EB3209 Sex, Gender & Moral Seminar
Read the article below and answer the following questions:
- What is femvertising?
- What role does social media play according to the article?
3.How are women depicted in advertising in your own culture?
- What is your opinion regarding the conclusions drawn in the article, (i.e. “we need to see a move away from ‘feminist ads’ to a place where all adverts have an inherently female viewpoint”)?
The Telegraph, Women’s Life
How advertising hijacked feminism. Big time
Adland has fallen in love with feminism. Hard. ‘Femvertising’ is now big business – but is that something to ‘celebrate’?
By Claire Cohen
11:09AM BST 09 Jul 2015
It all started with Dove.
A decade ago, in 2004, the soap brand launched its ‘real women’ campaign. For many, myself included, it was the first time we’d seen a group of recognisable women, of varying shapes, sizes and ethnicities, in advertising. Here was something different – not without its flaws – but much better than another ad showing mum serving up the Sunday roast or exclaiming how white her whites were.
Yet in the intervening years, nothing much else had come along to give Dove any serious competition.
Until now.
Because in the last 12 months, everything has changed.
Over the last year, we’ve seen women in ad campaigns dispel negative stereotypes (#LikeAGirl by Always); sweat it out in the gym (This Girl Can – Sport England); stop being self-critical (Dove again); talk about periods (Hello Flo) and quit saying ‘sorry’ (Pantene). Oh and, a personal favourite, seen Potty-Mouthed Princesses Drop F-Bombs for Feminism, dreamed up by fashion brand FCKH8.
Welcome to the world of femvertising: where the hard sell has been ‘pinkwashed’ and replaced by something resembling a social conscience, and where advertisers are falling over each other to climb on board the feminist bandwagon.
And this week – we had the latest chapter of #LikeAGirl from Always.
On the face of it, this might seem like a giant step forward for the industry. But is it as heartwarming as it seems? Aren’t we still just being sold to? Surely half the world’s population can’t be ‘having a moment’.
“There’s been a groundswell towards brands telling the truth and getting behind a cause,” Mediacom CEO Karen Blackett tells me. “Once upon a time ads were aspirational. But now they have to tell real stories, based on what we all experience”.
Roisin Donnelly, brand director at Proctor and Gamble agrees. “Adverts now have to reflect our reality and the future we want. That means role models for women.”
So rather than objectifying women and selling them idealised versions of themselves, the advertisers are cottoning on to the idea that honesty sells too.
It’s what women want. Last year, lifestyle website SheKnows surveyed more than 600 women about femvertising. A staggering 91 per cent believed that how women are portrayed in ads has a direct impact on girls’ self-esteem, and 94 per cent said that depicting women as sex symbols is harmful.
It also showed that femvertising can pay – half (52 per cent) had purchased a product because they liked how the ads potrayed women.
Blackett suggests the move towards honesty in advertising is, in part, down to the recession. But I think the answer is much simpler: social media.
Women have long held the spending power. Now, through social media, we’ve found a place to communicate that. We can hold advertisers – and anyone else perceived not to be meeting our needs – directly accountable (think Protein World’s ‘beach body ready’ billboards).
We can expose the realities of female life (#EverydaySexism) and rally behind causes via hashtag activism (think #bringbackourgirls #iammalala #yesallwomen). We can go into battle to see Jane Austen out on the tenner or to defend the victims of Gamergate.
Here is a place where the soft power – read influence – of women has never been more apparent.
Our online presence is dominant (we use social media more, and we do 62 per cent of all online sharing).
We also have increasing power in the workplace – British boards now have 23.5 per cent women according to the latest Lord Davies report.
Combine the influence of Facebook and Twitter with the potency of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In message and you’re starting to see how we got here.
Little wonder that advertisers feel they have to get on board.
The latest burst of femvertising began with two near simultaneous campaigns last summer; Sport England’s This Girl Can and #LikeAGirl from Always.
