The prevailing view is that imagery in fashion advertising is idealized, and that repeated exposure to the gap between ideal and real is toxic to women’s self-esteem, providing prima facie evidence for the negative impact of the marketing system on vulnerable consumers. We challenge this view of fashion ad imagery by means of content analyses and a survey supplemented by interviews. The prevailing view is shown to be ideologically rather than empirically based, and to confuse fashion with other quite different product categories. We conclude by discussing how fashion advertising, once cleared of this ideological debris, provides an opportunity to extend marketing theory to account for a broader range of consumer response across product categories. We also develop the concept of taste goods, such as fashion clothing, as a site where novel routes to persuasion can be studied.
Andersson, S., Hedelin, A., Nilsson, A. and Welander, C. ( 2004) ‘Violent Advertising in Fashion Marketing’ , Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management8(1): 96-112.
2.
Arnold, R. ( 2001) Fashion, Desire, and Anxiety: Image and Morality in the 20th Century. NewYork: I. B. Tauris .
3.
Arnould, E.J. and Thompson, C.J. ( 2005) ‘Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty Years of Research’, Journal of Consumer Research31(March): 868-82.
4.
Bannister, E.N. and Hogg, M.K. ( 2004) ‘Negative Symbolic Consumption and Consumers’ Drive for Self-esteem: The Case of the Fashion Industry’, European Journal of Marketing38(7): 850-68.
5.
Barthes, R. ( 1967) The Fashion System, trans. M. Ward and R. Howard. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
6.
Barthes, R. ( 2006) The Language of Fashion, trans. A. Stafford, ed. A. Stafford and M. Carter.Oxford: Berg.
7.
Belk, R.W. ( 2001) ‘Specialty Magazines and Flights of Fancy: Feeding the Desire to Desire’, in A. Groeppel-Klein and F. Esch (eds) European Advances in Consumer Research, pp. 197-202. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research.
8.
Bourdieu, P. ( 1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
9.
Bower, A. ( 2001) ‘Highly Attractive Models in Advertising and the Women Who Loathe Them: The Implications of Negative Affect for Spokesperson Effectiveness’, Journal of Advertising30(3): 51-63.
10.
Brakus, J.J., Schmitt, B.H. and Zarantonello, L. ( 2009) ‘Brand Experience: What Is It? How Is It Measured? Does It Affect Loyalty?’, Journal of Marketing73(May): 52-68.
Bruner, G.C., II, James, K.E. and Hensel, P.J. (eds) (2001) Marketing Scales Handbook: A Compilation of Multi-item Measures. Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association.
13.
Busby, L.J. and Leichty, G. ( 1993) ‘Feminism and Advertising in Traditional and Nontraditional Women’s Magazines 1950s-1980s’, Journalism Quarterly70(2): 247-64.
14.
Calefato, P. ( 2004) The Clothed Body. Oxford: Berg.
15.
Chitturi, R., Raghunathan, R. and Mahajan, V. ( 2008) ‘Delight by Design: The Role of Hedonic versus Utilitarian Benefits’, Journal of Marketing72(May): 48-63.
16.
Darby, M.R. and Karni, E. ( 1973) ‘Free Competition and the Optimal Amount of Fraud’ , Journal of Law and Economics16(April): 67-88.
17.
Davis, F. ( 1992) Fashion, Culture, and Identity. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
18.
Dittmar, H. and Howard, S. ( 2004) ‘Professional Hazards? The Impact of Models’ Body Size on Advertising Effectiveness and Women’s Body-focused Anxiety in Professions that Do and Do Not Emphasize the Cultural Ideal of Thinness’ , British Journal of Social Psychology43: 477-97.
19.
Elliott, R. and Davies, A. ( 2006) ‘Symbolic Brands and Authenticity of Identity Performance’ , in J. E. Schroeder and M. Salzer-Morling (eds) Brand Culture, pp. 155-70. London: Routledge.
20.
