Which of the Following Is Not Included in the Art Directors Toolkit for Print Advertising?
Research, Trends and New Visual Linguistic communication
In 2017, discussions around gender and media have reached a fever pitch. Following a bruising yr at the ballot box, fourth-moving ridge feminism has continued to expand. From the Women'due south March to high-profile sexual harassment trials to the increasing number of female protagonists gaining audience recognition in an age of "elevation Telly," women are ensuring that their concerns are heard and represented.
Nosotros've seen movements for gender equality in Hollywood, in Silicon Valley — and even on Madison Avenue. In response to longstanding sexism in advertising, industry leaders such equally Madonna Badger are highlighting how objectification of women in advertising can lead to unconscious biases that harm women, girls and lodge equally a whole.
Agencies are creating marquee campaigns to support women and girls. The Always #LikeAGirl campaign, which debuted in 2014, ignited a wave of me-also "femvertising" campaigns: #GirlsCan from Encompass Daughter, "This Girl Tin" from Sport England and the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland's National Lottery, and a spot from H&M that showcased women in all their diversity, set to "She's a Lady." Cannes Lions got in on the act in 2015, introducing the Glass King of beasts: The Lion for Change, an laurels to accolade advertisement campaigns that accost gender inequality or prejudice.
But beyond the marquee case studies, is the advertising manufacture making strides toward improving representation of women overall? How do we square the surge in "femvertising" with insights from J. Walter Thompson's Female person Tribes initiative, which found in 2016 that, according to 85% of women, the advertising globe needs to take hold of up with the real world?
Engineering science Revealing Bias
We're finally able to answer these questions with the same rigorous, information-driven approach that informs and then many other important decisions in advertising.
New joint research from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media at Mountain Saint Mary'southward University and J. Walter Thompson New York, funded by Google.org and developed at the University of Southern California'due south Viterbi School of Technology, analyzed more than than 2,000 English-linguistic communication films from the Cannes Lions archive to put numbers to the claiming of female person representation in advert, and get a sense of whether the state of affairs is changing.
"Technology advances in data sciences and car learning requite us new means of shining low-cal on media content, at scale and with an unprecedented level of particular and accuracy," says Shri Narayanan, Niki & C. 50. Max Nikias Chair in Engineering, University of Southern California. "It can requite us novel insights not merely past eliminating the mystery virtually potential unconscious biases in content, only in offering objective tools to shape content."
Or, in the words of Caroline Heldman, research adviser to the Geena Davis Found and acquaintance professor in the politics department at Occidental Higher, "more information ways more than light is shed on the problem, which inspires more activism effectually the outcome."
"Gender Bias in Advertising" emerges from earlier piece of work by the Geena Davis Institute to create a tool to analyze gender representation in entertainment media. The Geena Davis Institute partnered with the Signal Assay and Interpretation Laboratory (Sail) at USC and with funding from Google.org to create the Geena Davis Inclusion Caliber (GD-IQ), which Heldman describes as "a reckoner engineering tool that is able to automatically analyze the screen time and speaking time of characters in video down to the millisecond." Heldman says it'southward the but software in existence specifically adult to collectively analyze gender, screen time and speaking time in media and amusement content.
Autonomously from automating the task of counting faces and voices, the GD-IQ is able to mark times with much greater precision than human researchers can attain. "There's infinite possibility," says Madeline Di Nonno, CEO of the Geena Davis Institute. "Nosotros're excited because it allows united states to reveal a level of unconscious bias that isn't possible with the human eye, and it'southward able to go much deeper.
Gender Bias in Advertising: Findings
The research analyzed more than than two,000 Cannes Lions films from 2006 to 2016, focusing on winning and shortlisted entries in the Pic and Film Arts and crafts categories from five English-speaking markets: the US, the United kingdom, Canada, Commonwealth of australia and New Zealand. The sample included ads beyond 33 different categories, from cosmetics to insurance to social causes.
Supporting the automated analysis, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media research team conducted additional enquiry, identifying age, location, objectification, and other personal characteristics associated with prominent characters. This analysis was based on exact, physical, occupational, and social cues plus other factors.
