Universidad del Rosario

Interculturality
Opinion Essay
Daniel Arroyave Dussan
2019-2

A tale of marketing ignorance: advertising and stereotyping

There is no doubt that marketing strategies have evolved throughout time, and
nowadays, the scope of advertisement has reach almost every aspect of our daily life.
Ads are everywhere, and as consumers of the fourth industrial revolution, we are
always looking for new experiences, impactful advertising that generates the
unstoppable feeling of wanting more. However, some companies seem to not
comprehend easily all the cultural factors that must be taken into account when
advertising in the twenty first century. This problematic issue has led to a common
misrepresentation of society which is justified by a biased perspective of today’s
world.

Such situations are mostly seen on TV ads and other types of advertising. The
stereotypes depicted in commercials usually involve gender conventional roles and
actions, as well as misconceptions around ethnical or cultural groups. The different
aspects that surround this issue, take us directly to consider the values that society
care about and what they really want to see from a company that has an open and
holistic approach. What is the real limit between depicting conventional situations
versus creating insulting and biased information for the users?

Not so long ago, the UK`s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the organization
that controls all types of advertisements in this country, including online and social
media, decided to create a new regulation that include a series of rules against
stereotypes and discrimination in advertising platforms. In a review with the BBC, the
entity said: “harmful stereotypes could restrict the choices, aspirations and
opportunities of children, young people and adults and these prejudices can be
reinforced by some advertising, which plays a part in unequal gender outcomes".

As a consequence, many commercials in the country have been banned in the past few
months. A first example is a Volkswagen add where several men are shown doing a
very interesting activity, like going to the space, climbing a steep mountain, playing a
difficult sport, among others, while the only woman that appears on the add is sitting
on a park bench next to a stroller. Even though, being a mother is a role that women
can perfectly perform and it has nothing to belittle, the fact that this is compared to all
the outstanding things the men on the commercial were doing, clearly shows how it is
conceived that women are only good or only meant to be mothers. Nevertheless, men
are also victims of the stereotypes that some brands cannot seem to avoid when trying
to create content relatable for their potential consumers. Another case of a commercial
banned by the ASA was a Philadelphia cheese add where two dads forget about their
kids while drooling over a sandwich conveyor belt, implying that fathers (being
males) will stop paying attention to their children the minute they see food on the
table.

Even though UK policies on advertisement should be adopted by every country, there

is still a problem within the companies advertising strategies that needs to be solved.
The British columnist and businessman, Erick Saelens (2019), mentioned the
following about this topic: “Advertising is a lot about enlarging reality and toying
with cultural behavior or commonly shared habits. There is something called impact
we need to consider, and creating it often means finding situations from real life but
with a twist that turns people’s head or turns the corners of their mouths into a smile.”

The real issue with the brands that end up making these abrupt mistakes is that they
look for a connection with their consumers trying to identify their products or services
with a specific target of people, and in this process they wrongly assume that all the
members of this determined segment will respond to the same incentives. Instead of
looking for people who are interested in the products that they offer, companies
should focus their attention on who is actually buying their products, this might help
to a better assessment of the variables that determine the specific behavior of the
selected group with less chances of falling into stereotypes.

The world becomes a more diverse community every single day, and new generations
prefer inclusion over conventional and conservative concepts. Brands that depict real
life and distinct lifestyles in their advertising show a better understanding of their
customers and the individual.