From June 14th, sexist stereotypes in advertising will be banned.
A new ruling from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is calling for an end to sexist stereotypes in advertising. At Household, we think it is brilliant that the ban will put an end to lazy marketing grounded in stereotypes and put the conversation on gender equality front and centre.
Executive Strategy Director and Household co-Founder Michelle Du Prât spoke with Raconteur about the new ruling. “The conversation on gender is shifting and it’s time that brands started listening,” she says. “Generation Z is leading the way and redefining gender, making a traditional binary understanding feel outdated and out of touch. More than a third of generation Z strongly agree that gender does not define a person as much as it used to and brands will need to move on from a reliance on outdated stereotypes in advertising to stay relevant.”
In light of the new regulations, brands will need to be smarter with how they talk to customers. The key to successful advertising will be gaining a true understanding of the customer: how they talk, how they think, how they live their life.
We have been tracking how customers lives are changing and have seen how tapping into the cultural consciousness will enable brands to speak to customers in a way that feels relevant and truly cuts through. With 77 per cent of people favouring brands that collaborate with customers, the opportunity for brands is to gain a true understanding of the customer through co-creation. (Bulbshare, 2018). As brands tie in more closely to what their customers want, falling back on gender stereotypes is less likely to happen in the first place.
You can read the full article in Raconteur here.
