Women Laughing Alone With Salads: Harmful Stock Imagery & Lazy Marketers

Women laughing alone with salads? What kind of strange article is that? It’s a story of sex, diet culture, marketing failure and, most of all, misogyny. You may never have heard of ‘women laughing alone with salad’, but I can guarantee you’ve seen it in action. Today I wanted to explore this strange but serious topic. So, if you want to learn what the hell I’m talking about, read on.

The ‘Women Laughing Alone With Salad’ meme

Women Laughing Alone With Salads is a meme. But, its Memeification origins are in a single-topic blog that launched in 2011. It was devoted to stock photographs of women laughing and eating salad, a common stock photo image of the time (and today). The cliché becomes a popular parody and satire about the stereotypical portrayal of women in media. However, this seemingly banal set of photos provides a picture-perfect (so to speak) example of problems in the marketing industry and society as a whole in our representation and treatment of women.

Why this is problematic to the marketing industry

Other than being just such an awful generic style of a photo to use (You should create unique, relevant images), this photo highlights several issues in marketing. All are tied to sexism and misogyny., but also to diet culture, racism and stereotyping.

The Whore Madonna Complex & Lazy Marketers

One of the clear messages we get from mainstream media and marketing is that women fulfil only two roles. Sex object or mother. There is no in-between, or even just the hint of realisation that women are multidimensional people with more to them than what’s going on between their legs. In marketing and advertising, women are portrayed in these two ways all the time. One is sexy, , young, slim, shopping-obsessed and in good health; the other is child-orientated, loves cleaning, and is sexless, tired and frumpy. While there are better representations than even a decade ago, these stereotypes still pervade. And the photo of women maniacally laughing alone with a fork full of salad is indicative of this.

These photos, primarily of white, slim (often blonde) women, show how happy you could be if you just stayed slim and sexy and ate a damn salad. It’s continuing that narrative of this is what women want and are expected to achieve. When marketers use these images (generally in the health and fitness industry), it’s a sign of laziness. They are not researching or connecting with their true target audience, who, in reality, do more than sit at a breakfast bar eating lettuce. If marketers want to attract more traffic and leads, they need to start utilising images that truly represent their audience without patronising them.

Diet Culture, Eating Disorders

One of the key aspects of misogyny in our society is how women’s looks are a constant topic. From overconsumption of beauty products and Shein hauls to the rise of cosmetic surgery and the rise of eating disorders, our obsession with diet culture and people’s looks is killing people. The women laughing about their salad are part of the problem.

When marketers use stereotypical imagery that associates women’s (lower) weight and happiness, it is telling anyone else that doesn’t fit that look that they can’t be happy. Fatphobia has a lasting impact on people, and as ethical marketers, we need to do our bit to promote products and services without resorting to outdated thinspiration and unrepresentative photography.

Diversity, Colourism & Representation

Another point raised that these stock images highlight is the lack of diversity in stock imagery across the board. The ‘typical’ woman who laughs at salad is white or ‘lightly tan’. While there are more images of women of colour enjoying a hilarious tomato or two, the stock image industry and marketers, in general, choose white models over people of colour. While many argue that this represents the ethnic makeup of the UK, the figures don’t add up.

Almost 20% of the UK population does not identify as white in the latest census. Yet today, most stock imagery still has a white bias, as does the marketing industry (which is predominately white). As a white marketer myself, there are definitely more relevant people out there with extensive knowledge about this topic, but It is crucial to mention the lack of representation this topic highlights.

Check out The Ethical Move’s resource section on diversity and inclusion for reading and tools on this topic.

The solution

So what are the solutions that marketers can implement to ensure they are not part of the problem that images like ‘women laughing alone with salads’ highlight?

• Use unique images that truly reflect your audience. It’s better for your brand, SEO and sales.
• Don’t promote overconsumption and thinspiration in imagery. An image says a thousand ways, another clique, but remember it so you truly consider the impact that image has. What does it say about your brand, service or audience?
• Consider inclusivity in your image choice. Use people that are representative of the beautiful diversity of our world, no matter their size, skin colour or appearance.
• Be a better marketer. Continue to learn about diversity, inclusion, accessibility and ethics.
• When we have a voice and an audience to speak to, ensure we use it to promote a better world. Children are unexpectedly bombarded by negative body messages; we need to be able to have open discussions on diet culture and our bodies with both children and adults.
• Lastly, don’t use images of women laughing alone with salads. Pretty simple right.

I hope you’ve found this article interesting; if you want to know more about ethical marketing, I write about it frequently on my blog. Some recent articles you may be curious about include; Ethical Issues in Marketing and Earth Day Marketing: Promotion without Greenwashing. Thanks for reading.