Entwistle, J. ( 2000) The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress, and Modern Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press .
21.
Faludi, S. ( 1991) Backlash: The Undeclared War against American Women. New York: Anchor Books.
22.
Fennell, G. ( 1978) ‘Consumers’ Perceptions of the Product-use Situation’, Journal of Marketing42(April): 38-47.
23.
Ferguson, M. ( 1983) Forever Feminine: Women’s Magazines and the Cult of Femininity. London: Heinemann .
24.
Ford, G.T., Smith, D.B. and Swasy, J.L. ( 1990) ‘Consumer Skepticism of Advertising Claims: Testing Hypotheses from Economics of Information’, Journal of Consumer Research16(4): 433-41.
25.
Goldman, R. ( 1992) ‘This is Not an Ad: The Post-mortise Stage of Advertising’ , in Reading Ads Socially, pp. 115-72. New York: Routledge.
26.
Gould, S.J. and Stern, B.B. ( 1989) ‘Gender Schema and Fashion Consciousness’ , Psychology and Marketing6(2): 129-45.
27.
Grumble, P. ( 2007) ‘Mass vs. Class,’Fortune , 17 September, 83-8.
28.
Gulas, C. and McKeage, K. ( 2000) ‘Extending Social Comparison: An Examination of the Unintended Consequences of Idealized Advertising Imagery’, Journal of Advertising29(2): 17-28.
29.
Hirschman, E.C. and Holbrook, M.B. ( 1982) ‘Hedonic Consumption: Emerging Concepts, Methods and Propositions’, Journal of Marketing46(Summer): 92-101.
30.
Hirschman, E. and Thompson, C.J. ( 1997) ‘Why Media Matter: Toward a Richer Understanding of Consumers’ Relationships with Advertising and Mass Media’, Journal of Advertising26(1): 43-60.
31.
Holt, D.B. ( 1998) ‘Does Cultural Capital Structure American Consumption?’ , Journal of Consumer Research25(June): 1-25.
32.
Huang, P., Lurie, N.H. and Mitra, S. ( 2009) ‘Searching for Experience on the Web: An Empirical Examination of Consumer Behavior for Search and Experience Goods’, Journal of Marketing73(March): 55-69.
33.
Innes, S.A. ( 1999) Tough Girls: Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular Culture. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
34.
Johnson, P.J., McCreary, D.R. and Mills, J.S. ( 2007) ‘Effects of Exposure to Objectified Male and Female Media Images on Men’s Psychological Well-being’, Psychology of Men & Masculinity 8(April): 95-102.
35.
Law, C. and Labre, M.P. ( 2002) ‘Cultural Standards of Attractiveness: A Thirty-year Look at Changes in Male Images in Magazines’, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly79(3): 697-711.
36.
Lindner, K. ( 2004) ‘Images of Women in General Interest and Fashion Magazine Advertisements from 1955 to 2002’, Sex Roles51(7/8): 409-21.
37.
McCracken, E. ( 1993) Decoding Women’s Magazines: From Mademoiselle to Ms. London: Macmillan.
38.
McCracken, G. ( 1986) ‘Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods’ , Journal of Consumer Research13(June): 71-84.
39.
Martin, M.C. and Gentry, J.W. ( 1997) ‘Stuck in the Model Trap: The Effects of Beautiful Models in Ads on Female Pre-adolescents and Adolescents’, Journal of Advertising26(2): 19-33.
40.
Mick, D.G. and Buhl, C. ( 1992) ‘A Meaning-based Model of Advertising Experiences’ , Journal of Consumer Research19(December): 317-38.
41.
Nelson, P. ( 1970) ‘Information and Consumer Behavior’, Journal of Political Economy78(2): 311-29.
42.
O’Donohoe, S. ( 1994) ‘Advertising Uses and Gratifications’, European Journal of Marketing28(8/9): 52-75.
43.
