Advertising tries to change how it portrays women, but still stumbles

The year was 1968 and the magazine was Realidade, published by Abril. A full-page ad in the June issue featured, in black and white, a photo of a mother picking up her children from school, with the phrase: “And they still say women don’t understand cars.” It was the Volkswagen Beetle ad.

The advertisement said that “there are so many women with a Beetle” because it is easy to drive, maneuver, park and uses little gas – and “women understand the car in what matters most: the economy”. “After all, understanding carburetor, engine capacity, etc. is not everything in life. And you can be sure that many men who drive Volkswagens also think so,” the text read.

More than 50 years later, the campaign “Pilotas – Restart”, made by the WMcCann agency for General Motors, at the launch of the Tracker SUV, in August of last year, returns to the theme of women and cars to combat, with irony, the slogan of 1960s that women are good at “piloting the stove”.

“As if that were a problem,” says chef Paola Carosella, who stars in the campaign alongside aircraft pilot Helena Lacerda, surgeon Andrea Ortega, professional surfer Yanca Costa, and GM global engineering executive Fabiola. I pray “Pilot, we pilot what we want”, says Paola, in the film.

Understanding women as a being of multiple interests, which includes profession, leisure, hobbies and sports, is still the great challenge of advertising in the second decade of the 21st century, according to marketing and behavior experts heard by sheet.

Women are still portrayed in many ads as a segmented being, just like in the 1960s, preoccupied with either the house or the children or looking pretty. Or worse, your body is still used in a sexist way, to get attention.

In the 1960s advertising, the car was only used for them to pick up the children from school. But even today, the auto industry’s campaigns are massively male-oriented.

“A third of those interested in SUVs in the country are women”, says Renata Bokel, vice president of Strategy at the WMcCann agency in Brazil. “They show more interest in this category than any other, they feel more secure in this model of car,” she says.

With this information in hand at the time of launch, the agency took the opportunity to direct the Tracker campaign, an SUV, to the female audience. “The entire campaign was conceived and developed by women, which made the difference”, says the Executive.

“We also count on the consultancy of the NGO Think Olga and we had the support of the client, General Motors, which embraces the cause of gender equality, even because it has a woman in global command”, says Renata, referring to the CEO of GM, Mary Barra.

Renata believes, however, that brands still do not know how to deal with feminism in the 21st century. “There are clients who are not prepared to adopt an activist discourse and want to maintain a neutral posture. gender equity, at least don’t tear it down, because every sign counts in advertising.”

The McCann executive remembers the campaigns in which the woman waits for her husband for dinner, having already prepared the food and bathed the children. “But is this the world we want? Or does it make more sense to have this couple come home together and share the chores?” she asks her.

In the opinion of Gisela Castro, professor of the postgraduate program in Communication and Consumption Practices at ESPM (Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing), advertising portrays the customs of society, but goes further.

“All the media interfere in the formation of opinion, make one think. Advertising also participates in the debate, reinforcing stereotypes or putting them into question”, he says.

For Gisela, many companies are still “laggards” by not following the evolution of roles in society and it is necessary that communication agencies take a less prejudiced view of the world to clients.

“It is always easier to change discourse than values, but consumers perceive this inconsistency over time. And companies lose money”, he says.

The ESPM teacher recalls the 2015 carnival campaign by Skol, Ambev’s beer brand, accused of making an apology for rape with the slogan “I forgot the ‘no’ at home”.

“The brand received a flurry of criticism, withdrew the slogan of the campaign and sought to retract”, says Gisela. Three carnivals later, in 2018, it launched a campaign of what “desce round” and what “desce square” at Carnival and, among the examples of what doesn’t go well, pointed out sexual harassment.

Itaipava beer, from Petrópolis, in turn, which seven years ago launched the “Summer” campaign, with model Aline Campos as the sensual woman in a bikini on the beach who aroused desires in the male audience, decided to say goodbye to the character at the end of last year.

Now, the motto of the campaign, also signed by WMcCann, is “the beer of every summer”, with men and women enjoying the season by the sea.

