Tom C. sent us an ad for Google that does an excellent job of resisting the urge to make separate commercials aimed at men and women. In the ad below, a searcher seeks information on masculine-typed and feminine-typed activities, as well as more neutral ones. It leaves open the sex of the searcher. It’s a nice counterpart to the profoundly gendered advertising we see almost everywhere else… and evidence that it doesn’t have to be that way.
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For another example of non-gendered advertising, see this vintage Uniroyal tires ad.
In comparison, Hulu sometimes asks whether you want to see ads made “for her” or “for him,” Facebook wants to know what sex you are so as to better sell to you, and Best Buy will just assume you’re a dude,
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 11
Irina — April 3, 2010
I guess it says something about me that I saw this ad as a story of a teenage girl who starts at a new school, tries to get accepted by doing "popular" things, and then decides to follow through with what really interests her.
Shiyiya — April 3, 2010
The description of the video on the youtube page says 'a girl works to fit in'.
ben — April 3, 2010
What's amazing about google's ads (including their super bowl ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYavikKP8wI) is how well they tell a fairly interesting story using only about 6 or 7 lines of text. Truly remarkable writing!
Butter — April 3, 2010
I agree. Seems like a teenage girl trying to fit in to me.
Nick — April 3, 2010
The interesting piece is, of course, that girls aren't supposed to like robots.
LuckyLuckyGirl — April 3, 2010
Just to echo: definitely gendered if you look at Google's description.
AmandaLP — April 4, 2010
It would be non gendered if we viewed cheerleading and volleyball as gender neutral sports. However, those are typical "girls" sports in middle and high school.
Rebecca — April 5, 2010
I think it's not only gendered, it's saying that access to google can be a resource that allow teenage girls to be nerds instead of cheerleaders, volleyball players, band members, yearbook creators, or on prom planners. It is about opening up possibilities for girls, giving them resources to do something that is seen as nerdy and male. Which is great, but I don't think it leaves open who the searcher is at all.