The enquiry institute that women consistently accounted for only about one tertiary of all characters in commercials, beyond all years tested. In 2006, 33.9% of characters were women. Ten years subsequently, the figure had barely budged, reaching only 36.9%.
"We assumed that in advertizement, given that women dominate purchasing, that commercials would take much greater female person representation," says Di Nonno. "To notice out the reverse was quite surprising."
Moreover, when it comes to women'southward screen fourth dimension and speaking time in commercials, no statistically significant change has occurred in 10 years. In 2006, 43.6% of all commercials featured women on screen for 20% or less of their duration. In 2016, the figure was 44.2%. Ads depicting men only were v times every bit common equally ads depicting women only: 25% and v% of all ads, respectively. Men get about 4 times equally much screen time as women.
The report found similar percentages when it comes to speaking time. In 2006, 42.3% of commercials featured women speaking for twenty% or less of the fourth dimension spent on dialogue, compared to 41.7% in 2016. Analyzing the number of utterances, our research counted nearly 3 times as many for men every bit for women. Ads with only male voices were much more than common than ads with only female voices, accounting for 18% and 3% of ads, respectively. Men speak about vii times more than women.
The research too examined the content of voice communication for men and women in ads. Lines of dialogue spoken by men were about 29% more likely than lines spoken by women to contain words associated with power, and 28% more than probable to contain words associated with accomplishment.
The research also measured the dialogue'due south complication using the Flesch-Kincaid readability test. While both genders spoke lines that could be understood past the average fifth grader, women's spoken dialogue was slightly simpler than men'south.
"What this research shows is that our industry has 'tent-pole moments' — amazing actions or campaigns when we all rally around women," says Brent Choi, chief creative officer of J. Walter Thompson New York, "but when it comes to creating our 'regular' ads for our 'regular' clients, we forget about them."
Our inquiry focused on analyzing advertisements themselves, rather than the industry that produces them. But the experience of the Geena Davis Institute has shown that the systemic bug that produce skewed gender representation can't be solved simply by adding female person characters. More info.
"We now know that just adding women to scripts will not solve gender inequality in entertainment media," says Heldman. "We have to write female person characters with more screen time, more speaking time, more prominence in the storyline, with more personal bureau, and without objectifying them."
The Geena Davis Institute's prior analysis of Hollywood films has as well shown that the gender composition of the teams backside them has a powerful effect on how they plow out. "On the film side, we learned that when there was a female person author fastened, we saw a 7.5% increase in on-screen roles for women across the 10 largest film markets," Di Nonno says. Considering the extremely low percentage of female person creative directors in ad, she adds, the results of the latest written report may not be so surprising.
25% of ads feature men merely on screen compared to 5% of ads that feature just women on screen.
of women switched off films or TV shows if they felt they were negatively stereotyping them.
There are about twice as many male characters equally female person characters shown on screen in ads.
Measured by speaking time, men had three times as much
85% of women say film and advertising need to catch upward to the real world when depicting women.
Women Behind the Scenes
In the electric current feminist moment, people are paying more attention than ever to women working behind the scenes in moving-picture show, media and photography, and how this ultimately affects these industries' output.
The most contempo example is Wonder Adult female, which made headlines for taking $103.1 million in its debut weekend in the United states alone. It was trailblazing not only for being the starting time DC/Marvel superhero film to feature a female protagonist (post-obit 19 male-led films since the movie franchise launched in 2008), but too because its director, Patty Jenkins, is 1 of only iii women to direct a alive- activeness film with a upkeep of over $100 million.
The success of Wonder Woman sparked discussion about the demand for more female directors, writers and producers. Fans and critics have besides widely recognized how a woman behind the lens affected important choices and nuances in the movie that were fundamental to its triumph.
The Getty Images Lean In Collection, a collection of realistic, accurate images of women and the communities that support them, is in many means the reverse of a flashy nine-figure Hollywood blockbuster. But its accomplish is no less impressive: since launching in 2014, nearly 40,000 images have been downloaded through the collection, while Lean In images accept been licensed in more than 95 countries.
"We're beginning to understand that information technology's not just almost high contour wins, or campaigns, just it's most creating a mass volume of images that present positive alternatives and about having a relentless commitment to the normalization of female ability in all forums and spheres," says Pam Grossman, manager of visual trends at Getty Images.
