When you develop your advertising content, you (hopefully) spend a lot of time thinking about the important things like your brand, tone of voice and key messaging. But do you stop to think about the subtext of the content? Have you ever asked yourself how your gender choices are influencing your audience?
If you haven’t, you probably should. It’s not only the right thing to do, but it might also be good for business.
Why gender matters in advertising
In perhaps a post #metoo move, the UK changed its advertising standards earlier this year when their advertising watchdog introduced a new rule banning adverts featuring “harmful gender stereotypes”.
The ban followed a review of gender stereotyping in adverts by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the organisation that administers the UK Advertising Codes.
The review found evidence suggesting harmful stereotypes could “restrict the choices, aspirations and opportunities of children, young people and adults and these stereotypes can be reinforced by some advertising, which plays a part in unequal gender outcomes”.
In short, the ban was introduced because it found some gender portrayals could play a part in “limiting people’s potential”.
Gender and the power of persuasion
So, what does all this mean? Well, basically, UK advertisers have to pull their socks up when it comes to how gender is portrayed in their adverts. No more lazy, degrading stereotypes.
And rightly so, because up until now, as the report says, businesses may have been ‘limiting people’s potential’ through their marketing choices.
Let’s just take a moment for that to sink in.
In effect, an advertiser’s choices potentially caused someone’s life to be worse. To sell a product or a service to one person, they’ve sacrificed another person’s future.
But it’s just advertising, right? It’s not real life. Ads don’t really have that much power, do they?
Of course they do. It’s why advertising exists. It’s called the power of persuasion.
Advertising has the power to persuade a consumer to purchase something that they otherwise wouldn’t have. (That’s not to say the purchase was unneeded or unwanted, it’s just that without the advertising, perhaps the purchase wouldn’t have been made).
But, here’s the catch. The power of persuasion doesn’t just shape what people buy, it shapes how they view the world. Researchers recognised this way back in the 80s.
Advertisements are part of our social fabric. How they’re constructed is the thread. Words matter. Pictures matter. Together they create thoughts, evoke feelings and influence actions.
And that’s why advertisers and their creative teams have a responsibility to look past what they’re selling and consider how they’re selling it.
It’s not a new concept. Can you remember the last time you saw someone light up a cigarette in an ad? It was given the flick a long time ago because something so hazardous to your health has no place in advertising.
And TV ads are chock full of little white words at the bottom of the screen – essentially little warnings to viewers about potentially hazardous content in the ad.
For a while now, we’ve needed to be aware of how what we create affects the audience. Gender portrayals deserve scrutiny.
Gender in Australian advertising
So, that’s the UK. What about here?
Thankfully, Australia already had measures in place relating to gender in advertising. According to the Code of Ethics for the Australian advertiser’s peak national body the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA):
Advertising or Marketing Communications shall not portray people or depict material in a way which discriminates against or vilifies a person or section of the community on account of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, sexual preference, religion, disability, mental illness or political belief.
But these measures needed refining. In 2018, an amendment was added to give further guidance on gender stereotyping – advertisers should take care to avoid suggesting that a particular role is exclusively performed by men or women (although the Code does not prohibit advertisers from featuring women or men performing tasks commonly associated with their gender).
Sounds good, right? Well, in theory. But it all comes down to how advertisers are following their own rules. And the report card on that isn’t great.
According to research house Kantar, 66% of Aussies believe advertising conforms to gender stereotypes, and more than half of us (55%) believe advertising reinforces harmful social norms.
But really, why set the benchmark at doing no harm? Why not reach a little higher and look to do some good. You might even help your brand value a little along the way.
Make good choices (and you might just be rewarded)
Gender choices can be used to appeal to, and grow, your audience. They show that your brand is aware of, and rejects, the #statusbro.
Look at the growing number of baby product ads with dads involved in a nurturing role. Men are in kitchens now, they’re doing school runs, they’re changing nappies. Because, you know, dads are parents too.
By subverting the gender stereotype, they better reflect reality and have broader appeal to both mums and dads. And even though in that area (like most) women are still the major purchasing power, parents want to buy from brands that have the same values they do. And shared parenting responsibility is right up there for many modern families.
It’s a long way from the horrendous diet of ‘give mum the night off’ take-away ads I grew up on, and I’m glad for it. But we still have a long way to go.
The more positive representations of gender in advertising we see, the more we will see. And the better the world will be. That’s the power of persuasion.