The sexism of advertising
Erzsébet Barát
School of English and American Studies, University of Szeged

Although in Hungary a project like „Ads and Genders” is a pioneer (ad)venture, in the international media research this issue dates back to 30 years ago. While we are articulating our questions of women’s point of view and built on women’s experiences, it is extremely important to learn that the apparent lag is an advantage as well. Erzsébet Barát intended to trace these advantages concerning the relation between sexism and advertising in her lecture.

If we look at the changes of feminist-regard media researches of the passed 3 decades, we can state that in the begining researches focused on media as an institute or workplace producing media products. The questions focused on how exclusive the share of work between women and men of same position was (at the disadvantage of women) at the different scenes of media.

From the middle of the 80s a second wave of media researches became dominant, which focused on media products, especially the overwhelming advertisements. It was impossible to ignore the dumping of billboards and of printed or electronic advertisements. In most of the media products at that time visuality dominated over text-like ads. But this visuality meant different things to women and men. Nowadays it is a common statement of the different feminisms that it is more likely expected from women to believe that existing locked in their bodies is self-evident.

Later on, researches of real perception of media in audience were launched, and that was because the feminist media-research recognized that when it is criticising media products because of their negative impact on audience and especially on women, it does 2 things that destroy the meaning of femininism, the chances of breakout. On the one side it takes the negative impact evident without charting its conrete forms, and at the same time it doesn’t even suppose that the percepting person would do something else than obediently enjoy what media serves him/her to satisfy his/her alleged needs.

The definite result of international feminist media researches is that neither the media-broadcasted ideals or fantasies, nor the consumption of them is homogenous. The percepting person –depending on his/her social status and cultural (consumptional) habit- approaches diversly to advertisements, even to the most simple ones and not only to the ones meant for him/her.

Katarzyna Pawlik gave a lecture with a lot of photo illustration on nudity and gender stereotypes. In relation to the many half-naked women in sexy underwear on the pictures the question arised whether it is possible to advertize underwear in other ways than with undressed women. According to the lecturer it is possible if the ad does not focus on sexuality and does not objectify the woman (e.g. if it depicts not only certain parts of the body – it is usual that the face of the women is cut off from the picture). It is extremely regular to advertize holiday offers with women, who are -of course- always skinny, white -but suntanned-, young and -in most of the cases- blonde. Although also refreshment drinks, deodorants, candy and beer are advertized with women in bikinis.

Sexist advertizing in Central Europe
Mila Lukasova
Open Society Fund, Czech Republic

The Czech lecturer came from an organization called Open Society Fund, which deals with human rights, supports anti-discrimination and equal opportunities programmes like www.muziazeny.cz online magazine and the connected campaign on equal opportunities.

The lecturer gave a presentation on media and stereotypes, she showed some pictures of stereotypical portrayal of men and women outlining what basic characteristics are associated with the two genders (men: working, has profession, defender, strong; women: housewife, mother, sexual object, weak). We saw some examples of how women are represented in media, e.g in the collection of the most important Czech persons of 2006 only women in professions of „low importance” appear. Then she focused on advertisements: we could have a look at several advertisements with naked women, in most cases nudity had nothing to do with the product advertized, e.g. ads of magazines, banking services, silicone, shoes, sausages, beer. The lecturer highlighted what a great influence the ads in public places have, and often they also have an impact on the city’s touristical image, for example the billboards showing nudity next to the sights of Prague are in many cases disapproved and objected by tourists. The lecturer called the attention to the connection of sexist advertizing and tourism with a beer ad: several ads of Czech beer want to make foreigners (men) to buy beer by showing young and pretty Czech women. This kind of advertizing is also not ethical because it is well-known that in the last decades sex tourism from Great-Britain, Germany to the Czech Republic has extremely grown, and these ads are offering men beer with nice and disposable Czech women.

Beside the photo illustrations we could get to know with the results of a survey of 2007 on the attitude of Czech consumers to ads with erotical or sexual content: 14% likes these ads, 32% likes these ads if nudity/sexuality matches with the function of the product, 27% does not really like these ads but they don’t think they are hurting, 14% doesn’t like them and they think these ads are hurting, 7% thinks these ads hurt them and should be banned, 6% doesn’t care about them.

The growing number of complaints submitted to the advertizers’ council since 2004 shows the rise of the consumers’ sensitivity. The council approved 5 complaints submitted on the ground of sexism in the last 4 years.

We have@rc for it
Advertisers, consumers, advertisement-makers and social responsibility (CSR)
Eszter Bolgár
@RC Ltd.

