1

Fresia Asqui Professor Barbara Drake TI4 25 July, 2012

Gender Stereotypes on Television Commercials It is Friday night; you are getting home after having a very tired week studying or working in the office. You want to take rest so you sit on the sofa, turn on the television, and the first scene you see is placed at the beach. This is not new for you. There are some boys, with beers on his hands, making jokes and there are some girls laughing around them. The boys are not so good looking, but the girls, oh men! They are models in bikinis; they have the perfect sizes of women bodies. Apparently, if a man buys that brand of beer, it does not matter how he looks, he will have as many pretty women as he wants around him all the time. It seems to be that companies just want to offer their products; however, what they really sell to the public are behaviors, ways of acting and guiding our lives. Like the example illustrated there are hundreds, not hundreds, thousands. What these advertisements show to people are gender stereotypes. Gender stereotypes are simplistic generalizations about the gender attributes, differences, and roles of individuals and/or groupsi. It is fair to say that as well as TV commercials use gender stereotypes in its majority; they also, in its minority, show a non-gender-stereotyped alternative. Two advertisements that reflect both

sides, gender and non-gender stereotypes, are a TV commercial for Brahma beers and Nest tea. They contain elements us facial expressions, body position, clothing, colors, makeup that support and challenge gender stereotypes.

In the first TV commercial, for Brahma, the scenario is a bar in which there are two sellers of beers, the focus is on the man in red, Brahmas seller. He announces that a previous offer has come back. He uncovers a bottle twice and says to the public that they can find a china (0.50-cent) on the lid of it, and suddenly two Chinese girls appear. He tries it for the third time, but no any Chinese girl appears, instead a blond girl appears and she represents a sol(S/.1.00) on the lid of the bottle. The offer consists in changing those lids with the marks of one sol or fifty cents for anything you want to buy in some store.ii

In the second TV commercial, for Nest-tea, a young man gets out a bus, gets in a town with a bottle of iced nest tea. Before drinking it, he thinks what to do because there are people in two stands offering him a tour in motorcycle and boats. He drinks his iced tea and spins the bottle; the bottle points between the two stands and points out an old man from the jungle, who is wearing a loincloth and is eating fruits. The young man follows the old man. They together go into the forest, swim in the river, pass over a suspension bridge, dance, and enjoy the nature. Moreover, everything is a cause of the natural drink, nest-tea.iii

The first TV commercial, for Brahma beers, reinforces the stereotype that women are sexual objects. What it means is that a woman is seen as a thing, as an interchangeable object, so a woman deserves to be treated as something, not as someone; she is useful to satisfy mens necessities and desires, just that. Starting from the clothes it is easy to realize that the girls are wearing short garments; for example, miniskirts for the lower part and tops for the upper part. It is evident that with the clothing they look so sensual and provocative. Not only the clothing, but also the makeup in their faces, the manicure, and more important the attitude contributes to the image that something is on sale; that is there to be taken. Girls are nodding their heads softly; it seems that they are flirting. A reaction of the second seller is seen, he watches with great interest the girls when they start to appear with those short clothes. In addition to the well-worked girls appearance, they represent prizes. These prizes are one sol or fifty cents and with these, you can buy another beer or anything in the store if you want, like candies or shavers. There is not a real value on women; they are just seen as something that can be used.

Besides objectifies women, Brahmas commercial shows an impression that blond girls are the better. Throughout history, blond hair has been considered attractive and seductive, possibly because this color is associated with gold and light, two things that people consider value and desirable.iv It is observed because Chinese girls, who are dark-haired, represent 0.50 cents, half of what the blonde girl represents. It means that two Chinese girls

are equivalent to one blonde-haired woman. Moreover, when the blonde girl appears the angle camera just focus on her the other two girls are completely ignored. Then, she starts dancing with the principal seller and a picture of them together without the other girls appears. This dance gives more importance to the blonde girl and means that even though she appears later, she will be preferred.

The second commercial, for Nest-tea, show us that if a men wants to have fun it is not necessary to be around girls and motorcycles. This advertisement known as the jungle man shows the opposite of a common beverage ad in which a man stays with girls, in a car that goes at full speed and they all find fun in drinking. The character of this ad does not go with the girls in the stand who were there and had the motorcycles. He prefers going with an old man from the jungle. And in that way he could visit the forest, he dances, swims in the river and enjoys doing it because he is in contact with the nature.

Not only having fun in contact with the nature is what the second ad says, but also it conveys that a natural drink can make you feel free as any other drink. It is believed that if a person drinks beers or alcoholic beverages, he will be free and will be able to do whatever he wants. In this TV commercial, it is shown that a tea opens the doors of starting something new because all begins when the bottle is spun and it points out the old man who is from the jungle. As is seen in the commercial the young man has his bottle of tea in all

moments, while he is swimming, walking for the bridge, dancing. He is able to fly thanks to the new things he has lived. This flying represents the freedom that men look for when they normally drink beer, but in this case, this freedom is thanks to a natural drink.

In conclusion, gender stereotypes have existed for many years and advertisements could encourage as well as challenge them. We see clear examples in these two-television commercials, for Brahma and Nest-tea. One objectifies women and shows that blond girls are better, but the other shows that beers are not necessary to be free and it is not required to be around girls and objects that make men look tough. These advertisements sometimes could seem to be silly or funny, but we have to analyze and realize that they show us in some measure what we think and that is why they have success and products are sold and bought.

WORKS CITED PAGE

CliffsNotes.com. Gender Stereotypes. 24 Jun 2012 http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26896.html

ii

Brahma. TV advertisement. Peru. 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfODxmY-BEM(last accessed: 24 June 2012)

iii

Nest Tea. TV advertisement. 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJWZrkwFqy8&feature=autoplay&list=PLF133C0219BECF1B1 &playnext=2 (Last accessed: 23 June 2012)
iv

Sherrow, Victoria. Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. Pp. 149

Gender Stereotypes on Television commercials por Fresia Asqui se encuentra bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribucin-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 3.0 Unported.