Advertisers portray gender stereotypes to drive market sales.
BY ALAN SARIEDDINE
February 26, 2020
With the modernization of media from magazines to television, advertisements have continued to innovate their content delivery. Advertisement agencies have become storytellers; concocting a multitude of characters with diverse backgrounds and journeys all for a singular purpose; to sell their products. The stories being developed and their relatability to the consumer are crucial to the success of these advertisements. With this in mind, the relationship between the stories told and the era that they are associated with is necessary. The idealistic view of these advertisements evolves with the era, as ad agencies must ensure that the story that they are concocting is relatable to the broadest possible audience. Advertisements idealized gender roles by portraying women as stay at home mothers while men are the workers who provide the money for the family.
Women were targeted by advertisers who created the concept that for a woman to be happy she must follow the stereotypical gender role that was given to women by the society. For many years, women were encouraged to live the stereotypical lifestyle that was expected from them and advertisements pushed this idea very well in order to sell their products. To attract customers, advertisers would create these stories that revolve around common stereotypes as a way to sell their products. As seen in figure 1, the woman in the advertisement has prepared her husband a meal for his return from a long day at work. The husband looks happy to be holding a cold Budweiser while smelling the fresh cooking made by his wife. They both look very happy in the advertisement and can be classified as the ideal couple, a blonde wife and a well dressed, handsome looking husband. The advertiser is trying to sell the idea rather than the product. All beers are similar, the only thing that differentiates Budweiser from other companies is the way that it is portrayed to the consumers. In John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing,” Berger discusses the techniques used by advertisers in order to persuade their customers to buy their products. Berger uses many different terms to describe the thinking process of advertisers. The second figure depicts this perfectly. On the cover of the advertisement is a good looking woman that is being viewed from a male perspective, the caption says “Suddenly she has never looked prettier.” Women who view this advertisement will feel envy just because she is holding this alcoholic beverage, she looks even prettier in the eyes of a man. The aim of this advertisement is to give the women in the audience the urge to go out and buy the product when out grocery shopping to make their husbands happy like the first figure, or look prettier as viewed in the second figure. It all boils down to the story that the consumer associates with the product that they see. The more recognizable the product is and the better the association with a happy memory, the more likely the consumer will make a purchase. The differentiating factors between products are the packaging and the advertisements which is why the company must do its best to differentiate itself while also seeming appealing. Once the consumer is convinced into buying the product, it is meant to make her more sexually desirable and envied by the people around her. Berger states “it proposes to each of us that we transform ourselves, or our lives by buying something more (131) .” The third figure is similar to the first as it is the same company which happens to be Budweiser. The difference however is this one shows a man working when he is approached by his wife with a Budweiser to the appeal of her husband. Typically this would create a feeling of envy among the eyes of the women viewing this advertisement wishing they had a similar relationship with their husbands. Women's main role in the past was to tend for their husbands during the short amount of time that they were able to see them, and felt the necessity to do something special in order to keep their husbands interested.
Similar to women, men were also encouraged to live up to the typical male lifestyle. Men were meant to be the providers of the family; working hard to make money to help support the family. The first figure demonstrates this perfectly, showing the husband back from what seems to be a long day at work to a home cooked meal from his wife and a Budweiser. Men who did not meet these stereotypes were made to feel as if they had a void to fill, which is how the advertisers sold their products by making them feel that by purchasing the product it would in turn make them more masculine. Not only do these advertisements play onto the negative feelings associated with these lifestyles, it also associates products with masculinity and feelings of security. These ideas were constructed by advertisers to take advantage of the vulnerable men who feel inferior to other males around them. Jacksons Katz’s article demonstrates the different ways men act in order to make themselves feel more masculine, which in the past was very important to fit in with those around them. Advertisers were aware of the impact that societal expectations had on men who are not as masculine as the others around them. By displaying masculine males, advertisers are “threatening consumers to buy products to ads that exploit men’s feelings of not being big, strong, or violent enough by promising to provide them products that will enhance those qualities (263).” This is seen in figure 4, where Pinnacle shows a very masculine lumberjack who is holding an axe in one hand and a pipe in the other. This man is then associated with the drink, therefore when a male is in a supermarket looking to buy an alcoholic beverage they would go for a Whipped Cream Pinnacle because it is most closely associated with the idealized image of a very masculine man.
In conclusion, advertisement agencies have developed idealistic views of society that encouraged people to live up to unrealistic lifestyles having them associate the purchase of these material objects with true happiness. These expectations drive people to feel incomplete and unhappy with their lives, which could be attributed to the envy and jealousy felt towards the characters in these advertisements. Although in the past, advertisements have been geared toward the stereotypical views where men are the provider and women are the caretakers societal evolution has changed all these ideals. Society is evolving and more lifestyles are being accepted; ad agencies are having to adapt to this evolution by showcasing more cultures and lifestyles throughout.
Works Cited:
Katz, Jackson. “Advertising and the Construction of White Masculinity.” Gender, Race, and Class in Media, edited by Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. Sage, 2011, pp. 260-299.
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. Penguin, 1972.