Jennie Price, head of Sport England, tells me: “For a long time we’d wanted to tackle the gender gap, but we felt it was important to start with the women and not the sport. There was no point sticking a skirt on something seen as a ‘male activity’ to make it seem feminine.
“Turns out, other people were thinking the same thing”.
This Girl Can, which shows ‘real women’ (a phrase I don’t much like – who isn’t real?) putting themselves through their paces. They sweat, grunt, grimace and push themselves to the limit as they exercise. It’s a powerful message and one that’s also had plenty of ad-world back slapping (along with #LikeAGirl it won a coveted glass lion at the Cannes Lion ad awards earlier this month).
The starting point for the campaign was research: through talking to women came the realisation that they weren’t doing sport out of fear of being judged, even though 75 per cent wanted to.
Always’ #LikeAGirl campaign was born from a similar place – studies done by the brand that showed a significant drop-off in girls’ confidence during puberty.
The original video, released last June, showed girls and women reacting in different ways to the phrase ‘like a girl’. Its latest instalment, launched this week, tackles confidence and those things girls are told they can and can’t do.
Here then are two ad campaigns that, on the surface, seem to eschew the hard sell in favour of social improvement (after all it’s hard to measure whether a soft campaign is actually encouraging girls to buy more pads).
The advertisers asked women and girls how they felt and – instead of feeding them back what they think they wanted – chose to portray what they’d been told: our deepest insecurities (some have criticised such ads for knocking women down so they can build them up again).
Of course, we’re still being sold to and that’s the rub. Question is: do we care? As long as the right messages are reaching audiences, can we overlook how they get there?
While Pantene’s ‘sorry’ advert was admirable, it’s hard to see how having shiny, swingy hair is going to further equality. And Karl Lagerfeld sending Chanel models down the SS15 catwalk wearing couture and holding placards that read ‘Feminist but Feminine’ was horribly contrived.
It smacked of a company adopting feminism because it seemed trendy; out of self interest. That’s where brands like Sport England and Always have got it right – they’re turning the mirror back on us. The moment those women in the first #LikeAGirl ad understood they’d been fed a cliche about their own gender was powerful, regardless of the motive.
As director Lauren Greenfield (behind #LikeAGirl) told Telegraph Wonder Women in an exclusive blog at the time: “When these moments of realisation occurred in real time, we knew something profound was happening in front of the cameras. Both I and some of the women on set were moved to tears”.
That’s the power of femvertising done right. It brings us together in an – often funny- moment of self-recognition, before pulling back the curtain to expose an ingrained cultural stereotype.
Roisin Donnelly tells me that #LikeAGirl has now been seen by 85 per cent of schoolgirls in the UK, largely through them sharing it with each other. And aversion of ad was shown during this year’s Super Bowl in the US – the first sanitary towel brand to do so.
The word ‘girl’ being adopted and shared among girls is one thing. But how does it sit with women? I asked Jennie Price whether it could be seen as condescending.
“Girl was a word we really tested,” she tells me. “It was key to us not to be patronising. In the end, we decided that it was OK to call ourselves girls and reclaim the word.”
“It was even the theme of my teenage daughters’ sports day,” adds Donnelly.
Indeed, femvertising is hugely popular with millennials who, recent studies show, value ethics over money.
Little wonder brands are going above mere broadcast campaigns to appeal to this audience. Always has is setting up an education programme to get information about puberty into schools. Pantene has started the Shine Strong fund to support the American Association of University of Women’s Campus Action Project. Verizon, who made 2014’s Inspire Her Mind ad, aimed at getting more girls into STEM subjects is handing out financial awards to schoolgirls.
But this younger generation of women will see through such advertising strategies if they become too shallow. The more brands strive to appeal to them via ‘social movements’ or experiments, the more they risk becoming formulaic.
Into the swing: men, women, boys and girls were asked to give an impression of being ‘like a girl’ in the first Always #likeagirl advert
To remain convincing, such campaigns can’t just push the perceived feminist agenda through a hard sell. They need ads that are built for women by women, from the ground up.
