Created and designed by Vivienne Trulock for ilikecake, 2005
In order to fully investigate the issue of gender-specific advertising, I propose to consider the following areas:
Many advertisements use the following strategy to sell: Present an ideal. Convince your audience they need it but do not have it. Convince them that you have the secret for moving from where they are to the desired state. Tell them what to do next . Most of the things we want are not material but mental. We want states of mind.
The advertiser, beginning with a material object, which is to be sold, suggests the states of mind which may be achieved by the purchaser . If you want to be popular, drink Pepsi, or eat Pringles. If you want to be adored, wear Impulse. If you want to be cool, wear Nike. The list goes on. Whole industries depend on selling us products through slick ads depicting 'beautiful' women, playing on our insecurities and fears of imperfection.... The media defines 'looking good' so narrowly that few of us ever feel we have made it... 'We always have to measure up to some image' (Boston Women's Health Collective, 5) .
The publication of 'The Feminine Mystique' in 1963, by feminist author Betty Friedan , was the turning point for the advertising industry. Friedan placed much of the blame for women's unhappiness on America's post-war consumer society - especially on advertisers' exploitation of women. Women were constantly portrayed as housewives, in many advertisements of the time. They did this so successfully, she said, that an unbiased observer would have accepted as fact that many American women have no ambition other than to be housewives. This was the beginning of a feminist uprising, campaigning against exploitative portrayals of women in ads. The women's major complaint was the 'resentment against advertising constantly reinforcing the women's-place-is-in-the-home idea' (Dougherty, 1970). The advertisers realised that it was not in their interests to alienate the large spending power of middle-class American women, and began to change their attitude and with it, their ads. This wasn't as clear-cut as it sounds, though. When for example, an advertiser bowed to a suggestion by one of the women's lib factions that his advertising was in some way demeaning, he was quite likely to be criticised by another faction, claiming that his new style of advertising was patronising .
Until the 1960s, the sex role formulas for men and women were quite narrow and distinct from one another. The pattern was set and not deviated from. This was especially true if the behaviour was part of the role prescription for the other sex. In other words, if it was 'manly', then it could not, by definition, also be 'womanly', and vice versa .
Since then, sex roles have apparently broadened considerably. For product and brand managers and promoters, this raises an important question: 'If I want to gender my product or brand, with what symbols and models should I associate it?' As the masculine and feminine sex roles overlap, it becomes more and more difficult to find images that are exclusively feminine or masculine.
Gendering a product or brand simply means imbuing it with a masculine or a feminine image and identity . Gendered goods are usually products that may be purchased and used by both sexes, razors and soap for example. With gendered products, the basic characteristics of the goods are acceptable by either sex, but the visible design features, advertising, promotion, and perhaps distribution of the product are modified to include symbols which identify it mainly or exclusively with one sex.
The identifying symbols and words which associate the product or brand with one sex depend, for the most part, on the nature of the sex roles that our culture and society ascribe to each sex (Hawkins and Coney, 1976). They are taken mainly from the dominant stereotype of today's woman or man (Courtney and Whipple, 1983) . The Women's Movement; availability of convenient, effective birth control; women's entry into the work force; changes in family structure and stability - all of these factors and others have obviously reshaped the way society thinks about men and women. Understanding these changes is essential to creating effective promotional appeals for the 'modern' woman (Debevec and Iyer, 1986) . Advertisers need to know what roles are attributed by society to men and women today. They also need to know how much overlap between masculine and feminine roles is allowed, and which sections of our society believe in and adhere to sex roles .
The Sex Role Scales claim to measure male and female roles. They consider six main areas of behaviour:
Gendering is accomplished by doing two things. First, the product or brand is designed or modified to appeal to the stereotypical man or woman. Then, to give it a gender image, it has to be strongly associated with either the masculine or feminine sex . A survey was undertaken by Settle et al, in 1981, to study which characteristics were most often attributed to which sex. The survey, reported via the Journal of Product and Brand Management, produced the following results:
'To be a 'real' man: A man must be strong, tough-minded, decisive, independent. He is the leader in the family, makes the major decisions and must insist on having the final word. He may never be dependent on others, especially on women, for strength, direction, or support. He must be his own man. A man must be a breadwinner, able to earn a living and support his family, if he has one. He is the chief source of income and he must earn more than his wife or companion. He may never be economically dependent on a woman, and he must be a steady, reliable source of financial support.' Well, I must say, I was somewhat shocked to read this. And, if you think this is bad, read on - here's what they said about women.
