La Meute: sexism in advertising

La Meute have published their awards for advertising which appeared during 2007. As in previous years, the Prix Femino is awarded to the advertisements seen in France that promote the most positive images of women, while the Prix Macho is the opposite. The site is in French.

As Blogger is allowing only one picture to be uploaded at a time, I will show the three that I particularly like.

The first prize went to this one of a man with a tattoo saying "Not my mother, not my sister" with the caption "Prostitution: neither for mine, nor others". La Meute praises it for approaching prostitution from the angle of the man who pays. It marks the first national campaign in France.

Third prize went to this, with the caption "You sponsored her as a child, now it is she who gives the lessons." La Meute likes the promotion of the independence of women and the assoication of women with a scientific discipline.

This recruitment advertisement for a scientific and technical company is liked because it shows a normal woman in a professional environment, and who appears competent and pleasant.

Dolce et Gabbana is kept out of the Prix Macho because for years it has produced images which could be described almost pornographic.

The first prize went to Volkswagen for a series of three ads showing girls of the "ravissante idiote" type (does that mean bimbo?). In one she is choosing a car which is goes perfectly with her new shoes. I can't find an illustration.

Another, intended to promote technology in the département of Yvelines (which dismays me because I used to live there) shows a girl in a sleeveless top with the slogan "I [heart] techno". It doesn't show much else other than her chest, and the connection with technology escapes me.

I have to presume that some of it is an attempt to shock, such as the Ryan Air one recently which had to be withdrawn because of the sexualised portrayal of a schoolgirl. Really, why can't some of these very creative brains put them to more constructive use. I have come across some excellent advertising for good causes which I am keeping for a future post. So it can be done.

Soap for Africa - and profit for Unilever

Unilever are backing a major campaign in Uganda, and later Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal and Benin, to encourage hand washing - and the use of Lifebuoy soap. It states openly that it wants to make washing hands with soap a habit in order to sell more bars of its Lifebuoy soap. It is not being passed off as corporate social responsibility, which is a refreshing change.

Several organisations such as UNICEF, USAid, and the Gates Foundation, are involved in the campaign to encourage hand washing before eating and after going to the toilet. Although the amount of money being invested is tiny compared with other campaigns, it could be extremely cost-effective. According to the World Health Organisation, in Uganda alone, 140 out of 1000 children will die before the age of five, 17% from diarrhoea and 21% from pneumonia.

These organisations could conduct their campaign themselves but Unilever brings marketing skills, and more sophisticated ways of shaping behaviour beyond simple public health education. Unilever stands to gain by being seen to be in partnership with organisations such as UNICEF, and they are hoping that their Lifebuoy soap will be linked so closely with hygiene and health that people will be prepared to pay more for it than the basic soap already available.

Although I still feel uncomfortable about a multinational company being involved in this sort of thing, I'm not quite as concerned as with the Procter & Gamble campaign. Unilever are at least being perfectly open about it. Nevertheless, it remains the case that big business is attempting to manipulate people who can ill afford it to buy unnecessary products. Simply washing with ordinary soap would be an enormous step forward.

From the Financial Times Deutschland

Greenwash

... or whitewash with green credentials.

The e-on animals ad is the one I have noticed the most, mainly because for the first few times I saw it, I couldn't decide what on earth it was about. Why some wild animals wandering through an office should be though suitable for an advertisement for a power company I couldn't work out.

It seems that the fashion for demonstrating how green a product is has been growing, and in some cases taken to unacceptable limits. The following ad from Shell was banned for suggesting that Shell used waste CO2 to grow flowers. See more on the Friends of the Earth press release.

Peugeot have at least these two ads to show how green they are:

The first with flowers coming out of the exhaust!

The second seems to imply it will have a good effect on your lungs. Hmm

Anyone interested can see a whole range of greenwashed advertisements from France at L'Alliance pur la planète.

An example in English: Airbus shows an aeroplane flying through a tropical jungle.

But the most amazing has to be BAe Systems claim to manufacture environmentally friendly weapons. You have to wonder who managed to come up with that argument.

A sign of progress

The city of Paris has decided to take steps to reduce the number of advertising hoardings by more than half and introduce new rules for advertising during December.

• Hoardings must be smaller.
• They should not be visible less than 300m from historic monuments or 50m from school premises.
• Illuminated signs should be turned off between midnight and 7:00 am and excluded from roofs.
• There should be no small posters in shop windows.
• Advertising buses and trucks will be forbidden.

It all seems very sensible to me. Advertising professionals have already launched an appeal.

Combat electromagnetic pollution - with a facial spray?

Clarins have been stopped from advertising their spray, Expertise EP3, as a way of combating the aging effects of electromagnetic radiation. Italy, the UK, and now France have said that they must show proof that electromagnetic radiation will damage skin, cause it to age, and that the product will prevent the damage, if they want to continue to make such claims.

The ads, which caused the complaints, started by saying "If electromagnetic waves can penetrate walls, imagine what they can do to your skin " . The Advertising Standards Authority have found that their claims breached the clauses for substantiation, truthfulness, fear and distress.

Surprise, surprise.

Clarins are one of the manufacturers that make the amazing weight-loss products I mentioned in an earlier post: "Total Body Lift not only reduces the volume of existing fat cells but also limits the formation of new ones". "Encourages the drainage of fats" - what on earth does that mean?

Dove campaign

Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does.

I first came across the French version of this and discovered that although the videos are the same, the Campaign for Real Beauty sites are slightly different for each country.

My first thought is to feel it's sorely needed here where every pharmacy (and there are almost as many as there are hairdressers) bombards you with window displays containing a multitude of different means to lose weight - most of which seem to me to border on quackery.

My second thought was that you have to convince the parents first. If the pharmacies are stocking these products, there must be a demand for them.

And my third thought was to wonder about pharmacy distribution around the world. I don't know what it's like in other countries but when we were recently in Amsterdam we had trouble finding a chemist, as it probably would be in the UK if you didn't know what to look for. .

In France you have them on almost every street corner and as they always display a large green cross, you can't miss them.

A somewhat rambling post - I feel rambly today it seems (tired really, after a couple of late nights talking to friends).

Sexism in advertising

I found a great French site, La Meute, which holds an annual prize for the most sexist and the least sexist advertising. The voting is closed for the 2007 prizes but had I realised earlier I could have voted on line.

My favourite out of the finalists for least sexist prize (Prix Femino) is the insurance company which ran a series with text such as:

~Sorry, man's superiority does exist. All you have to do is compare retirement~
~You struggle to be an independent woman. Only up to the age of 60?~
~What good is it to have a longer life expectancy than men if you don't have a retirement?~

The last has this illustration:



It brings to attention the fact that millions of women reach retirement age without adequate pension provisions, largely because of inequalities of earnings throughout working life.

Another I like:



An advertisement for a mineral water, showing an older model with a t-shirt reading n'eau (no) fatigue n'eau stress. I like the play on words but particularly that the model is not young and yet is very attractive. And as La Meurte says: a miracle that a model over the age of 22 and a half can still work!

There aren't as many illustrated examples of the prize for the most sexist advertising (Prix Macho), but one of them is this one looking for bus drivers



which says that (if you're a man) you will be able to work hours that allow you to go to football, the cinema, the restaurant, and whatever you like. If you're a woman on the other hand, it gives you the chance to pick up the children from school after work.

No comment.

There are apparently La Meute Suisse and La Meute Québecoise and I've just come across Gender Ads which is rather hard on the eye but apparently being revamped.