Advertising still has a gender stereotyping problem
While market segmentation undoubtedly has its place, there’s a big difference between knowing your audience and telling your audience who they should be, argues Victoria McKeown, general manager of brand at Atomic 212°.
There’s nothing wrong with appealing to your target audience. While there are absolutely merits to men having a better idea about feminine hygiene products, you’ve got to fish where the fish are, and creating a campaign to sell tampons by appealing to men is unlikely to be successful (although I’m more than happy to be proven wrong!).
But there’s a big difference between knowing your audience and telling your audience who they should be.
Selling a ute or hardware? You need a real blokey bloke as your star – preferably one dressed up as a tradie – and get the voiceover guy who sounds like Russell Crowe after about six packs of cigarettes. Because only manly men drive utes and hammer nails into wood.
You tell ’em Vic! Getting entirely fed up with being told that I can’t cook or clean. I am far far far cleaner than my wife. And a waaay better cook. And if the laptop or the wifi breaks down, do you think I know what to do? Hell no. My wife is the tech guru. And she changes her own tyres. Advertising is not only a reflection of the world we live in, it shapes that world. Let’s shape it into something positive people!
‘Advertising is not only a reflection of the world we live in, it shapes that world.’
The fact that you are a better cook than your wife proves that advertising does not shape the world though doesn’t it? You are certainly not alone. What this article proves is that 1950’s stereotypes still sit with adland creatives, surely? (Don’t call me Shirley? – Is Shirley a man or a woman and do they do the cooking?)
(I could be wrong, re the above of course? I actually share the same cooking abilities and tech similarities with my wife too…) 🙂
Victoria,
I think your argument is fundamentally sound, however does not take into consideration the shorter and shorter attention spans that advertising holds.
As a result of this, I would argue stereotypes must be used as a visual or aural heuristic. Indeed, we understand the world through stereotypes; we cannot process every new piece of information through our System 2 (or slow) thinking (nods to Kahnemann & Tversky), and try as we might, very few pieces of advertising will ever cross that threshold of moving from System 1 thinking (which also makes them easier to ignore) into System 2.
As further substantiation of that last comment, one will of course hold up individual, anecdotal evidence of where this is not the case, however i counter that argument by asking anyone to name the last 5 consecutive ads they have seen.
Attention spans are getting shorter partly as a result of the quality of the advertising/the constant stereotyping.
Its a chicken and egg situation. Part of the reason current viewers have short attention spans is that they’ve been conditioned to ignore/ad-block crap and use non-traditional media to view programs. In part because the stereotyping has given them the motivation to do so. Basically, people wouldn’t have gone to Youtube if we hadn’t pushed utter garbage at them for the past decade. Blaming the audience for having standards isn’t the solution.
Pretty much, it seems every add is either a dopey Dad (always in a polo) or a guilty Mum (always in pastel colours). Its really no wonder viewership is down and ad-blocking is up. Content in this country is actually appalling, like 1 star out of 100 bad.
“Selling a ute or hardware? You need a real blokey bloke as your star – preferably one dressed up as a tradie…”
Maybe you should do some more research before playing the gender card.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgoVRo36Moc
True or False, veterinary science is part of STEM? True or false, biology is part of STEM? True or false, both of thee industries are totally dominated by women?
Now, it the author of this article (a) a sexist liar or (b) just mistaken?
There’s something wrong when the “impartial” media keep getting basic facts wrong again and again and again and again and again … and always favouring one gender. How is that coincidence possible?