Part of the problem, of course, is that currently only three per cent of creative directors are female. “Although we are seeing more thank the lord,” says Karen Blackett who says in the past much of the industry was “male, pale and stale”.
So where next for femvertising? Personally, I think we desperately need more diversity on our screens. Dove and Pantene might be tackling issues of female low self-esteem, but they’re still selling cosmetic products and most of the women in their ads wouldn’t look out of place on the catwalk.
We also need to see more men taking on traditional ‘woman’s jobs’ around the house (Donnelly tells me that in Iceland and Nordic countries it’s the norm to see men washing up on screen. But those nations are also light years ahead in terms of gender equality – a self fulfilling prophecy perhaps.)
Plus, if femvertising is truly going to be real isn’t it about time we saw red, not blue, liquid used in ads for sanitary towels and tampons? (It’s a myth that ASA rules prohibit this).
Karen Blackett tells me we need to reach a place where the ‘women’s angle’ ceases to be noticeable. “We need to see a move away from ‘feminist ads’ to a place where all adverts have an inherently female viewpoint,” she says. “We need to normalise the experience of being a woman in advertising. If companies have any sense at all they will embrace it and future proof their business.”
Price agrees: “We need to normalise this tone of voice and not make women out to be special. We need to reach a point where we’re not different”.
Read the 3 articles below. All deal with the use of images in the ad industry.
- What arguments are put forward as to why the ad industry should change/ is changing the kind of images shown in their adverts?
- How does the use of images discussed in these articles compare with the advertising environment in your own country?
Article 1
Industry looks to ban sexual portrayal of under-18s in ads
The ad industry is looking to tighten its rules around children in advertising by creating an automatic ban on sexual portrayal of under-18s or those who appear to be under 18.
By Leonie Roderick 25 Nov 2016 12:23 pm
The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) are launching a consultation in a bid to ban the sexual portrayal of under-18s in advertising.
The social responsibility rules already allow the ASA to uphold complaints about such sexual portrayal but they do not automatically prohibit it.
“Without a specific age-related prohibition, advertisers have no explicit signal not to include such imagery and no certainty as to what images are likely to be acceptable,” the ASA says.
The proposed rules are said to allow CAP and BCAP to provide protection to vulnerable people while ensuring that advertisers have greater certainty on the types of imagery that they may include in their advertising without running the risk of regulatory intervention.
Both bodies believe premature sexualisation has links to harm, which means new rules are necessary to protect the welfare of under-18s. Their proposal also looks to avoid the potential for some adults to view under-18s as sexual beings or for under-18s to be pressurised into viewing themselves as such.
The proposal is also concerned with the protection of the models featured in advertising. There is an exemption, however, for ads promoting the welfare of under-18s or aimed at preventing harm to them; an example of this would be an ad that sought to promote sexual health to 16- or 17-year-olds.
Failing retailer American Apparel has fallen foul of the existing rules multiple times in the past. In 2014, the clothing brand was reprimanded by the ASA over images used as part of its ‘back to school’ campaign that could ‘normalise predatory sexual behaviour’.
The first of the two images showed a girl bending over to touch the ground with a picture taken from a low angle showing her crotch and bottom. The second featured a girl leaning into a car, again with her bottom visible.
More recently, the brand found itself in hot water for using a female model, thought to be under 16 years of age, in overly sexual poses.
Source: https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/11/25/ad-industry-sexual-portrayal-ban/
Article 2
Marketing is responsible for creating body issues among boys, study finds
Brands must focus on “building emotional resilience” among boys, with new research suggesting they are increasingly suffering from body image issues.
By Leonie Roderick 8 Aug 2016 11:02 am
Brands must make a bigger contribution to the health and wellbeing of males aged 8-18, with many feeling pressured by advertising to look good, according to new research by the advertising industry’s think tank Credos.
The research, which looked into the body image of young males, saw 53% of secondary school boys reveal advertising puts pressure on them to look good, along with friends, social media and celebrities.
Around a fifth of secondary boys say they have changed their exercise routine after seeing advertising (23%), while 67% of respondents said it was not acceptable for brands or products to use digital techniques to change the bodyshape of a model within their advertising.
