Take Your Pick: Kate Moss or the Girl Next Door? - The Effectiveness of Cosmetics Advertising

Michael Antioco, Dirk Smeesters and Aline Le Boedec

In the last several years, marketers have started to use “nonidealized” models in advertisements (i.e., “Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty”).

Take Your Pick: Kate Moss or the Girl Next Door? — The Effectiveness of Cosmetics Advertising

Michael Antioco

EMLYON Business School

Dirk Smeesters

Rotterdam School of Management

Aline Le Boedec

Finaref

Management slant

  • Using a "girl next door," or nonidealized, model in cosmetics ads is perceived as more trustworthy than an idealized model, for example the supermodel Kate Moss. Moreover, the closer a woman lives to an urban area, the less she finds an idealized model trustworthy. Independently from the portrayed model, the more trustworthy a model is, the higher the purchase intention is.
  • No matter how beautiful women feel,...

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