Roles. We all have roles in society don't we? Men work and women stay at home. Men mow the lawn, fix the house, and do the dirty work. Women keep the house clean and take care of the kids. But is all of this true? Why do we think this? Well, let's face it, advertising could be part of the reason for why roles are played this way. Let's say it is. Because in advertising, we can see the conspicuous (or inconspicuous for those who do not notice it) gender stereotypes that are played for the public to see.
Let's begin with an Easy Bake commercial in 2011. Obviously, the company targets young girls. How do they though? Well for one, there are young girls in the commercial. The music is sang by girls. The dominant colors are pink, purple, and white. Not to mention that they are doing their "job" as a female would, which is hinted by their mother working in the kitchen (clearly this is a connotation, but come on, does it not look like that?). Now this may not be the intention of the advertiser's, but it can definitely be construed as so.
Here's another one that's presented by AXE, a men's deodorant brand. Here, women are being objectified. In this commercial, there's an average looking man (not the one with large muscles and a protruding chin) who gets in bed with a woman because he used AXE. Throughout the commercial, the woman doesn't let go and he ends up using something called a "morning after pillow" to escape her. This commercial definitely doesn't give women the respect they deserve. It's implications are very harmful even if the intent wasn't meant to be.
Although women are given gender roles, so are men. For example, the man in this commercial for KRAFT has a deep voice, is muscular and defined, wears a v-neck t shirt, and speaks with a soothing voice. Essentially this man represents men women wish they had. And with this, they objectify him the same way advertisement's objectify women portraying them in a "sexy" manner. Therefore, it is implying that women should think of all men this way (it's a stretch, but hey, that's all I can think of for now). Although I am not offended in the least, there may be men who do dislike this type of depiction of man.
So I'm just providing a couple issues here. Is there a solution to at least balance the roles men and women play? I would like to think so. Most definitely for the first commercial that I showed (Easy Bake), there is a solution. What I would I do is add an even amount of boys and girls (1 boy and 1 girl). They would cooperatively bake together, dance together, and be in the kitchen baking with mother and father. Instead of a song sang by a girl, the song could have a male and female duet. The colors involved in the commercial could also be balanced. Such that there is an even amount of light and dark colors. I feel that this would be a proper solution to alter the gender role stereotype depicted in the original commercial. Now the AXE commercial is a hard issue to tackle. But maybe two brands can make a commercial together. For example, Dove and AXE could collaborate. Dove could make the exact same commercial as AXE, except the roles switch. That means that there would be a man stuck on a woman who uses Dove deodorant. They could also then use hash tags in their commercial in order to help increase social media popularity. For instance, "Dove Vs. AXE" (Battle of the Sexes). That would then even out the playing field. Yes, it may still be gender role stereotyping, but at least it's even. Now, the last commercial, I have no solution for. Take it out. Or leave it and make more commercials like that. For all I know, women are objectified so much in commercials. They are given this role to look extremely skinny and have massive sex appeal. It's unrealistic. Men depicted in the KRAFT commercial; that's also unrealistic. I really do not have a solution for it, except for take it down. What do you think?
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