Why Skinny Sells

Why skinny sells

Joanne Laucius, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Thursday, October 02, 2008

Women may say they want models to look 'real,' but they prefer products pitched by the model-thin

It gets even more strange. Although looking at skinny models makes women feel bad, they still like the products the models are hawking. And they are more likely to say they want to buy them than if they're being pitched by models with more normal heft.

Now that's twisted.

"In essence, women expect to see beautiful women in ads, even if it makes them feel worse about themselves," says Jeremy Kees, a business professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

In one of his studies, Kees and a fellow marketing researcher found that, although female subjects felt badly about themselves after looking at ads with skinny models, they also evaluated the brands the models were selling more highly. The subjects who saw ads with regular-sized models didn't feel bad about themselves, but they also gave the brands a lower value.

The same researchers did another study in which they showed one group of college-age women a booklet of ads featuring thin models and another group a booklet that showed products but no models.

The students who saw the models were more likely to report feeling negative about their attractiveness, weight and physical condition. However, they were also more likely to report they would buy the brands in th

e ads. (Which may explain why you feel good when you go to Wal-Mart to buy a Rimmel lipstick hawked by Kate Moss.)