Eight ads that shatter tired gender

stereotypes
As the Cannes Lions festival creates a new award to recognise advertising that
challenges gender norms, we look at some of the best past examples

Sport England’s This Girl Can ad campaign breaks the rules of traditional
sports advertising. Photograph: Sport England
Mel Exon and Melanie Arrow
Tuesday 26 May 2015 09.55 BST

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Glass is a wonderful thing. Windows, vases, spectacles, marbles. Such a

shame about that whole glass-ceiling thing, isn’t it? Really tarnishes the
whole image of glass. At least the Cannes Lions festival has managed to turn
it into something positive, in the form of their new Glass Lion award,
created this year to recognise advertising that shatters gender stereotypes.

Advertising and the real world have diverged on gender. At its

best, advertising contributes to culture, taps into the popular mindset and captures
the moment. The modern mindset on gender, however, is moving much
further and faster than how it is represented in advertising. In the real
world, us women play sport, don’t always shave, burp, fart and are your
boss. In the world of advertising, we are known to get all giddy over
yoghurt and lose our cool at the sight of a chocolate bar. Then there’s the
distinct absence of gay and transgender people to call out, which is
exacerbated by the omnipresent (and frankly tired) portrayal of the
shaving, beer drinking, have-it-all lad.

Of course, this is not true of all advertising, but the mere need for the
Glass Lion award suggests that adverts which do shatter gender
stereotypes are, frankly, not the norm. Below is our pick of eight ads that
fall into the abnormal category, each of them questioning, challenging and
playing with the idea of gender stereotypes.

1. Bodyform: The Truth (2012)

Bodyform’s campaign breaks the conventions of previous tampon
adverts.

Even though Bodyform most definitely hit their advertising peak in the
80s (all together now; Woooooah Bodyform) this video response to a
Facebook post on the Bodyform page is simply perfect – everything from
the jug of blue liquid and clockwork orange-esque focus group footage to
the fart. The fart makes it. This ad cuts through every nonsense mountain-
climbing, horse-riding, “your period is as individual as you are” gender-
stereotyped tampon advert that came before it. It is the final word.
Modern family: can marketers catch up
with culture?
Read more

2. Getup.org: It’s Time (2011)

Designed to promote marriage equality, this film portrays the progress of
a relationship through the eyes of one member of a gay couple. It
challenges any lingering preconceptions of what an authentic on-screen
relationship looks like and in doing so, brings a new gender role to our
screens: the devout, loved-up gay husband.

Get-up.org’s ad brings a new gender role to our screen.

3. Always: Like a Girl (2014)

It was about time someone addressed the phrase “like a girl”. It’s full of
negativity and perpetuates the stereotype that the way women do things is
inferior to the way men do them. So, hold high the foam finger of
feminism for this advert that was screened in the Super Bowl, for tackling
the issue with true conviction, like a meaty advertising linebacker. Touch
down.
Always’ Like a Girl campaign challenges the stereotype that the way
women do things is inferior to the way men do them.

4. Lynx: Less effort, more style (2014)

This film, made by our agency, sees Lynx exhort its young male audience
to get out there and make the most of their hair while they still have it,
running through a bucket list’s worth of awesome moments that await
them. So far, so Lynx, until a romantic, Casablanca-esque scene shows the
hero encouraged to “kiss the hottest girl … or the hottest guy.” As one
commenter puts it: “I love that they just showed two men kissing like it’s
the most normal thing in the world, just the way that it should be.”
Exactly.

Lynx playfully screws typical depictions of male sexuality.

5. MoneySuperMarket: Dave’s epic strut TV

ad (2015)
A man strutting down the street wearing skyscraper heels and hot pants,
as a metaphor for saving money on your car insurance? Tell me what is
not to like about this cross-dressing champion of an advert. Nothing,
that’s right.

MoneySuperMarket’s ad features Dave’s epic strut.

6. Sport England: This Girl Can (2015)

With the goal of reversing declining numbers of women participating in
exercise in the UK, this is a film that shatters just about every rule about
sports advertising. To hell with having model-like physical dimensions,
from the first second of this film, real women with real bodies get stuck in,
with impossible-to-fake determination and confidence … running,
spinning, cycling, swimming, boxing and more, displaying the endorphin-
induced joy and quiet satisfaction exercise earns them. Besides, everyone
looks badass doing sport, fact. The Missy Elliot soundtrack is also a stroke
of genius.
Sport England’s campaign to encourage women to participate in sport.