Eszter Bolgár presented the work of @RC to the audience, its activity in processing social issues and its critical approach (and manifestations) towards advertisments. She highlighted that the activity of @RC is also unique because it uses the usual carriers of advertisements (e.g. billboards, filmspots) to critisize ads. Also at the same time they try to promote new, less-used forms of public advertizing (e.g. tender of public sculptures). This special position @RC has achieved during its long time of work is reflected in the fact that companies supporting financially @RC’s greatest project, the annual billboard posters’ exhibition may be critisized in the works of the applicants. At the exhibition not the messages coming from „above” are transmitted but the themes of NGOs are processed. Each year there are several higlighted themes (this year e.g. the change in climate, fight against passive smoking, consumers’ consciosness and equal opportunities) because the mission of @RC is to show the problems that are not communicated int he streets (e.g. domestic violence, roma minority).

Afterwards the lecturer illustrated with pictures how the posters showed the distorted world of advertizing based on stereotypes. She introduced posters of false ideals which relativitize the ideal and values broadcasted by media and which critisize the spirit of „sex sells” of advertisements. Based on the principle of „all stereotypes are based on truth (but only show a tiny part of it)” the lecturer got through the stereotypes connected to women, which are present in media, advertisements and to which some of the posters reflected. They were like these: „a woman as a fregrant flower”, „stupid blonde”, „woman always fresh and skinny”. She also refused another stereotype that is connected to women saying that „women are interested only in fashion” by mentioning projects managed by women, such as Budapest Reconstruction Programme, in which a graduating student renovate public benches as a guerilla action. Or the ad-series called „Desire” on the posters of which the desire of a naked woman is to donate her organs after her death. The third exemple was the project of the lecturer herself called „Public underpasses”.

According to the lecturer the main characteristic of media (and advertisements) is that it portrays women unilaterally. In the case of ads it is natural that they show stereotypes, since as a visual genre, they must rely on stereotypes, the problem is that they do it unilaterally. This is how e.g. minority becomes under-represented in media.

Ads – ethics? Hungarian advertizing regulations in a nutshell
Kinga Pázmándi
President of the Committee of Ethics of Hungarian Association of Advertisers

First of all, the lecturer pointed out that it is a delusion to expect the solution for the problem of sexist advertisements from normative regulation. It is important to realize the limits of these normatives. She roughed out how the two main normative approaches –law regulation and ethical self-regulation- work, their limits and the inherent opportunities. She called the attention to the fact that because of the special political and economic antecedants of Hungary, the constitutional right of freedom of entrepreneurship, info-communication and advertizing interferes with some moral norms and values of society. She said that it was not a good starting point if we wanted the ads to educate or solve grave social problems, and so we wouldn’t be effective in the field of normative regulation. It would be a delusion to forget that the primary aim of an ad is to promote to consume. An ad is not more and it is not less than an ad.

The lecturer stated that the contents of advertisements are often transplanted from society, so advertisements only reflect society, but since advertisement is a very suggestive communication channel, its etchical regulation is needed (later on the audience tackled this statement). But at the same time the solution of social problems or values cannot be expected of advertizing, since this is not its prime task.

Pázmándi showed the deficiencies and limits of law regulation: it is a slothful, static, slow-changing system. There is no sense to include exact definitions, since they prove to be tight as time goes by – e.g. definition of pornographic advertisements. the etchical (self-) regulation might be more effective and tghis is what EU trends show as well: state intervention focuses on consumers’ self-defence, law regulation is withdrawing.

But at the same time the ethical sub-system always show what allowances advertizing can make in a country to avoid the most dangerous sanction: ad-avoiding. Since law and ethical sanction is less significant than ad-avoiding, so much so that often –usually in close market situations- the procurer plans the price of sanctions in the PR costs. According to the lecturer the method of raising the consumers’ consciousness and the sensitivity and creativity of ad-makers (e.g. tenders of @RC) is much more effective than sanctioning.

The lecturer showed the articles of the Hungarian Code of Advertizing Ethics connected to sexuality and gender equality: discriminative content and self-purpose usage of erotical elements are prohibited. She told that when the committee got a complaint in this subject, the given advetisement clashes not only the mentioned articles of the Code, but the issues of public taste, public moral and the defence of children’s and young people’s rights arise as well. This raises another problem: how can we mark the boundary of public taste and public moral? When considering the hurt of public taste, it does not matter how many people felt the advertisement discriminative or hurting, because the committee does not care about the number of complanits (comment: the number of complaints are much less than the number of people who are irritated by advertisements – this indicates a very low level of Hungarian consumers’ consciousness).

But at the same time we must take into consideration that there are differences in national sensitivity levels in the EU: e.g. the judgement of humorous violence in ads is very diverse – in Sweden humorous violence is not tolerated, while in Germany is is tolerated in a way although sexuality itself is treated more sensitively. According to the lecturer the consumers in Central Europe are much more sensitive, and tolerate less these ads.

