BACKBITE

Chances are, more than a few of you out there will be looking for a

woman this Christmas. Many men, it seems, are such sad failures in the

wooing stakes, that more than half have been dubbed ‘plain boring’. So

here’s some advice (with a bit of help from Grey Advertising).

First up, fun - women like to have a good time, and a sense of humour is

top of the wish list. We like to be entertained, but we also want to be

informed, so intelligence also goes down well. Looks, you’ll all be glad

to hear, are way down the list of turn- ons. Only a fifth of women say

that beauty is important.

Now before you all go running off to get yourself a Bernard Manning joke

book and a bluffer’s guide to philosophy, let me just point out that I’m

talking about women as consumers, not sex objects.

The above attributes are ones that women find work for them in an

advertising context. According to Grey’s sample universe of 220 women,

61 per cent of women find ads boring and repetitive, while 32 per cent

think ads are basically sexist.

I’ve no idea whether, asked the same questions, men would reveal a

healthier level of acceptance of advertising, but Grey has certainly

illustrated a huge, missed opportunity with women.

My heart sinks every time I see another study into women’s attitudes, as

though they are different enough from the (presumably male) norm to

warrant special attention.

But while we may dismiss findings such as ‘women are more than happy to

describe themselves as caring and sensitive’, can we really continue

ignoring the fact that only 1 per cent of women think that financial

services ads are targeted at them, and 37 per cent think that ads treat

them as idiots?

We must start to get to grips with these issues, before another agency

sees fit to spend money on conducting a study, rather than changing its

approach.