older they get influenced completely by clothing and cosmetics. The advertisements they see tend to alter their thoughts and feelings and make them desire these items.

Being a “Cover Girl” or being part or wearing American Eagle clothing takes over their minds. Companies like American Eagle, Hollister, and Abercrombie promote an image of attention and being in a group of cool people who get attention in all of their ads. Girls see these ads and will spend unreasonable prices to get the look that will get them attention. Even when women get older they feel certain products can enable them to be more confident and successful therefore be noticed much more. “Peggy Fleming flutters her legs for L’eggs, encouraging other females who want to be the star in their own lives to purchase this product” (Fowles, 83). This advertisement makes it possible for women to star in their own lives, insinuating they will get attention like a “star” or other famous person. Women feel the need to look just as good if not better than their friends because each woman subconciously wants to receive the attention in their group.

When it comes to the need to nurture, little girls and women alike have an instinct about it. They are prone to caring for others and that is why advertisers also use this need to lure in consumers. They naturally feel the need “to feed, help, support, console, protext, comfort, nurse, heal” (Fowles, 80). This overbearing need translates into promotions for products and advertisers benefit. From a young age girls are introduced to things like baby dolls and and toy kitchen sets. These things suggest to girls that they should be the caretakers from early on in their lives. Advertising shows girls through commercials that they should take care of their companions and friends. It is ironic how from a young age these stereotypes are already shown, in a typical little girl’s room you see a play kitchen and baby dolls where as boy’s rooms there is Tonka trucks and action figures. “A strong need it is, woven deep into our “genetic fabric”, for if it did not exist we could not successfully raise up our replacements” (Fowles, 80). From the beginning of a girl’s life they are taught to nurture while all along advertising helps to enforce this characteristic.

As women grow up they are told by society they should nurture and become mothers so advertising takes full advantage. The number of commercials with Mothers cooking the family dinner or taking the kids to a cool water park illustrates that a good mom and a nurturing mom should do these. Therefore they buy the certain product to care for their children. “The pitch is often directed at women, as Mother Nature’s chief nurturers. “Make me some Kraft macaroni and cheese, please,” says the elfin preschooler just in from the snowstorm, and mothers’ hearts go out, and Kraft’s sales go up” (Fowles, 80). This is only one of the many examples of ads in which advertisers show women how to be a good caretaker. This value is instilled in the minds of young girls and grows as they grow; advertisers see this and use it to their benefit.

Attention and nurturing are two needs that females will forever possess and be attracted to for years to come. Women are just prone to these things and from a young age females are taught what to think. It is in fact a world of advertising and the two aspects of advertising that appeal to women the most are nurture and attention. Both the need for attention and the need to nurture are clearly exposed throughout the years of a woman’s life and in fact are pretty convincing. Advertisers use this need in order to sell their products and allow women to feel like they are both getting the attention they need and fulfill their need to nurture and in turn are incredibly successful.