Download Advertising and stereotypes

Advertising and stereotypes
introduction
• Marketers are constantly seeking ways to
make their products more easily identifiable
to specific groups of end users. In some cases,
they may intentionally or unintentionally use
stereotyping to show a product as appealing
to their desired target market or in an attempt
to interject humor into the ad. Advertising
stereotypes are often race- or gender-based in
nature.
Stereotyping commercials
• Commercials are the vast source of gender
stereotyping, because they are adapted to the
specific, either male or female target, and are
“the reflection of the recipient”. The aim of
the modern commercial is not only the
satisfaction of needs but also their creation.
• Women are more often presented in commercials,
because they are seen as responsible for making
everyday purchases. Men generally advertise cars,
cigarettes, business products or investments,
whereas women are shown rather in the commercials
with cosmetics and domestic products. They are also
more likely portrayed in the home environment, unlike
men, who are shown outdoors. Another important
distinction is the face-ism phenomenon in the
commercials, which consists in showing the entire
figure in case of women and close-up shots in case of
men .
• Stereotyping can occur in
advertisements geared
toward and containing
children. Boys are often
portrayed as rough or
aggressive, while girls are
portrayed as more dainty
or feminine. Girls are
shown as babysitters
nursing dolls or cleaning
house with a pink cleaning
kit, whereas boys do
sports or play computer
games .
• Some advertisements play to the
stereotype of young men as shallow
and superficial. Beer commercials, for
instance, often show males as
engaging in sophomoric pranks or
actions in an effort to impress
women. With married couples in the
process of making a household
decision, the husband may be
portrayed as a somewhat dim
individual who means well but is
essentially incompetent. The wife, on
the other hand, is depicted as the
one who is really in control of the
situation and knows how to rectify
the problem by using the advertised
product.
• Male stereotypes are also various. The first model
is “a real man”, athletic, successful, professional,
seducer with a beautiful woman by his side. He
also has a branded car and a smartphone.
• The other type is less popular and presents men
devoted to their families who can save enough
time for them. Men are very rarely presented
during housecleaning. And if they are, it is
rather a satirical image – e.g. in the Mr. Muscle
commercial – or they appear as the experts and
they advise women, for instance, how to do
laundry properly.
• Advertising specialists also use the stereotype of male
friendship, which can be called “buddy narratives”;
men are presented as acting together, for instance by
going to a football match or to the pub. They share the
same interests and opinions, and they enjoy spending
time together by doing something extremely
interesting and adventurous
• A housewife obsessed by a steam on a new
tablecloth or a woman whose main problem
is lack of ideas for dinner.
• The other examples are less traditional, however, they
are still very stereotypical. One can distinguish
commercials with female vamps – sexy seductresses,
the objects of desire of every man. They mostly
advertise cosmetics, but they also appear in the
commercials directed to men. When a beautiful
woman accepts and praises the male cosmetics, it is
treated by men as a guarantee of its quality.
• Another type is a woman, whose major
concern is to preserve her beauty. Hence, she
presents a healthy life style, is physically active,
uses a wide range of body and facial cosmetics.
However, one can observe mainly the presence
of very thin actresses in this type of
commercials, which can lead to the
assumption, that only thin women can be
beautiful and healthy. As a result, many female
receivers fall into the obsession with their
weight, which sometimes can have negative
effects.
Domesticated Female
• Even in a time when many women work
outside the home, they are still depicted
as being in charge of all the domestic
chores in the household. Ads for
products like soap, laundry detergent,
toilet tissue and child care items depict
the women as having the ultimate
responsibility for making the buying
decisions for these products. Women
are also shown as being in charge of
food selection and meal preparation in
the home.
• Advertising can also perpetuate racial
stereotypes that have lasted for
generations. As an example,
McDonald's came under heavy
criticism for creating an
advertisement depicting Chinese
people who had difficulty
pronouncing the letter "r." In England,
the Advertising Standards Authority
banned an ad showing a black man
playing a ukulele and repeating every
word a white man says, saying that
the ad could be seen as showing
blacks as subservient or inferior to
whites.
Breaking gender stereotypes
• In spite of significant presence of the stereotypes
in commercials, advertising specialists more and
more often use non-schematic ideas of the
promotion of products and services. Women are
presented as liberated, strong and independent of
social expectations and men are shown while
washing or cleaning.
• Male roles in advertising are redefined as well –
British commercial of a cleanser called Ajax presents
handsome men cleaning kitchen with this product; in
the other example a man is striping for his girlfriend
and then throws his clothes in the washing machine
called Ariston. This situation is opposite to the
traditional scheme, in which a girl is a seductress and
a man is a viewer.
• The most popular, non-stereotypical commercial
is Dove campaign aimed at women at every age
and with different kinds of figures. It emphasizes
natural beauty instead of perfect shapes. The
female viewers prefer to watch women, with
whom they can identify, thus the campaign
proved to be a great success.
Informed viewers rather than
manipulated consumers
• If we become aware of the stereotypes and teach critical viewing
skills to our children, perhaps we will become informed viewers
instead of manipulated consumers”. Moreover, the commercials
evolve along with the development of a society and are the
answer to many social and political changes, such as emancipation
of women, growing role of individualism, globalization and
revaluation of patterns and social roles. More and more
advertising specialists produce non-stereotypical commercials.
But what is the message now????
• However, the attempts to break down
the stereotypes threaten to reject the
message; they affect security and wellestablished knowledge about the world.
Hence, a society has to achieve an
adequate level of social readiness, so
that messages breaking gender
stereotypes could be effective.