The Original Ad

A recent advert for Gap Kids latest campaign was sent out to customers in the U.K. that has been labelled as sexist, creating a large commotion of promoting gender stereotypes. In particular, this advertisement encouraged traditional gender norms that many have worked hard to leave behind. Though the advertisement was intended to promote Gap’s new Back to School collection, depicting both boys and girls in comfortable bright clothing, it wasn’t the clothes that came under fire.

The ad featured the tagline that referred to boys as “Little Scholars” and girls as “Social Butterflies”. It seems that it is an expectation that boys will naturally be scholars, be smarter and more successful than their female counterparts. In this ad, the boy is portrayed as having more enthusiasm and energy showed through his pose, depicting that he has a more outgoing personality, is willing to talk to more people and get out of his comfort zone. Furthermore, the boy is given an Einstein T-shirt to wear which further boosts his confidence as having one of the world’s greatest role models to look up to. From an early age, the boy is encouraged to “start his future”, and think about what lays ahead of him, which is most definitely an inspiring and motivating idea that should be embedded in the minds of young children. We live in an ever-changing world with kids growing up with big dreams and aspirations. To encourage and motivate them from a young age, even if it means through the T-shirts you wear back to school is indeed a positive thing.

The conflict here is when we see the little girl being referred to as a “Social Butterfly”. Not only is this title degrading, but it also sets us back to a time where it was acceptable for females to be portrayed as brainless, vain and powerless in the presence of males. Although this ad might seem tamed compared to fashion ads that blatantly objectify women, in a sense it has these very same ideas, downplaying the ability of females. Contrast to the boy’s ad, the tagline says, “Chambray shirts + logo sweaters are the talk of the playground” further portraying that girls only care about what they wear, and how the latest, trendiest and most fashionable outfits are the only thing that will get them the attention that they crave for. She has no dreams nor aspirations to become more than the value her clothes can give her, unlike the positive message that is created for the boy’s advertisement. Additionally, the girl is portrayed in a pose where she is staring out into space, with a blank expression and casually leaning against the wall as if she was told to stay still and remain ‘lady-like’. These sorts of messages not only encourage young girls to stay in line of the cultural expectations paved out for them, but also limits their worth only by what she chooses the public to think about her clothes.

The Jammed Ad

By altering the original advertisement, I aimed to used a more sarcastic tone in the ways these taglines were written to raise the impact that these existing taglines play in enforcing gender stereotypes. By exaggerating it, I hope that it gives the reader a sense of uneasiness and cautiousness when viewing these particular ads to see how absurd and unreasonable they can be even when they are targeting families and young children.

The first alteration that I made was changes to the titles of the taglines. I changed the “The Little Scholar” to “The Nobel Prize Winner” since it’s a symbol that represents the pinnacle of greatness awarded to those for their cultural, academic and scientific advances. This was also chosen to further emphasize the level of difference of how the boy is perceived compare to the girl. I chose to keep the tagline of “Your future starts here.” since I thought it is preposterous enough that within the same ad, boys are urged to start their future while girls are not, a very negative sort of message to send to young children just starting to figure out their roles in society. I further added another tagline that says, “Keep encouraging him because he will ALWAYS be more successful than the girl over there” choosing to emphasize on the word always written in capital letters to represent that boys are in a different playing field than girls, since girls are not even thinking about their future and as a result have little to no chance in greatness in comparison.

On the other hand, I decided to change the tagline of “The Social Butterfly” to “The Little Dumb Blonde”, a universal derogatory term for women that portray a lack of intelligence. I think this alteration fits nicely since I am trying to compare the tagline of “The Nobel Prize Winner” to the Dumb Blonde. Both have to do with intelligence and gives a more divergent comparison of the two portrayals. Furthermore, the Social Butterfly is often associated also with the Dumb Blonde, in which the two represents women who go to great lengths in taking care of their appearances through the clothes they wear without giving much thought to the things that fill their heads. I further emphasized these differences through the tagline of “Make sure she wears all the right clothes. That’s a sure way to make friends” which is specifically targeted to parents to show that clothes should not be the only thing they dress their daughters in, but rather they should dress them with encouragement, self-confidence, knowledge and self-respect in an environment that so often sets up women for failure. This is what will attract positive individuals that will surround and encourage their daughters to be more than the sum of her clothes.

It’s a shame that even though there have been numerous advances and breakthroughs battling against gender stereotyping, advertisements like this still exist. Even worse, they are aimed to young girls, limiting their potential and forcing them into an existing mold shaped by generations of men putting them in their places. Through this ad, I hope to encourage young girls to realize that they are more than the clothes they wear and breaking the mold of “Little Dumb Blonde”.