Divorce Ads (Cont.)

Anne Marshall, a co-founder of WomanTrend, a marketing research firm, reports that divorced mothers emerged as "the most interesting people" in her recent focus groups for clients such as Goodmark Foods, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, Elizabeth Arden, and Lifetime Television. Why? Because these mothers are needy and stressed out, and "what they want are products and services that buy them some time." These goods and services include fast food and other packaged food products, financial planning services, insurance, and almost anything that could be marketed as a convenience product. John Hancock Financial services, Volvo, Volkswagen, and Hallmark Cards are among the major companies that are currently integrating divorce themes into their products and advertising. Marshall expects more companies to follow. Marketers, reports Joan Raymond Ilener in American Demographics, "are just beginning to think of divorcees as a cohort ripe for examination."

What should we make of this trend? The friendliest interpretation is that, in a free market economy, when human needs arise or change, companies will develop goods and services to meet those needs. Would we want it otherwise? A less friendly interpretation is that the disintegration of marriage in our society means that the family world, the world of intimate human relationships, is being invaded and increasingly displaced by the money world, the world of instrumental relationships based on commercial values and the cash nexus. As marriage decays, marketers seek both to exploit and fill the vacuum. You're on your own, young mother, and this new product can help. Do you trust this proposition?

Sources: Joan Raymond Ilner, "The Ex-Files," American Demographics, February 2001.

First published Spring/Summer 2001.