The New York Times has a fascinating peak into marketing logic. The team at Frito Lay discovered that women prefer to snack on veggies and fruit, but that didn’t deter them. They’re on a mission to sell more chips to the ladies.
Through market research, they discovered that women feel guilty. A lot. The article reads:
Though Frito-Lay had often tried advertising snacks as guilt-free, this led to the conclusion that “we’re not going to alleviate her guilt,” Ms. Nykoliation said. “This is something in her life. So the question for us was, how do we not trip her guilt?”
Part of the strategy was to follow the success of SunChips by toning down the packaging and showing off healthy ingredients in the snacks.
“She wants a reminder that she’s eating something better for her,” Mr. Jones said.
Baked Lay’s will no longer be in a shiny yellow bag, but in a matte beige bag that displays pictures of the ingredients like spices or ranch dressing.
So Frito Lay is attempting a guilt-detour. You don’t have to justify eating the bad-for-you-chips because they’re good-for-you-chips. The bag is a natural color instead of neon orange and there are actual food stuffs on the front instead of a Cheetah!
(image via)
This is a nice example of the appeal to nature as a marketing strategy. Of all of the marketing strategies out there designed to make us buy things that we don’t need and perhaps don’t even want, I suppose this is rather innocuous (though I could argue that it makes it more difficult for us to actually evaluate what foods are and are not “natural”).
Alongside this makeover, Frito-Lay is also starting a website and animated cartoon serial designed to appeal to women. I’ve embedded the “trailer” below. Notice how it affirms the idea that women are obsessed with food and their weight, at the same time that it is carefully crafted so as to encourage women to “cheat.” As the woman in the video says about her cookie: “So if I eat it standing up, it doesn’t count right?” And her friend replies: “Absolutely.” Everyone knows that it still “counts,” but when the one friend eggs on the other, we all feel more comfortable “cheating.” Frito Lay foods for everyone!
So the commercial reproduces the stereotype that women are boy crazed whiners with a deranged relationship to food and an embarassing obsession with shoes. [By the way, Gwen and I are, like, totally like this. It’s amazing we even have time to be sociologists, what with all the traipsing around in high heels, discussing diet fads, and oogling cute boys!]
Okay, so it reproduces rather repugnant ideas about women. What’s the harm?
On the first day of Sociology of Gender I ask students to introduce themselves and answer a few questions including: “Are you a stereotypical man or woman? Why or why not?” Inevitably the majority of students will say that they do not conform to the stereotype, that they both do and do not have characteristics associated with it, that they display human characteristics, not just ones associated with their sex. I then ask them: “What percentage of your friends and family fit the stereotype?” They respond similarly. I follow up: “How many of you regularly find yourself starting sentences with ‘Women are so…’ and ‘Men are so…’?” They all raise their hands.
This, I suggest, is interesting. Gender stereotypes don’t come from us and aren’t validated by our actual experiences. Yet, we still talk as if they were true. If we don’t affirm the stereotype, where do they come from and why do we believe that they are true?
Well, here’s part of the answer: We know what men and women are like because we are constantly told what women and men are like. This Frito Lay campaign is one source of this particular stereotype about women; more can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Another question, and one I’d love to know the answer to, is: Why is it that, when cultural messages and actual experiences contradict each other, we come out endorsing the cultural messages?
Comments 18
Abby — February 27, 2009
I've found that a lot of people jump to gender stereotypes when explaining infant behavior - even when there is a direct contradiction with the actual child. For example, I was talking with a woman I work with about how my baby boy doesn't seem at all interested in crawling or climbing up on things. This got her talking about her own two kids, a boy and a girl. According to her, the girl was really easygoing, but the boy, who came later, was always getting into everything. She went on for awhile, casually saying something to the effect of "you know, boys are just like that." She immediately caught herself, though, because my boy is definitely not like that. She then seemed kind of disoriented and struggled to come up with an alternative explanation for my kid's inactivity. She was probably a little embarrassed, like maybe she thought she had insulted my kid.
I just said, "every kid is different, it's not really about being a boy or a girl." I think that is a really difficult concept to grasp, though, when we're always told to expect that our major differences will fall along gender lines.
Vidya — February 27, 2009
Not just human infants, but nonhumans as well. In some ways, it's easy to 'see' traditional human gender differences between our male cat and our female cat -- the male cat is larger, stronger, more dominant, and a bit of a bully towards his sister, while she, in turn, is gentle, soft, and sweet-voiced. Yet, when I've tried to consciously look for those behaviours which don't fit the stereotypes, it then becomes clear that the male is also much more emotionally needy, loving, jealous, and shy with strangers, while his sister is more independent, aloof, and brave. The cultural messages around sex/gender do indeed easily become the uncritical default 'way of seeing', however, and it requires quite an effort to suspend those lens.
SarahMC — February 27, 2009
What a despicable, insulting campaign. It just further normalizes the notion that women must closely monitor every little thing they eat, so not to gain weight (and become "unattractive," of course). Women do this in the first place because we're policed, from birth, to maintain a certain standard of appearance. Now Frito Lay is claiming that *just how we are* as women dontchaknow! Like we pop out of the womb with serious body issues and messed up relationships with food.
abby — February 27, 2009
I was just discussing this issue with my daughters (10, 10, and 5). We saw the ad for the new One-A-Day Teen Advantage vitamins (Healthy skin for her! Muscle strength for him!). We were discussing the fact that the media really does constantly tell us what we are/do, and some kids feel bad about themselves if they don't fit the mold. And, in a way, these stereotypes give people the feeling that it's ok to pick on the kids who don't fit the mold. It's so important to point out the stereotypes and give kids the attitude of "There's nothing wrong with me; there's something wrong with that commercial."
