In recent years it’s felt like we’re making some strides with how women are portrayed in advertising.
But an email that landed in my inbox yesterday made me start to doubt that, at least initially.
It made me flash back to 2015, when a huge billboard portraying a waaaay underfed (and likely massively photo-shopped) woman in a bikini appeared in New York’s Times Square and on ads in London’s Tube stations promoting a protein drink powder…
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The ad started a backlash against the body-shaming ad, generating thousands of names on petitions to take the billboards and ads down.
And it spurred on a flurry of ads from Dove and other brands that answered back with images of realistic-looking women of all shapes and sizes saying that every body is “beach body ready’.
If my high school English teacher Mrs. Drake–from whom I took an “Images of Women in Literature” class my senior year–could have seen this ad, she would have freaked out. The unnatural stance of the woman just in itself is portraying her as a sex object.
And while we definitely see ads all the time that still do this–with women and men–there’s definitely more awareness by major advertisers not to step into the same land mines this company did 7 years ago.
So when I got an email in my inbox yesterday with the following subject line, I found myself thinking, “Not today, Satan!”
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Personally, I hate the idea that anyone who’s overweight is that way because they’re a lazy “couch potato”. There are all sorts of reasons why someone is overweight.
There are fit people who exercise regularly who are overweight. There are women bouncing back from pregnancy or dealing with hormone imbalance during menopause. There are hundreds of millions of people with thyroid disorders that affect their metabolism.
I could go on, but you see my point. It’s not just because you’re lying around on the couch all the time. Using this kind of presumptive phrasing is making the mistake of insulting your prospect.
So let’s just say I had my hackles up before I even opened the email and read it. And when I did, here’s what I found…
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Okay, fine, we’re going to be equal opportunity-objectification… Mrs. Drake might be happy about that I suppose. But I think they’re showing pics of a woman and a man because they want to call both types of prospects out and not leave men out.
And while, as a 50-something woman, I’d love to look like that babe on the beach, I know it’s probably not realistic. So I’m a little on the fence about using pics of people who are likely 30+ years younger than the target prospect.
However, with weight loss, a great deal of irrational and emotional behavior comes into play when responding to advertising. So let’s just say the prospect’s “dream” is pictured accurately here and read on…
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We’re not through the entire email just yet. And as you can see, there’s very little copy. It’s relying on images to tell the story.
And it’s using those images to set up the problem (you’re spending too much time on the couch and not exercising) while tapping into the emotions of guilt (the “Netflix and chill” couple), shame (the extremely bulging belly), and frustration (the out-of-place old dude who I’ve seen in countless ads before).
It then, having stirred up these dominant emotions, shows them what some would call the “mechanism of the problem”–that exercise classes and healthy eating don’t work (or are too hard for most people to do).
This perfectly sets up the tease about the solution that comes next, along with the call to action…
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Notice the wording of that crucial sentence that shifts from setting up the problem, agitating the prospect’s emotions, and showing what they think they need to do to solve it… to introducing the solution.
Early in that crucial sentence it says “a science-backed way”, which introduces the idea of a credible unique mechanism and triggers curiosity and belief…
It then adds in social proof and shows a transformation with “that folks are going from the ‘couch’ to ‘beach ready’ condition” (which brings up images for me of all the “Beach Body ad backlash”… try Googling it and you’ll see what I mean)…
And then it overcomes possible objections (“I’ve heard or tried this before” or “it’s too hard”) with “without any crash diets or exhausting workout classes.”)
Then voila… the solution is unveiled: “It’s all thanks to one little molecule found right in the coconut:” (with a picture of a cut-open coconut)… further focusing on the unique mechanism and stimulating curiosity.
The final sentence contains the link to the sales page with great future-pacing copy: “You’ll wish you knew about this a long time ago!”
A few key points about this email, which didn’t raise my hackles that much once I read it… they’re all takeaways you can and should apply to the “lifts” you write driving traffic to a sales page or VSL…
1) Make sure you’ll calling out a specific audience, but don’t mistakenly narrow it too much by leaving out other prospects (like if this ad had only shown women).
2) Every word has to earn its spot. Your email copy must be tight. You have just split-seconds to convince the prospect to read and take the desired action.
Each word here is well-chosen and it also relies on emotionally hard-hitting images to fill in the gaps. Note: having too many images could affect deliverability (hopefully you got this email from me! lol)
3) VERY important: do NOT give away too much about the solution you’re presenting. You want to give just enough detail to build belief and trigger curiosity–and no more.
The more you give away, the more you risk making they think “I’ve heard this before” or “No thanks, I don’t want this” and the lower your click-through rate drops. Let the sales page or VSL you’re sending the prospect to do the “heavy lifting”.
Your ONLY job with this email is to make them click that link and go to the next page. Obviously if you can prime them to buy by triggering their dominant emotions and building belief in the solution before they see it, you’ll get higher conversion rates from the sales page or VSL. But an email can only do so much.
I’ve included the links to the actual sales page in the images above if you want to check it out. One criticism I have is the top of page doesn’t seem as congruent as it could be with the email messaging.
I think having the picture of the fully-dressed man with his arms folded is confusing… it makes him look like he’s the spokesperson talking (when it is, in fact, a medical doctor). Instead I would expect to see another picture or pictures of the desired end result… i.e., their “dream”.
(If you go to the sales page, see if you can find the carrot image that I think would have given my feminist English teacher Mrs. Drake a heart attack!)
In any case, I hope you got some good takeaways from this email breakdown!
And I hope you get your body to a beach sometime soon this summer, and know that EVERY body is “beach body ready”! Sheeesh…
If you like these kinds of “What’s in Kim’s Mailbox” breakdowns, do yourself a huge favor and check out the P.S. below…
Yours for smarter marketing,
Kim
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