7. Burger King: Proud Whopper (2014)

Burger King introduce a Proud Whopper to celebrate San Francisco Pride
2014. It comes wrapped in rainbow-coloured paper. But what else made
the burger different? Absolutely nothing. Because we’re all the same
inside. Zing.

Burger King celebrates San Francisco Pride 2014.

The Lynx effect: ad land begins to reflect

the lives of gay men
Read more

8. Pantene: Labels against women (2013)

While, if we’re honest, we’re not totally in love with the creative execution
of this one, the insight is undeniably great. In their press release, to
emphasise the truth behind their advert, Pantene used the statistic that
70% of men believe women should “downplay their personality to be
accepted” in the workplace. We can’t help think that it is opinions like this
which has resulted in a shocking lack of women in big business. In
fact, there are more large companies run by men called John than by women,
which isn’t at all gut-wrenchingly depressing. As such, this advert, and
pretty much anything which challenges the stereotype of women in
business, can only be good. Plus, her hair really does look very healthy.

Pantene’s ad attacks gender bias.

We have to applaud the Cannes Lion glass award for recognising the need
to spur the advertising industry on with regards to gender. It feels like we
are facing a tipping point, where even targeting by classic gender roles
(mums has to be the laziest ever descriptor to hit an advertising brief)
feels increasingly outmoded. Worse than that, there are penalties for
getting it wrong; groups who will shame your brand on social media,
deface your posters on the street, even boycott you at the
tills. Advertising needs to catch up with society to the point where this
award is redundant. After all, it is made out of glass, while every other
Cannes award is cast iron. We, personally, are reading this as an open
invitation to ritually smash it to pieces.

Mel Exon is the managing director and Melanie Arrow is a strategy

director at BBH London

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Culture and Gender Stereotyping
in Advertisements
August 14, 2015
You’ve seen advertisements. Don’t even try to trick me—I know you’ve seen
them. A lot of research over the years has taken a keen eye to those
advertisements to see how they reinforce cultural stereotypes.

Gender stereotyping has been at the

center of much of this research. Despite the many people’s desire to strive
toward greater gender equality and smash antiquated conceptions that
“men” and “women” are to serve distinct roles in society, popular media
seem insistent on portraying gender in very “traditional” ways.
As I’ve written about on this blog, gender stereotypes can be so powerful
that they bias people’s memories of their own past performance.
Here I’ll give you a little background on the presence of gender stereotypes’
prominence in the advertising world and then share some new research on
the role that culture plays in the process.

Traditional Gender Stereotypes in

Advertising
 If you’re interested in seeing how
gender roles are often portrayed in advertising, check out genderads.com.
There you’ll find tons of examples from print media in which men and women
are portrayed in stereotype-reinforcing ways.
That website, of course, is just a collection of examples. Are there data that
speak to this issue of stereotype presentation in advertising? There sure
are![1]
In one combined analysis of more than 60 studies, researchers looked for
reliable patterns of gender portrayals over many, many advertisements.
Overall, they found reliable evidence the women are portrayed differently
than men in ways that conform to traditional gender roles and stereotypes.
Here’s just a sampling of what they found:
 Women were 4 times more likely than men to not have a speaking
role
 Women were 3 times more likely than men to be presented as a
product user rather than an authority
 Women were 3.5 times more likely than men to be presented at
home or in a domestic environment (vs. at work)
 Women were 2 times more likely than men to be associated with
domestic products like body care and home goods.
Overall, it seems like there’s clear evidence that portrayals of men and
women in advertising are not equal but instead conform to common beliefs
about appropriate gender roles and gender stereotypes.
What’s Culture Got To Do With It?

You might expect that the

presentation and reinforcement of “traditional” gender stereotypes would
vary from culture to culture. In cultural psychology, though, it’s important
understand the broader cultural difference that would create specific cultural
differences. It’s not enough to just say, “In Germany, things are this way! In
Thailand, things are this way!” Instead, psychologists must ask: what makes
Germany and Thailand different, in a general sense, that would make them
different in this specific way?
When it comes to gender stereotypes in popular media, psychologists have
looked at the “masculinity” or “femininity” of the cultures themselves.
According classic measurements,“masculine” cultures are those that
emphasize achievement, assertiveness, and material rewards;
“feminine” cultures are instead those that emphasize cooperation,
modesty, and caring for the weak.
Within Europe, one of the most feminine cultures is the Netherlands whereas
one of the mostmasculine cultures in Italy. In a recently published study,
psychologists tested whether these two countries would differ in their
reinforcement of traditional gender roles in advertising.[2]
The researchers collected more than a thousand advertisements in total,
some from the Netherlands and some from Italy, and they looked to see how
men and women were depicted.