"It'southward besides nigh representing the nuance of the female gaze," she continues. "A female director will almost likely shoot the same scene in an entirely unlike way and with a different perspective—ane that takes into business relationship female person ambition, desire, fantasy, bureau, not to mention realistic physiology." Grossman notes that academic concepts such as the "male gaze," once petty-discussed outside liberal arts campuses, are now part of mainstream cultural soapbox in a fashion that seemed unlikely until very recently.
"In 2016, only vii% of the top films were directed by women. Representation starts with content creators, which is why information technology's and so critical to have diverseness behind the lens as well as in front of it," says Piera Gelardi, executive artistic director and cofounder of Refinery29. In response, Refinery29 launched Shatterbox Anthology, a film series "working to cultivate and spotlight the voices of women behind the camera, telling stories exterior the narrow lens of the overwhelmingly male-dominated industry." Films supported then far include Kitty, Chloë Sevigny's fantastical meditation on babyhood; The Tale of Four, a poetic rumination on dignity in crisis by Gabourey Sidibe; Come Swim, a surreal vision by Kristen Stewart; and fifty/50, a timely women's rights documentary by Tiffany Shlain.
Girlgaze, a project by the English photographer and media entrepreneur Amanda de Cadenet, bills itself equally "the showtime multimedia platform committed to supporting girls behind the camera." The project aims to help women break into the photography industry by raising awareness of how women tell visual stories. It features curators including supermodel Amber Valletta and photographer Inez van Lamsweerde. Contributors include Yara Shahidi, an idol for generation Z, dancer Maddie Ziegler, and Idiot box host Alexa Chung, while a roster of female- identifying photographers rounds out the group.
Thalia Mavros, founder of media platform The Front, places female ownership at the cadre of her business model. "Fifty-fifty though we encounter a huge disparity in ownership, nosotros still had a few potential investors aggressively claiming the importance of investing in female media entrepreneurs," says Mavros. "A few heated arguments and door slams after, I am proud to say we are founded and run by women, our investor has a female chief executive at the captain, and even our board of directors is all-female person."
Heldman notes that this year the number of female leads in the superlative-grossing Hollywood movies broke 30% for the starting time fourth dimension since the Geena Davis Found began measuring the percentage. But she cautions that in Hollywood, even a huge success like Wonder Woman may non be enough to tip the scales in favor of more women-led activeness films.
As in so many other areas, it volition come down to who's making the films. "I think Hollywood could be making a lot more money if they did a better job of telling more than and more authentic stories of women's lives," Heldman says, "merely without more women backside the scenes, we won't run into more than women on the large and fiddling screens."
Grossman agrees: "Everyone likes bang-up storytelling, and we all understand with nuanced characters. Merely we're more likely to meet that sort of work created virtually women if information technology is created by women."
Diverse Hollywood
Information technology's no clandestine that Hollywood has a diversity problem, but the industry may finally exist taking steps to accost its shortcomings and get more relevant to the women and minority groups that also buy tickets. And Wonder Woman is only the latest in what looks like a Hollywood body of water change.
In 2016, a variety of minority-directed movies were critically acclaimed, including Moonlight, a coming-of-age story near a young African-American man, and Fences, starring Denzel Washington. In January, The Nascency of a Nation, the story of the Nat Turner rebellion, smashed Sundance records when Trick Searchlight bought it for $17.5 million.
2016 besides saw advances for women in lead roles. There was a female person-led Ghostbusters reboot, and women volition also front the upcoming Bounding main'due south Xi spin-off, while 2019's Captain Marvel with Brie Larson will ensure that more female leads are added the superhero blockbuster genre.
Statistical analysis weblog FiveThirtyEight has found that films that pass the Bechdel examination had a higher return on investment than the median (a motion picture passes if it contains dialogue between 2 women about something other than a man).
The same trends play out at the box office: The female-fronted Star Wars: The Force Awakens was 2015's highest-grossing movie, taking more than than $2 billion worldwide. Rap biopic Straight Outta Compton made almost $200 million, becoming the highest-grossing biopic of all fourth dimension. And co-ordinate to data from the Geena Davis Institute, out of the summit 100 films of 2015, female-led films generated nearly 16% more than at the box role than movies with a male pb.
