New rules on stereotypes in advertising

The Advertising Standards Authority, or the ASA for short, has concluded that adverts which display stereotypical gender roles and responsibilities has “cost individuals, the economy and society.”

“Portrayals which reinforce outdated and stereotypical views on gender roles in society can play their part in driving unfair outcomes for people,” stated Guy Parker, chief executive of the ASA.

The image above is an advert for Aptamil baby milk formula which depicts girls growing up to be ballerinas and boys becoming engineers. This kind of gender role stereotyping is what the ASA is attempting to end with their ban.

The topic of stereotypes in advertising harks back to Bisto’s Oxo family who represented middle-class Britons’ love for a Sunday roast. The Oxo family provided a long-running commentary on stereotypical family life with Mum running the kitchen and serving up her finely made Oxo meals for her newspaper reading husband and children.

Oxo’s final mum, played by Lynda Bellingham, hung up her oven gloves in 1999 after appearing in 42 adverts created by the advertising agency JWT. So convincing was the campaign that many viewers in the 60’s actually thought the Oxo family existed somewhere in the country.

The Oxo family had its day by the millennium as it fell victim to the rise in working women and the nations change in working and lifestyle routines.

More recently the ASA was forced to tackle the issue of female body-image stereotypes in the public eye. This ongoing issue was brought to a head by the “beach body ready” campaign by Protein World in 2015.

The campaign prompted a wave of complaints for depicting a bikini-clad model whose physical appearance was unobtainable, even after using the product advertised. However, Protein World counted on it causing a stir and increase the product’s attention as a result. Bad publicity is better than no publicity, right?

The airbrushing and photo manipulation of celebrities has been commonplace in advertising and magazines even before ‘Photoshop’ became a verb. The result often leaves men and women chasing an illusion of the ‘perfect body’ which simply isn’t realistically obtainable.

Back in 2007, Kate Winslet spoke out against her GQ cover shoot. The magazine went to print with a clearly thinner Kate on the cover.

“I don’t look like that and I don’t desire to look like that” – Kate Winslet

Always, the Procter & Gamble brand, challenged the stereotype of young girls in mainstream society with their campaign #LikeAGirl. Using #LikeAgirl as an insult can be hard to take for any adolescent girl and can have a real impact on a girl’s self-confidence. The aim of #LikeAGirl is to flip the negative stereotypes on their head and spread the word with a positive, real message.

Mother, the advertising agency behind Moneysupermarket’s ‘Epic Squads’ and ‘Epic Wolf’ campaigns, pushes the ASA to its limits but was never banned. The adverts success thrives on its controversy making it memorable and a topic for debate. The campaign was hit with a record number of complaints for the running adverts. Among the thousands of complaints, viewers said the ad could be viewed as homophobic, while others said it could lead to hate crimes.

So where should advertising draw the line? Are we set for a muted, politically correct advertising movement or will the world of advertising rise to the challenge and unleash a new level of creativity. Either way this seems like a step in the right direction for gender and social equality in mainstream advertising.