Gwen mentioned recently that the real purpose of television wasn’t to entertain you, but to collect a predictable audience that networks could then sell to companies. Commercials. Commercials are the reason that programming exists.
In that light, it’s interesting to see what’s happening on Hulu, a website devoted to watching television programs. Jody and Karyn G. sent in this screen shot of a prompt at the beginning of a show asking, nicely, what kind of “ad experience” she would “prefer”:
First, I think the question is hilarious. “Ad experience” is an awesome euphemism for “effort at manipulation.” And, of course, the real question that is being asked is “Who are you?” Like with Facebook, they need to know.
Second, asking the question is a new tool for marketers made possible by a this new way of delivering programming to one person at a time. Presumably, I am only one person and either a “him” or a “her.” If the marketers can ascertain this, they can target their commercials even more effectively than when they were advertising on Spike TV and during Oprah (because they are only guessing who is watching in those cases, but I’m straight up telling them in this one).
Of course, this all depends on us being predictable and obedient consumers… and I bet some of us very much aren’t.
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 47
mordicai — January 25, 2010
You know, I don't mind being accurately targeted. Like; there are products I want (like movies) that I wouldn't know about if it wasn't for ads.
carmen — January 25, 2010
In this particular case... at least they're both pictures of bath products. At least it wasn't like a 'toolshed vs kitchen' situation.
Livetta — January 25, 2010
But then, even with bath product advertising it's hit or miss. You could break it down in a million other ways, do you use "conventional" bath products or "earth friendly" bath products (these products shown both miss that market)? By class are you more likely to go for cheap well-known brands, or the designer bath products? These don'teven have to be dichotemies. Breaking the bath product marketing down by gender is absurd. Heck, you coul break it downby what smells a person prefers: sweet, floral, earthy, woody, tangy, etc. and market bath products that way. The assumption of a binary at all, especially a gender one, isn't just problematic, it's a hobble on the marketng industry, looking at it from their perspective. From mine, it just means that I haven't seen a thing advertised on television ever that I was actually interested in.
Michelle — January 25, 2010
The one I've been "loving" lately is a cosmetic anti-aging "quiz" you can take at the beginning as an alternative to the regular commercial breaks. Being 25, I feel pretty safe saying that I don't think I'm much "at risk" for signs of aging. But if you tell the quiz that you don't have signs of aging, it more or less argues with you. Then at the end, doubtless regardless of your answers, it tells you that you're "at risk" for signs of aging.
Scapino — January 25, 2010
"Gwen mentioned recently that the real purpose of television wasn’t to entertain you, but to collect a predictable audience that networks could then sell to companies. Commercials. Commercials are the reason that programming exists."
This is true from a certain point of view; namely, the executives at broadcast networks. Cable programming has a dual-income stream (subscription fees plus advertising) and premium networks (HBO/Showtime) don't have advertising. Additionally, the creative forces behind their shows almost certainly aren't writing to try and sell ads; from their point of view, they are creating art.
Even broadcast networks are relying less on purely ad-driven revenue; see the recent Fox/Time Warner negotiations over per-subscriber fees.
Saying that "Commercials are the reason that programming exists" is like saying that sexual procreation is the reason that life exists; it is merely the method by which broadcasters sustain themselves. If television commercials and product placement were outlawed tomorrow, there'd be some big changes, but the medium would continue to exist.
Peaches — January 25, 2010
I got this same prompt on Hulu, and I didn't choose an answer. I was automatically directed to watch the "for him" commercial. I wonder if it's random selection, or if people are male unless they choose female.
Zack — January 25, 2010
I avoid all (well, most) of this by using Firefox armed with always-necessary AdBlock Plus addon.
Bye bye ads.
srand — January 25, 2010
I'm surprised that they felt it necessary to explicitly label the two choices "For Him" and "For Her". Even if you aren't familiar with the products, the gender coding of the product packages comes thought pretty well in the associated pictures.
dk — January 25, 2010
As a man no longer (or, perhaps, ever) in Axe's target demographic, I recall this Hulu screen coming as something of a relief. "Her," in this case, seems to be constructed as a more inclusive demographic. Which may or may not be curious. I certainly feel weird using the word "inclusive" under these circumstances.
Kookaburra — January 25, 2010
When did soap start to become gendered? I remember being a kid, and watching commercials for Irish Spring, Lever 2000, and Dove that featured both men and women.
That said, I tend to buy the "masculine" soap, because it's cheaper, and actually smells like soap. So their targeting doesn't work at all.
Bagelsan — January 25, 2010
As I recall, Hulu also lets you rate the ad "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" while you're watching it. Except for the Axe ads they always stick in there, which get a speedy and emphatic "thumbs down" I don't really rate them often... and my rating doesn't seem to matter, anyways, as those same Axe ads keep popping up. I wonder if that function is at least partially there just to make people feel better about having to sit through crap? ("F'k you, Axe! Ha ha, I sure showed that ad who's boss!" *contentedly finishes watching ad*)
Christina — January 25, 2010
What's more infuriating isn't that HULU is using this "him" and "her"s as a marketing tool, but what happens when you click on those options.
