NTCC MINOR PROJECT

Usage of Gender in Advertising

BY: KONPAL BANSAL
A3906415207
C-10
INTRODUCTION OF GENDER
ADVERTISING
• Men and women , are portrayed in advertisements according to the constructed definition of
femininity and masculinity. The social role of women and men has changed in many western
societies over the past few years.
• At the same time, advertisers still depict women and men in tradition-bound roles to promote their
products.
• The pervasive use of television, and its potential to influence audiences’ attitudes and perceptions,
have led to growing criticism of marketers lacking sensitivity to reflect the changes in gender roles
in advertising.
• Advertising is how a company encourages people to buy their products, services or ideas. An
advertisement (or "ad" for short) is anything that draws good attention towards these things. It is
usually designed by an advertising agency for an identified sponsor, and performed through a
variety of media.
OBJECTIVES
• Objective of my study is to study how men and women are portrayed
in advertisements, according to the constructed definition of
femininity and masculinity.
• To study as to how the social roles of women and men have changed
in many western societies over the past few years.
• The Indian perspective of how men and women are portrayed in the
advertisements.
ADVERTISING STRATEGY
• Media and advertising has also taken a strategic role in today's society .Women's
behavioural intention is enhanced more through a transformation message strategy than
an information message strategy.
• A man's behavioural intention is an information message strategy as opposed to a
behavioural intention.
• Women are frail thin, and often are edited or "touched up" to look thinner and flawless.
• The people whom advertisements are aimed at, rarely look the same as those portrayed in
the advertisement themselves.
• The Females process self-efficacy and behavioral intention emotionally rather than
rationally like males do.
STEREOTYPING IN GENDER
ADVERTISING
Research suggests that they have four different and independent components:
 Trait descriptors (e.g. self-assertion, concern for others)
 Physical characteristics(e.g. hair length, body height)
 Role behaviours (e.g. leader, taking care of children)
 Occupational status (e.g. truck driver, elementary school teacher, housewife).
Each component has a masculine and a feminine version, with masculine and
feminine components significantly more strongly associated with males and
females, respectively. Many content analyses have provided a catalogue of variables
related to gender roles. Most of the variables can be grouped along these
components.
• Stereotypes are not necessarily negative judgements, Since they can lead
to expectations that can provide useful orientations in everyday life.
However, they can lead to oversimplified conceptions, misapplied knowledge
evaluations, and thus to misleading evaluations of subjects of a social
category.
• Each gender stereotyping component can lead to negative consequences that
restrict life opportunities, particularly for women. Stereotyping of physical
characteristics can lead to reduced self-dignity (e.g. as for beauty ideals)
behaviours (e.g. women taking care of children) may lead to restricted
opportunities of self-development, and stereotyping of occupational roles
may lead to disadvantages in women’s careers.
• An unbiased depiction of the age of women and men in advertising would
need to represent all age groups according to the age distribution in society.
• In order to find out whether the depiction of women is more or less biased
than that of men, age equality of central figures can be assumed as a standard
of comparison and the deviation from equality provides a relative, not an
absolute, measure of stereotyping, showing ‘how much more’ stereotyping
occurs for each gender.
• For instance, although particular body products may be targeted primarily at women,
and therefore more women are shown as product users than men in the advertisements,
the broader categories of domestic products comprise products that are targeted at both
genders.
• For example, more than 50% of buyers of new cars, a product that is traditionally
perceived as primarily bought by men, are female As for body products, the data
indicate similar trends with a current growth of men’s grooming or fashion products
(Euro monitor International 2009).
ROLES OF FEMALES IN ADVERTISING
• Those parts from claiming females have extraordinarily tamed to
mainstream culture, particularly over Notices.
• Numerous promotions hold ladies to parts for example: cooks, maids,
babysitters, and also sex Questions so as to offer item.
• In the beginning, Notices were once demonstrated with offer a
product. However, Likewise a considerable length of time pass,
promotions start will typify ladies Furthermore start to utilize ladies
Likewise an approach to offer results. Will these parts prevent placing
ladies.
Women portrayed in
advertising:
 Touching self.
 Caressing an object.
 Lying on the floor.
 Sitting on a bed or chair.
 Eyes closed.
 Confused.
 Vulnerable.
 Body contorted.
 Dressed like a child.
 Holding a man for support.
 Sexy.
 Easily Available.
 Seductive.
 Playful.
 Careless.
These need aid positions from claiming accommodation and frailty.
This might make obviously seen The point when ladies would
indicated lying on the carpet Likewise men are remaining over them,
truly portraying ladies Likewise constantly underneath men.
ROLES OF MALES IN ADVERTISING

