CarlNelsonFranceAdvertising: Yes, You Can Crush Clichés and Still Create Effective Campaigns

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Yes, You Can Crush Clichés and Still Create Effective Campaigns

Not long ago, on a neighborhood playground, a 4-year-old girl informed one of her parents' friends that she intended to become an astronaut. "Like Sally Ride?" the adult asked.

"Who's that?" the girl replied. When told that Ride was one of the first women to fly in space, the girl looked baffled. It had never occurred to her that her career dream was any more adventurous for her than it would be for a boy. And soon she, like every other American girl and boy, began encountering such typecasting in the toy aisle, in TV commercials, in the Halloween costumes on offer. Without exception, the space suits and model rockets she received as birthday gifts were packaged with photos of boys on them. According to research that recently appeared in The Atlantic, "the marketing of toys is more gendered now than even 50 years ago."

Unfortunately, brand marketers and advertising professionals often help reinforce gender stereotypes. They assume girls like to nurture dolls, play dress-up, be princesses and live in a world of pink, and that boys like to fight wars, compete at sports and build things — and must avoid pink at all costs. Elizabeth Sweet, a postdoctoral scholar at UC Davis and the author of the aforementioned Atlantic article, dates the resegregation to a 1984 federal law that deregulated children's-TV programming and "suddenly freed toy companies to create program-length advertisements for their products." Soon, she says, "gender became an increasingly important differentiator of these shows and the toys advertised alongside them."

A private sector expert in toy marketing, who requested anonymity because she works for many brands, points to retailers. "Toy makers feel forced to choose a gender because that's how the stores insist on shelving the toys," she says. As for the marketers, she adds, "marketing is expensive, so they take the 'surefire' road and go with the center of their target rather than make a political statement."

Sweet's research has found that the gender segregation comes largely "from the top." She says she sees "no evidence that the trends of the past 40 years are the result of consumer demand."

That finding leaves room for hope—especially as smart brands reject gender typecasts in favor of more genuine imagery. Research from the Getty Images and iStock by Getty Images creative team shows that brands are increasingly attempting to avoid gender stereotypes when selecting photos for ads, with cliché-breaking photos rising to the top of Getty Images' best-seller list.

On iStock by Getty Images, people searched for images of "kids" or "children" more than 5,000 times in February alone. The pictures they found of girls playing sports, working in a carpentry class and riding plastic motorcycles, and of boys baking and embracing teddy bears, were no doubt among the most refreshing.

Busting stereotypes works. One image that did so recently went viral on the Web: This 1981 ad depicted a red-haired girl proudly displaying her plastic block construction. The only sign of pink was on her smiling lips. The vintage image's huge popularity, measured in clicks, shares and likes, speaks to consumers' longing for a more open-minded, unisex approach. Possibly to address criticism that its contemporary product offerings and ads have regressed, the company released a new spot that features a girl but isn't traditionally girly.

Going back to the future and producing more ads like this one would encourage creativity and spatial skills in girls and boys alike. "If you want to develop children's physical, cognitive academic, musical, and artistic skills," says Judith Elaine Blakemore, a professor of psychology studying gender roles at Indiana University, "toys that are not strongly gender-typed are more likely to do this." And ads that are not strongly gender-typed can spread the word: Girls who build and boys who bake are normal.

"It's sad that the ones that aren't sexist stick out," the toy marketing expert says, but she cites this gender-inclusive ad and toy, a big hit this past Christmas, as a good sign. In a similar spirit, a large U.K.-based chain has recategorized its merchandise: rather than slotting it into boys or girls sections, it designates departments like dolls, vehicles and arts and crafts. A Swedish kids clothing line with a growing global following sells kids' "tops," "bottoms" and "outerwear," all designed to appeal to both sexes.

The toy marketing expert—who is also the mother of the aspiring astronaut—believes that mainstream toy sellers are missing an opportunity. She recalls telling an executive at a large manufacturer that her daughter loves vehicles, but that the company's ads and boxes exclude her.

"Yeah, we thought about making pink and purple cars for girls at one point," the executive said, "but the idea went away." To which the marketer mom replied: "She likes the cars as they are! Just put a girl in the commercial with the boys!"