The Dove ads end up being for their "Self-Esteem Fund" for little girls and the "Campaign for Real Beauty" for women. When you choose the "For Him" option, there's a slinky silhouette of a naked woman selling their latest Axe fragrance. No, really. It's a really telling contrast here. Unilever's (the parent company of both Dove and Axe) continued use of objectification of women's bodies in their ads directed toward men really goes to show how little they get it.
Antonia — January 25, 2010
"Of course, this all depends on us being predictable and obedient consumers… and I bet some of us very much aren’t."
One specific instance of this is assuming that the viewer fits, at least to some degree, into one of the offered categories. There are a significant number of people whose gender identity and presentation wouldn't fit into the "him" or the "her" category.
I wish I had taken a screencap, but the other day I was watching Hulu and I was presented with three advertising choices for some restaurant. The choices were for three different kinds of meat (chicken, beef, and seafood I think). I'm a vegetarian. Thanks, Hulu.
Nora — January 25, 2010
What I find sorta weird is that it doesn't keep a cookie for which one you choose. I get this choice a lot on Hulu and I've watched both. They're DRAMATICALLY different, the For Him version is an ad for The Hangover and some tie-in with soap related products, the For Her version is about how Dove products don't leave scum on your skin.
Sabriel — January 25, 2010
I don't have adblock, but I do have a really slow internet connection. Watching hulu is usually tolerable, but I always get a message in the beginning along the lines of:
"We're sorry. Your internet connection is not fast enough for us to run this advertisement. Please contact hulu customer support services to fix this issue. The TV show will resume in 30 seconds."
I wonder, has anybody ever actually contacted Hulu to complain that they weren't getting the commercials? Probably, but probably not many people.
Kevin — January 25, 2010
I just always pick the one on the right.
Tweets that mention Hulu and Targeted Marketing » Sociological Images -- Topsy.com — January 25, 2010
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by SocImages, za7ch, Rflowers127, Henning Kjolgard, justkristin and others. justkristin said: Well put: '“Ad experience” is an awesome euphemism for “effort at manipulation.”' http://ow.ly/10h5P NTM the insanely overused "experience". [...]
Sarah — January 25, 2010
If we HAVE to be exposed to online ads, any amount of control over the type of ads is a step forward. Never mind 'male or female', I personally find most AXE ads offensive, while the Dove 'Campaign for Real Beauty' is a huge step forward. A similar concept is used by the 'Dogooder' http://www.dogoodhq.com/ to promote positive advertisements. The Dogooder is a browser plug-in which will cover most existing ads on your browser and replace them with advertisements for charities, environmental foundations, and good advice on how you can protect the environment. In addition, they put 50% of advertising revenue towards charitable causes.
I'm not affiliated with this, but I HAVE found the Dogooder to significantly reduce the daily irritation that comes with being continually exposed to online web advertisements.
Samantha C — January 25, 2010
While this example obviously has its issues, I do like the idea of more personalized targeted marketing. That is, if it worked properly. On Facebook, I get a lot of ads about writing and drama, because they're listed in my interests. I do still get some "women" targeted ads, but I notice the ones about DnD and other things that I'm actually interested in. If Hulu's thumbs-up-thumbs-down feature worked better, then theoretically I would get fewer and fewer useless ads, and more and more relevant ones.
This is good for two reasons: one, I'm getting more information that I might actually use (as mentioned upthread). If I consistently give high marks to trailers for fantasy movies, for example, I might later on see a trailer for a movie I never would have known existed. Because of that, i would assume that an ideal version of the system could charge more money for advertisements. Let's assume a given advertiser pays for their ad to run 100 times. I would assume it's more cost-effective in the long run to pay more on a targeted site, where 85% of the people who see the ad respond well, than to pay less to show it to all audiences, where maybe 50% will.
Simon Pascal Klein — January 26, 2010
To add, advertisement initiatives such as this only serve to naturalise the perceived differences between the sexes and legitimises the delineation of products that are then created to serve the needs and fix the ailments of each (although many of the products are almost identical, differing, for example, only in esters or colours).
Erika — January 26, 2010
Actually, I got that at Hulu the other day, and I was pleased. Hulu already knows my gender (it's specified in my profile). I thought it was good of them to let me choose which ad I wanted to see, rather than making the choice for me based on my specified gender.
Restructure! — January 26, 2010
"Hulu and Targeted Marketing"
I thought this was going to about how Hulu doesn't work outside of the U.S.
Lillian — January 26, 2010
I'll take any amount of gendered advertising to avoid an Axe ad.