dlehnersauder

In recent years I have abandoned watching television the traditional way; opting to avoid paying for cable, sitting through commercials and adjusting my TV-viewing to network schedules. However, under extraordinary circumstances, I am subjected to sit through traditional television and suffer through masses of trite, seemingly endless commercials.

Because I am rarely exposed to the conventional 30 second TV commercial, I have become hyperaware of an apparent advertising strategy trend that is applied to a vast range of household goods.

Approximately 75% of household shoppers for goods such as food, household items and children products, are women[1]. Marketers are very aware of this statistic and thus cater their promotion to appeal to this demographic. Advertising for household products has largely been targeted to women and some contend that the prevalent advertising strategies of consumer goods have shaped archetypal female identities since the 1950s – when advertisers first realized the buying power of women.

At first, it was the marketers who created the female archetype of the housekeeper, however with the rise of feminism and growing number of women in the workforce marketers had to react and adapt. In recent years, their adaptation led to the creation of the “superwoman”: 

However, advertisers noticed the “superwoman” archetype was met with some negative response as the depiction of women in the advertisements were received as unrealistic and in some cases depressing. This marketing strategy created the sentiment that women are inadequate if they are unable to meet the improbable standards depicted in these commercials[2].

The quandary for advertisers then is how best to reach women (the target demographic for household goods) who are largely of the baby boomer generation and are therefore aware of the paternalistic imposition of the submissive housewife, and yet is daunted by the expectations of the supermom archetype.

Enter the “super idiot” – the advertising trend I picked up on.

In many commercials for household goods, men are being portrayed as foolish buffoons. This strategy enforces the notion that it is fine to fall short of the supermom standard while maintaining the woman’s relative superiority to her male counterpart. The danger of this technique is that it may alienate the other 25% of the household product market.

Though the textbook (up to chapter 4) assesses the social  criticisms of marketing, the creation of negative stereotypes through advertising campaigns is not suggested. In effect what these advertisements are doing is creating a negative archetype of men that mirrors the negative archetype of women created by advertising campaigns in the 1950s. Should the social impact of advertising campaigns be taken into consideration by marketers in developing a sustainable promotion campaign? I think from now on, I’m going to stick to downloading TV programs…

Daniel Boissonneau-Lehner