It’s time for advertisers to move away from stereotyping to sell
COLUMNIST
NEVER underestimate the power of advertising. Subconsciously, we’re all suckers for the pull of a powerful commercial.
Take my mortgage for example. Sorting out the finance for your house is one of life’s larger consumer decisions but the only reason I chose Cheltenham & Gloucester back in 1997 was because I liked Karl Jenkins’ music on their ad with the little boy diving for the pearl.
So news the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) are toughening up their rules on ads that encourage gender stereotypes is interesting. Adverts have a massive part to play in confirming prejudices, encouraging behaviour patterns and generally shaping our world view because they are pretty much inescapable in the modern world.
Statistics on just how immersed in marketing messages we are – via daily exposure to television, radio, print, internet and street advertising – vary quite a bit. But even the lowest estimates of around 250 per day are significant while the highest of 3,000 and above are downright scary.
As writer Ziad Abu-Saud outlines, that’s a lot of potential propaganda: “As well as showing us products, adverts also present us with values, ideals and social standards. They draw upon major personal themes such as beauty, happiness, love, companionship, sex, and self-image, in a positive but unrealistic light to promote their product. As a consequence, these adverts are potentially shaping us towards mental states, which are in fact, quite inhibiting, insecure, and unhealthy.”
The ASA has come up with its tougher standards on adverts which portray “potentially harmful” gender stereotypes, following a year-long inquiry. So commercials that push sexist clichés like women solely cleaning up after their family, or men failing to do housework or parenting, could be banned.
The thinking behind these more stringent standards is backed up by research that found harmful stereotypes “can restrict the choices, aspirations and opportunities of children, young people and adults.”
The ASA report also said campaigns “suggesting a specific activity is inappropriate for boys because it is stereotypically associated with girls, and vice versa” could be banned.
As Guy Parker, the ASA’s chief executive, told the Today programme, stereotypical roles in adverts “can lead to children thinking that’s their role in life”.
As girls we grew up thinking girls couldn’t possibly cope with the manly chunkiness of a Yorkie bar while boys knew they never had to grow up to do the dishes like Nanette Newman because how could hands feel as soft as faces with stubble?
But even in 2017 a clothing brand like Gap, which prides itself on its right-on modernity, could be stupid enough to promote its fashion range for children with clothes for boys that suggested they would grow up to be a “scholar” while the girls’ outfit signalled her future as a “social butterfly”.
Aptamil Baby Milk took a similarly limiting perspective on the “when I grow up” theme with its campaign that depicted three babies hinting at their future careers with their infant gestures. The two boy tots were shown to have futures as mountain climbers and engineers while the baby girl grew into a ballerina.
Historically, of course, adverts have always been a dead zone for progressive portrayals of women. On my kitchen wall there’s a postcard of a 1950s ad for a revolutionary bottle top. “You mean a woman can open it?” mouths a startled Doris Day clone, eyes wide with incredulity. “Easily!” chirps the blurb, “without a knife blade, a bottle opener, or even a husband! All it takes is a dainty grasp!”
The parallel universe of advertising has provided dubious, female role models ever since, from the deranged domesticity of the Shake’n’Vac woman to the girls who couldn’t keep their heads from lolling in slow motion after a liberal application of “Is she? Isn’t she” hair lacquer.
The ladies of the 1970s were sold dreams of drenching oneself in Tweed (or was it Charlie?) and wafting into an all-male club, leaving the old codgers gasping in the wake of one’s gorgeousness, or reclining dreamily while someone muscular in a black polo neck turned up with your favourite soft centres.
There were also advertising enigmas to solve. If females did all the housework why did a disembodied male voice give them expert advice if their whites didn’t pass the window test?
Why could you only enjoy the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate if you behaved like you were in a soft porn film? And most mysterious of all, what were the miraculous properties of the product that could turn you into a roller-skating, horse-riding, sky-diving superwoman – but only at certain times of the month?
But if there’s one constant in the history of advertising it’s that sex – and sexism – sells. And these days, men are as likely to be patronised as women. Between 2015 and 2016, the ASA looked at 1,378 complaints on the stereotypical depictions of women and men. And of these, 465 cases dealt with the portrayal of men.
Somewhere along the line, after the Milk Tray man deliveries ceased, Nick Kamen stopped dropping his kegs in the launderette and the Diet Coke men took their own break, the fantasy hunk male of advertising land turned into the hapless hopeless bloke.
Women have been bombarded with unrealistic ideals of beauty for decades but body-shaming is now applied to men too. A gas supplier campaign that provoked complaints when it featured a ginger-haired family beside the slogan: “There are some things in life you can’t choose” also put the same mean-spirited tagline alongside a picture of a worriedlooking man peering down into his boxer shorts.
Dads, like, mums, are quite capable of going to Iceland, not to mention cooking, cleaning and nappy changing, but they have been routinely portrayed as domestically helpless in advertising.
But perhaps the most damaging stereotype exploited by advertising where men are concerned is the cliché of big boys don’t cry. A Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial which featured two men arguing over who was more manly attracted numerous complaints.
The ad sees two men sitting in a restaurant talking about the televisions they’ve just purchased. The first character says: “I just bought a 56" plasma.”
The second retorts: “Awww, adorable. I just bought the 90. Because I’m a man.”
The first character then comes back with: “It’s ultra-HD” but the second mocks: “Did it come free with your scented candles?”
And his crushed friend ends with: “You know those candles help with my anxiety... You’re a monster.”
The ASA didn’t uphold the complaints under its old rules but hopefully under the new regime it would recognise what all those who found it offensive did – that it equated anxiety with a lack of masculinity. Men have enough problems talking about their mental health issues as it is without a stupid fried chicken advert making fun of them.
So before all those still recovering from Doctor Who finally getting in touch with his feminine side scream “political correctness gone mad” at ASA’s tough new measures let’s not forget stereotyping affects both genders.
It also makes commercial sense for an industry worth £21bn in the UK alone to get more in tune with modern society. The most watched adverts on YouTube by women last year featured empowering messages.
The savviest brands know this is the best way to engage with their female customers. Forty million women worldwide viewed Nike’s celebrated “Unlimited You” campaign while Always’ #LikeAGirl advert – which encourages girls to boost their confidence through playing sport – came in at number two in the global top 10.
Kate Stanford, managing director of YouTube ads marketing, explained how women aged 18-34 are twice as likely to think “highly of a brand that made an empowering ad and nearly 80% more likely to like, share, comment and subscribe after watching one”.
She added: “Follow the data, not the stereotypes. A woman might want to build a house, not build her beauty regimen. Mums might be seeking gaming tips, not parenting tips. Don’t assume a millennial mom has the same priorities as a Gen X mum. This generation of women is asserting their right to preserve their personal passions online. And they certainly don’t conform to stereotypes.”
And neither should the adverts they watch.