In recent years, femvertising has become a new issue of interest for companies, specifically in areas targeting women. Indeed, some companies in the cosmetics industry, such as Dove - a pioneer in the field - have been addressing the representation of women in advertising by tackling issues of equality, inclusiveness, and self-acceptance. Defined as female empowerment advertising, femvertising remains an issue that has been little studied in the literature. While some studies conclude that such a strategy is effective on the corporate side, we want to study this issue from a consumer perspective. Since this new marketing strategy is part of the 4th wave of feminism – which stands out from the other waves with a strong online orientation – the prism of social media constitutes the field of study of this thesis, and more specifically Instagram, a social network where the image concern rules. Generation Y, considered as digital natives, being particularly present on these social networks and relatively aware of global issues, we thus focus our research on these people aged between 21 and 41 years old. In order to shed light on this recent topic, we aim to investigate the attitude of Generation Y toward femvertising in the cosmetics industry. Through this thesis, we try to develop a deeper understanding of if and how the feminist stance of cosmetic brands in their online marketing affects the behaviour of consumers from Generation Y. Besides, this study intends to investigate if, among millennials, there are differences in perception and attitudes towards femvertising according to the cause commitment and activist knowledge of consumers. For this purpose, we developed three research questions that allowed us to study this attitude from exposure to this specific type of advertising, to catch millennials'perception and the way this type of ad affects them, up to their purchase intention. To gather the necessary insights for this research project, a qualitative study through semi-structured interviews among twelve millennials sensitive to cosmetics and/or the feminist movement were conducted, supported by five selected cases of femvertising displayed by cosmetics brands on social media. The findings of this study revealed three key insights regarding Generation Y attitudes towards femvertising. First, these new representations are perceived rather positively among millennials since it breaks codes, stereotypes, and offers more inclusive representations as requested by these consumers. Secondly, Generation Y consumers being rather committed to social causes, they raise their skepticism, are rather cautious about the honesty of this approach, or even react unfavorably to femvertising. Despite this, this marketing strategy using feminist speech and values that are dear to millennials make them hold a positive purchase intention towards cosmetic brands using these claims. This has obvious practical implications for brands to consider. More generally, this bridged some of the identified gaps in the literature and raise important questions for societal and ethical considerations.

Femvertising är en form av reklam som ifrågasätter traditionella kvinnliga könsstereotyper. Fenomenet hyllas för att skapa positiva varumärkesattityder, men kritiseras för att budskapen i femvertising förenar och samtidigt förnekar feministisk ideologi vilket neutraliserar den politiska kraften i budskapet. Det är därav av vikt att analysera reklamen. Denna studie har genom en semiotisk analys sökt undersöka vilka feministiska budskap som Estrids sponsrade annonser sänder via den sociala medieplattformen Instagram. Det teoretiska ramverket i studien utgörs av nyliberalistisk feminism samt stereotyper. Begreppen kvinnligt empowerment och femvertising bidrar även till det teoretiska ramverket. Estrid är ett svenskt företag som säljer rakhyvlar genom en prenumerationstjänst tillsammans med andra hårborttagningsprodukter och riktar sig till en kvinnlig målgrupp. Studiens resultat konstaterade att Estrid både reproducerar och utmanar stereotyper genom sina sponsrade annonser på den sociala medieplattformen Instagram. Det uttrycks i viss mån feministiska budskap, men dessa upplevs som motsägelsefulla på grund av produkten. Genom budskapen positionerar sig Estrid som ett inkluderande och medvetet företag som tar ansvar i samhälleliga frågor såsom jämställdhet och miljö.

This thesis aims to understand the use of political messages as part of a branding strategy through a discourse analysis. The empirical material consists of two campaigns advertising female sanitary products; Always #LikeAGirl (2014) and Libresse Blood Normal (2017), with a purpose to understand the incorporation and the adaptation of activist and feminist discourse in these commercial campaigns. What happens to feminism as a political project and struggle when its key ideas and discourses are co-opted by market forces, and how this kind of advertising is used in the process of building brands.The theoretical framework consists of critical perspectives on Postfeminism, Counterculture in relation to consumer culture and Transmedia storytelling. The campaigns are understood in a Swedish context. In the analysis two nodal points are identified; Active/healthy femininity and Responsibility, where the subject positions within the campaigns and the understanding of the subject positions of the campaigns in a marketing context are explored. By formulating different (political) problems in their marketing, Libresse and Always has the discursive power to position themselves as part of the solution to the problem of girls and women’s low self-esteem. On one hand, the solution includes consuming female sanitary products or interact with the brand on social media. On the other hand this means that the brands position themselves as political actors, advocating women’s rights.

