Femvertising in Delhi: Brand Strategies and Consumer Perceptions of Authenticity and Effectiveness

Femvertising is a unique type of advertising that endorses female empowerment messages and gender equality to appeal to the target consumer by promoting a meaningful social message. Interestingly, this concept occupies a contested position between becoming a progressive representation of feminism and commodified feminism. This research investigates how femvertising is incorporated and its impact on persuasiveness. It examines how brands embed femvertising and how consumers in Delhi/NCR perceive the effectiveness and authenticity of each approach. To do so, the study surveys one hundred consumers of beauty brands in Delhi. A mixed-method design combines a five-dimensional stylistic analysis with the consumer survey. The analysis shows that perceived authenticity depends more on the consistency between a campaign’s message and its visual choices than on the mere presence of an empowerment message. Purchasing persuasion and perceived authenticity were found to be decoupled; the presence of one does not guarantee the other. While authenticity conciliates advertising effectiveness, it is driven by the personal relevance of the campaign. This research study is meaningful in shedding light on femvertising in a non-Western context, an area not explored enough.