We can be heroes: Redefining Jungian archetypes for the 21st century
The archetypal hero is a much-used trope in advertising, but is is time to update the stereotype? After all, it's what Jung would have wanted, writes 303 MullenLowe's Mil Djurovic.
Torah Bright. David Bowie. Jon Snow. The modern-day world is brimming with individuals whose heroic feats have continued to break gender bias in sport, music, entertainment and culture. And yet if we were to Google how Carl Jung defines a ‘hero’ in his original set of twelve archetypes, a wilful female snowboarder, a musical icon who challenged sexuality and an effeminate medieval warrior would unequivocally not fit the bill.
But why does this matter?
As marketers, we have long been using Jung’s archetypes to help build and define our brand’s positioning. Derived from myths and folklore, they are supposed to represent a model of people’s behaviours and personalities, said to exist in the collective unconscious. They have since evolved from common myths to a common marketing tool that many large global brands use to give their brands’ meaning – conveying their values, beliefs and reinforcing their position in consumer’s minds.
And yet, these models that our brands are being built on, that form the basis of our communications, unconsciously echo the stereotypical gender roles of Jung’s time.
Where ‘the sage’ also goes by the name of ‘wise old man’. Where ‘the caregiver’ is depicted only as a mother and ‘the hero’ is expressed purely through male characteristics – his physical strength and macho valour.
But times have changed. Men and women, have changed. When we think of modern-day heroes we think of those who are idealistic. Those who show empathy. Those who are tolerant. Those who can be either men or women. As progressive and enlightened individuals we know this, but as marketers and advertisers we are all too often complacent in using gender generalisations in the name of creativity and audience targeting.
Many of us might believe the responsibility lies with clients or maybe even creatives. The truth of it? It lies with all of us. Even the people working further upstream and behind the scenes. The strategists. The account handlers. The brand managers. If we continue to use an outdated model, unconsciously imposing old ways of thinking on our brands, then the stories we tell and the advertising we create will become out of step and out of touch with the gender-neutral values of today. The implications? We’ll start to alienate more and more consumers as our brands become less meaningful.
This begs the question, why are we still using an outdated marketing tool that the people we advertise our brands to no longer relate to? If we want our brands to reflect a modern-day society, then the tools we use to build them should do the same. I’m sure Jung would agree, that’s it’s high time we abandon the customs and conventions of the 1900s and contemporise his set of twelve archetypes, throwing those unintended gender stereotypes to the wind.
We decided it was high time to give Jung’s archetypes a much-needed facelift, abandoning the old cultural template by creating a set of unisex characteristics that better reflect the men and women of today. Where our ‘hero’ doesn’t have to be a big burly man or a butch Amazonian woman but rather anyone who displays courage, strength of character and a desire to make the world a better place. A Torah Bright. A David Bowie. A Jon Snow.
A small peek at what 303 MullenLowe’s reimagined archetypes look like
By applying this new way of thinking to our client’s business, we are intent on removing any latent gender bias from our strategic thinking in the hope that this will in some small but significant way, positively influence the characters that appear in our advertising.
As marketers, we create more content than Hollywood ever will and so we need accurate and forward-thinking representations of the traditional archetypes we use to tell our stories. We’re not here to ordain a new set of rules to be followed. What we’ve set out to do is hold up a mirror to our audience that better reflects who they aspire to be or not to be. A distorted mirror equals a distorted reflection and as an industry we should endeavour to ensure that the images we put out in the world are built on modern day values. Then maybe we too can be heroes.
Mil Djurovic is a strategy planner 303 MullenLowe.
Good read, thanks Mil
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If you are using archetypes in any way to have conversations with your clients about brands – chances are you’re not having very helpful conversations. The whole thing always was and always will be silly. The sooner they leave the planning community the more respect we will have (hopefully).
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