Nike has long been considered in the sports and advertising world as being a “champion” for women’s empowerment. Since their shift towards female-centred marketing for their sub-brand in 1987, Nike has been at the forefront of women-specific sports products and advertising, and has received many accolades for their female-centred advertising messages (Flynn, 2015). In this paper, critical feminist discourse analyse techniques are used to analyse two of Nike’s video advertisements centred around the United States Women’s National Soccer Team in the World Cup year 2019 . “Dream with Us” released just before the tournament, and their minute-long ad “Never Stop Winning” celebrating the USWNT 2019 World Cup victory, provide valuable insights into the ways in which Nike is evoking and engaging with the socio-political climate surrounding the team and surrounding discourses of women’s empowerment. Nike’s advertisements have been greatly influenced by “femvertising” and the move by brands to engage in more politically and socially active roles, while using the outspoken and relevant image of the USWNT as a platform. These two advertisements, both varied in nature, employ strong femvertising techniques that are direct responses to traditional media’s gender-biases and are rooted in post-feminist discourses like intersectionality, sexual identification and political activism.

Denna studie handlar om representationen den menstruerande kvinnan i reklam från Bodyform mellan 2004–2018. I studien undersöks forskningsfrågorna: Hur ser representationen av den menstruerande kvinnan ut om man tittar på reklamfilmer från Bodyform mellan 2004 - 2018? Hur och om kan man argumentera för att reklamfilmen Bloodnormal från Bodyform bidrar till en förändring av diskursen kring den menstruerande kvinnan i reklamfilm? Frågorna i studien besvaras med hjälp av en diskursanalys baserad på teorier om den manliga blicken, stereotyper i reklam, diskurs & representation. Materialet som analyseras är tre reklamfilmer från Bodyform. Resultatet av studien bekräftar stereotypa bilder av den menstruerande kvinnan i tidigare reklamfilmer från Bodyform. Studien bekräftar även en förändring av den stereotypa representationen av den menstruerande kvinnan i reklamfilmen Bloodnormal, jämfört med det tidigare materialet från Bodyform. Denna nya representation fungerar som ett motstånd mot normerna i de tidigare reklamfilmerna från 2004 och 2009.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka autentisk femvertising från ett kvinnligt konsumentperspektiv. Detta görs genom att utforma en generaliserad modell av vad som anses vara av betydelse för att femvertising ska upplevas autentiskt. Vidare undersöks hur olika generationer förhåller sig till autentisk femvertising. Studien utgick från en kvantitativ metod med deduktiv ansats, där en enkätstudie genomfördes. Insamlad data från 151 respondenter analyserades med av explorativ faktoranalys för att framställa den generella modellen. Därefter genomfördes ANOVA-analys och Post Hoc test för att studera eventuella skillnader mellan generationer. För att femvertising ska upplevas som autentisk identifierades sex dimensioner av betydelse: Trovärdighet, Kontinuitet, Igenkänning, Mångfald, Respekt och Utmaning av stereotyper. Jämförelse av resultatet med avseende på olika generationer visade att det fanns en signifikant skillnad mellan Generation X och Generation Z för dimensionen Kontinuitet. Övriga dimensioner påvisade ingen skillnad vilket ger slutsatsen att autentisk femvertising har liknande betydelse över generationsgränser.

Whilst gender equality has moved forward in recent years in Scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden, there are still significant financial gaps between the genders. According to several scholars, women tend to invest less than men, which leads to consequences such as women having less financial capital wealth and lower pensions. The perception of investing and the banking and financial industry are still perceived as male-dominated by society. Linked to societal perceptions, advertisements have been discussed to influence consumers' perceptions of norms and stereotypes in society. Femvertising is a recently emerged advertising concept that empowers women and challenges concurrent norms and stereotypes about the female gender in society. Furthermore, organizations taking a stance for a social cause through advertisements has become a trend in recent years, where brand activism has been encountered in the context. However, taking a stance for a social issue can be a risky action from a brand, as corporations jeopardize harming their brand image if consumers do not appreciate the message they are trying to communicate.  The academic research on femvertising in the context of male-dominated industries has been surprisingly scarce, where previous scholars suggest further studies in this context is needed. Little to no research has investigated the usage of femvertising in advertisements for the banking industry, nor its influence on female consumers and their image of the brand. This study’s purpose is to investigate how the commercial bank DNB's use of femvertising influences female consumers and their image of the brand. We aim to fill the discovered research gap through studying a Norwegian bank that tries to empower women and take a stand in their advertisements for financial gender equality. For that reason, semi-structured interviews were conducted with one manager from the Norwegian bank DNB and nine female consumers with a solid connection to Norway. The manager from DNB was chosen for his expertise and knowledge of the bank’s campaign #huninvesterer. The other respondents were purposely sampled based on their female gender and strong connection to Norway, as we wanted respondents who already knew of DNB from before the interviews.  The thematic analysis presented several similarities between the female respondents' perception of DNB’s brand image and the manager’s description of the bank’s desired brand identity. The use of femvertising was mostly perceived as something positive and inspiring due to its empowering elements and challenging of female stereotypes, presenting a diversity of women, but had downsides of being too female focused, where several female respondents expressed certain skepticism to the campaign’s exclusive focus on women. In common for all respondents was how they perceived the bank’s stand on the socio-political issue as eligible for a large bank. The overall opinion of the influential effect on the bank’s brand image was suggested to be strengthened, although the results varied to a certain extent.  The study provides requested empirical data and better knowledge and understanding of femvertising used in a male-dominated industry. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to nuance the results as the perspectives of males and a more diverse age span among females could enrich the findings of this thesis.