In general, women were more likely to be sexualized than men; they

were more likely to wear seductive clothing, they were often more attractive
than the men in the ads, and they were more likely to be objectified. As the
researchers expected, though, these gender differences were
significantly larger in Italian ads.
When it came to the roles that men and women played in these ads, though,
the story is slightly different. Although it was true that women were less likely
to be presented in working roles and more likely to be presented in
“recreational” roles, this gender difference was the same in Italy and the
Netherlands.
Do Advertisements Mirror Culture
or Mold It?

Throughout the scholarly history of

examining stereotypes portrayed in popular media, scientists have wondered
what the relationship is between media and society.
On the one hand, some people think that the mediamirrors culture. In 1987,
Morris Holbrook wrote about the “mirror that advertising holds up to social
mores, norms, and values.” Using this metaphor, scholars have
reflected[3] on the ways roles are portrayed in advertisement, seeing it as a
mere representation of what’s already standard in society.
By contrast, there are other scholars who maintain that media has the power
to mold culture. That is, people learn appropriate roles and beliefs by
observing how people are portrayed in advertisements.
Indeed, some studies have shown that stereotypes presented in advertising
has the power to cause negative outcomes.
Interestingly, some researchers have examined trends over time. One
study analyzed thousands of ads over a 50-year span and found that over
time, role portrayals of men and women became more equal. Another study,
though, reports that “female stereotyping [in advertisements] is alive and
well” despite societal changes over the years.
Wrapping Up
Whether these trends in advertising simply reflect the values of the time or
actively shape them, it’s clear that there is bias in how men and women are
presented in media. It’s worth questioning why this is the case and consider
what can be done about it (and if it would even help).

It’s also interesting that the cultural differences emerged in sexualization and
not in role presentation. Could these be separate issues altogether? Further
research is needed to better understand the role culture plays in these
advertising trends.
GENDER STEREOTYPES IN MASS
MEDIA. CASE STUDY: ANALYSIS OF
THE GENDER STEREOTYPING
PHENOMENON IN TV COMMERCIALS
9 stycznia 2011 · by Malgorzata Wolska · in Badania

Mass media play a significant role in a modern world, by broadcasting information in fast pace and giving
entertainment to vast audiences. They consist of press, television, radio, books and the Internet. The latter is
now the most developing medium, however, TV also has a wide field of influence. By creating a certain type of
message, media can manipulate people’s attitude and opinions. I would like to focus on this problem by
investigating commercials structure; I will also attempt to specify gender stereotypes, which are used in
advertising as a persuasion technique.

Stereotypes
People organize their knowledge about the world around them by sorting and simplifying received information.
Therefore, they create cognitive schemes, which are certain representations of the reality displaying its most
typical and fundamental elements and properties. These schemes are responsible for defining the essence of
our worldview and have a significant influence on social cognition – understanding, anticipation, situation and
emotion control.

One of the most important types of schemes used for orientation in the social environment are the stereotypes,
representing the opinions among members of a certain group about the other groups. They are internalized
during the socialization. They can be a result of our own observations or be adopted from the influence of the
significant others, such as family, friends, teachers and media. Because of many simplifications and
generalizations that they produce, stereotypes present incomplete, subjective and sometimes false image of
the reality. They are often based on tradition and are resistant to change. Although they can both have positive
and negative undertone, the latter is much more common. Even if certain arguments allow to refute a
stereotype, people would rather treat it as an exception that proves the rule, than change the way of thinking.
Besides, social categorizations can lead to the effect of homogeneity of the foreign group. Elliot Aronson,
another American psychologist, said that stereotypes are used to attribute the identical features to each
member of a certain group without taking the existing differences among the members into consideration
(1972).

