Very thin models are not well accepted by consumers
Have you stopped buying a product because the ad template was too thin? According to new research, the excessive thinness of some models can repel consumers, who become defensive against the product or service.
According to the Daily Mail report, beautiful, fit-looking women can boost sales, but when their image is used more subtly.
Researchers at Warwick Business School in the United Kingdom found that women automatically "shut off" products placed next to image close-ups of female models or celebrities like Victoria Beckham or Miranda Kerr.
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According to Dr. Tamara Ansons, who is part of the research team, this is because a very thin model triggers a mechanism of conflict and contempt in women, which helps them feel more comfortable with their own appearance. But all is not lost to the work of skinny tops, because, according to Dr. Ansons, advertisers' successful formula for appealing to consumers is to show them in subtle images.
"We found that the way the perfectly shaped model image was used was very important in determining a positive or negative effect on women's self-perception, " said the researcher.
To reach this result, the study was done by distributing magazine pages with different advertisements to the participants. Among the advertisements was one of vodka. Some women received ads that did not feature an attractive model, other women received those that had bikini models, and on the next page was an image of vodka, subtly exposing them to the idealized female image. For a third group, ads with images of the model next to the vodka were distributed.
About the conclusion, the researcher said that attractive (and lean) models and celebrities are commonly used in advertisements and previous studies showed diverse reactions, both positive and negative. "We wanted to find out why this was happening and we saw that women's self-perception and the consequent effects of product evaluation depend on the degree of attention paid to a woman's idealized image in commercials, " the researcher explained.