"If y'all endeavor to be various for the sake of being various, it's going to fail," Jeff Vanquish, chairman of Universal, the studio backside Straight Outta Compton, told Diverseness. "The real reason to do it is that it's good business organisation. Our audience is various."
New Women'due south Interest Magazines
Recent years have seen a plethora of new women'due south print magazines and platforms presenting an expanded view of women, while traditional women'south glossies are struggling to keep upward.
"Women'southward interest" titles accept suffered declining fortunes in recent years on both sides of the Atlantic. In August 2016, Great britain media measurement torso ABC reported that women's weeklies had registered an 8.4% year-on-year pass up in circulation for the first one-half of the year. The states publishing trade group MagNet found that, in 2015, newsstand revenues from women'due south magazines declined by around fourteen.5% on the previous year, outpacing the 13% overall decline in newsstand magazine sales.
Part of this is to exercise with the decline of print overall, of grade, but something more fundamental is also happening: women simply refuse to eat media in publications that reflect the silos that are convenient for advertisers.
"In that location was this idea that if you're interested in fashion, y'all couldn't also be interested in politics," explains Sam Bakery, a onetime editor of Cosmopolitan and Red. "The thought was that the people who wanted to buy lipstick were in some way stupid, and the politics people were much likewise serious for lipstick."
Fed up with such notions, Baker launched The Pool, a multi-media site for women on the move, in 2015. Articles comprehend topics from Scandinavian style and UK prime minster Theresa May to sexism in sports and the latest buzzworthy rampage-scout on Netflix. "Plain, we have a targeted user who is predominantly female," Baker says. "Simply I retrieve the whole idea of the 'women's involvement' magazine department is just gone."
Ladybeard, a UK print title launched in 2015, has the high-quality production values of the standard sleeky but aims to "revolutionize the content." Coeditors Kitty Drake, Madeleine Dunnigan and Sadhbh O'Sullivan abrasion at "women's interest" media, finding its financial motives all besides credible. "It's in their interest to promote certain 'interests' to women, and therefore define an thought of 'womanhood,' which leads to the kind of prescriptive, heteronormative, reductive portrayals of women that we see today—the 'embankment torso set up' ladies, the 'girl squad' feminism," the editors tell us. "These images of empowerment are simply commercial gimmicks—to sell us more products and make usa feel lacking."
Some of the more experimental print-but outlets depict their artful cues, ironically enough, from the internet. Mushpit, a women's magazine that satirizes the fashion industry, has tapped into digital nostalgia, drawing design cues from early prune fine art and vaporwave aesthetics. The editors of Hotdog magazine, a poetry journal, draw blueprint references from brutalism, DIY/zine civilization, QR codes, cursors, and grid lines.
Megan Conery and Molly Taylor, the editors of Hotdog, created their periodical as a joyful antidote to the fustiness of virtually poetry publishing, and a product of women'south creativity for anybody to savour. "We still come across a huge discrepancy betwixt the number of women and men published in journals. So past having a completely female-identifying contributor base, we are acknowledging that fact as well equally working to rectify that," they say. "We have more female readers than male person, but Hotdog isn't directed at whatever gender—and we would say that it'southward part of the problem if male readers aren't interested in reading female writers."
Winter Mendelson, founder and editor-in-main of Posture magazine, sees the next generation of readers as far less beholden to conventional gender standards than those who came before. "If you're built-in with cyberspace access and you have an iPad from when you're five years onetime, you're going to run into things that assistance you feel more similar yourself," says Mendelson. "Social media and Tumblr and all these creative platforms accept helped these kids even subconsciously be similar, 'Oh aye, I don't relate to gender.'"
Mendelson adds: "If we were moving toward gender neutrality, and everyone targeted the same and treated the same, that sounds similar utopia. The point of Posture is to bring together all these people of unlike genders and backgrounds into i identify, considering it's a huge statement: we all actually are in it together."
Women-beginning Brands
Why should underwear ads always characteristic perfect bodies? Why should condoms be blackness, gold, and marketed toward men? Why are incontinence pads shrouded in secrecy, packaged with discretion, and marketed toward older consumers when upwardly to ane in three women suffers from this problem? Who makes these decisions?