Gender roles
Difficulties in differentiating gender roles in the modern societies can be a perfect example of the negative
social effects of using stereotypes. A division of gender roles is deeply rooted in the social archetypes. In the
past, the patriarchy was a dominant family model. Through the ages men have been considered to be financial
providers, career-focused, assertive and independent, whereas women have been shown as low-position
workers, loving wives and mothers, responsible for raising children and doing housework. Nowadays a family
model is based rather on a partnership than on patriarchy and women have more rights and possibilities on the
labor market. Feminist environment had a significant impact on the change in this situation. Women’s liberation
movement fought for the rights of women and for redefining traditional gender roles. They claimed, that there
should be no distinction between typical masculine and feminine occupations, and that traits of character
should not be ascribed once and for all to one gender. Although females and males are still not equal, the
differences between gender are not so vast anymore. Nevertheless, many social institutions, such as mass
media, still use gender stereotypes, basing on the assumption, that they are well known to everyone and help
the receivers to understand the content of the message.

Gender in mass media

Now I would like to focus on the attendance of gender stereotypes in the mass media, which nowadays has a
great power and reaches large audiences. In order to create a medium which is universal, understandable and
acceptable for numerous and diverse recipients, senders very often use stereotypes, which fill the social life
and evoke certain associations. However, mass media not only gives people information and
entertainment, but, according to a Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan, it also affects people’s
lives by shaping their opinions, attitudes and beliefs (1964). It controls social life by invisibly transferring the
dominant hegemonic ideology. Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxian thinker, created a concept of cultural
hegemony, which is an intellectual and moral leadership, distinguished from armed force. It can be formed by
cultural and political consensus through institutions such as the church, schools or media. The last one creates
a state of domination by focusing on the elites and the dominant ideologies, subsequently neglecting the
subordinate groups (Durham, Kellner 2006: XV). In the case of gender roles, the societies have established the
hegemony of males by institutionalizing of male dominance over women. As I mentioned above, men have
been perceived as the head of the household and women were mainly housewives. Nowadays the differences
between male and female roles are smaller, however mass media still perpetuates traditional gender
stereotypes. Moreover, due to their great influence on people’s attitudes, they can depict certain social groups
in negative and unrealistic manner. They can be a very useful tool for those remaining power. By manipulating
the message, media can create a certain image of reality, which is consistent with the policy of the dominant
group. As a result, the reflection of a real world is incomplete and distorted. Although people are aware of the
unequal representation of certain social groups in mass media, it is hard to remain objective and insensitive to
its influence.

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 (Matthews, J. L. 2007). The
first method lowers the receiver’s estimation of the intelligence of the person on the photo. The second one
more often evokes positive associations.

According to Steve Craig’s research (1997), women can be presented in commercials in several variants. The
first one is the most popular: 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.

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 (Pawlica, Widawska 2001).

More and more commercials are directed to children. They indicate “the proper place” in the society for girls
and boys. Girls are shown as babysitters nursing dolls or cleaning house with a pink cleaning kit, whereas boys
do sports or play computer games (ibid).
If men and women appear in the commercials together, they are mainly presented as a couple or marriage. A
sexual subtext is also often used in this case, even if the advertised product has nothing in common with the
erotic sphere. In the situation of competition, women appear to be weaker than men (Lukas 2002).

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.

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.

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.

Conclusion
Commercials are the powerful tool used for creating and shaping people’s opinions. Their structure is simplified
in order to be understood by mass receivers. Advertisement text contains dominant and well known
characteristics of the reality. Therefore stereotypes are very often used in the commercials as one of the most
popular techniques of persuasion. However, they describe specific groups in relation to the whole regardless of
individual differences.

The main aim of mass media is to be universal and suitable for everyone, in order to gather the largest
possible audience. Thus television, responsible for providing the central social discourse, is supposed to be “a
mirror of the society”. However, because of stereotypical way of explaining the reality, some groups are
underrepresented or ignored, and therefore the society image
is incomplete. For instance, the way in which male and female roles are presented in commercials reflects the
traditional notions of gender, where women are dominated by men (Pawlica, Widawska 2001). Although
people are aware of the dangers posed by generalization, they tend to be conformists and would rather submit
to the dominant patterns than oppose them and risk a negative reception of such behavior from the others.

There is a hope to change the current situation, though. According to Debra Pryor and Nancy Nelson Knupfer
(1997), “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. However, the attempts to break down the
stereotypes threaten to reject the message; they affect security and well-established 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.