Patterson, M. and Elliott, R. ( 2002) ‘Negotiating Masculinities: Advertising and the Inversion of the Male Gaze’, Consumption, Markets, and Culture5(3): 231-49.
44.
Phillips, B.J. and McQuarrie, E.F.2010‘Narrative and Persuasion in Fashion Advertising’ , Journal of Consumer Research37(October): 368-92.
45.
Pollay, R.W. ( 1986) ‘The Distorted Mirror: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising’, Journal of Marketing50(April): 18-36.
46.
Pracejus, J., Olsen, G.D. and O’Guinn, T. ( 2006) ‘How Nothing Became Something: White Space, Rhetoric, History, and Meaning’, Journal of Consumer Research33(June): 82-90.
47.
Richins, M.L. ( 1991) ‘Social Comparison and the Idealized Images of Advertising’ , Journal of Consumer Research18(June): 71-83.
48.
Ritson, M. and Elliott, R. ( 1999) ‘The Social Uses of Advertising: An Ethnographic Study of Adolescent Advertising Audiences’, Journal of Consumer Research26(September): 260-77.
49.
Rocamora, A. ( 2002) ‘Fields of Fashion: Critical Insights into Bourdieu’s Sociology of Culture’, Journal of Consumer Culture2(3): 341-62.
50.
Rohlinger, D.A. ( 2002) ‘Eroticizing Men: Cultural Influences on Advertising and Male Objectification’, Sex Roles46(3/4): 61-74.
51.
Rossiter, J.R., Percy, L. and Donovan, R.J. ( 1991) ‘A Better Advertising Planning Grid’, Journal of Advertising Research31(5): 11-21.
Schroeder, J.E. and Zwick, D. ( 2004) ‘Mirrors of Masculinity: Representation and Identity in Advertising Images’, Consumption, Markets and Culture7(1): 21-52.
54.
Scott, L.M. ( 1994) ‘Images in Advertising: The Need for a Theory of Visual Rhetoric’, Journal of Consumer Research21(September): 252-73.
55.
Scott, L.M. ( 2005) Fresh Lipstick: Redressing Fashion and Feminism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
56.
Shavitt, S., Lowrey, T. and Han, S. ( 1992) ‘Attitude Functions in Advertising: The Interactive Role of Products and Self-monitoring’, Journal of Consumer Psychology1(4): 337-64.
57.
Shaw, J. ( 1995) ‘Effects of Fashion Magazines on Body Dissatisfaction and Eating Psychopathology in Adolescent and Adult Females’, European Eating Disorders Review3(1): 15-23.
58.
Solomon, M.R., Ashmore, R.D. and Longo, L.C. ( 1992) ‘The Beauty Match-up Hypothesis: Congruence between Types of Beauty and Product Images in Advertising’, Journal of Advertising21(December): 23-34.
59.
Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS) (2006 ) Standard Rate and Data Service Consumer Magazine Advertising Source, 88(Fall). Des Plaines, IL: SRDS.
60.
Stern, B.B. ( 1996) ‘Deconstructive Strategy and Consumer Research: Concepts and Illustrative Exemplar’, Journal of Consumer Research23(September): 136-47.
61.
Stern, B.B. ( 2000) ‘Advertisements as Women’s Texts: A Feminist Overview’, in M. Catterall, P. Maclaran and L. Stevens (eds) Marketing and Feminism: Current Issues and Research , pp. 57-74. London: Routledge.
62.
Thompson, C.J. and Haytko, D.L. ( 1997) ‘Speaking of Fashion: Consumers’ Use of Fashion Discourses and the Appropriation of Countervailing Cultural Meanings’ , Journal of Consumer Research24(June): 15-42.
63.
Vakratsas, D. and Ambler, T. ( 1999) ‘How Advertising Works: What Do We Really Know?’Journal of Marketing63(January): 26-43.
64.
Vezina, R. and Paul, O. ( 1997) ‘Provocation in Advertising: A Conceptualization and Empirical Assessment’, International Journal of Research in Marketing14: 177-92.
