Comments on: Gendering Mosquito Repellent

By: Selling Wine to Korean Women « The Grand Narrative

Selling Wine to Korean Women « The Grand Narrative — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:06:33 +0000

[...] partially the result of (or led to) similar marketing: after all, gender-based advertising is often more indicative of advertisers’ stereotypes and prejudices rather than any empirical evidence that it actually works. And in the case of that for [...]

By: Gendering Insect Repellent? « Bug Girl’s Blog

Gendering Insect Repellent? « Bug Girl’s Blog — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:23:14 +0000

[...] Insect Repellent? Sociological Images caught something very interesting—packaging the same mosquito repellent product in two [...]

By: Gendered Advertising and the Unwritten Rules of Soju Advertisements « The Grand Narrative

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:28:22 +0000

[...] larger post about because of the vastly different marketing approaches based for each sex, usually more indicative of the marketers’ prejudices than any empirical evidence that different approaches actually [...]

By: lisa

lisa — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 03:52:51 +0000

Thanks Z! Fixed.

By: Vettekaas

Vettekaas — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:27:04 +0000

aah this would have had me standing perplexed for about 15 min reading the packages to try to find out what the difference was. only then would I have noticed the pictures and shook my head. whatever happened to the green spray can of “off” with just pictures of trees on it?

and, more importantly, who would want to wear something that looks like a big plastic air freshener on their beltloop?

By: Original Will

Original Will — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:45:06 +0000

I’d be interested to know more about the marketing surveys that produced this kind of result. I wonder if the data really showed that separate packaging would sell better, or if someone at the company decided to have separate packaging first and then the surveys pointed toward these very stereotyped packages.

By: Titanis walleri

Titanis walleri — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:23:29 +0000

“She goes by “Rudbeckia hirta” (that’s a black-eyed susan, for any gardeners or botanists out there…).”
It’s always nice to see people using scientific names as nicknames online…

By: Trabb's Boy

Trabb's Boy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:22:02 +0000

That really is stunning — colour, font, the little curl behind the word “new” for the women and the bright bullet point-type reminders of times MEN will be outdoors. Makes me curious how the women’s model didn’t wind up in pink!

My guess was that this was market surveyed to death, and wound up with, yet again, a reaffirmation of stereotypes.

Here in Canada, before advertising for cigarettes was banned altogether, there was a period when advertisers were only allowed to show the product — no “lifestyle” advertising. I don’t think I’m ready to advocate that generally, as a way to reduce this kind of sexism, but it would probably help. It’s something I think about in a lot of contexts, as advertising becomes more and more psychological manipulation and less and less a presentation of the merits of one product over another.

By: klaus

klaus — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:09:48 +0000

as a sociologist, just do a research for what is used repelent by gender. ok.

By: Maggie

Maggie — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:17:56 +0000

another example of unnecessary gendering by our industry. lovely.

By: thoughtcounts Z

thoughtcounts Z — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:57:44 +0000

Sorry if it was unclear in my email — that explanation isn’t mine, it’s from the blog post where I found it. She goes by “Rudbeckia hirta” (that’s a black-eyed susan, for any gardeners or botanists out there…).