Use of Gender Stereotypes in Advertising - Essay Example

? Use of Gender Stereotypes in Advertising Gender Stereotypes in Advertising Since the social media and electronic media have been increasingly widespread in the 21st century, advertisements tend to have a huge impact on the minds and behaviours of people. Moreover, there are a great number of ethical and moral issues that have been ignited since the advertisements have widely been used for promotions and awareness. Gender stereotyping in the advertisements has become one of the major problems seen. For many it is a wrong and unacceptable way since it gives a wrong sense of value to the people for selfish reasons. On the other hand, the groups of people who use gender stereotyping argue that it is to reach the targeted audience and not to immorally harm the society. The issues arise often and the debate goes on. It is important to note that advertisements rely on stereotypes, and despite what the society presents, gender stereotypes play the concrete role. The modern society has been shaped according to the media that surrounds us. The main purpose why advertisers use stereotypes is to make their message stronger and reach the targeted audience. They also think this secures the stereotypes in the society and portrays their position in the society. However, it also causes an inverse effect according to many psychologists. They say these advertisements represent the genders in the society as they exist stereotypically, and also cause these groups to be influenced to stay packed within their stereotyped molds (Mueller, 2010, p. 93). The advertisement of Weight Watchers is an example of how gender stereotypes are commonly used in advertisements. They have the perspective of looking at men and women so differently that they have used two separate advertisements in order to target them. The advertisement for women launched the ‘Weight Watchers 360’ programme and the advertisement for men launched the ‘Lose like a Man’ programme. The programme for women was very stereotypical as it focused on the ability of the user to, at times, eat what they wanted, such as chocolates. For men the programme used the approach giving them the ability to sometimes eat some of their favourites and still lose weight, such as pizza, burgers etc. The advertisement could not have gotten more stereotypical where it positioned different tactics for both genders, placed the genders in their stereotyped roles and influenced the society to follow them. The relationship between the media and the society is not understandable. It is observed that women face excessive stereotypical pressure, but usually men suffer the same. Gender stereotyping in advertisements is commonly discouraged because it enforces negative and false assumptions in the society through portraying audiences on television, social media or billboards. For selfish reasons advertisers use these groups and create wrong values in the minds of people in the society. Psychological reasons are the most important ones because of which stereotyping in advertisements are immoral and harmful. The advertisement may remind the targeted audience of any incidents that they went through, and influence to think of them as normal. Advertisers sell their products through targeting the psychology where the audience starts to feel they actually lack those so-called attributes (Browne, 2011, p. 33). Advertisements affect people every day in a way that they do not realise. These advertisements portray an idealistic reality which most people are not aware of. The goals and objectives attained by the advertisers cause severe negative circumstances in the society. Psychologists say that women are reminded of the negative stereotypes before they perform any exercise or activity. The stereotyped advertisements create an exaggerated version of a specific group or gender and they present it as normal. This affects the psychology of people who are being targeted and they are not only convinced to buy the product but also start believing themselves to be normally unusual. Advertisers should understand that people are not products that could be flexed and turned upon. Every person has unique capabilities, attributes, traits and emotional stability. Advertisers need to advertise and target the needs of people rather than portraying the things these people ‘should be’. Advertisements involving stereotypes are nothing but a risk to target those people’s minds that are influenced by such adverts. A person may suffer many psychological constraints because of these advertisements causing negativity in the society. Many people complain against such adverts and many controversies may be created. If the influence is strong enough, the advertisement is usually prohibited from airing. However, advertisements that do not receive much controversial criticism continue to be aired and affect many people’s psychology, which is unreported (Wells, 1997, p. 557). It is often said that advertisements reflect the mindset of the society. Advertisements represent the conditions of the society just as far as the society has taken them. Recently, the reason why the advertisements have become bolder than they ever were is because of the modern thought flowed in the society. The media have grown to be a strong medium to promote the conditions and mindsets of people, and just as it is used by other groups to highlight social issues, it is used by advertisers also to sell their products. However, the