“This new research shows boys are increasingly worried about their appearance. We have to recognise that advertising and the wider media play some part in shaping how young people feel about themselves – both positively and negatively,” says Credos director Karen Fraser.
“This work is about encouraging brands to further engage in the debate and make an even greater contribution to the health and well-being of young men.”
Promoting better understanding
It is the latest in a programme of work by the think tank designed to inform and encourage debate around gender representation in UK advertising. Alongside the research, industry-backed media literacy programme Media Smart is launching new resources today (8 August) that use real-life advertising campaigns for Persil, L’Oreal and Aldi to help parents and teachers talk to children about how ads are made, and how they can affect our self-perception.
Created with the support of the Government Equalities Office, the free ‘Get Media Smart: Body Image and Advertising’ pack aims to build emotional resilience in young people.
Matt Barwell, Britvic’s CMO, expects more marketers to get behind the programme. “Whether it’s using the power of our brands to encourage kids to get active, or getting behind Media Smart and supporting these new resources, at Britvic we know we have a role to play in supporting young people’s physical and emotional health and wellbeing,” he says.
“And as a father of three boys, I know that conversations about body image aren’t always easy, so I think parents across the country will really benefit from using these materials as important conversation starters.”
Ultimately, children must be properly educated on how the marketing industry works. Caroline Dinenage, minister for women and equalities, adds: “We live in a world where advertising surrounds us – on billboards, on our TV screens and on our smartphones. Those images can have a big impact on young minds, so it’s important we make sure children understand how the industry works.
“Through these conversations we can help young people to grow up with a positive view of themselves and empower them to take a more critical view of the world around them.”
Source: https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/08/08/marketing-is-responsible-for-creating-body-issues-among-boys-study-finds/
Article 3
The dangers of images that reinforce stereotypes
Brands and picture libraries are finally waking up to the problem of images that promote stereotypes, and are broadening their repertoires.
By Mindi Chahal 22 Nov 2016 1:45 pm
Marketers are familiar with stock images of ‘the average family’ – nearly always white and heterosexual. But many are moving away from these stereotypes in an effort to avoid discrimination and better reflect society.
Brands are increasingly realising the need to use images that are racially diverse, show same-sex couples and are moving away from using 2.4 children family scenes in advertising campaigns.
Almost half (49%) of marketers have used more racially diverse images over the past 12 months, according to a survey by image provider Shutterstock, shown exclusively to Marketing Week.
The study of 500 UK marketers also shows that 32% have used more images of homosexual couples in the same period.
“Diversity is something that can always be improved. [But it] doesn’t necessarily occur to everyone to think in terms of diversity,” says Shutterstock curator Robyn Lange.
“We have conversations with our contributors on a daily basis,” she adds. “We try to keep reminding people that even if we have what we feel is a diverse collection, it can always be better.”
There is a scramble at the moment to make sure that everybody is represented equally.
Lange says Shutterstock’s reason for curating collections that promote diversity from its catalogue of 100 million images, is an increased demand from marketers who see other brands “connecting with their audience when they go for something that is more diverse”.
The importance of moving away from the status quo in imagery is further highlighted by the fact marketers are avoiding certain images for fear of accusations of discrimination.
Almost half (49%) of marketers say caucasian models do not represent modern day society and 34% believe that not using these types of images will help avoid perceived discrimination.
For heterosexual couples, 24% of marketers say they do not represent modern day society and 33% believe that not using this type of imagery will help avoid perceived discrimination. In addition, 38% of marketers are not using images of heterosexual couples because it does not fit well with the brand message.
“There is a bit of a scramble at the moment to make sure that everybody is represented equally,” according to Rebecca Swift, director of creative planning at iStock by Getty.
The company aims to cut through “generic brand clichés” such as “white, middle class, two kids and mum and dad style photography” and encourage its contributors to represent what they see and how they live their lives rather than what they think marketing and advertising clients want, which leads to them producing content they think is going to sell.
