UNSTEREOTYPE ALLIANCE MEDIA BRIEF
Muscles, money, misogyny. Let’s rewrite how young men are seen.
Background
The Unstereotype Alliance is a thought and action platform that seeks to collectively use theadvertising industry as a force for good to drive positive change all over the world. Convened byUN Women, the United Nations entity for gender equality, the Alliance contributes toempowering people in all their diversity (gender, race, class, age, ability, ethnicity, religion,
sexual orientation, language, education, etc.) and addressing harmful stereotypes in advertisingto help create a more equal world. The Alliance works for gender equality across the gender
spectrum, including the LGBTQ+ community and healthy portrayals of masculinity.

The Challenge

The Unstereotype Alliance, collaborating with 240 member organisations globally, has beencommitted to eliminating harmful stereotypes from advertising since 2017. We've made notable
strides in how women and girls are portrayed, but the representation of men and masculinity
has largely stagnated or regressed over the past 75 years based on Getty Images research.
There is a huge mismatch between what men think makes them successful and how advertising
portrays it. Research shows that 51.3% of men think that media is likely or very likely tonegatively affect how successful they feel (BBD Perfect Storm New Macho. ‘The price of success2023’). Young men are particularly affected by this. Contributing factors include a rise inregressive attitudes towards gender equality among young men, a growth in ‘manfluencers’
who promote regressive and violent gender ideologies and a rapid decline in the mental healthof young men and boys.
We need a powerful media strategy that reaches young men and presents a more diverse,
contemporary understanding of success for them.

Target Audience

Primary – Gen Z men (aged 18–27) who spend their downtime in digital spaces and on social
media (watching content on YouTube, reading/participating in conversations on Reddit, gamingand chatting online)
Roughly 94% of Gen Z will stream video in 2023, as per an EMARKETER forecast, with YouTubeand Netflix as the top free and paid platforms, respectively.
Podcasts are also gaining popularity among Gen Zers, with podcast listening projected to risesignificantly by 2027.
Gen Z is all about gaming, showing higher engagement rates than previous generations. This
generation’s media habits reflect a clear shift towards digital experiences and interactivecontent.

Insight

Men are asking advertisers for new ways to depict aspiration. For most men today, success isabout feeling happy in their day-to-day lives, having good relationships, taking care of theirhealth and wellbeing and having a life partner who loves and supports them.
When asked, “How did you define success when you were younger and how do you define ittoday?”, the top two answers for a sample of 18–75-year-old men from the UK and the US were:- Younger: 23% – making lots of money- Today: 22.6% – feeling happy and content about my day-to-day life
They want ads that make them feel happy, motivated and inspired – not respected, powerful,and rich, which seem to be the sentiments many brands aim to evoke in luxury goods, skincare,fashion, and other categories in their quest to build brand aspiration.
Adjusting this has a positive impact on culture and on brand equity and sales power.

Strategy

The Unstereotype Alliance is calling for a reimagined vision of success – one that’s defined by
who you are, not what you have.
Think about where these unrealistic images and messages about men’s masculinity are in themedia today. What approach can be used that can be executed on the media channels that
resonate the most with the target audience to achieve maximum impact?
Imagine that Unstereotype Alliance will have a film and image/print campaign available soon.
We want this campaign to reach as many young people in the most effective way so they take amoment to listen to us.

Key Message

Every man has his version of success. Let's show him that many versions are possible.

Personality
Authentic, Open-minded, Positive, Pragmatic, Realistic.

Campaign Dos and Don’ts

Don’t
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vilify any one expression of gender or depiction of masculinity/femininity
present men criticising other men
present feminism or gender equality as a threat to men
call out specific brands/ads for being ‘bad’
refer to masculinity as ‘toxic’.

Do● present positive and pragmatic alternatives that authentically reflect what successmeans and/or looks like to men● be constructive and instructive● widen the aperture of what success looks like● bring Gen Z together through this campaign – we currently see the greatest divide inideologies between Gen Z men and Gen Z women than ever before; it’s imperative that
we don’t widen this gap and pitch them against each other.

Specific deliverables

Teams are asked to create an innovative media strategy that answers the brief. Teams must
demonstrate how they intend to use selected media channels, how they will encourage
engagement, how they will make use of emerging media and how they will unearth consumer
insights to drive the most compelling communication strategy.
Required submission:● a PDF presentation – no more than 10 slides, describing your creative campaign.
● a digital presentation image – a visual overview of your work concisely summarising thebrief● a four-part written submission – to give more context to your work. This includes:○ background – overview of the brief, objectives etc○ creative idea and insight – including market research and data gathering○ strategy – target audience, media planning and approach○ execution – implementation, media channels, integration, timeline and scale.