Sociology 2172A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Counterargument, George Gerbner, Straitjacket
30 May 2018
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Stereotypes in Advertising
●Even if we think stereotypes are expected or necessary in advertising, it’ll only ever be controversial:
1. Our society is becoming more segmented, making it difficult to create a meaningful stereotype that resonates
■Ex. people over the age of fifty are new parents, grandparents, athletes, and retirees
2. It’s harder to hold a viewer’s attention with commercials, forcing ads to be more daring and less subtle
3. In this media-saturated world, consumers are more sophisticated about what the media can and can’t do,
ignoring inauthentic messages or messages that “try too hard”
Argument: What’s the Harm in Advertising Stereotypes?
●Criticisms of Esquire
’s 2011 poster of Rihanna on one side and a Mustang on the other, and “how you hang this poster
says a lot about you”:
○Suggests that a woman and a car are equal in value
○If a man doesn’t select the car, the woman, or both, his masculinity and Americanism is in question
○Degrades women and stereotypes men and women
●Stereotypes in advertising are:
1. Limiting
2. Demeaning
3. Unnecessary
●In 2008, the European Parliament voted 504-110 to adopt a non-binding report aimed at convincing the ad industry not
to use stereotypes
○Ads can “strait-jacket women, men, girls, and boys by restricting individuals to predetermined and artificial
roles that are often degrading, humiliating, and dumbed-down for both sexes”
●The word “stereotype” comes from early printing when it described using a metal plate to duplicate the same image
●Media ethicist Thomas Bivins: “platonic shadow-show put on by our own culture - a figment of reality at best”
●“Stereotyping often occurs when one group is more powerful than another. Difference is emphasized as the less
powerful group becomes ‘the Other’ and social dominance is maintained.”
●Often justified as the fastest way to communicate to audiences and leave lasting impressions
●Social Tableaux
○Roland Marchand, cultural historian
○A strategy used in ads that emerged in the 1920s
○Tableaux “present only a single cultural picture, and reinforce certain cultural expectations”
●Cultivation Theory
○George Gerbner
○The media (especially tv) have such power over the way we see the world that it “gradually leads to the
adoption of beliefs about the nature of the social world which conform to the stereotyped, distorted and very
selective view of reality”
●Media Expectancy Theory
○Over time, we not only believe that certain behaviours are normal, but we expect all people in that group to
conform to them
○Suggests that “the use of stereotypes hinders one’s view of any individual as a complete person”
●Historical perspective on stereotypes
○Black woman in bathtub cleaner commercials: did she have “cultural ancestors” whose presence in past
media made her presence in media now seem natural
○Aunt Jemima pancake mix: woman on the package used to look different - overweight with rag on head -
mammy stereotype
●Advertising creates an imaginary world that teaches us how to see the real world and how to see ourselves
Document Summary
Even if we think stereotypes are expected or necessary in advertising, it"ll only ever be controversial: our society is becoming more segmented, making it difficult to create a meaningful stereotype that resonates. Ex. people over the age of fifty are new parents, grandparents, athletes, and retirees. It"s harder to hold a viewer"s attention with commercials, forcing ads to be more daring and less subtle. In this media-saturated world, consumers are more sophisticated about what the media can and can"t do, ignoring inauthentic messages or messages that try too hard . Criticisms of esquire "s 2011 poster of rihanna on one side and a mustang on the other, and how you hang this poster says a lot about you : Suggests that a woman and a car are equal in value. If a man doesn"t select the car, the woman, or both, his masculinity and americanism is in question. Degrades women and stereotypes men and women.
