There are so many examples of advertising that could be potentially offensive due to "stereotyping", it would take a book to list them all. But in the interest of keeping this short and sweet, here are some brief examples: 1) Minivan advertising comes to mind - how many ads can you name that have a "happy Dad" behind the wheel driving all the kids to soccer or to playdates? There are certainly stay-at-home fathers and there are certainly men that drive minivans (with children in them), and even though the white male is the majority in our markets, there is little to no criticism coming from that sector due to minivan advertising being skewed towards female buyers. Why? 2) Volvo spent two decades advertising safety (without physically using the word) and actually had women design a car in 2002 because "Through customer research, Olsson said, the
company discovered that women want everything in a car that men want in
terms of performance and styling, "plus a lot more that male car buyers
have never thought to ask for..."We learned that if you meet women's expectations, you exceed those for men," he said."(USA Today, March 2, 2004) Again, I make the point that there were no men jumping up and down crying out "sexist" to Volvo. Why? 3) Vacation advertising - completely driven towards women and young children. Why? Do fathers not make decisions about vacations?
I believe that people drive and influence advertising, not the reverse. Agencies all over the world spend enormously large amounts of money on research to determine who is their audience, what/how are they buying, how can they get more just like them, and how, if possible, can they cross-over into another demographic, much like Taylor Swift moving from country to pop. In my opinion, Leo Burnett, renowned genius of advertising, put it the best, "Advertising is the ability to sense, interpret... to put the very heart throbs of a business into type, paper and ink" and "I
am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is
not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death."
Wow, Robin -- quite a perspective. My perspective does not come out of business, rather it comes from one of attempting to interrupt the sustained stereotypes that advertisers (among others) seem to like to keep going. I get the motive is profit and focused demographics as well as expanding past demographics is what they keep in mind. Capitalizing on existing cultural models, majority and minority, works to their benefit. Why do most white males claim no offense? Why would they? They have the most power and the most money and a few ads to the contrary certainly won't shake their huge dominant economic, political, and social position in this country.
ReplyDeleteMore on this later...
You probably know Moss Kendrix's work in public relations better than I -- I like the Museum of Public Relations website that features him and his life's work in trying to raise African-Americans visibility in ads while diminishing the derogatory depictions. I also appreciate the work of Jean Kilbourne on the impact of advertising on women, particularly her research on health issues. "In the late 1960s she began her exploration of the connection between advertising and several public health issues, including violence against women, eating disorders, and addiction, and launched a movement to promote media literacy as a way to prevent these problems" (Media Education Website, accessed, 9-22-2013). Repetition in advertising and the level of exposure to particular images has a significant impact on perception of self and others. We will watch her DVD called "Killing Us Softly" some time this semester.
ReplyDeleteAs students of communication, our questions are related to the impact of the many expressions of meaning and identity (language, visual information, digital representations, dance, art, music, etc.) on those who interact with them -- children and adults alike. Critical media literacy has, as its goal, an active citizenry who have the ability to analyze and act upon communication systems that position groups of people in disempowered ways -- and others in dominant ways. Otherwise, if we can't be critical of ads, images, and other texts, we are simply left to be passive consumers. In the end, it's a different kind of consciousness -- for a different purpose. I will always appreciate your business experiences and perspectives and
I look forward to keeping our conversation going over the semester!