Anonymous — February 27, 2009
Perhaps we like to feel special and different and better than those 'typical' women and men?
Dubi — February 27, 2009
Answer to your question: because we realize our personal experience is merely anecdotal, and assume cultural messages are based on a bigger and better sample?
(OK, OK, that's not it. But wouldn't it be totally cool if people were truly rational like that?)
Dubi — February 27, 2009
Also, following anonymous there, a majority of people will define themselves as "above average" for practically any subjective quality you can think of, and even some objective ones (e.g., income level). Obviously, that can't be right, but people are silly like that.
chuk — February 28, 2009
I wanted to add that I actually think people do on average act the way vendors tells us we do. These people are smart, they survey, and run focus groups like mad. They use a lot of the same methods we do, even if they put their use towards evil ends ;)
The kids in your class don't want to admit that most of them and their friends are painfully normal, especially in a hip sociology of gender class (they might also not be very representative).
I think the problem with these Frito adds isn't so much their inaccuracy as it is their role in *maintaining* a tremendously damaging gender system. There is no vision here, nothing constructive--it's good for no one, but since we are all exposed to it, it becomes our common denominator: our shared culture. It reaffirms our worst qualities and clouds out alternative ways of being--but they are not trying to build us, they just want to sell to us.
In my opinion, the problem is by who, why and how we create culture. Why don't we as forward looking creative and rational individuals create a culture that's good for us and our children? The students should also be required to take Capitalism and the State 101.
thewhatifgirl — March 1, 2009
It seems really simple to me. An individual human being is only able to feel, think, taste, etc. what s/he feels, thinks, tastes, etc. We require constant feedback from our environment to keep us in touch with what is really going on. If you think, for example, about how isolation from all other human beings can make ANYONE susceptible to brainwashing, or simply go insane (or "lose touch with reality"), it becomes obvious that our senses tell us what "reality" is. Add on top of that the concept of culture itself (which is really just us telling ourselves and each other in a larger-than-individual way what reality is, especially on the modern media level) and you can see how the cultural narrative comes out on top in the contradictions between it and individual experience.
Jane Sanders — March 1, 2009
The conflict to students' answers vs cultural norms comes from expecting the students to respond honestly and objectively. No one wants to admit they fit stereotypes because, sadly and inaccurately, the word in itself conjures negativity. For example, generally speaking, women do talk more and are more emotional. Generally speaking, men are more aggressive and competitive. Generally, more women enjoy shopping and feel guilty about what they eat. Talking, emoting, and shopping more are not bad, just different. But because women have been trying to blend into the man's world of business, all these generalities, or stereotypes in this case, are seen as weak or negative. So few people will freely admit they fit stereotypes. The vast majority of parents with both male and female children will tell you they are very different from each other, and often following gender "stereotypes." Of course there are exceptions to the rule, and for all the generalities I have mentioned here. That's why they are called generalities, not 100% certainties. It's the way society views these differences, not the differences themselves, that is the problem.
Chris L — March 2, 2009
Thanks for this post! That last chunk (after the video) got me thinking about a lot of things that have been off my radar for a little while. I guess, since I've finally learned to filter out most advertising (it took many years) since it just makes me angry, I've also stopped thinking about it a little bit. Its role in perpetuating culture (the ugly and beneficial aspects alike) really can't be ignored.
AJ — March 2, 2009
Most of the time when advertisers have four women and want to show "diversity" they have three white women (with different hair colors) and one black woman. This 'Woman's World' has two white women, a black woman, and AN AMBIGUOUSLY BROWN PERSON!!! Yay! Even though these women are all two-dimensional caricatures of "women," I still liked the brown-inclusion. If only I could buy brown dolls at any store...
George — March 10, 2009
If I hadn't read the post above the video, I would have said that they are trying to appeal to women w/ Sex and the City, meaning that they thought we were all like the girls in Sex and the City...or they used that show for research.
Which is obvious, but wanted to point that out.
CY — March 27, 2009
Sadly I know too many women who fit this stereotype. Sadly because I, personally, find it unfulfilling to sit around talking about food, shoes, lunching, shopping, hair, etc. Sad because it isn't easy finding women who want to discuss more relevant, intellectual topics. I do however find myself thinking and wanting to talk about relationships more than I think is healthy for my goals of self improvement.
What day is it again? « Uplift Magazine — April 1, 2010
[...] so freakin’ hilarious is that; Ha! As if PRs expect women to be duped by such a patronising, gender stereotyped campaign!? Ha! I mean, as if car care is only relevant to women when relayed as an excuse to [...]
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shanty — January 9, 2011
gender stereotype is only a myth,not actually persist.gender stereotype is about only your daily functioning like man do the job and woman do the domestic work.but i think its wrong because every kind of work, women can do and man also.gender stereotype is mental set of people.and it can be change with the passage of time.