Research

In a society that craves beauty, marketers zero in on self-image

Triblive.com explored the connection between beauty and business in an article that cited market professor Naomi Mandel’s 2010 study of the impact of ads featuring perfectly sculpted models. “Looking at all of those long-legged models not only depresses us, it can increase the susceptibility of young women developing eating disorders,” the Pittsburgh news organization reported.

2014-10-08

From TribLive.com, August 2, 2014: “In 2010, Arizona State University associate professor of marketing Dr. Naomi Mandel conducted an experiment testing the theory that looking at all of those long-legged models not only depresses us, it can increase the susceptibility of young women developing eating disorders … In her paper, she found that when looking at ads with heavier models, overweight women felt bad because they could relate to them. Meanwhile, thinner women experienced a boost in self-confidence because they didn't relate to them. When normal-weight women saw a thin model, they felt ‘similar and good,’ while a heavier model caused them to worry that they were ‘similar and overweight.’ Read more About Naomi Mandel: Naomi Mandel is the State Farm Professor of Marketing at Arizona State University.  Her research interests include social identity and compensatory consumption.  She is an associate editor at the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and Customer Needs & Solutions.

Consumer Behavior Marketing