In many instances—from the directors to product developers—information technology is men.
On cue, a wave of female-founded challenger brands is creating a new visual language of women in campaigns and also redefining production categories with a female person-centric lens.
Lena Dunham and Girls co-star Jemima Kirke drew positive attention for starring in a campaign for Alone, the New Zealand–based lingerie make. From the lack of retouching, to the confident poses (forget the male gaze), the campaign was celebrated for championing body positivity for women of all shapes and sizes.
"Victoria's Secret holds over 50% market share in the U.s.a. and has and then many problem areas, from their stereotypical marketing and receiving the lowest rating for production practices to their hugely asymmetric CEO pay, which was over $40 million in 2014," says Lonely founder Helene Morris, quoted on Forbes.com. "We wanted to bear witness women that there is some other way to build and sustain a company; strengthening and supporting our manufacturers' businesses and lives, producing imagery that gives our daughters conviction, not insecurities, and non beingness greedy as a visitor and equally individuals. All of these things are then important to united states of america and essential if we want to brand this world a better place to live in."
Media display of products related to menstruation is often veiled in bizarre euphemisms. Thinx underwear is changing that. From its first entrada for menstrual underwear, which featured bold, suggestive images of dripping egg yolk, to its sleek blueprint, to its pithy tagline "Underwear For Women with Periods"—later updated to "Underwear For People With Periods" to include the trans customs—the emphasis was on reality.
Why do tampons come packaged in turquoise and pinkish, with designs featuring silhouettes of women running? No wonder women hibernate them in the bath chiffonier. A wave of female entrepreneurs is introducing a new visual linguistic communication for feminine care, with tampon and menstrual underwear startups that are redefining the category.
They share a frank, sophisticated, compassionate tone, convenient subscription models—and sleek designs akin to beauty products and luxury personal care. Cora organic tampons are presented in chic blackness and white packages with minimalist re-create. Lola, whose tagline is "This likewise shall pass" offers organic cotton wool tampons by subscription, packaged in pale bluish and white. Fémme and Kali, packaged in understated pastels, are two additional recent additions to the tampon market place. None of these brands would await out of place amid fragrances and luxury skincare products.
Women's consumer applied science is also witnessing a new wave of female- centric products—sleek, ergonomic, and designed to fit into women'south lives. Elvie was among the first. This continued kegel exerciser, described as "your most personal trainer," is a curved, mint-colored device that comes with a coordinated app. Part of its mission is to help women take control of their pelvic floor strength subsequently giving birth.
Willow, a smart continued breast pump, was named the all-time wearable device of CES 2017 by the tech site Digital Trends. Willow is billed as "the only wearable breast pump that fits in your bra, moves with you, and goes wherever the twenty-four hour period takes you lot." It helps rail the amount of milk collected, the collection date, and the length of each session.
The product launched in spring 2017 at a cost of $430 and was designed with the mother in mind. "In this space, unremarkably, everyone focuses on the baby. We're really focused on the mom," says Naomi Kelman, CEO of Willow. "Information technology's subtle only it's unlike. In particular, we say, 'How can we make moms' lives easier and meliorate?'"
This kind of thinking is not confined to tech. Ritual, a vitamin commitment startup "created for and by women who wouldn't settle for less than the truth," offers Essential for Women, a daily vitamin dose designed for women (men can accept them likewise, of class, simply Essential for Women "provides a fiddling more atomic number 26 than the average guy needs"). The platform emphasizes supply concatenation transparency, ingredients with benefits "backed past real scientific discipline," and simple, clear aesthetics. The brand's online journal features interviews with female person entrepreneurs who benefit from the product.
Takeaways
Women-led Hollywood blockbusters and flashy "femvertising" campaigns command our attending equally powerful examples of female representation. Paradoxically, they may make information technology easier to overlook the fact that, on the whole, the advertising industry has stalled in its efforts to correspond women proportionally and realistically.
This blind spot puts brands in danger non only of consumer backlash, just also of overlooking a massive market place opportunity. Globally, women command $39.6 trillion (about 30% of the world'southward wealth) and by 2020 they volition control $72.i trillion, according to Boston Consulting Grouping.
