Boots and IWD

[TomHardyAndMe]

Just flicking through the Boots Health & Beauty magazine that came through my door, whose cover states “we celebrate all the fierce females this IWD”. 5 people on the cover. You guessed it, trans woman slap bang in the centre of the front cover pic. And guess whose story comes first in the article?

FFS.

well its not like they have international mens day, trans visibility day, trans day of remembrance, lgbt month or anything. Obviously they need IWD too.

In fairness, their article about endometriosis is at least women-centred.

'Fierce females'? so, not all female, and not all necessarily particularly 'fierce' as far as I can see.

A thread has been deleted on this topic, though the deletion message doesn’t make it clear why other than they were “getting a lot of reports”

I’d posted Boots’ email address in case anyone wanted to write in about it:

mailto:[email protected]

Ive not done my email yet but will be doing so.

Lots of posters were saying they’d be cashing in the Advantage card points and cutting up their cards and stopping shipping there. I’ll be one of those.

Third thread about this and I’m still not clear why MNHQ are unhappy about us stating our disappointment!

So disappointed in Boots such a good opportunity to centre actual women on international women's day

But nope

Well, the question from the IWD marketing campaign 'To challenge' or similar starts with What being a woman means to you. You know my answer right. Not sure it is allowed here these days.

It is possible to do something with just women for IWD - Loose Ends on R4 has had an all-women IWD special just now. (OT, I seem to have been hearing rather more women on R4 comedy and other shows in the last year or so, I'm wondering if something about doing it remotely is helping erode the usual imbalance?)

I think it shocking that Boots - a chemist so a business that knows about biology, whose customer base is 90% female - should basically stick its collective fingers up at its customers and make the first women it features in its IWD coverage a trans woman.

There are so many other women’s issues they could have covered, and so many other women they could have picked.

The patriarchy is strong with them I think.

I was thinking I'd seen this before but there was a link? Was very confused!

should basically stick its collective fingers up at its customers and make the first women it features in its IWD coverage a trans woman.

Read the other thread though, which included a link to the article, and it clearly had a range of different women and experiences on there in the top 5.

Well that's ok then.

I stopped shopping at boots when they made the morning after pill more expensive than anywhere else and said they didn't want to encourage women using it irresponsibly, and went on to say some of its shareholders weren't happy with their selling it at all.

So boots ready didn't give a shit, and they want to keep their shareholders happy, and all they care about is money and if that means they will make a few more quid by bunging a transwoman on the cover of their little rag, it doesn't surprise me.

The companies producing this guff for IWD care as much about IWD as they do about Pride or Mothers Day or anything else.

It’s all just advertising. The only thing Boots want women to do is buy more of their stock.

Risking alienating customers is an interesting strategy for a business that has had profits reduced profits the last two years.

pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/news/boots-sees-profits-almost-halve-in-2019
2019 so can’t be blamed on Covid

www.walgreensbootsalliance.com/news-media/press-releases/2020/walgreens-boots-alliance-reports-fiscal-2020-third-quarter-results

But between choosing to focus on someone who isn’t a woman for IWD and their actions on morning after pill they don’t seem to respect women so I’ll shop elsewhere.

That's right, Merrymouse. It's not that they care, it's a marketing opportunity. Some of us may be deeply put off by this but I think the vast majority either don't care or think it's a good thing. Even us discussing is free promotion and publicity. It's still a win for Boots.

(I wonder what Lloyds pharmacy is like).

Obviously trans women will be great customers for Boots - all those prescriptions, treatments, makeup etc. So it makes sense for Boots to market to them. But I may start to move my spending away as I refuse to be gaslit.

@WorkingItOutAsIGo

Obviously trans women will be great customers for Boots - all those prescriptions, treatments, makeup etc. So it makes sense for Boots to market to them. But I may start to move my spending away as I refuse to be gaslit.

There won't be nearly enough of them to make up for the lost women's custom

If people need another reason to stop using Boots... they've moved their headquarters abroad and surprisingly pay less tax as a result.

@serendipitea

If people need another reason to stop using Boots... they've moved their headquarters abroad and surprisingly pay less tax as a result.

Bye bye boots

Mandala exactly: we do have choices after all. Sadly most businesses have swallowed the kool aid on this but I can definitely spread my spending around much more. I regularly would spend £200 in Boots on stuff for the family and most of that I can buy elsewhere.

This is what drives 'values' campaigns

@Mockolate

should basically stick its collective fingers up at its customers and make the first women it features in its IWD coverage a trans woman.

Read the other thread though, which included a link to the article, and it clearly had a range of different women and experiences on there in the top 5.

It’s not a top 5, there are only 5. With the first to be covered (and therefore most likely to be read) that of a trans woman. 20% dedicated to trans is disproportionate. As is giving them an umbrella so as to take up more space than the women on the cover (plus they’re literally in the centre).

20% is pretty similar to sort of proportion you might find for a female:male ratio on many mixed sex lists. At 30% the perception is that it's a lot of women.