MEDIALITERACYCase StudyIdiots and Objects: Stereotyping in Advertising

Over the years, critics and consumers alike have complained about stereotyping in mainstream advertising. Stereotyping refers to the process of assigning people to abstract groups whose members are assumed to act as a single entity—rather than as individuals with distinct identities—and to display shared characteristics, which often have negative connotations.

Today, particularly in beer ads, men are often stereotyped as inept or stupid, incapable of negotiating a routine day or a normal conversation unless fortified—or dulled—by the heroic product. Throughout advertising history, men have often been portrayed as doofuses and idiots when confronted by ordinary food items or a simple household appliance.

On the other hand, in the early history of product ads on television, women were often stereotyped as naïve or emotional, needing the experienced voice of a rational male narrator to guide them around their own homes. Ads have also stereotyped women as brainless or helpless or offered them as a man’s reward for drinking a particular beer, wearing cool jeans, or smoking the right cigarette. Worst of all, women, or even parts of women—with their heads cut from the frame—have been used as objects, merely associated with a particular product (e.g., a swimsuit model holding a new car muffler or wrapped around a bottle of Scotch). Influenced by the women’s movement and critiques of advertising culture, such as Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963), ads depicting women have changed in some cases. Although many sexist stereotypes still persist in advertising, women today are portrayed in a variety of social roles.

In addition to ads that have stereotyped men and women, there is also invisible stereotyping. This occurs when whole segments of the population are ignored—particularly African, Arab, Asian, Latin, and Native Americans. Advertising—especially in its early history—has often faced criticism that many segments of the varied and multicultural U.S. population have been missing or underrepresented in the ads and images that dominate the landscape.

In the last several years, however, conscious of how diverse the United States has become, some ad campaigns have been making changes. One example of this is a series of ads for the breakfast cereal Cheerios (a brand owned by General Mills). In the summer of 2013, the company released an ad that featured a white mom, an African American father, and a biracial daughter. The ad received praise from some advertising critics but garnered so many racist comments on YouTube (where the company also posted the ad) that it had to disable the commenting function. In early 2014, Cheerios debuted an ad during the Super Bowl featuring the same mother and father telling the little girl she was going to get a little brother; later that year, the company started another ad campaign that included two gay white dads from Quebec talking in a heartfelt way about the adoption of their black daughter. In all of these cases, some groups hailed them as progress while others ripped them apart, often with racist or homophobic slurs.¹

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Italian clothing manufacturer Benetton has a long history of tackling controversial topics, ranging from interracial relationships to kissing politicians, in its United Colors of Benetton advertisements. The most famous of these do not actually show any of the clothes the company makes—just a small logo somewhere in the photograph. More than the tame domestic scenes presented in the Cheerios ads, the photos in the Benetton marketing campaigns are much more provocative—and controversial on multiple levels.

In both cases, some media critics have praised the companies for presenting more diversity and social awareness in their advertising while remaining skeptical of the motives behind the ads. After all, they say, the first goal of advertising is to boost sales.

APPLYING THE CRITICAL PROCESS

DESCRIPTION Gather four to six advertisements from various newspapers, magazines, or Internet sites that feature individuals (and not just products).

ANALYSIS Examine the content of each ad: What product is being sold? What are the profiles of the people who appear in the ad, or what are they doing? Note the publication or Web site each ad comes from. What patterns emerge, and what do these patterns suggest to you?

INTERPRETATION What do the patterns mean? How are the people in each ad helping to sell the product? What is the message that each ad is trying to portray? Why did the advertiser choose the specific newspaper, magazine, or Internet site to advertise the product?

EVALUATION Do any of the ads foster existing stereotypes? Explain how they do or do not. Do you think these ads are effective? How might the stereotypes in these ads convey a distorted or mixed message to the consumer?

ENGAGEMENT Choose one ad from your selection to revise. How might you redesign this ad to remove existing stereotypes? Compose a draft. Do you think your ad is more or less effective than the original? Explain your answer.