AANA set to update advertising gender stereotype guidelines
The Australian National Association of Advertisers (AANA) is set to update its guidelines on gender stereotyping in advertising.
The AANA’s promise to review its guidelines on gender stereotyping comes after the The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) launched a new guide to help brands reflect a more progressive portrayal of men and women in their advertising.
As a member of the WFA, the AANA said it will be supporting the voice of the industry from an international level by taking steps to remove stereotypes from advertising.
The AANA said it would provide more details of its tightened rules around sexism in advertising in its code of ethics practice note which will be used by the Ad Standards Board when handling consumer complaints.
The industry body did however explain that the new code does not prohibit all forms of gender stereotyping instead it encourages advertisers to avoid depicting men and women in a way which would show people in an unfavourable manner due to their gender.
The industry body has also promised to help advertisers understand how the amended code applies to the use of gender in stereotypes.
While the AANA already has a code in place to deal with discrimination related to gender stereotypes, it will now detail how Ad Standards and advertisers should use the code and help them better understand how the existing code operates with respect to gender stereotypes.
John Broome, CEO of the AANA, said in a statement: “Gender stereotypes in advertising can limit and reinforce misperceptions about roles in society. The Code of Ethics helps ensure advertisers do not use discriminatory portrayals that reinforce negative gender stereotypes.
“Advertising contributes to cultural attitudes and there is a social imperative to positively effect change in the way people are portrayed. The AANA’s new guidance aims to reinforce responsible advertising that does not diminish or limit the role of women and men in society.”
The new revised guidelines follows the AANA’s revised code of ethics on sexual appeal in advertising which now breaches an ad if it is “exploitative or degrading” instead of having to be both.
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This doesn’t actually go far enough. Always showing men and women in “positive” but stereotyped roles is just as bad. Having every household product ad showing a smart, smiling happy “housewife” and every DIY product ad showing a smart, smiling happy man doing the hammering is just as damaging.
What we need is more diversity, and not just around gender. Frankly I’m sick of seeing 20-year-old models depicted as the parents of school-age children.
Consumers need to vote with their feet.
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Can we please remember that the world is actually non-binary and being all about just male and female is actually not as progressive as it seems? Please involve the LBGTQI+ Queer community before making fools of yourselves in the near future.
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Maybe they should get their acronyms right before trying their hand at socially complex issues?
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The world has gone completely mad.
Does the couple sitting on the couch watching TV really care about this stuff? No they care about paying bills, their health and that of their family and friends. Identity politics like this are a disgrace.
Perhaps the AANA could devote time to updating guidelines on how to have agencies and communications companies which are profitable in this time of undercutting and gouging.
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Conventional marketing wisdom is to cast talent that is closely aligned to the people actually buying your product, isn’t it?
To that end, why would advertisers show men buying household cleaning products when women are the ones that primarily buy them/make the purchasing decision? Similarly, why would they cast an 80yr old woman in a hardware ad?
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OMG. We have a problem with gender stereotyping. What should be do.
I know. Issue the stereotypical guideline document. Then tick box.
Aaaah, job done. Next!
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How would we know the person in the ad was non-binary?
Would they be wearing a badge?
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Because the offended minority are so much louder than the rest
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Haha wish I could have put this better myself
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The group, or groups that do most of the complaining, are probably (whether aware of it or not) members of another group of carpers who are best described as “nouveau éclairé” or in good old fashioned language, they are armed with the most dangerous kind of knowledge, “A little.”
It is most likely, that neither the groups referred to, nor the groups who have made themselves responsible for governing what is acceptable and what is not, have ever read Aristotle or Plato on mimesis, or Oscar Wilde’s counter argument regarding art and (so called) reality.
We are involved with the craft of creativity, poetry, acting and presenting verisimilitude, this (according to Aristotle and Plato among many others) locks us firmly in the Mimesis argument, where even if Wilde’s assertion is true, the so called reality will circle back to our role eventually, and we will all be together on the stereotype merry-go- round.
PC is like oxygen, it is vital, but best taken in conjunction with other gases and in measured doses; too much of it will strengthen flame and lead to destruction of everything in its path, ourselves included.
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