"The female experience has always been seen as niche, whether on film, in literature, or past industries other than dazzler and fashion—which is ridiculous," says Pam Grossman of Getty Images. As she points out, a group that comprises effectually one-half of the earth's population is non "niche." "It's because so many of the people at the top of these industries are still straight, white older men," adds Grossman. "We need to move beyond the 'niche-ification' of the female feel."
Improving women's representation in movie is a long-term task, but the advertizing industry could upshot change sooner. Madeline Di Nonno of the Geena Davis Institute points out that, while advertising is often created on curt timelines, films can take two years or longer to complete. "Even TV can take longer, and so when you think almost the mass volume of production of advertising, advertising tin accept advantage of cultural trends far easier than scripted goggle box and film," she says.
"Information technology'southward really disappointing that despite increased awareness of the issue, women are still non existence represented in advertising with the frequency, intelligence, or gravitas every bit men," says Piera Gelardi of Refinery29. "Representation matters because the stories and images nosotros see accept the power to shape how nosotros view ourselves, each other, and the globe around the states. By creating responsible, inclusive, and complex stories and images we can overturn stereotypes, make people feel valued, and change the manner the world sees. I want to run across more than brands committing to real action here."
Ultimately, amend advertising can lead to better content beyond the board. "Advertizement tin can be the well-nigh powerful change-maker in the world because of its unique relationship to tv set," says Di Nonno. Correct now, agencies tin can make up one's mind to consciously shift their next pieces of work—to break the norm by creating something unlike.
What can agencies and brands practice to address gender representation in advertising?
Think beyond short-termism.
"Femvertising" ad campaigns tin can generate great printing, and may even cause real alter in club. But is that enough to ensure existent representation in the long run? Challenge creatives and designers to bring the same energy to everyday ads and accounts. At Refinery29, editors committed to publishing 67% of images of plus- size women—the same pct of the female population that is size fourteen and upward. Tin agencies commit to similar targets?
Build women into the procedure, not just the results.
Behind the camera. In the studio. On the board. Wherever decisions are made. Placing women in controlling roles encourages more representative artistic work, and tin add new dimensions to outdated, gender-based stereotypes. Representation behind the scenes is just every bit important every bit representation on screen.
Look to the challengers.
Women today demand more than from brands than ever before, and the norms are shifting faster than many tin can keep up with. Lookout the challenger brands springing up to fill (or even create) a niche market—they're often a valuable indicator of where culture is headed.
Most the Innovation Grouping
The Innovation Group is J. Walter Thompson's futurism, enquiry and innovation unit. Information technology charts emerging and futurity global trends, consumer change, and innovation patterns—translating these into insight for brands. Information technology offers
a suite of consultancy services, including bespoke enquiry, presentations, co-branded reports and workshops. It is also active in innovation, partnering with brands to actuate future trends within their framework and execute new products and concepts. It is led by Lucie Greene, Worldwide Manager of the Innovation Grouping. For more than information, visit jwtintelligence.com
Near the Geena Davis Found on Gender in Media
Founded by Academy Accolade winning actor Geena Davis, the Institute works collaboratively within the amusement and media industries to reach systemic cultural equity and inclusion onscreen. We are the but research-based organization examining representation of six identities: gender, race, LGBTQ+, disability, age, and body size.
Research for this study was led by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and J. Walter Thompson, and conducted past Dr. Shri Narayanan, Krishna Somadepalli, and the team of Engineers at the Academy of Southern California's Betoken Assay and Interpretation Laboratory (Sheet), in collaboration with Dr. Caroline Heldman and the team of researchers at the Geena Davis Found.
Contact:
Lucie Greene
Worldwide Director of the Innovation Group J. Walter Thompson Intelligence
Madeline Di Nonno
CEO, Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media
Sherri Chambers
CMO, J. Walter Thompson New York
Editor: Shepherd Laughlin
Visual Editor: Emma Chiu
Assistant Editor: Mary Cass
Flick Assistant: Jaime Eisenbraun
Infographics designed by Vaibhav Bhanot
Source: https://seejane.org/research-informs-empowers/gender-bias-advertising/
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