AUCKLAND: Kiwi women claim their portrayal in ads could affect the way they are perceived in the workplace with a detrimental effect on their careers.

An online survey of 400 women by New Zealand marcoms firm Splash Consulting Group found that 86% of respondents thought advertising and marketing campaigns portrayed them as unequal in society.

81% said the way women are represented is cause for resentment; and 79% said advertisers and marketers did not use real women in campaigns.

Splash MD Amanda Stevens declared there is a "disconnect" between many advertisers and the female market.

She averred: "Women tell us 80% of advertising just doesn't connect with them and yet they make 80% of purchase decisions. Rather than engaging women, it's actually enraging them."

However, David Walden, chairman of the Communications Agencies Association, defended the industry saying: "It's not our job to try and impose standards on society, it's not our job to try and give impressions of what is not there.

"If you're advertising a household product and you want to have a person using the product, you would have to say it makes sense to use a woman - not many blokes are at home cleaning the toilet."

Data sourced from nzherald.co.nz; additional content by WARC staff