by Bhawna Sharma
Show her them it’s a man’s everyone’s world
This year, the Oscars witnessed a non-English film clinch best picture in a historic first, grabbing headlines all over the world. For all its star-studded cinematic celebration, however, the pinnacle of Hollywood still isn’t ready to discuss the gruelling emotional recovery of women after pregnancy. The 2020 Oscars’ decision to not run a postnatal advertisement from Frida Mom depicting the frank realities of motherhood symbolises the gendered world of advertising, in which women are constantly stereotyped or censored.
Apparently, a film showcasing explicit violence and gore is deemed worthy of winning Hollywood’s most prestigious award, but a postpartum advertisement showing a woman trudging into the bathroom in the middle of the night is ‘too graphic’. How did we get here, and what’s the future of gender advertising?
Gendered ads: Past and Present
Gender advertising existed for as long as women were fixed into rigid societal roles. For beer giant Budweiser, a typical advertisement in the 1960s pandered to men, with women reduced to domesticated housewives nannying their husbands. Clothing brand Van Heusen went one step further, proudly running the slogan “show her it’s a man’s world” in a vintage ad in which a woman kneels to her husband while serving him breakfast.
Fast-forward to 2019, and while a lot has changed, a lot hasn’t. For starters, even though ads are less overtly sexist, an overwhelming majority continue to cling to outdated gender roles. According to a 2017 report from the Cannes Lions Festival, women are 48% more likely than men to run the kitchen in ads while men are more likely to be shown in sporting events.
The excessive sexualisation of women in ads has also risen, propagating the unhealthy stereotype of women as sexual objects for the male gaze. Automobile companies such as BMW, in particular, have repeatedly run ads comparing docile women, and the male sexual attraction, to cars.
Why is advertising segregated?
The reasons for gendered advertising are multifarious, from the inertia of overcoming entrenched gender norms reinforced over hundreds of years, to typecasting audiences based on products.
Perhaps the most pressing reason, however, is the gaping female deficit in the creative industry – only after almost a decade of action by the 3% Movement, 29% of the world’s creative directors are women. In an industry dominated by men, it’s no surprise that 91% of women consumers believe that advertising is out of touch with their reality (The Guardian, 2016).
A lack of female perspectives in advertising teams also means that there are few checks on the gender appropriateness of advertisements; the vulgar sexual objectification of women becomes acceptable in a predominantly testosterone-charged work environment.
The changing tide
Among a sea of distasteful ads, however, some companies have recognised the importance of engaging their female audiences more meaningfully. Healthcare brand Dove, for example, has shattered traditional notions of beauty by empowering women of all ages, size, and race in their ads. Fifteen years later, Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign remains the poster child for successful marketing.
Large corporations have also used their influence to positively advance women’s issues, from Pantene’s deconstruction of the double-standards women face at work, to Whispers’ ‘Touch the Pickle’ ad campaign candidly attacking menstrual stigma in India, and NTUC Income’s ‘Times Have Changed’ ad which highlights how often women are told to behave.
In yet an even more unprecedented move, UK’s Advertising Standards Authority implemented a ban on advertisements perpetuating harmful or offensive gender stereotypes, thus making it the first country to legally codify gender discrimination in the advertising industry.
It is high-time advertisers took conscious charge over the messages they transmit through their content, given that much of what viewers see shapes their perception of right and wrong. Let’s hope that it means the end of ads like the cringey GV Gold Class’ ‘The Whiney Girlfriend’ video, or the downright rude 2015 billboard ads by Carl’s Jr.
Having a woman lead the steering wheel of a BMW isn’t enough, nor are unfiltered ads of postpartum depression (although it would definitely be a step in the right direction). What the world needs is an industry where the ‘gender’ in ‘gender advertising’ becomes irrelevant, a world where everyone is given equal opportunities to shine regardless of their personal attributes.