The goal of this essay is to examine Sephora’s video commercial in the context of wokewashing and femvertising. The question constructed for that aim which is the basis of this essay reads as follows: How does the clip use symbols and speech to emphasise a feminist stance in their commercial, and could the movie be used as an example of wokewashing? Different feminist views on makeup and beauty are presented under background to give context to facilitate discussions about whether this is wokewashing and/or femvertising. A brief history of Sephora as a company and their work in different political questions are also presented to further understand them as a company. The movie is then subjected to a semiotic analysis where different aspects are brought forth proving that the movie is based on feminist theories and ideology. The different aspects assessed in result is how gender is presented as well as how the overlying monologue in the movie affects this. When it has been established that the movie indeed takes inspiration and theories from feminist discussions the commercial and these findings are then problematized and considered in the analysis. The analysis concludes that the movie is indeed an example of wokewashing since the message portraid in the movie and Sephoras own company structure do not align. This is to say that the company is found not to be actually fighting to change the normative gender structure that is problematized in the commercial. The concept of wokewashing and the relativity of the concept are brought up and problematized under discussion where the different views on makeup from a feminist point of view are again discussed to further understand the implications this could have on the dialogue concerning wokewashing.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur modeföretagen Djerf Avenue och Victoria’s Secret PINK konstruerar diskurser om kvinnor i sin marknadsföring på Instagram. Vidare analyseras huruvida dessa diskurser om kvinnor kan ses autentiska eller inte i relation till femvertising och kommodifierad feminism. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter är socialsemiotik, postfeminism och kommodifierad feminism. Dessa teoretiska utgångspunkter används i studien för att undersöka hur postfeministiska budskap kommer till uttryck genom semiotiska resurser, som ett sätt för modeföretagen att konstruera diskurser om kvinnor. Det empiriska materialet består av två inlägg från vardera modeföretags instagramkonto och analyseras med hjälp av en multimodal kritisk diskursanalys. Resultatet av studien synliggör att Djerf Avenue och Victoria´s Secret PINK konstruerar kvinnor genom tre olika diskurser; individualisering, kvinnlig egenmakt och stereotypisering. Modeföretagen konstruerar både kvinnor i likhet med femvertising, men även i likhet med kvinnliga västerländska stereotyper, och således både utmanar och reproducerar kvinnliga stereotyper i reklam. Resultatet påvisar vidare att modeföretagen använder postfeministiska budskap som självständighet och att kvinnor agerar enskilt för ett kommersiellt syfte och därmed kommodifierar feminismen. Detta innebär att modeföretagens användning av femvertising inte anses helt autentiskt.

Denna uppsats undersöker hur feministiska budskap kommodifierar och exploaterar marknadsföring riktat till kvinnor, även kallat femvertising. Detta har gjorts genom en multimodal kritisk diskursanalys (MCDA) av det amerikanska rakhyvelföretaget Billie Inc:s två reklamfilmer Project body hair från 2019 och Think of a woman från 2021. Genom en MCDA analyseras de feministiska budskapen i relation till de valda semiotiska resurserna: karaktärer, attribut, blick, vinklar, miljö, fokus, färg, ljud och text. Det ska framhållas att femvertising är en central del i denna studie då fenomenet genomsyrar Billies reklam, studiens syfte, tidigare forskning och resultat. Vidare består det teoretiska ramverket i denna studie av postfeminismen, som anknyter till den postfeministiska diskursen kommodifierad feminism, samt genuskonstruktioner och könsstereotyper i reklam. Studien resulterar i att Billie Inc kommodifierar och exploaterar feministiska budskap genom att inkludera och förkasta feministiska ideal. Vidare konstruerar Billie Inc kvinnorna i reklamfilmerna med både stereotypa och normbrytande inslag, detta i likhet med den kommodifierade feminismens förena feminism och femininitet. Genom detta, konstruerar Billie således en superkvinna, vilket slutligen resulterar i att varumärket neutraliserar det politiskt laddade budskapet, samtidigt som de främja en positiv samhällsutveckling.