A brand new analysis examine from artistic transformation agency WPP and SeeHer, a world motion to precisely painting ladies in advertising and marketing, promoting, media and leisure, reveals essential gaps and alternatives centered on ladies and individuals who establish as ladies throughout reproductive care, weight variety and psychological well being.
In line with the companies’ new examine, Well being On Her Phrases (HOHT), ladies deal with greater than 80 p.c of healthcare spending selections within the U.S., they usually make up 65 p.c of the workforce within the healthcare trade. But for all of the progress made in gender equality over time, there are severe disparities and points in the best way ladies’s well being is portrayed in media, and ladies and different marginalized genders are usually not framed as a major viewers in well being advertising and marketing. Ladies say that they’re more likely to be loyal to manufacturers who deal with entrenched and pervasive taboos in media—and communicate to them authentically and with dignity.
“Advertisers are likely to flatten womanhood and our well being wants right into a demographic field. However ladies’s well being is much extra dynamic and nuanced than the way it’s at present introduced within the media,” mentioned Lindsay Pattison, chief consumer officer of WPP, in a information launch. “Our trade has a duty to rework how ladies are portrayed and supply extra multifaceted illustration and prioritize exhibiting ladies’s psychological well being extra authentically, weight extra realistically and reproductive well being extra inclusively.”
WPP businesses Gray and Mindshare partnered to uncover and analyze prevalent themes on the truth of ladies’s well being in as we speak’s atmosphere, how ladies’s well being is being depicted in media as we speak, and the way manufacturers can modify efforts to higher characterize and rework the assist of her well being wants.
“This groundbreaking examine exhibits that we as entrepreneurs in well being and wellness should do a greater job listening to the wants of ladies and connecting with them on their phrases and their private well being wants,” mentioned Cassandra Sinclair, president of Gray Well being and Wellness, within the launch. “Ladies need manufacturers to be susceptible, courageous, and actual. They need manufacturers to grasp that their well being is private and connecting with them should be extra inclusive of the realities of their lives.”
“The state of ladies’s well being and bodily autonomy, together with healthcare for trans and non-binary communities, is in a tenuous place. Media and communications play a big function within the pervasive taboos on matters like reproductive care, psychological well being, and extra,” mentioned Rachel Lowenstein, international head of inclusive innovation at Mindshare, within the launch. “Nevertheless it doesn’t should be that means. Manufacturers have a possibility to have an effect on change and provides ladies and marginalized genders the extra nuanced, numerous, trustworthy illustration that they deserve. In doing so, they’ll earn this viewers’s loyalty whereas driving constructive change on this planet round us.”
“We’re so proud to accomplice with WPP on this vital examine. The perception clearly demonstrates that customers need content material reflecting ladies of their multiplicity, with numerous wants and experiences, slightly than monolithic storytelling,” mentioned Christine Guilfoyle, government vp at SeeHer, Affiliation of Nationwide Advertisers, within the launch. “On the subject of depictions of ladies’s well being and wellness, there may be a lot work to be finished. With this examine, we’re launching a brand new vertical, SeeHer Well being, to precisely characterize ladies’s well being and wellness-related points throughout advertising and marketing, media, and leisure.”
High themes that emerged embrace:
Dynamism of womanhood
The media positions ladies’s experiences of well being in a singular style. The best way by which manufacturers at present join with ladies is at odds with the best way by which ladies self-identify. A complete of 44 p.c of BIWOC wish to see extra numerous representations of race/ethnicity in well being communications, because the media locations a powerful emphasis on womanhood as younger, white, cishet, and non-disabled.
Finish of exceptionalism
Analysis discovered ladies are not often marketed simply as they’re, with manufacturers as a substitute prioritizing ladies doing extraordinary issues. Advertising and marketing efforts must develop to deal with a broader, extra numerous section of ladies and reduce deal with this phenomenon of exceptionalism to drive inclusion.
Transcend ladies seen solely as caregivers
Ladies are nonetheless seen primarily within the context of their means to take care of others and expressed the have to be seen for her entire self. Her self-worth must be seen as greater than caring for others.
WPP and SeeHer pursued this analysis to encourage manufacturers and organizations to interrupt down historic obstacles and make investments additional considering, insights and sources to make sure ladies’s true views and desires are precisely translated into methods to drive higher well being outcomes for girls.
Obtain the total report right here.
The staff designed and fielded a customized on-line survey to 1,545 ladies and non-binary individuals ages 18+ throughout the U.S., leveraging the Viewers Origin platform run by Kantar Profiles Well being. The viewers was inclusive of race, gender, sexuality, revenue, age, and disabilities.
