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Introduction
Feminist perspectives play a prominent role in critical marketing studies and have given us many insights into the gendered nature of marketing and consumer behaviour phenomena, and the underpinning power relations embedded therein. This short overview teases out some of the complexities of the relationship between the feminist movement and marketing theory and practice. Setting key debates in their historic context, I track the evolution of these across three distinct waves in feminist thought, from the 1900s until the present day.
The somewhat tense relationship between feminism and marketing is aptly illustrated by arch propagandist and pioneer of PR, Edward Bernays' use of female empowerment to encourage women to smoke (see [2] Beard and Klyueva, 2010 for a more detailed overview of the campaign). Employed by Lucky Strike cigarettes in 1928 to expand their sales, Bernays sought to overcome a huge social taboo of the time that only permitted women to smoke in private spaces. Bernays was heavily influenced by his uncle Sigmund Freud, and consulted a well-known psychoanalyst, Dr Brill, who advised that as cigarettes were associated with men, they would be seen as "torches of freedom" for women. Bernays then persuaded a group of debutantes to light up cigarettes during the 1929 Easter parade in New York City, ensuring maximum publicity for the event that achieved widespread news coverage across the USA, under the evocative caption: Torches of Freedom . This highly successful campaign is seen as having a lasting effect on women smoking (see, in particular, Adam Curtis' award winning BBC documentary, The Century of the Self , 2002, available on Youtube).
In many ways this short tale goes to the heart of debates between feminism and marketing: is it exploitation or empowerment? Posing this question has generated longstanding, and largely irresolvable, arguments about the role of the market in opposing or assisting the feminist cause. It is also a question that still resonates strongly in contemporary times where everything from cars to soap is positioned as empowering to women ([9] Cole and Hriber, 1995; [31] McDonald, 2000). Whereas [43] Scott (2000) argues for the pivotal role of the market system in the success of the feminist movement in the USA, traditionally second wave feminists have castigated the market for...