Gender discrimination on advertising

Introduction
Advertisement today is seen as an unique method of communication and present in every
possible media of human life. As Predelli (2005) proposed that the purpose of advertisement
is to delivery an information and influence focused on shopper or consumers, hence the
languages and graphics must contain high convincing values to attract and persuade the
consumers to be paralyzed toward the product in advertising. Despite the fact that people are
unavoidably besieged with numerous advertisements in human daily life, the language in
advertising is seen as a very powerful tool to achieve advertisement objective (Predelli,
2005). Consequently, these two TV ads regarding harmful stereotypical gender roles have
been prohibited since advertising standards authority of the UK launched in 2019 and another
poster ad also has been prohibited on the same grouds due to violating the gender
stereotypical regulation.
The purpose of this research paper is analyze two banning ads of gender stereotypes of in UK
from a perspective of marketer. Personally, I will point out some effects of the regulation on
gender stereotypes in advertising and answer whether it should be applied in Canadian ad
standards. Meanwhile, the research paper will conclude whether the regulation can impact
positive or negative on society.

Finding and dicussion

Based on the case study, the Advertising standards authority (ASA) banned the TV ads for
Philadelphia cream cheese and Volkswagen due to the number of complaints from the public
(Antoniou, 2019). As Philadelphia ad described two new fathers bungled comically and
taking care their babies which resulted in accidentally found their babies are whisked away
on a conveyor belt. The public complainted the toungue-in cheek ad perpetuated a harmful
stereotype and show that men were ineffective childcarers and would put them at high risk.
Compared to ad for Volkswagen, showed a series of men engaged in adventurous activities
while women were depicted in a stereotypical care giving role. Both of these ads were
concluded to present gender stereotypical activities which is likely to cause harm, therefore,
these ads were first banned under the new regulations of ASA which is designed to limit
gender stereotyping (Antoniou, 2019).
According to the ASA, gender-stereotypical activities included attributes or behaviors
typically associated with a specific gender (Antoniou & Akrivos, 2020). Based on the basic
of evidences, it is considered majority of the scenes in the ads prominently featured male
characters via their content and context, which led to harmful or offensive to audiences even
though advertising can reinforce certain gender stereotypes contributed to widespread
assumptions and expectations about how people should behave which result in personal
development and professional attainment. For example, these ads can impact the nation
economy which caused a shortage of engineers in UK since many women do not see it as a
career and this may impact the whole society (Antoniou & Akrivos, 2020). Additionally, the
marketers would not be prevented from featuring in ads people undertaking gender-
stereotypical roles, however, commercial communications must not perpetuate offensive
gender-stereotypes by advising that such roles or characteristics are consistently exclusively
in relation with one gender or are the only options available to one gender, especially never
mentioned or showed by another gender (Antoniou, 2019). Consequently, ads which describe
men and women in gender-stereotypical activities should be banned as it could lead to
inequality, psychological harm or sexual discrimination in the society.
On the other hand, the impact of the regulation may have some negative on society. For
example, new regulations are considered to be too draconian and banning even the most
innocuous gender stereotypes ad showed the watchdog had gone too far (Antoniou &
Akrivos, 2020). Thus, many advertisers were very disappointed at the ASA's interpretation of
the ads against the new regulation and guidance because it seemed to be out of sync with
society. Meanwhile, Asa took the role of the “morality policy” but its concept of “harm’ is
unable to work and urgently should be clarified (Antoniou & Akrivos, 2020). Furthermore,
there are many examples which gender stereotypes are harmful but the evidences do not
suggest they are always problematic for audiences. The question here is whether ads for
example, Philadelphia and Volkswagen can result in the same type of ‘harm” and audiences
can laugh at outdated stereotypes regardless perpetuating them in a detrimental way. Based
on the analysis from market research, Philadelphia ad got 3.4 start regarding positive
emotional response- which is consider the highest scores of its brand in more than two years
while only a small negative emotion when the fathers put the babies in danger which show
people the bumbling father stereotype (Antoniou, 2019). Consequently, Philadelphia ad is
seen “very blatantly” contravenes ASA guidelines, it still has a positive impact on the wider
public and create an effective ad to gain public attention.

Hence, ASA should be able to determine what harmful gender stereotypes is and make sure
industry benchmark was set out clearly while also reconsider the definition of real world
harm. The big question is whether ad marketers should reflect culture or lead it. If they want
to reflect culture, harmful stereotypes will be infective in ad due to unacceptability in the
wider culture. If marketers want to lead culture, then male stereotypes are harmful by the
definition of ASA although many audiences seem to enjoy in ads. Therefore, Ad standard of
Canada should not follow the UK’s ASA regulation because this regulation has been clear yet
and may prevent the success of marketing. Besides, there are other types of stereotypes
including racism, ageism, religion is also considered in the codes of ASA, but gender
stereotype is the main target group for this type of regulation (ASA, 2020). One of an
example is the ad for the Carls Jnr Bacon 3-ways burger described a woman salaciously
eating a burger with sexual nature behaviors led to an offence and harm to audiences, but the
advertiser reported the purpose of this ad is at young hungry males and was classified for
children above 13 and did not cause any serious or widespread offence (ASA, 2020). There
are other harmful stereotypes such as alcohol use, gaming and transgender have not
considered yet under ASA regulation, may result in unethically and illegal behaviors.

Conclusion
Advertising is only a tiny contributor to gender stereotyping but it has a greater harm that can
result in a narrower sense of human behavior and attitude. This can also impact individuals
regardless their gender hence many ads have been lauched carefully to avoid damage gender
stereotypes and other types of stereotypes. Hence, as a marterker, I should make sure present
ads are consistent and appriate without any harms to gender roles and chacracteristics in
modern society.

References

Antoniou, A. (2019). Advertising Regulation: First ads to be banned under the new ASA
gender-stereotyping rules. The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog.
ASA. (2020). New Zealand’s Most Complained About Ads 2016. Advertising Standards
Authority, viewed 25 November 2020. https://www.asa.co.nz/2017/06/18/new-zealands-
complained-ads-2016/
Antoniou, A., & Akrivos, D. (2020). Gender portrayals in advertising: stereotypes, inclusive
marketing and regulation. Journal of Media Law, 12(1), 78-115.

Predelli, S. (2005). Contexts: Meaning, truth, and the use of language.