I’ve noticed that ad copy for catalogs and for department stores is frequently in the third person.
What is the advantage of this? Does it make you think you’re not the one being pitched to? The last ad I saw (currently running ad for Kohl’s) is for women’s clothes: She’ll find…she’ll get…she’ll save…
Are they not advertising to the woman who will be doing the shopping? Are they pitching to hubby so that he’ll give wifey permission to shop? What’s going on here?
It’s probably a tactic to make the advertisee feel that they may be missing out; if ‘she’ is getting this bargain/achieving this lifestyle, don’t you think you should be too? Envy of others’ material wealth is a powerful driving force in consumerism. Even envy of a hypothetical being.
Are you both fellas? (g)
As a highly-suggestible chick, I always figured they were directing the ads at me, allowing me to feel like the lady in the ad, being watched and admired (koff) by that authoritative voice, who is clearly In the Know.
Suddenly I’m not this frumpy unknown shopper. Now I am the savvy heroine in a wonderful story! And so of course I must buy whatever they are talking about, because of course they are talking about me.
Husbands wouldn’t listen to this crap, I don’t think.
Women are far more likely to listen if someone’s talking about them than if someone’s talking to them.
/Tongue removed from cheek
I (the OP) am a fella. My question about marketing to husbands was one of skepticism, as I suspect husbands’ eyes glaze over when women’s fashions are advertised.