Can Brands Achieve Gender Diversity?

Earlier this year, skincare brand Dove created six exclusive bottle designs to represent various female body types – and it was extremely divisive. Instead of inspiring portraying an empowering message about body diversity, many of their consumers felt insulted, believing that Dove had oversimplified the debate on body image in the media.  

We’ve seen similar PR risks being taken by sportswear brands who have chosen to use fashion models instead of actual athletes to showcase their latest sportswear products. Brands such as Nike, Adidas and Reebok are guilty of using popular fashion models to pose as female athletes, rather than drawing from the ranks of other professionals. And, as a result, some have argued that female athletes have not received the same amount of recognition or respect for their athletic abilities in comparison to their male counterparts.

It’s not news that the advertisement industry still struggles to promote gender diversity. However, in 2017 we are seeing an increasing shift in attitudes towards gender, with the growth in gender-neutral fashion, and a rise in the number of androgynous models who continue to push through gender boundaries.

So why are some brands still struggling to promote gender diversity in their campaigns?

Efforts to change these issues have been addressed by the British Advertising Standards Authority (BASA) after it announced that there would be a crackdown on advertisements that promoted gendered stereotypes. Scripted scenarios that continue to place women in domesticated roles in the household, and adverts that suggest that an activity is inappropriate for a girl or boy because of their associated gender, will be banned from next year. New rules proposed by the BASA concluded that “tougher lines need to be taken on ads that feature stereotypical gender roles,” adding that despite these changes, implementing these new standards does not guarantee all stereotyping will be stopped, but certain scenarios that they deem either harmful, offensive or misleading in adverts will be banned.

Hopefully, it won’t be long before we see these changes take effect. Campaigns such as ‘This Girl Can’ by Sports England took the opportunity to change the way that women are portrayed in sports, and Lynx has produced adverts aimed at creating new standards of empowerment and equality for both men and women. The deodorant brand created a campaign for men called ‘Is it Okay for Guys’, posing a series of questions which asked men things like ‘Is it Okay to Cry, To Not like Sport, to be The Smaller Spoon?’ The ad campaign aimed to challenge cultural ideas of what masculinity is, and was used to encourage men to think about some of the limitations they put on themselves to fit into the ‘norm’.  

Despite this, tougher lines need to be taken to change the representation of gender identity in today’s advertisements. Brands need to pay more attention to their consumers and connect to the communities that they belong to. Adverts are still lagging, and they’re not doing enough to reflect the reality of gender diversity in the 21st century. I admit, changing the way people are depicted in mainstream media will be a tough task. But so long as we continue to make changes to the way we convey people in mainstream adverts (and on a smaller scale, social media and PR campaigns), especially for products that are currently restricted by the gender binary, i.e. perfumes, beauty products and sportswear, we can begin to change public perception.