When considering a complaint it is important to examine the placing of the given advertisement. There is a huge difference int he target group of a printed ad and a billboard. It might be contoversial if for example a front page of a men’s magazine is placed on the wall of a nesstand: in this case it must be treated as a citylight poster since it can be seen by anybody. At the judgement, not the intension of the advertiser is considered –however the advertiser try to prove the innocence of his/her intension-, but the overall message (words, pictures, sounds) the advertisement sends to the consumer.

Kinga Pázmándi closed her lecture by saying that if advertisers took more seriously the ethical regulation, then the decision of the committee would have a greater effect not only on advertizing but on public life and consumers’ minds as well.

Is it just „funny” or sexist?– round-table talk

Participants:

István Cseperkáló, creative director and Noémi Felker, chief executive (Noe’s Ark Advertising Agency – responsible for the adaptation of AXE Body Sutra ads), Viktória Soós (Tűsarok.org) and Catherine Murray (School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Kanada)
moderator: Krisztina Bombera, journalist

The talk was started by Krisztina Bombera who read to the participants and the audience the text of a boycott published on the site of Tusarok.org, which disapproved the message of the AXE Body Sutra ad according to which „women can be made to have sex at any time and any place with a conscious deception of their senses”. Viktória Soós, representing Tűsarok explained why they found the ad problematic and how they had made a complaint which had been refused by ÖRT (Hungarian Advertising Self Regulatory Board).

Although the moderator planned this ad to be the starting point of the talk, from which more general questions of advertising ethics could have been discussed, the major part of the dispute focused on the mentioned ad. The main questions that arised were: why is an ad sexist? where is the responsibility of an advertising agency? how much is an ad trendy or trend-maker? The reason for the heavy argument was probably because there was no chance for the agency and gender-conscious audience to explain their views and to understand the others’ points of view.

István Cseperkáló and Noémi Felker of Noe’s Ark told that the AXE Body Sutra ad was a international adaptation, the tasks of the agency were only to plan the print ads related to the TV ad and to prepare a marketing campaign, in which boys living in university dormitories could order a morning deodorization from the sexy girls of the CKM bikini-team (CKM is a men’s magazine). The opinion of the professional organizations is usuallly important for the advertisers, that’s why the agency had asked the opinion of ÖRT before launching the campaign, and according to its answer they modified some elements of it, basically the ones that could be seen in public places. The agency emphasized the importance of the target group and their motivations. These facts determine the choice of media used int he campaign. Of course, the company placing the order plays an important role in this, whose responsibility was highlighted by the agency. (Although Noémi Felker told that a company never explicitly orders advertisments with sex in them.) István Cseperkáló explained that when an advertisment maker develops the message, he/she uses patterns present already in the target group’s or society’s mind. So basically in the point of yiew of ad-makers the ads don’t create, only depict the ideas or sometimes stereotypes present in society. He added that commercial ads have the function to sell products and not to modify social imprints. In general, the ad-makers thought that family, parents and school have a more important impact on the socialization of children than media, and emphasized that advertisements only follow the trends. According to Cseperkáló the best way to change the stereotypes in peolpe’s minds is non-profit/social advertisements, since this is the reason they are for, and in this field advertising agencies can be the partners of the NGOs to help them broadcast their message to a wider target group.

Concerning cooperation Noémi Felker suggested that non-governmental organizations should talk about problematic ads with ÖRT on a regular basis instead of writing complaints. Viktória Soós, one of the organizers of the project ’Ads and Genders’ agreed on that and assured that the organizing NGOs would be a partner in it.

The Canadian participant, Catherine Murray stated her opinion several times and reported how the self-regulatory advertising body works in Canada. She highlighted that there are no international rules concerning the portrayal of men and women because the limit of a society’s tolerance differs from country to country and from cultrure to culture. It is also difficult to define what comes under the term of ’unreasonable portrayal of sexuality’.

Not even in Canada exists a code to define sexism, but certain media products are examined if they promote sexism or not. The question to ask is that whether the given ad hurts human dignity or gender equality. In Canada such a regulatory system has been set up in which several institutes and media players have their role: advertising agencies, ad creatives, orderers of ads and consumers. It is important that their decisions are public, so the system is transparent. Paralelly they also give trainings to make consumers more conscious. The self-regulatory body treats all the complaints the same way, but it also must be mentioned that in Canada the consumers are much more conscious: according to some surveys 10% of Canadians make complaints because of gender-discriminative portrayal, 54% of them switch channel because they don’t like the ad and 25% of them would even boycott the product the ad advertised. In a situation when advertisements that attack or hurt certain groups of people have such economic consequences, the advertisers are more attentive when deciding the way they want to advertise their products. Besides that, what also change the attitudes of advertisers are political events and crimes. The appearance of a mass murderer who kills women make such a public climate in which the advertiseres would rather not use violence (against women) in ads.

