WOW #5- Chico's Bold vs. Old Campaign

Overview

In our modern world, there have been so many strides made for women. Women are empowered to look beautiful for themselves, and not for other people, embrace their bodies and imperfections and overall just love ourselves more! However some social stigmas are tough to break through, even in progressive times, and our reality is that women are still supposed to be "attractive". So often being attractive is still correlated to looking young, and being young.

So what do you do when you're a brand designed for older women? Historically it's been to market them "anti-aging", "smoothing" or "slimming" products to make them look younger.

But Chico decided to try something different, they said don't let them hide. Let them be the center of attention, the protagonist of their own story, and sell them bold items, that let them be seen. Here's how they showed how to be bold:

Target

The target audience is very clearly older women. Chico's brand demographic was very difficult to find online, but clearly their products are not made for teenage women. They wanted to showcase the women who are likely to buy their products in this spot.

Insight

Women are still very worried about showing their age, and they're tired of being told that they need to look younger. They're constantly being bombarded with these messages:

Women are even getting this from banking companies?? It's so ingrained in our society to look younger, but it's literally impossible to stop from happening, and women are very clearly tired of it.

Another very important insight for this campaign must have been that older women also feel invisible.

Older women are rarely portrayed in movies, and when they are, they're very specific character archetypes. As Meryl Streep put it "The year after she turned 40, I was offered three roles — all to play witches." Once you're past the age of 20, you're no longer a love interest, but a plot device. So many women above 40 struggle with self esteem issues because of it.

Brand Idea/Positioning

Chico took this information, and decided to do something about it, by evoking pride in getting older. As well as eliciting joy in doing the things that you love, and looking good!

Objective

To show women that just because they're getting older, it doesn't mean that they can't be confident, and the center of attention in their own lives. You can still have confidence and rock fun outfits no matter what age you are! You don't just have to wear slouchy t-shirts and cook, you can wear bold necklaces and ride motorcycles! Obviously with the goal being that these women decide they're going to treat themselves to some stylish Chico digs.

Strengths

I feel that this ad most certainly did what they set out to do. They showed that older women can be bold, edgy, and beautiful! It was fun and I had a smile on my face the whole time I was watching.

Weaknesses

Unfortunately in this day and age, this isn't an incredibly unique piece of advertising. Women empowerment has been a HUGE trend, especially in this last year, and it feels like they're riding that feminism wave with this one.

The first time I watched it, it also bothered me that they don't say that you can be old, and that it says you have to be "Bold". If the whole thing is that you're owning that you're older, Why not own it? Feels a little like they're still tiptoeing around the issue. But I later realized they're promoting their "bolder" style choices so it made more sense. Overall, I enjoyed!