Swift says: “You get into this horrible cycle of producing the same stuff. There are many customers who still use very bland images, so to break out of that takes a lot of energy and that is where we are putting our energy right now.”
Getty’s partnership with the Lean In organisation, which began in 2014 and resulted in a library of images devoted to the powerful depiction of women and girls, has made headway and led to further image diversity projects in the company.
Getty has started working on a partnership with the Women’s Sports Trust and is working to promote the UN’s Global Goals to bring more diversity in the type of content that is used for fundraising and NGO promotions. It is also thinking more about how it represents people of all disabilities, having completed a project with Sane in Australia earlier this year on the way mental health is represented.
Some sectors are performing better than others. The research shows that marketers working in finance are least keen to showcase diversity through imagery. Only 28% have used more racially diverse images in the past 12 months and the same percentage have used more images of homosexual couples.
Lloyds Bank is one brand bucking that trend, having featured same-sex couples in its advertising since 2010. Its latest ad shows a same-sex marriage proposal.
Marketers working in recruitment are most keen to showcase diversity through imagery, with 60% using more racially diverse images over the past 12 months and the same percentage using images of homosexual couples.
It doesn’t necessarily occur to everyone to think in terms of diversity.
However, there are a handful of brands that are doing well in this area, wising up to not only the shift towards representing reality but the possibility of success in doing so.
A new campaign for OXO aims to move away from stereotypes by showing a family where cooking duties are split evenly between the mum and the dad. In larger-scale advertising campaigns there has also been a move towards Gogglebox-type scenarios using real-life families on screen.
Importantly, brands that include a more diverse range of people in their advertising will see a sales uplift, according to the results reported after Mars won Channel 4’s Superhumans Wanted competition for £1m-worth of free TV airtime. The brand saw a positive sales uplift that can be correlated with its three ads championing diversity and disability.
For many brands the concern around representing modern day society outweighs the need to fit well with brand messaging, according to the Shutterstock research.
Almost a third (30%) of marketers believe it is more important to represent modern day society, compared to 21% that feel it is more important to promote the brand message.
For images of homosexual couples, for example, 79% of marketers chose modernity compared to 29% for brand messaging. For racially diverse images, 71% chose modernity over 30% for brand messaging, and for non-traditional families, 66% chose modernity over 28% for brand messaging.
Mint brand Peppersmith created a magazine to position oral care as part of a healthy lifestyle.
But the approach should fit a brand’s overall purpose and growth goals. Mint and gum brand Peppersmith created a piece of content that moved away from the generic image of a woman smiling to reveal a set of brilliant white teeth to position oral care as part of a healthy lifestyle.
The brand wanted to target young women so, working with agency Common Industry, created a new independent magazine titled Pepper. The brand “wanted to include women that were doing interesting things but in a way that we admire” rather than “wheel out images of very pretty young women smiling”, according to head of brand Lizzie Bartholomew.
She says: “[We] wanted to do something that is more interesting than that; that’s not reality. Consumers are becoming very savvy about that sort of thing, as they should be.”
It had a limited run of 10,000 copies distributed via select Waitrose stores and gyms and featured Emily Blunt on its cover, along with digital influencers the Collyer Twins, alternative therapist Jody Shield, and Elle magazine’s new content director Alex Holder.
Getty has “been talking about the depiction of women for 10 years and now it’s starting to take on a life of its own,” says Swift. But the process of introducing diversity into the images used by marketers in advertising is “slow moving”.
However, change is starting to happen. “It would worry me if the numbers showed that everyone was moving backwards or people were not searching for diverse imagery at all,” says Lange at Shutterstock.
Swift adds: “It’s snowballing now and starting to take on more importance in people’s day-to-day decisions. I would like to get to a point where everyone is doing this naturally and it doesn’t have to be a special project.”
Source: https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/11/22/moving-images-beyond-stereotypes/
HOMEWORK:
EB3209
Read the following excerpt and determine how sex appeal works best in a Chinese advert. What would you need to consider when using sexual images in your advertising in China?