argument remains that gender stereotypes and attacks on people’s psychology cannot be a justified way to sell a product. If the society continues to allow the making of such advertisements, very soon a precedent will be set for the future businesses to set limits for our genders. Many people have had the courage to stand against these advertisements which they think are stereotyped and can cause psychological constraints to the viewers or listeners. They believe that if the social and electronic media is so powerful to let the businessmen decide for the limitations of our genders, then it is stronger for the people who can raise a voice against them. If such issues are not controlled for now, it will set a precedent for the future advertisers. Electronic and social media has the power to let down such advertisements and negative influences on the society (Taylor, 2007, p. 273). The advertisement for Christmas 2012 from Asda is also one of the examples of stereotyping genders. The advertising campaign showed a harassed mother swamped with festive preparations: cooking, shopping, cleaning, writing cards, wrapping presents etc and ended with the line ‘behind every great Christmas there’s mum, and behind every mum there’s Asda.’ The advertisement prompted 620 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) claiming that it was offensive and reinforced stereotypes, but it was cleared of causing any offence and Asda justified the advertisement as follows: ‘Extensive consumer research and feedback indicated that the majority of customers identified with the ad’s representation of Christmas… Eight out of ten mothers surveyed… believed the ad reflected common experience, rather than outdated stereotypes.’ There are many arguments that are for and against this issue. This advertisement had become a stereotyped advertisement since many of the women were negatively affected by this interpretation of their duties for Christmas. Critics suggest that the advertisement shows a wrong perspective of women on Christmas and such advertisements can actually cause a negative influence on the women in the society. The women would also have a psychological affect which would offend and reinforce them. Advertisements are not supposed to be offensive for any of the targeted groups as they can result in unethical, immoral and psychological constraints in the society. On the other hand, the supporters justified that this advertisement was, in fact, the feedback of people and it was a survey which was carried out. It did not mean to be offensive because in reality which is observed in the society, women are busy at Christmas and they usually set up the domestic preparations for the family. Moreover, advertisers have the right to display the realities of the society in order to target these groups and sell their products. This was, in fact, an intelligent and creative way which is a technique of marketing. In order to select the targeted audience, the advertisers can create ads which are ethical and legal without giving out negative vibes (Shields, 2002, p. 35). Advertisements for fashion products usually use attractive and beautiful models that help them promote their product and reach their targeted audience. The advertisers think that all women would be the same and can relate to it without being offended. However, this is not true since not all women are beautiful, fashionable and well proportioned. It is true that some are unattractive and plain. Such women may never be able to relate to the glamorous and beautiful models shown on advertisements and then they start believing and reminding about how lacking they are in appeal and beauty. The same situation is with the men who are stereotyped. They may wear the dumpy clothes that they consider to be smart attire while they are not at all like others in the crowd. The exploitive advertising tends to impact the psychology of these men and women greatly despite their age groups (Dunn, 2009, p. 318). Stereotyping is used to make broad statements about a group of people that exist in the society. Stereotyping sets a mindset about these groups of people in order to prove a point in conversations. They are used to get the message clear and generalised to spread and make it common. But it does not take long for that message to get popular and become a serious thought of people. The society makes these statements a part of their mindset, whether they belong to that group or not. This creates differences among people within the society and adversely affects the psychology of the society, especially those being attacked. Stereotypes also hinder the communication within people in a society. Many people think psychologically and not stereotypically and find that controversial advertising is not acceptable. It only ruins and breaks apart a society. Many of the issues that are ignited because of such advertisements suggest that the idea behind them is to win and promote a product within the time slot given, otherwise it would affect adversely the business. This is not a bad approach unless it is on the cost of offending and hurting other people’s minds and emotions. Some of the common examples of stereotypes are ‘boys will be boys’, girl’s night out, sailors have a girlfriend on every port, men don’t cry etc. If an advertisement shows two boys fighting and their mom standing with an inviting pitcher of cool aid, what would that mean? The advertisement stereotypes that boys will be boys and their mom being the wise one