What I learned from Mr. Clean & Co about Gender Inequality.
Tags: Inequality, Feminism, Branding, Gender Roles, Marketing

It is all about female resources. If I only had known that earlier.

While doing research for my bachelor thesis, I read a lot of articles and papers about Mr. Clean, the Geico Gecko and Tony the Tiger. My paper was focused on female brand characters and why there are so few (compared to male).

So can you think of three female brand-specific characters? And no, I am not talking about testimonials (like Eva Longoria for L’Oreal or any other model or actor). I am talking about characters specifically made for a brand’s communication. Which ad with a female brand character spontaneously comes to your mind — an old one or a new one? Maybe think about the FMCG segment?

Yeah? No? Can you think of at least one?

So as you may see, there are not that many female brand characters, especially not in our top of mind — which is sad. But why is that the case? Why are there way more male brand characters used than female ones? And what deep meaning can we construct out of such a superficial topic like brand characters for advertising?

I found several reasons why we are currently facing an unhealthy female-male ratio and why it is not really changing. At least not fast enough. In this article I am going to discuss the most important reasons and how they will support your own arguments regarding feminist topics. These reasons include explanations which can help you to deduce your point of view or will backup your claim in a typical gender-discussion and therefore, also help others to gain a different perspective on their own thoughts. Hopefully this information will seize someone’s perspective as much as mine. Hopefully this article translates and humanizes the root causes of many female-male issues and leads to all people understanding and becoming more sensitive. Eventually, I hope this article nourishes companies and their communication agencies with a good reason to think twice when they brainstorm about a new brand character for their billboards and TV ads — equipped with this new perspective.

“…from the experts’ mouths to journalists’ ears to the public’s mind.” — from the book Freakonomics, from Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

If I only had known that earlier.

My cat, Uwe, helping me writing my thesis.

Behind this unbalanced female-male ratio in the brand character realm lies the behavior of humans in the past years. We must understand the psychological processes at work in order to understand how companies make economic decisions that impact their communication. I will try to reduce my bachelor thesis to the essence. So let’s start with the most obvious reason: the allocation of expertise.

Brands use brand characters to highlight their products’ features (or services advantages). Therefore, promoting competence is always the main goal. Nothing unfamiliar so far. But to whom do we attribute which kind of expertise?

That’s the big question. To whom do we attribute economic expertise — when we want to sell insurances? To whom do we attribute scientific expertise — when we want to sell a new anti aging cream? Who is more likely to fix your car? Who is more likely to have an innovative streak? So as you already answered these questions with a visual representation in your mind, you get my point — Most attributes, which brands use to gloat about themselves, are allocated to men. That is also true for humor.

When you observe the communication of various brands using brand characters you can extract one denominator common to almost all of them — humor. Especially for anthropomorphic figures. Especially for brands with a very very very broad audience, like in the FMCG realm. Humor is nothing we immediately associate with women. Right? Who is funny? Men. Clowns. Comedians. Mister Bean. Spongebob. Homer Simpson. It was not Marge, ja?

This is where the interesting part starts.

“Those who laugh still have reserves.”

Why are female characters (almost) never funny? Why do we not use this communication approach for women? Simple answer with a crazy background: Because we are not used to it and because we do not have enough female resources. In reality we are less often involved in situations where a woman is the funny one. It’s more common to us that men make the jokes and are the ones standing on stand up stages. But why?

Because they have resources.

What do I mean by resources? Resources include everything men can draw on. Everything that has been achieved and collected in the history of men.

“Reserves are resources that can be used when making ironic statements such as: existing associations and known situations.”

Men can make stupid jokes because we have learned that men are smart business dudes. There is a clear and distinctive image of men. We know men are strong, men are fighters, men work hard, men are good with mathematics….We know that. We have learned it. We have seen it. We have experienced it. But that is not true for us females. We have not had the chance to create enough situations and associations yet. Not enough women have won the Nobel Prize yet. Not enough women are known for their mathematical skills. Not enough women are sitting in CEO chairs. Not enough…we, as women, can draw on. It is easier to laugh about something when you have a strong back up. It is easier to laugh about something when everybody knows it is not really true anyways.

If women would have strong resources, maybe we would also find the “hoe”-statement questionable.

What we need are strong and positive values which come to your top of mind when you think about women. We need distinctiveness — just like men.

Happy I wrote my thesis about that topic — even though I could have done a doctoral thesis out of it.

There is no such stereotype for women. Well, there are some expired ones, like the housewife or the cleaning lady, or naked…But no strong, positive ones which do justice to today’s society and its finest, female minds.

We need to adapt more quickly. We need more flexible intelligence. So let’s mix this newly acquired wisdom into our daily life. What will happen if you apply it? It will bring refinement of awareness and refinement of character to you and your environment.

CREATE MORE (female) RESOURCES!

Thanks, Johanna Woh

Addition: The resources-concept can be adapted to every other marginalized group.