OUGD601 Practical Idea Concept Change

Having reflected upon the practical work done so far, and completing more of the written work, I no longer think that the concept of my practical work is relevant enough to synthesise between both elements enough. For this reason, I am going to change the concept of my practical work.

Having already had a good think about this over Christmas, I think the best way to synthesise both the practical and written element is to create a publication about how to avoid creating sexist advertisements. This idea isn't so far from the previous idea, however I think it makes more sense as it will give clear instructions on how to design adverts that aren't sexist and are gender neutral, but will also outline what defines an advertisement as sexist - something that I have looked into in great detail in my written work, such as the use of cropping and objectification.

OUGD601 Advert Storyboard Ideas

Below is a mock up of a storyboard that could be made into an advert. The tagline of the adverts would be 'Bic. No Nonsense' and the advert wouldn't ever distinguish which gender was shaving which body part. The second concept would be an even shorter advert, that would show the razor, then the razor would be taken out of shot and the noise of shaving would be heard for 2 seconds, and then the razor would be placed back into the centre of the shot. The concept still being that there's no nonsense and gendering with Bic razors - something that should definitely become part of their brand ethos, especially considering their past screw ups with sexism in advertising.

OUGD601 Mock Up of Adverts

After looking at Bic's terrible history of sexist adverts, I have decided to focus my adverts on Bic and redesign the advertising strategy to make the product gender neutral. Before jumping straight into this, I think it's a good idea to make some mock up advert designs that I can show Simon in my next tutorial / over email. This will be beneficial as the mock ups will be quite quick to create and will also give a rough idea of different mediums that the adverts could be created in.

The concept I have is to create adverts of parts of the body being shaved, however it would never be mentioned what gender the body part belongs to.

OUGD601 Research: Bic Advertisements

On the other hand, there are specific companies that I can think of that have been sexist time and time again through their advertisements. One of those companies is Bic. Although the product is exactly the same for both men and women, for example pens and razors, they have been known in the past to gender their products - and still do today with razors. 

For example, the advertisement below is quite clever, however it doesn't need to be aimed at a man. The product is exactly the same for both men and women, the only thing that's different is the colour of the razor, again sticking to stereotypes that men like blue and women like pink.

This advert below was hugely talked about for being incredibly sexist. ARTICLE HERE. The irony was that the advert was made to promote Women's Day! People were shocked that the company thought it was appropriate. It was also compared to an advert from the 70s, which then brought about the next image.

This is an advert produced by Bic razors in the 70s. It's sexist and suggests that women are objects and for the man's taking, and that the woman is only useful for sex, looking pretty and grocery shopping.

Below is a video found of Ellen DeGeneres mocking Bic for creating a pen marketed at women - the only difference from a normal pen being the colour, even though Bic claimed it was 'made to fit women's hands', as though women's hands are hugely different to men's. The video may be a skit and very humorous, however Ellen makes some very good points about the sexist nature of the product, and even makes an ironic advert to go with the skit. 

OUGD601 Research: Lush

Lush is a company that came up a lot when I searched for gender neutral beauty products, however in recent advertising campaigns I could only find adverts that featured women (see below). It may be gender neutral, however it doesn't advertise this way - which I think is something that will definitely change in the future as I feel the company is heading that way. 

Although the marketing may not be gender neutral, it is definitely very inclusive of all women of all different shapes, which is a definite step in the right direction and one of the few companies (Dove is another) that promote every shape and size body positively, compared with others (such as Simple etc). 

In a sense, however, I haven't actually ever seen an advert for lush before specifically searching for it, so it could be that Lush generally don't make adverts and this was just a promotion for a particular event. I don't think the company necessarily need to make adverts either, as it's a company that customers stay loyal to because of the ethos and beliefs of the company - every product is animal cruelty free and promotes natural ingredients - something a lot of other companies cannot compete with at this time.

OUGD601 Research: Gender Neutral Products

Having searched the internet for around an hour and managing to find close to no gender neutral products, I'm starting to question why is that?

I found multiple articles about gender neutrality for children (see below links), however struggled to find products that exist for adults, other than design mock ups. The benefits of gender neutral toys for children is clear, however it also seems like a pointless concept as one of the benefits of toys being gender neutral is that it means both girls and boys can play with a toy and not feel embarrassed for liking a particular colour / toy.

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THOUGHTS:

However, if the child is then to be brought up in a world where there are close to no gender neutral products for adults, the whole idea of making toys gender neutral is quite pointless, as at some point gender will always come into the picture if the gender neutral options aren't available.

This has spurred the concept of the practical on further, as products should be available and all genders shouldn't feel ashamed for liking a specific product if it is marketed at a different gender.

OUGD601 Research: Products That Are Gendered (And Don't Need To Be)

Below are some products found that should be marketed as gender neutral as all genders can use them, however they are gendered for some bizarre reason.

ear plugs for women.

bic pens for women.

tea for men and women.

tissues for men.

disposable razors for men and women.

boys and girls kinder suprises

Tool kit for women.

Yoghurt for men.

M&Ms for boys and girls.

The concept of gendering inanimate objects by colour is odd as the product can be used by both men and women and slices the market that the product can be bought by in half. It also retains stereotypes that women can only like pink and men can only like blue.