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H&M came under scrutiny last month, for a campaign that that objectifies young girls. The ad depicts two girls in school uniforms, captioned ‘Make those heads turn in H&M Back to School fashion’. Weeks later, Shein fashion label has come under question for the same type of inappropriate content. This ad depicting a young girl, with a blank face, posed to look like she has breasts. This not the first time Shein has been called out for this type of advertising content.
shEqual frequently discusses seven harmful stereotypes often seen in Australian advertising. These stereotypes include ‘The Sexualised Women’ and ‘Passive Little Girl’. It’s concerning and dangerous to see campaigns depicting both stereotypes and ultimately portraying the sexualisation and objectification of young girls.
From an early age, children’s aspirations and interests are shaped by the characterisations of gender that are limiting and stereotyped. Women’s Health Victoria and RMIT University, in the 2018 Advertising (In)Equality report, showed that children as young as 6 years old are affected by exposure to sexualised media images. Which can lead to children internalised limiting beliefs about what girls and women can achieve, increased body dissatisfaction and withdrawing from sport and physical activity. A more recent study, by the Australian Child Maltreatment Study, noted the role of media’s representation of gender roles as a possible contributing factor when discussing the experiences of child sexual abuse.
Advertising such as this contributes to a society that continues to objectify women and girls, continues to support a society that is unsafe for them. Children should be shown to be having fun, confident and comfortable, all things part of a normal experience of being young. The advertising industry and brands must do more to prioritise responsible marketing. The industry needs to ensure their content reflects all people in a respectful, progressive and un-stereotyped way.
Check out shEqual’s SH!FT Stereotypes Guide and our Content Creation Checklist to support better representation of women and girls in ads.
Sorbent’s ‘Behind Every Great Australian’ campaign cleverly taps into our daily reliance on the trusty loo roll. However, we can’t help but express a concern regarding some of the portrayals and stereotypes featured in the ad.
The association of words like ‘hard-working’ with men and ‘caring’ with women perpetuates outdated gender norms. This campaign reinforces rigid gender stereotypes by associating the phrase ‘behind every hard-working job site’ alongside an image of a male tradesperson. In the same way, an exhausted mother is depicted with the tagline ‘behind every screaming tribe’. Domestic work should not be represented as the domain of mothers only, and the household should be recognised as the ultimate hard-working job site.
Koh cleaning product’s first TV ad ‘I don’t know how to do it’ brings up some important topics like the gendered unequal division of household labour and weaponised incompetence – but still somehow leans into offensive gender stereotypes.
This cleaning product ad depicts old tropes of men caring more about finance than cleaning, closing with the line ‘so easy that anyone can get the cleaning done’. This is disempowering and infantilises men, which gives an excuse for not sharing in household duties. By targeting the ad at women, they are reinforcing that it’s a woman’s job to delegate household tasks and make sure they are done. Using stereotypes to bring light to a gendered issue, doesn’t actually address the cause at all. Stereotypes by design pigeon-hole us into harmful and reductive roles and advertising and media need to move away from them once and for all.
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