• Business Week, Thursday, January 26, 2006 11:32 AM

3iYing, an all-female market and design strategy company, specializes in marketing to girls ages 15 to 25. In this provocative article, seven members of the 3iYing team take on print advertising, vividly describing how many marketers totally miss their mark in ads targeted to young women. Their central premise is as follows: Getting a girl to desire your product isn't that different from getting a girl to desire you. So if it didn't work in your dating life, don't try it in your print ad. The girls also provide a blistering assessment of why a print ad for a well-known product used by teenagers--JanSport backpacks--doesn't work. Their final warning to marketers: "You want us to love you -- commit to you--but how do you treat us? You play on our fears and exaggerate our flaws. You belittle our problems and hold us to unrealistic ideals. You talk down to us and take our attention for granted. Not to mention that thing you have for hanging around with underdressed supermodel chicks. (If you're trying to impress a boy, then maybe sarcasm and supermodels are the way to go, but not for us.) We wouldn't tolerate a boy treating us like this--we'd call him a jerk. So why should we tolerate this nonsense from you?"

Read the whole story at Business Week »