'To be a 'real' woman: A woman must be nurturing. She must always and in every circumstance, put the home and family first! (my exclamation mark) She has the main responsibility for raising the children and looking after the home. She may work or have other interests and commitments outside the home and family, as long as they are secondary. A woman must act like a lady, maintain her feminine, lady-like comportment and demeanour at all times and in all circumstances. She must not use vulgar language nor tell 'dirty' jokes. She must display a sense of dignity and modesty, and avoid dress and behaviour that is too sexually suggestive.'
Well!!!
Of course, we all recognise the stereotypes, but, I would argue that using these stereotypes may actually alienate the audience. In particular, I have several criticisms of that particular survey, as follows: Firstly, the survey was undertaken in 1981 and even if the results were accurate then, they may not be so now.
Secondly,they did their survey by asking people to choose to agree with or disagree with a particular statement. This is not a very rigorous method of testing because
Thirdly, we do not know the ages of the respondents - it is reasonable to suspect that the age of the respondents would be a factor influencing their views on male/female roles. For all these reasons, I have doubts regarding the right of these results to be accepted as having been rigorously and scientifically generated.
The Gender Portrayal Guidelines have several clauses which must be met in order for a particular advertisement to be acceptable. These include:
Looking at these guidelines, I was surprised to see that the sub-sections of section 3 were specific only to women, e.g. 'using or displaying a woman's sexuality in order to sell a product that has no relation to sexuality is by definition sexually exploitative.' First of all, this is often the case, and secondly, does the absence of mentioning men mean that it is okay to display a man's sexuality to sell a product?
Even if an advertisement does comply with the Gender Portrayal Guidelines, many advertisements send differing messages about how men and women can, and should, act. Take a look at the commercials advertising food. Many of them imply that men and women must rely on completely different standards to determine what they eat. Commercials commonly suggest that men should follow their physical inclinations and eat whatever tastes best to them, while women should remain conscious of their appearance and eat only low-fat foods. The emphasis on a woman's need to be especially vigilant about her weight supports the societal myth that a woman's value is determined by her physical appearance .
The advertisements for these type of products help convince women that they need to conform to certain standards of beauty to be attractive to men. Many women buy-in to this myth. They reach the conclusion that physical appearance is a priority, and in doing so, continue to support the products that promise to enhance and maintain their bodies. It is an eternal cycle that benefits companies, but ultimately harms women by decreasing their sense of self-worth.
Men are often represented as being incapable in the home, as in the recent series of Flash ads, where we are invited to see it again 'in slow motion'. They are often, very obviously, depicted as being the target of women's lustful advances - as in the latest series of Diet Coke ads. Advertisers now seem to present men as objects in the same way they once presented women. It can be argued that males in advertising are portrayed as one of three stereotypes .
Firstly, there is man as 'sub-woman', these kind of advertisements portray men attempting to do household chores, and struggling with tasks traditionally viewed as female (Flash/Persil).
Secondly, there are advertisements that show men as boys - childlike, irresponsible, and appealing to the playful side of male or female consumers. An example of this type of ad are the budweiser wassup ads.
Thirdly, there are those adverts which portray men as primeval. They focus on men in powerful roles, and use powerful images of men to sell products. This version of masculinity is often used in ads for cars, or sometimes in baby-care ads, where the man is the strong, gorgeous, doting, caring, sensitive dad.
Steve Craig's own content analysis of over 2,000 network television commercials aired in 1990, indicated that although TV commercials often portray women in the ways encouraged by the women's movement, these portrayals tend to be aired mostly during prime time, when women who work outside the home are at home, watching television.
Daytime commercials still tend to portray women doing household chores, and weekend sports ads still frequently exploit images of women as objects of sexual desire (Craig, 1992). Ultimately, the only real response is education. We must raise awareness of the power that advertisements have in constructing and perpetuating stereotypes and myths. We need to become conscious of cues that have the potential to limit the choices of either gender, then make our decisions based on what is best for us as individuals.