Implications
r various kinds of sex pills and cures. However, the results of the study suggest that despite the increasing openness of the Chinese society and the use of sex appeal in advertising, Chinese consumers remain conservative and are very much cautious in embracing sex appeal in advertising. The implications of these results are two-fold. First, the findings suggest that advertisements using sex appeal are ethically less acceptable and have less positive effects on Chinese consumers than those using non sex appeal. For international advertisers using sex appeal in targeting Chinese consumers, the message is clear: caution must be observed in this regard when vying for the attention of Chinese coIn the past three decades, the Chinese society has undergone a “sex revolution.” Days are gone when people disdain sex and refrain from discussing such matters in private or public. Nowadays, people are more tolerant about the subject of sex, which is no longer a taboo. The Chinese popular media, such as magazines and websites, now frequently display the pictures of pop stars of Chinese and foreign origin, often in revealing attire and suggestive positions. Young women participate in informal contests of blogs showing their intimate pictures and daring poses. Newspaper and even TV sometimes have advertisements fonsumers. It is evident that international advertisers often “tone down” the level of sex appeal when advertising in Asia (Nelson & Paek, 2005). Moreover, the advertisements containing Chinese models generate more positive responses than those featuring Caucasian models. Evenwhen strong sex appeal is used, those advertisements using Chinese models are perceived less negative. Thus, international advertisers should rethink about adopting the standardized approach to advertising using strong sex appeal and Caucasian models in the Chinese market. Second, although strong sex appeal can be effective in getting attention, they may not lead Geng Cui and Xiaoyan Yang 243 to positive associations with the brand or affect consumers’ purchase decisions. For now, public scrutiny and criticism of sex appeal in advertising seem to be on the rise in China. Even a public service advertisement with celebrities posing nude to promote breast cancer awareness in a “Pink Ribbon” campaign caused a public outcry (Zhang, 2006). Moreover, in any discussion of sex appeal in advertising in China, it should be noted that such appeals could be subject to unannounced and seemingly arbitrary government clampdowns. As there are not clear guidelines for decency, advertisers applying strong sex appeal may be walking a fine line between what- is considered seduction and indecent “sexploitation” and may have to face sanctions by government agencies and public opinions. In the age of global competition, there is great interest in and pressure for standardization of the marketing mix. However, international advertisers must be aware of the need to avoid alienating local consumers. The pressure to use standardized advertising must be tempered by protests with consumers from the host country market (Ford et al., 2004). For international advertisers, results of the study suggest that using Caucasian models does not necessarily lead to more positive brand perceptions, especially when sex appeal is used. Caucasian models, while projecting an exotic image for the product, are still far removed from the reality for most Chinese consumers. Thus, the presumed effectiveness of the standardized approach to using sex appeal and Western models to overcome cultural barriers may be misleading. On the other hand, multinational companies may obtain more positive perceptions from local consumers by using Chinese models. As a result of the increasing self-confidence and sophistication among Chinese consumers, some global advertisers are abandoning the use of Caucasians or the mixed-race Eurasians in favor of local talent or those from other Asian countries. Similarly, in an attempt to enhance their brand image, it is not uncommon for local Chinese firms to adopt Romanized names for their brands, sport Western models, or even use sex appeal in their advertisements. Our results suggest that local companies do not need to associate their products with foreign models or imagery of foreign origin to enhance the image of their products. Using models of local origin can be just effective, perhaps even more so, to convey a positive brand image and to influence consumers’ perception of the product and company. In recent years, with film directors such as Ang Lee and sportsmen like Yao Ming making fame in the West, confidence in Chinese culture has grown tremendously among China’s consumers. Globalized advertising has become increasingly viable as international celebrities of Chinese origin such as Ziyi Zhang and LiGong have become more visible in international advertising to endorse both local and international brands. Excerpt taken from: Cui G. & Yang, X. (2009) , Responses of Chinese Consumers to Sex Appeals in International Advertising: A Test of ongruency Theory, Journal of Global Marketing, 22:229–245,