List of Gender Stereotypes

BY HOLLY BREWER | PSYCHOLOGY | RATING:

Simply put, gender stereotypes are generalizations about the roles of each gender. Gender
roles are generally neither positive nor negative; they are simply inaccurate generalizations
of the male and female attributes. Since each person has individual desires, thoughts, and
feelings, regardless of their gender, these stereotypes are incredibly simplistic and do not at
all describe the attributes of every person of each gender.
While most people realize that stereotypes are untrue, many still make assumptions based
on gender. There are many stereotypes we may all be guilty of, such as assuming that all
women want to marry and have children, or that all men love sports. The following is a list
of some of the most common gender stereotypes as they pertain to either men or women.
Remember that these are stereotypes because they claim to apply to all men or women.
Female Gender Stereotypes
Gender stereotypes begin the second a
baby’s gender is found out. As soon as we
find out it’s a girl, we immediately begin
decorating a pink nursery filled with soft
décor and butterflies and flowers. We
assume that our daughter will be very "girly"
and fill her closet with frilly dresses and her
toy box with tea sets and dolls. What this is
essentially doing, even though many parents
don’t realize it, is setting our child up to be
the "perfect lady," and teaching her how to be the stereotypical woman. We are teaching
her that girls are supposed to wear dresses, serve food, and take care of babies; the biggest
and most common stereotype put on women.
 Have you ever watched a little girl playing house? Even as young as five or six, she is well
aware that she is supposed to stay home with the baby while the husband goes to work, and
she has dinner ready when he gets home. Here is another stereotype; women stay at home
while men go to work. While there are a million gender stereotypes about females, these
are definitely the biggest, and the most debated by feminists of today. Some other
stereotypes include:

 Women are supposed to have "clean jobs" such as secretaries, teachers, and
librarians
 Women are nurses, not doctors
 Women are not as strong as men
 Women are supposed to make less money than men
 The best women are stay at home moms
 Women don’t need to go to college
 Women don’t play sports
 Women are not politicians
 Women are quieter than men and not meant to speak out
 Women are supposed to be submissive and do as they are told
 Women are supposed to cook and do housework
 Women are responsible for raising children
 Women do not have technical skills and are not good at "hands on" projects such
as car repairs
 Women are meant to be the damsel in distress; never the hero
 Women are supposed to look pretty and be looked at
 Women love to sing and dance
 Women do not play video games
 Women are flirts
 Women are never in charge

Male Gender Stereotypes

Stereotyping is no different when it’s found out that a boy is on the way. The nursery is
decked out in blue, his closet is filled with tiny jeans, polo shirts, and boots, and the theme
is usually something like jungle animals or dinosaurs; something tough. Boys’ toys consist
of trucks, dinosaurs, action figures, and video games. From the beginning boys are taught
to be tough, to be protective, and to defend themselves. Boys are taught that daddy’s go to
work and mommy’s stay at home; from their point of view, boys have fun and girls do all
the work.
 Are you surprised to hear that most parents admit that they do not teach their sons how to
do chores such as washing dishes or folding laundry? Instead, they teach them to take out
the trash and mow the lawn; from the get-go boys are made to think that certain household
chores are "women’s work." This is a major stereotype, but the majority of American
households today would prove this to be true. Men are supposed to do the dirty jobs and
anything that requires muscle, they are also supposed to go to work and provide for the
family. Little boys see this and the stereotype continues.
Other gender stereotypes that inaccurately try to describe all men are:

 All men enjoy working on cars

 Men are not nurses, they are doctors
 Men do "dirty jobs" such as construction and mechanics; they are not secretaries,
teachers, or cosmetologists
 Men do not do housework and they are not responsible for taking care of children
 Men play video games
 Men play sports
 Men enjoy outdoor activities such as camping, fishing, and hiking
 Men are in charge; they are always at the top
 As husbands, men tell their wives what to do
 Men are lazy and/or messy
 Men are good at math
 It is always men who work in science, engineering, and other technical fields
 Men do not cook, sew, or do crafts

Can you see how many of these actually are true of many men or women that you know?
They may even be true for you personally, but they do not apply to every single man or
woman alive. That is what makes them stereotypes; the fact that these things are
considered, "the norm" and expected of every male or female. Each person is an individual
and it is perfectly normal for a woman to run her own business while a man stays home
with the kids. On the other hand it is also perfectly acceptable for a man to be a nurse or
hate sports, or enjoy cooking.
Men and women are individuals; they are more than just male or female. Our gender is only
part of who we are; it does not define us as people.

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