Advertising is an important tool that influences people’s emotions and concepts; therefore, marketers always use creative approaches to use this factor for the benefit of companies and businesses. However, this sometimes also promotes negative thoughts in society, and gender representation is one such example. For many decades, advertising agencies have created such ads and marketing campaigns that have not only endorsed the different stereotypes related to genders but have also promoted them to merely sell the relevant products. More specifically, consider how toy-selling companies alter the thoughts of the children who, despite enjoying the toys, deliberately avoid playing with them when they see an ad portraying those toys for girls only!
This creates a very narrow range of professional fields and habits for both men and women who are inspired by such marketing campaigns and begin to believe that they are not compatible with each other in such fields. But it is a very good indication that this trend is now being changed. Consider, for example, Harry’s ad orienting around the theme of “what makes a man” (Sweeney, 2018). In this ad, the company has tried to break down the traditional notions of masculinity. There are many other companies that are making similar efforts. It has also been researched as a very good tactic for marketers to win because more than 75% of men and women are now expecting to watch gender positivity in ads (Sweeney, 2018)
Therefore, it is now required for all marketing professionals to work to eradicate any kind of gender stereotypes in society that have been prevailing for many decades. For this, as opposed to existing dominant notions of masculinity, they should introduce a wider range of products for men, which were previously thought to be only for women and vice versa.
References
Sweeney, E. (2018). Razor disruptor Harry’s examines what makes a man in a new short film. Marketing Dive. https://www.marketingdive.com/news/razor-disruptor-harrys-examines-what-makes-a-man-in-new-short-film/517899/
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