“I don’t see a problem with putting a woman’s breasts and butt in the advertisement – if it’s to advertise a skin cream, for example,” says lawyer, teacher and writer Ruth Manus. “But advertising beer is sexist, you condition women by appearance,” says Ruth, who has just released the “Anti Machismo Practical Guide” (Editor Sextante).

Following this reasoning, she recalls, the woman ends up being relegated to a very short “useful life”, from 30 to 45 years old. “Before 30, she’s young and inexperienced, and after 45, she’s old.”

“Brands have been advancing, yes, in the perception of women as a being with the same rights as men, but there are still pockets of retrograde mentality in communication”, says Gisela.

“The advertising needs to be more feminine, in the sense of being more multifaceted. I understand that the consumer doesn’t just want to be a mother, a housewife or a sexy woman – she is also a professional, an athlete, a daughter, a friend, she has a hobby. is what she wants, just like the man.”

For the psychologist with a master’s degree in gender Cecília Russo Troiano, general director of Troiano Branding, a brand management consultancy, it’s not just the beer market that still has a sexist approach to advertising.

“Many brands sponsor sports competitions, like motor racing or cycling, where only men compete,” she says. “What kind of message are you sending to the public by giving this kind of support? Even more so at events where a beautiful woman, wearing a sexy outfit, is going to hand over the trophy? That’s also communication,” she says.

In the same way, asks Cecília, when a bank puts a young actress in a sexy outfit to talk about investments, what message is the institution transmitting? “It seems to say that the young woman doesn’t understand much about the subject, since her job there is to beautify, but that bank understands and can solve it for her.”

For Cecília, it is necessary to increase the number of women with decision-making power, not only in advertising agencies, but also in companies. “It is not by chance that the list of the country’s top executives is repeated year after year,” she says. “We need more female leaders, so that the look of women helps to break stereotypes, instead of perpetuating them”, she says.

‘Toxic masculinity needs to be fought by men and women’

Ruth Manus agrees that it is necessary to expand the female presence in all sectors – but emphasizes that this woman in a position of command needs to be herself, and not adopt a masculine posture to be respected.

“It is common for women to scream at work, just as men do, because it is an accepted masculine behavior. But crying in the professional environment is not accepted, because it is considered weakness, something of female behavior”, he says.

“This is part of a toxic masculinity that needs to be fought, because it’s bad for both women and men. We are all sexist in some way, and it’s important to recognize the problem in order to fight it.”

A few years ago, the brand of sanitary pads Always, from Procter & Gamble, launched the campaign “Like a Girl” (like a girl), which gained worldwide repercussion. Adult women and boys were asked to imitate a girl in different activities – running, fighting, playing ball. And they did it awkwardly, on purpose. The advertisement showed how the expression “like a girl” has become pejorative in society and impacts girls’ self-esteem.

“Our brand brought up the discussion about menstrual poverty, a situation that affects 1 in 4 girls in Brazil and can impact not only their self-esteem, but their development, since they stop going to school when they are menstruating” , says Isabella Zakzuk, director of brand operations and e-commerce at P&G Brazil.

According to her, P&G has already donated about 4 million units of tampons between 2020 and 2021 to actions that fight menstrual poverty. The company, which in 2018 appointed engineer Juliana Azevedo as the first woman to preside over the company’s branch in the country, takes on other banners of gender equality.

Men, for example, have two months of paternity leave (against the five days provided for in Brazilian legislation). “They have 18 months to take this period, which means they can stay at home with their child when their partner goes back to work,” says Isabella.

In 2019, P&G, which also owns the Ariel brand, launched the “Sharing makes us better” campaign, which has been updated year by year. In it, couples share household chores, such as washing clothes.

The company, which produces the Pantene brand, also sought to break the “perfect hair” myth, which it helped to promote when it hired model Gisele Bündchen as a poster girl.

“Gradually, in surveys with consumers, we saw that they no longer wanted Gisele’s hair as ‘Pantene hair’, they wanted to see their own hair”, he says.

Today the Pantene campaign features women with curly, curly, gray hair, men with long hair and women with short hair. “Hair is a form of expression and all forms need to be respected,” she says.