We have been fortunate to work with the Knox County Health Department on two different campaigns in the last year. While very different topics and projects, both received recognition from the American Advertising Federation (AAF) at their annual Addy Awards.

It’s summertime, meaning movie studios are mounting their assault of big-budget films on theater-goers. This is a high-stakes season for movie studios because those blockbusters can be big cash cows when they succeed or huge money pits if they fail.

One interesting development this blockbuster season has been the success of The Heat. The Heat is an odd-couple police comedy starring Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock. In addition to being popular among critics and viewers, it has also been a success at the box office, earning nearly $86.4 million in the U.S. in about two weeks, which looks great next to its $43 million production budget. One hundred-million dollars in ticket sales should be in reach.

The Heat has a quality about it very uncommon in Hollywood—a summer-time movie with female leads. The conservative media have long painted Hollywood as being home to liberals and progressives, a designation Hollywood has seemingly embraced. However, the fact is that certain aspects of the film industry have been stuck in the 1950s – movies with female leads are rare. Sure there are a lot of women playing romantic interests, but it’s seldom Hollywood gives us a movie where most or all of the main characters are female. In recent years, this trend has been reversing, with releases like Sex and the City, Mamma Mia! and Bridesmaids putting up big box office numbers on the backs of female-dominated casts.

In the grand scheme of things, The Heat will probably turn out to be a modest success. As of July 7, it is the 19^th-highest grossing film of 2013. Still, it is the most recent example that movies can market to women through avenues other than genres starting with the word “romantic.” Perhaps the recent success of films with female leads will cause studios to consider something other than white men as the money-making paradigm for summer blockbusters.

Social media has changed how we communicate with people and how often. From things like posting pictures of our delicious breakfast to staying connected with loved ones across the globe, we can utilize social networking sites in any way we choose. We are more connected than we could have imagined and now there’s a day to celebrate it.

Staff from FletcherPR were at the Waldorf Towers in NYC last week meeting with jewelry and accessory editors from major magazines, websites and blogs. This effort is part of the “Jewelry For Your Life” campaign that we conceptualized and are executing for my former employer and long-time client, Jewelry Television (JTV).

We’re all familiar with Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty but did you know the campaign is reaching its 10-year birthday? Since 2004, Dove has been marketing to women to celebrate their natural beauty.

With the recent success of their latest advertisement, Dove has men and women alike discussing the perceptions of beauty. Through forensic sketches, the ad revealed that we are our own worst critics and people don’t usually see the supposed flaws we do.

Dove also launched an ad in March combatting the overuse of Photoshop on women in advertisements. This involved disguising an “undo-Photoshop” tool as a “skin brightening” tool. The tool reversed all editing and stamped a demand that editors not manipulate our perceptions of beauty. Although it was not as successful as the women sketches ad, we can see Dove’s message of embracing natural beauty throughout the entire campaign.

Marketing to women has been a major focus of Dove's ad campaign but what else is it bringing up? Are women realizing that beauty and happiness are not defined by physical attributes? Or is all this talk about being beautiful refocusing our attention on beauty?

A Tumblr response to the viral women sketches video looks at the message through a different lens. Jazz Brice felt uneasy about the ad’s focus on physical beauty over inner beauty. A quote from the Dove ad video said that she should feel grateful for her natural beauty and how it’s critical to her life choices and relationships. Whether or not she meant her physical beauty or her inner beauty is left to be discussed.

One thing is for sure – Dove has us talking about the power of media and society’s view on women and beauty.

FletcherPR is a national communications firm that specializes in reaching women through the power of media. Headquartered in Knoxville, TN, we are a full-service agency providing strategic public relations, social media and marketing communications services to our clients throughout the U.S.

Throughout this blog, we’ve talked about some pretty crazy things being marketed specifically to women (here and here). Well today is no exception. Nestle has come out with a premium, high-end water bottle called Resource.

Trying to compete with the Fiji waters and Smartwaters of the world, Resource is what Nestle calls its first domestically-sourced, premium brand of still water, meaning it is noncarbonated and pure. Larry Cooper, Resource’s group marketing manager, said the ideal consumer is a trendy woman with a higher income around 35 years old. Sounds like they know what they want!

The ads show the bottle of water in lush woods and claim that it has 100 percent naturally-occurring electrolytes and 50 percent of the bottle is recycled plastic. To promote this new brand, Resource will be featured on the reality show Project Runway and endorsed by the Today Show’s Bobbie Thomas.

So what do you think about another seemingly gimmick product being marketed to women? Will you try it?

FletcherPR is a national communications firm that specializes in reaching women through the power of media. Headquartered in Knoxville, TN, we are a full-service agency providing strategic public relations, social media and marketing communications services to our clients throughout the U.S.

For those of you internet culture-savvy folks, you may have seen the recent backlash surrounding Facebook’s allowance of pro-rape fan pages (be advised, that link contains images and language people may find disturbing).

Summer brings out our creative nature. Gone are the dark, heavy clothes of winter and here to stay are the bright, fun fashions of summer. And summer has definitely arrived! I know this because of the apparel choices that have recently emerged on Market Square.

In just three years, Pinterest has encouraged us to become the baking, DIY, wonder women we really are. From game and craft ideas to budget-friendly tips and tricks, we turn to Pinterest for creative inspiration.

It is disappointing when we are directed to an external site to get a recipe for Grandma Jane’s melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cupcakes only to discover it’s a dead end. This also happens with eager shoppers who are ready to buy a piece of clothing they’ve seen but can never find the website that actually sells it. Well we have good news, friends – Pinterest is making their pins comprehensive.

What does this upgrade mean for us? No more searching through links and other sites to find the information we pinned. Time is saved, AND we find what we need with no fuss.

Pinterest has partnered with brands like eBay, Target, Sony and Netflix to provide its users with more information while browsing. A Pinterest spokesperson told Mashable that their hope is to have more useful pins for its users and community. Pins about desserts will list the full recipe, pins featuring clothes will have the price and pins about movies will provide more information about the cast and ratings.

This isn’t the only change for avid Pinterest users. The Pinterest smartphone app will expand its “Pin it” button to other mobile sites like Etsy, ModCloth and Jetsetter along with adding mobile notifications and mentions.

With all the focus on comprehensive pins and mobile upgrades, Pinterest seems to be creating a better venue for advertising to its users. Not only will the pins feature the logos of its contributing sites, but there’s also an opportunity for specific brand advertisements, especially those wanting to market to women.

Does this upgrade excite the bakers out there who can have the full recipe on-hand at the grocery store? Or do some of you have hesitations about the additional advertising that is imminent?