Men are not idiots
The advertising industry is portraying males as irresponsible farthers and lazy, foolish husbands. Bob Jeffery, the chairman of JWT said that his agency would be committed to developing a smart, positive portrayal image of the modern man. Anti-male ads are being strongly criticized and are drawing increasing scrutiny.
The people that are defending the anti-male ads have two arguments. One is that males are more "privileged" so that it is OK to portray them this way. The second is that men don't really care about how they are being portrayed. The article tried to disprove these arguments by saying that men are not privileged. The majority of learning-disabled students are male, and that girls are more likely to get better grades than boys. A statistic from the National Center for Education Statistics showed that women earned 60% of all bachelor's degrees and 60% of all master's degrees.
As for the argument that said that men don't care about how they are portrayed in the media, a study conducted by Leo Burnett Worldwide found that four out of five men believed that media portrayals of men were inaccurate. There are men that are totally against this false perception of males that advertising agencies are creating.
"Twenty-eight percent of American kids... are growing up in fatherless homes." How fathers are being portrayed matters. For those children that grew up without fathers, they have a higher rate of teen drug abuse, crime, pregnancy, and school dropouts. Because media plays such a big role in the society we live in today, the ads influence young people's perceptions of fathers.
AT&T's father-daughter "Monkey" ad and Ford's father-son "We Know" ad were father-positive and were highly successful. Male bashing should be eliminated and instead advertisers should use respectful humor. It's crazy too think how much of an influence the media has on how we, the audience, perceive each other.
http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=126292
posted by Michelle Lee @ 3:26 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
As a male, I guess I never really noticed my sex being portrayed poorly in advertising; but, now that I think of it, quite a few ads come to mind. In fact, way more than probably should. I think that it is always better to promote positive behavior in advertisements rather than point out stereotypes. Don't get me wrong, I, like most other men, would much rather be sitting on the couch, with a beer, watching sports, than cleaning or doing other chores. I must admit that I give a little chuckle when the occasional commercial cleverly points that out, but the article does have a point. How much is too much, and when does it start to effect the way we think and act? The "Monkey" commercial is a good example of a positive advertisement and it makes you feel good and smile. I feel that this type of advertisement is probably more effective and I hope that we see more commercials like it in the near future.
I agree. I guess I never thought of ads as "male bashing" because they were stereotypical and funny. The monkey commercial does make me feel positive so I guess companies have relaized this flaw.
This is an interesting post given that women have been the target for many years. I agree that ads should be respectful and culture conscious because of the affect media tends to have on our society. This problem has probably been overlooked because it hasn't taken over mainstream media yet; which is a good thing because maybe this attention (research & case studies) can help diminish the problem. But back to women who have fought for years and are still fighting the negative stereotypes of our image today...I understand why they might not be as sympathetic to this issue; they're thinking "Get over it". I personally think two wrongs don't make a right and if this matter draws sufficient attention we can possible 86' this problem before it gets out of control.
Oh, and to add to disrespectful commercials: Trojan's Evolve campaign is top of my list...pure degradation!
This is new to some people? For as long as I can remember, there has been a pretty well-known blueprint to portray gender in commercials. Females are horrible, oversensitive, boring individuals that keep males from having any fun (drinking beer, watching sports, etc.). Or, they are oversexualized models. Thus the reason why men are always trying to get away from the bad women and trying to find the good women in commercials. On the flip side, males are seen as mindless morons with a one-track mind --- beer, sports, women. Thus the reason why we desert women to hang out with our bros in the quest to achieve our goal (drink beer, watch sports, etc.). In all seriousness, the depiction of gender is troubling when you consider the effects it has on children. When young boys see these commercials, they develop an understanding of what society expects from them. To executives at these ad agencies, they may just be trying to appeal to the target audience, but they have a social responsibility to educate the youth.
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