would know how to end the fight peacefully and how to cool them down. Even though this is gender stereotyping, it is for a good purpose. Using stereotypes for such purposes is neither offensive nor controversial. Such adverts would improve the thinking of the audience when they decide to buy the product. The stereotyping which is actually considered to be bad is the one saying men are not faithful and sailors have a girlfriend at every port. This may be true in certain circumstances but not in all and in fact, such statements might create a lot of problems in the minds and thinking of the sailor’s wives. Such statements are made in those advertisements where sex enhancing products are being promoted. Advertisers do not care that such advertisements are misleading for the society and for private lives of people. For some honest sailors this might also be offensive. Advertisers can use their advertisement power to promote faithfulness rather than offensive statements targeting a specific group of people. Stereotyping is not always bad but it is the way it is used which makes it offensive and harmful for the society’s interests and psychology (Unger, 2004, p. 138). The notion planted in the minds of the audience is what decides how unacceptable a stereotype advertisement is and how deliberately it uses the gender differences to promote and sell their products. The statement that wives and husbands never get along and should spend at least one night away from their spouses is negative whereas cementing the relationships between wives and husbands is openly welcomed in advertising. Disastrous results can be seen if such concepts are misused and wrongly portrayed. Some of the worst types of stereotyping are to present that everyone should feel good about oneself at all times, and if it is not the case then it must be changed. This is how the stereotyping in advertisements is going to the unacceptable level. Every person has his unique state of mind and emotions and that should not be tampered with to fix emotions temporarily. The biggest mistake by the advertisers is to assume that everyone of the same gender is alike and one generalised statement can be applied to all. They do not realise that even though the statement explains many of those types of people, it does not set to all of them. The statement can still be offensive for many and cause psychological constraints to them. Advertisements of hair products or other cosmetics usually make statements because of which women feel low and buy those products. The need of such products should depend on the person, not on the one making the advertisement. Many women may feel low on self-esteem because of such advertisements and these are some areas that products cannot cure. This kind of inequality between both genders shown in media impacts the society severely. The reason it impacts the psychology is that these advertisements are watched by children and immature youngsters, too, through television and social media. Any statement can stay in their mind through their developing stage and cause problems for them as they grow old (Taylor, 2007, p. 273). Many of the studies have also shown that in many countries there have been reported cases about women feeling low and unconfident about their bodies and beauty after watching the advertisements involving models. Such feelings can cause many disorders such as depression, eating disorders and anxiety. Reports suggested that girls as young as 5 and 6 year old start dieting to maintain their body and achieve an ideal body, whereas other girls and women have cosmetic and plastic surgeries commonly every year (Browne, 2011, p. 33). Conclusively, gender stereotyping has been a common technique used in advertising products in the modern world. The arguments that stand in favour of this technique suggest that the advertisers are merely targeting their audience and do not intend to offend any person. Such type of techniques is needed for advertising to reach a mass number of people for whom the product is made. Arguments against such advertisements strongly convince the agencies that offensive advertisements creating a negative impact in the society are just unacceptable. Such advertisements make unclear and partially true statements which may be true for some but untrue for many. Records have shown that such statements also cause psychological disorders to people who start believing in them and become unconfident about their self-esteem. However, even though the arguments continue to incur and there is no clear conclusion made, these advertisements are highly discouraged. With the power of people and the social media, there will be a time in the future when such advertisements will discontinue to be made and stereotyping will be used only in the good way. Advertisement controlling agencies should impose strict rules for such adverts. References Browne, K. 2011. An Introduction to Sociology. NJ: Polity. Dunn, D. 2009. Psychology Applied to Modern Life: Adjustment in the 21st Century. London: Cengage Learning. Mueller, B. 2010. Advertising and Societies: Global Issues. NY: Peter Lang. Shields, V. 2002. Measuring Up: How Advertising Affects Self-Image. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. Taylor, H. 2007. Sociology: Understanding a Diverse Society. NY: Cengage Learning. Unger, R. 2004. Handbook of the Psychology of Women and Gender. NY: John Wiley & Sons. Wells, A. 1997. Mass Media & Society. London: Greenwood Publishing Group. Read More