“People share a common nature but are trained in gender roles”
-Lillie Devereux Blake
Stereotyping men and women is something that comes quite naturally to humans. For example, when we talk about women fighting, the expression ‘catfight’ is often used but while talking about men, we often call them ‘dogs’. Advertising as one has rightly put is not a science, it’s a persuasion and persuasion is an art and they use gender as their paintbrush to express it. From past several decades’ gender, as a key has been used by writers, philosophers, filmmakers, advertisers all over the globe to either persuade, entice, develop stories or create conflict.
Gender roles are used in order to establish relations with consumers. Today anything one watches can have a positive and negative impact; individuals tend to take social cues from these creatives. One can argue that it often negatively impacts the viewer so as to mold the individual into the preset notions of gender. Advertising often portrayed gender in accordance to the constructed definition of femininity and masculinity, but today with the coming age of liberal thinking the question of how relevant are these creatives arise. Today one can see new age marketing and advertisements where the gender roles have been redefined, to keep up with changing thought process of the young individuals.
Advertisements that are able to pull the consumers heart strings are the real game changers. One such ad that redefined the stereotypical gender roles is the Vicks #Touchofcare. It entwines together two contentious topics- adoption and transgender rights. The concept Motherhood has no gender has been put forward in the most endearing way. Created by Publicis Singapore the ad put forward the brands ideal “Everyone has a right to family. Wherever there is care, that bond is a family.
Levis with their ad #Ishapemyworld which brought together individuals who fought all kinds of stereotypes and shaped their own worlds. Levis brought together women for various walks of life, each of who had a story on how she overcame the struggles of adhering to gender and societal roles, and therefore was able to connect to millions due to its progressive campaign. Though these types of ads have also been culminated in the past, but Levis extended the topical campaign thus being able to grab the attention of customers and thus have a better brand recall.
Men are often forced succumb to the pressure of how gender and masculinity is defined by society. It has become a raging need to shatter such stereotypes in order for men to be freed from societal shackles. Gillette’s New Campaign #WeBelieve, on toxic masculinity is an ad that wowed masses. Thirty years after “The Best a Man Can Get,” the men’s shaving brand is thought-provoking its own former rendition of manliness. This new campaign smoothly reassesses what it means to be “the best” as a man in today’s world, aiming at behavior that charades as cool under the pretext of the “boys will be boys” philosophy.
Day in and day out consumers are evolving, their thought processes are evolving and this is something that advertisers should take note of. A large societal responsibility falls on the shoulders of the advertisers and brands as they have a wider reach. Gender is not a labeling term for an individual, and it’s time the new era brings about the much-needed change. It’s time to break the gender shackles not just for today but for tomorrow. As Martin Luther King Jr., has rightly said “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” It’s time to redefine gender roles.
Tulsi Badela||PGP MR 18
tulsi.badela@northpointindia.com