In recent years, femvertising—advertising centered on women's rights and gender equality—has emerged as a major marketing strategy in the advertising industry. However, even when consumers encounter the same femvertising advertisement, the way the...
In recent years, femvertising—advertising centered on women's rights and gender equality—has emerged as a major marketing strategy in the advertising industry. However, even when consumers encounter the same femvertising advertisement, the way they evaluate it may differ depending on individual values and generational experience. Against this backdrop, growing attention has been paid to how women consumers' attitudes toward feminism and generational differences in perception influence their evaluation of femvertising.
This study empirically examined how women consumers' attitudes toward feminism influence authenticity evaluation and brand attitude through the core perceptual elements of femvertising—namely, empowered femininity, resistance to social structure, and commerciality—and investigated whether these influence pathways differ by age group. To this end, an online panel survey firm was used to conduct quota sampling of 200 women in their 20s and
200 women aged 40 and above, yielding a total of 400 valid responses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and multi-group analysis were employed to test the research hypotheses. The findings are as follows.
First, attitude toward feminism was found to have a significant positive(+) effect on both empowered femininity and resistance to social structure, while exerting a significant negative(-) effect on commerciality. This indicates that consumers with more favorable attitudes toward feminism tend to perceive women's empowered expression and critical awareness of social structural issues in femvertising more strongly, while being less critical of the advertisement's commercial intent.
Second, empowered femininity and resistance to social structure were found to have significant positive(+) effects on authenticity, whereas commerciality had a significant negative(-) effect on
authenticity. In addition, authenticity was found to have a significant positive(+) effect on brand attitude.
Third, in the group of women in their 20s, attitude toward feminism had significant effects on all three perceptual elements— empowered femininity, resistance to social structure, and commerciality. In contrast, in the group of women aged 40 and above, attitude toward feminism had significant effects on empowered femininity and commerciality, but not on resistance to
social structure. This suggests that for women aged 40 and above, a favorable attitude toward feminism does not necessarily translate into an awareness of social structural issues embedded
in the advertisement.
Finally, the test of path coefficient differences between the two groups revealed significant group differences only in the path from attitude toward feminism to resistance to social structure and the path from resistance to social structure to authenticity; no significant differences were found in the remaining paths. This indicates that the criteria consumers use to judge authenticity may vary by age, demonstrating that the effect of femvertising operates differently depending on consumers' generational context. This study identifies the specific pathway through which attitude toward feminism leads to authenticity evaluation via three perceptual elements, and empirically confirms that generational differences among women consumers play a meaningful role in the formation of femvertising authenticity. These findings suggest that brands planning femvertising campaigns should establish differentiated messaging strategies that reflect consumers' feminist values and generational characteristics, and that maintaining consistency between advertising messages and actual corporate practices regarding women's policies constitutes an authentic femvertising strategy.