And the next COVERGIRL is.... Ellen DeGeneres!

She’s funny, witty, successful, attractive and now SEXY too! And, she’s got great skin. Bravo to COVERGIRL for selecting her as their next... wait for it..... cover girl.

P&G explains it like this...
"Ms. DeGeneres appeals to consumers who are looking not so much for a role model as a woman they can relate to both physically and emotionally,” P&G V.P. Esi Eggleston Bracey tells The NYTimes. You may question what you actually have in common with a wealthy 50-year old talk show host/comedienne who's been the star of a successful sitcom, shills for American Express, and is a high-profile lesbian.
That is, you may question the connection until you take the "celebrity" out of Ellen's life and focus on where she's been, how she's re-invented herself and how comfortable she seems to be in her own skin these days...and then you get it. Or as CoverGirl's new tag line goes, "Easy, Breezy, Beautiful...Ellen."

So for me... mainstream just got a little better.

Women and their cars

Gone are the days when women stood by and let their husband or father make decisions about their cars. Now women take their purchasing power into their own hands and in Canada they are buying 65% of new cars and influence 80% of all car purchases (source: 2007 Canadian New Marketing Report). So, where does the empowered woman go to find out more about what she wants in a car? Some start at Carsforgirls.com, which is a site that aims to educate women on all aspects of cars. It is essentially a blog with clever and interesting information encouraging women to ask burning questions they might not otherwise feel comfortable doing in a dealership. This site provides supplementary information about cars, road trips and general auto maintenance while having an informal, fun feel appeal.

It seems that some women want to keep the car a fun place to be. Girlslovewheels.com takes the exciting aspects of personalizing your vehicle to a whole new level. In addition to its interesting tips, see 75 unique and helpful tip to enjoy road trips, a substantial portion of the site features items for sale ranging from Hello Kitty decals to decorative car seats. This site also has an entire section devoted to teen girl drivers and their accessories.

For the more car savvy woman or those who like to be a bit more edgy when it comes to their car purchases, go to Askpatty.com. It is an advice based site from the US has the latest car reviews, compares brands of cars and has information on loans and insurance. I especially liked the blog section because it highlights the variety of vehicles women enjoy – not just the minivan! Car loving women have a variety of styles and preferences when it comes to vehicles, from professional Nascar drivers to stay at home moms, women are voicing their opinions on what cars they like and why. For us Canadians, AskAngela.ca is a great source of automotive information and has a handy advice section. So don’t be shy any longer! Price compare and arm yourself with great information before walking into the dealership. Be proud fellow car lovers, be proud. Together we can kill the stereotype once and for all.

"Letta Mama feed you"

Aimee Racine, Account Manager
SWING

Commercials. Most of them are boring and don’t really catch my attention. However, this week I saw an exception. Michelina’s. Their current campaign has two commercials airing, with the character of Mama Michelina as the star. She appears in two out of place locations --a climbing wall and an indoor football field. Mama Michelina comes to the rescue with a microwave Michelina’s dinner and saves the day. Here is the one with the girl wall climbing. I know it is a simple concept that has been used to sell products for decades but the “Mama knows best” angle made me laugh out loud and appealed to me as a woman.

I often feel pressure to look a certain way, but when I watched this commercial that seemed to melt away. For a brief moment, Mama Michelina was my grandmother, taking care of me and all of my problems including making sure I eat enough. I was able to take a nostalgic look back to my childhood eating habits, a time when I never once thought of my waistline and the fact that I have to exercise like a maniac in order to stay healthy. For that 30 seconds, I watched someone reaching out and caring about another’s well-being. In the end, I guess sometimes we want our grandmother to swoop in on a carabineer line and spoon feed us, even though it is a microwave pasta dinner, and take us away from our diets and exercise and love us, no matter what we look like.

Aging? The good, the bad and the ugly.

Ahhhh, aging. Although most of us would like to be fresh faced and makeup free as we approach those 40, 50 milestone ages, it's just not realistic for most of us. It is tough to get to the real deal when it comes to the way women feel about aging. There is how we SHOULD feel, and then there is how we really feel. Take our the Define Yourself, Which Type Are You poll and see how your aging mindset compares to other women across Canada.

How 'PC' is too 'PC' in marketing... in life?

Christmas trees being pulled down from office lobbies and tokenism in advertising campaigns... how are we feeling about how diversity is reflected in the media and in our day-to-day environment? As Canadians we enjoy a truly multicultural nation and we are very careful to not offend anyone, anywhere, anyhow. But how far is too far? How PC is too PC? We went to the experts and conducted research with visible minority women-- part of our ongoing Salon Series on Diversity and Women.

Here is what we learned, understand and apply in our marketing practices:

• Stereotypes and tokenism are alive and well
• Ignorance and overcompensation (or being too "PC") is offensive
• Advertising campaigns that carefully drop "colour" into the picture often hurts more than it helps
• Advertising should be reflective of the market it is attracting. Period.

Best said by one of our participants, (authenticity is the primary consideration when it comes to diversity) "we need to ensure that the embracing of diversity is truly 'real'....that it is not done just at the surface but at a deep roots level".

So, attention all marketers... be careful about being too careful. Sometimes good intentions don't always translate into good results!

Beauty, Self-Perception and Others

A fascinating piece on how we see ourselves in others' beauty decisions. Laura Kipnis also wrote a much-discussed book on women and monogamy and how social mores are evolving.

The Campus Scene

Enrolment in Canadian universities surpassed the 1 million mark for the first time during the 2004-05 academic year.

Women continued to vastly outnumber men, accounting for 58% of undergraduate students and 53% of master's students.

The gender divide between subject areas remains conspicuous. Women dominate law, communications and humanities enrollments while many more men are stepping into engineering, mathematics and information fields.

Nature or Nuture? Do I measure up?

Hard to miss Dove's latest evolution clip -- a build on its campaign for real beauty.

Dove is trying to send the message that natural beauty, no matter what you look like, is beautiful. The problem is that girls and women don't necessarily buy this. I am not sure we are ever going to change the way girls or women think about themselves. It is natural for girls and women to want to be pretty. It is a primal instinct. Even if we were going to eliminate media influences altogether it would still appear naturally in everyday life, in the schools, on the street.

Although Dove is doing a brilliant marketing and publicity job with this campaign, are they really hitting the mark with the intent to improve the self esteem of young girls today?

We all know that media images are manipulated. To invest heavily in communicating this message is simply underestimating the audience. Most social and peer pressures are much closer to home and certainly impossible to control or manage.

Feeling confident and good about oneself and having a strong sense of self esteem has less to do with outer beauty and more to do with the way we were raised and supported and our role models.

Although we all aspire to "you are beautiful just the way you are, honey..." that doesn't cut it for most.

As one blogger said... "then why didn't Dove put ugly fat women in their ads"? And, they still sell beauty products, don't they?

Women in the Workplace

In a recent Swing Salon, "Women in the Workplace" emerged as a significant issue. Workopolis.com offers an archive of useful material on this topic.

Beauty, Self-Perception and Others

A fascinating piece on how we see ourselves in others' beauty decisions. Laura Kipnis also wrote a much-discussed book on women and monogamy and how social mores are evolving.