Femvertising and postfeminism: An investigation of postfeminist female consumers’ engagement with femvertising-led campaigns

Purpose - This study aimed to contribute to the current research on femvertising and to help shed light on the matter of how postfeminist female consumers engage with femvertising campaigns - and the potential for brands to invest in such advertising strategy. Design/Methodology/Approach - Constructed under an interpretivist philosophy, this research uses an inductive approach to reasoning and is exploratory in nature. It uses Grounded Theory strategy and a qualitative mono-method of data collection. Semi structured interviews with six postfeminist females were undertaken to gain detailed insights into their feelings and thoughts about femvertising. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic coding analysis. Findings - Findings indicate that postfeminist women do not discuss femvertising in depth but they do appreciate that companies are promoting empowering messages. They are, however, sceptical of corporate intentions and do not consider these campaigns feminist straight away. Additionally, it was observed that companies guilty of promoting Commodity Feminism were strongly disapproved. Limitations - The researcher assessed the thoughts of a small number of women, which inflicts low levels of representativeness and generalisability of the results of the study. To overcome the possibility of biased analysis, all interviews were recorded and transcribed for analysis. Also, the interviews were conducted only with women based in Ireland and future studies may find different results if conducted considering participants in different countries due to cultural differences. Originality/Value – This research is unique and relevant because it investigated femvertising from a postfeminist perspective, hoping to add new insights to the discussion of the value and contribution of femvertising for companies and society. By bringing in the thoughts of postfeminist consumers, the researcher aims to offer material for companies to make educated decisions in terms of feminism and femvertising