Catherine Murray also suggested to highlight positive examples in Hungary too – in Canada Media Watch announces a ’positive gender portrayal’ award every year, which is financed partly by advertising agencies.

Public places – whose space is it? – round-table talk

Participants:
Anikó Haraszti (Conscious Consumers’ Association), Gizella Almási (MediaSmart Programme), Ádám Babócsay (BMB Focus Ltd.)
moderator: Csaba Gosztonyi (Carbon Group Communication)

The participants of the talk concerning the use of public places and consumers’ consciousness have basically agreed on the point that in general a more conscious reception of ads and media should be promoted and on the double responsibility of both advertising professionals and consumers.

Anikó Haraszti told that the Association lifted up its voice several times not only in the issues of environment-friendly and ethical consumption but against sexist advertising as well, since they think that the advertisers have the responsibility in what message they broadcast to the public. While the goal of the Conscious Consumers’ Association is to make consumers more conscious in general, the aim of the MediaSmart Programme is to teach little children what purpose and intention the advertisements and media have and to teach them make consious decisions. The programme is an adaptation of a British project and it will be given to all of the elementary schools. The programme wants to show the different types of media, their aims and functioning mechanisms to 6-10 year-old children.

Ádám Babócsay representing the profession of advertising and Gizella Almási emphasized that in a way ad is the most honest type of media, since it clearly states its aim: to sell a product. But Anikó Haraszti explained that in some cases the consumer cannot decide freely if he/she wants to take in the given ad, ads in public places are typically like that. Of course advertising in public places could be the responsibility of the local government, of the leaders of a town/city, of the department of public place supervision, or of the citizens whose properties are covered by ads. So though people don’t like ads in their private lives, if they have a profit on them, they would tolerate them on the walls of their houses or in their gardens. Ádám Babócsay highlighted that the overdosed quantity of ads in public places is not useful for the advertisers either, since it is hard to break through the huge ’ad-noise’, and so advertising could end up with extreme messages. But at the same time there are positive examples (eg. Kaposvár), when the leadership of the local government exercise a conscious policy to regulate media appearance in public places.

Ádám Babócsay told that media consciousness in Hungary is at the very beginning of the road, there are only a few people who can teach it or get to know with the different operational mechanisms, so the advertising profession does have an ethical responsibility, because self-regulation can only exercise a follow-up control over a disapproved ad. Anikó Haraszti believes in the power of consumers and of their organizations, but she also added that in Hungary peolpe expect from these organizations –as from an authority or a problem managing body- to work instead of them, the consumers’ organizations don’t feel the support or activity of society. The fact that NGOs protecting consumers don’t accept financial support from the for-profit sphere does not even help the functioning of them, taking into account that donation in Hungary is not significant at the moment. The participants called the attention to the contradiction that professional advertisers would be happy to open a dialogue with NGOs and consumers in general, but these organizations don’t have the potency and resources to manifest and so their opportunities to represent theirselves and their activities are much less than those of the advertisers.

The boycott action against Danone was also mentioned -which seemed to be succesful for a while-, the participants stated that press is usually more sensitive to negative news.

All the participants agreed that advertisements must not be treated apart from other genres of media, which in many cases are also responsible for the survival of gender streotypes.

REKLÁMOK ÉS NEMEK - ENGLISH

„Decisive action should be taken
to fight sexist stereotypes”

Ads and genders

(21st century portrayal of women)
International exhibition and conference on sexist advertising
Budapest, Hungary,
2007

Activities of the project

1. International exhibition

2. Supplemental programmes

3. Conference and workshop

4. Publication with the exhibition and conference material

5. Website of the project

Background of the project

Prospective results

Organizers

Partners

Sponsors of the project

„The struggle against sexism is a human rights issue. It is not an issue of morality or censorship.”

Ads and Genders international conference

21st century portrayal of women
(conference programme)

Conference

Workshop

Public places – whose space is it? – round-table talk

REKLÁMOK ÉS NEMEK - ENGLISH

„Decisive action should be taken to fight sexist stereotypes”

Ads and genders

(21st century portrayal of women) International exhibition and conference on sexist advertising Budapest, Hungary, 2007

Activities of the project

1. International exhibition

2. Supplemental programmes

3. Conference and workshop

4. Publication with the exhibition and conference material

5. Website of the project

Background of the project

Prospective results

Organizers

Partners

Sponsors of the project

„The struggle against sexism is a human rights issue. It is not an issue of morality or censorship.”

Ads and Genders international conference

21st century portrayal of women (conference programme)

Conference

Workshop

Public places – whose space is it? – round-table talk

„Decisive action should be taken
to fight sexist stereotypes”

(21st century portrayal of women)
International exhibition and conference on sexist advertising
Budapest, Hungary,
2007

21st century portrayal of women
(conference programme)