This article from BusinessWeek starts off with kind of a silly premise: If you want to effectively advertise to young women, then employ the same thinking you would in trying to get a date with a young woman. But it gets better when it gets to the meat of the issue and uses a print ad from backpack maker JanSport that appeared in magazine targeted at that demographic as a case study. The ad, the article says, is insulting to young women on multiple levels and does nothing to try and build a relationship with the consumer. It's dismissive, insulting and just doesn't seem to care about the potential purchaser.

I have to say that the story makes a lot of good points. If you take the copy point from the ad and replace it with "Nothing I can do will boost your self-esteem. I will, however carry your stuff." and imagine, as a guy, using that as your pickup line in a bar it probably wouldn't go over too well. It's a fairly universal analogy when you think about it. Dating is all about impressions and making yourself desirable to someone and hinting that you'd like a longer relationship out of the initial conversation. That's the same thing advertisers need to do, especially with more and more choices available and consumers increasingly feeling powerful about their own decision making ability.