Since those 1980s, men's forms have been utilized a greater amount every now and
again clinched alongside advertising. Portraying a Thus glorified self-perception to
that depicted from claiming ladies.
Look into recommends that men feel social weight should support customary
mascot male models over publicizing.
Those writers suggester suggests this effect reflected the social weight with respect
to men with embrace customary mascot standards.
Researchers, bring discovered that youngster publicizing negatively affects teenagers'
respect toward oneself. Eventually Tom's perusing setting unlikely desires for them
regarding their physical appearances through the utilization for glorified models.
Men Portrayed in advertising
• Standing upright.
• Eyes open and looking around.
• Bodies are controlled.
• Mean expression on face.
• Gripping things tightly with hands.
• Hands in pockets.
• Serious.
• Physically active.
• Alert.
"Bravery, adventurousness, having the ability will imagine rationally, continuously
solid and effective, for example, are known "manly" qualities that are as a rule
urged.
THE INDIAN PERSPECTIVE
• The Indian marketing industry has been found wanting in the area of gender sensitivity in many
instances due to its inappropriate and sometimes patronizing portrayal of women in advertisements.
It would be careless on executives’ part to turn a blind eye to the damage that inappropriate brand
communication can cause to the company and potentially to the society itself.
• The Indian advertising industry’s gender insensitivity is proliferated through the gender
stereotyping and the objectification of women. Gender stereotyping is subtle in advertising
activities due to the lack of awareness, fatalism towards women’s condition in the society, lack of
easily accessible redressal mechanisms and sometimes plain indifference on the society’s part.
Going by its track record, Indian advertising industry has rarely shied away from straight-jacketing
gender roles.
• Numerous advertisements have portrayed women as hollow beings who measure their worth
through their skin tone, body weight, beauty quotient and the likes. Scores of advertisements of
brands including Axe, Close up, Fair and Lovely, Tuffs shoes, Lux Innerwear have blatantly
resorted to showing women in poor light - pushing the image of women to the brink.
• Advertising visuals have objectified women to the extent of portraying women as a mere sum of
their body parts, denigrating their intelligence and individuality. The advertisements make girls and
women feel inadequate if they do not conform to the image projected in the advertisements.
 There are a few product categories which frequently use taboo subjects as an advertising
strategy e.g. perfumes, chocolates, cars and trendy clothing. In most of these cases, oblique
references to eroticism and sex are perhaps one of the most common strategies used.
Here lies the danger of crossing the fine line between utilizing artistic freedom of the advertiser
for making an impact over the audience and honouring sensibilities of the society,Amul Macho’s
is one of the most easily recalled but how many of the customers have consequently bought the
product and the impact of the advertisement on the buying decision is ambiguous.
Women grow up in a world
• Where objectified images of women's bodies are everywhere - on TV, newsstands, in
advertisements, movies, calendars.
• Where many women start to feel old and unattractive even in their 20's.
• Where women aren't taken seriously.
• Where even the youngest and most beautiful women often worry constantly, and cannot match
in real life their photographed, objectified image.
• Where half-naked female bodies are displayed on walls, in public like objects, exposed female
bodies used as markers of male territory, male turf... Immediate signals of discomfort, and of
menace, for women.
SOME EXAMPLES TO POTRAY GENDER
ADVERTISING
MAC Computer system

The goal within this

advertisement is an
attempt to persuade
consumers to
purchase a MAC
computer system. As
you notice,
representing the
Apple Company is a
slim, young, Caucasian male while PC is being represented by a
slightly middle aged Caucasian male who appears to be heavier in
weight than the representative from the Apple Company. In order to
appeal to customers even more, the Apple Company uses Gisele
Bundchen to push the product more displaying her in a revealing
dress to show off her skin and physique. On the contrary, PC is then
represented by a male dressed unattractively as a woman. Clearly, the
goal of the Apple Company is to persuade the public to purchase a
MAC because of its appealing and sleek look.
Unnamed Youth Fashion brand

This is an
advertisement of a
leading Indian youth
fashion brand which
created controversy
for using the girl in
the advertisement as
“sex-object” by
showing nudity and her outfit with the word in it “sale” as she is the
product. The whole thing appears in such a way that the girl is for sale
and it is disturbing.
The Axe Effect – Women – Billions

The Axe way of

Advertising: Axe uses
humour, the
objectification of
sexes and
propagandistic
advertising techniques
to sell products. Most
Axe commercials are
still directly geared
towards men because
the overall slogans
and messages in the advertisements show that the deodorant will
make women more interested in you if you use the product,that
objectify women, slander men and that create the very specific idea
that if a man or a woman buys Axe deodorant then he or she will get
the partner of their dreams.
This commercial is a disturbing depiction of the objectification of
women under the heterosexual male gaze and the glorification of male
sexual desire. The ad has incredibly dramatic music playing and
swarms of tall, thin women with large breasts, long hair, tiny
stomachs, long legs, and large behinds charging the scene as the
camera primarily focuses on their fierceness of their ideal bodies as
animals rather than faces or individualistic attributes as women.
CONCLUSION

• Men and women , are portrayed in advertisements according to the made

definition of femininity and masculinity.
• Also, It’s a fact that women are considered more objectificational characters
than the men in the stream of advertising.
• As society transforms and changes over time, our image of beauty will
subsequently continue to change as well.
• Over the past ten years, advertisements in mainstream magazines have
increasingly relied on the explicit sexualization of both men and women to
sell products.
• Over the same period, the models used have become younger and younger.
THANK YOU!