Gender-Differentiated Car Commercials

1 – Introduction

In contemporary society advertisements appear to be everywhere - radio, television, magazines, on the street (e.g. billboards). Personal experience has shown that it is possible to read an ‘informative’ article in a magazine, only to realise half-way-through that the word ‘Advertisement’ appears at the top of the page (in small letters). Judith Williamson proposes that advertisements permeate society, influencing everyone’s lives, and that they are not ‘simply a transparent vehicle for a “message” behind it’ (Williamson 1978: 17). Further to this, Jean Kilbourne proposes that advertisements don’t just sell products:

They sell values, images and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy. They tell us who we are and who we should be. Sometimes they sell addictions. (Kilbourne 1989: 121)

Advertisements are rarely aimed at everybody; instead they have specific target audiences e.g. age, social status, economic status or gender. Torben Vestergaard & Kim Schroder (1985) suggest that people filter their impressions to retrieve the messages relevant to them (subconsciously latching onto the adverts targeted at them).

In the following analysis two advertisements will be compared in specific reference to their different gender target audiences. Expected differences will be detailed, followed by an examination of whether these differences occur in practice.

2 - The Advertisements

2.1 - Reasons for Choice

Choice of advertisements was based on finding two adverts for the same product, one which was aimed primarily at men and one of which was aimed primarily at women. Six participants were asked to assess the targeted gender audience (male, female or neutral) of each advert, and unanimously and independently judged CarPark to be aimed at men, and Dinner Party to be aimed at women.

2.2 – CarPark (see appendix 2 & 4)

In this advert three men (approx. in their thirties) are in a CarPark, one of whom is getting ready to leave in his car (Honda Civic). The other two men (led by elder of the two) interrogate the car owner (in a superior manner) about the car’s additional features, to which the car owner responds by giving a technical description of the cars engine, to the surprise of the two men.

2.3 - Dinner Party (see appendix 1 & 3)

In this advert four adults (approx. in their thirties – 2 female, 2 male) are sitting down to dinner, during which the subject of the hosts car arises in conversation. It becomes apparent that the choice of car (Honda Accord) was made by the female host, and she justifies her choice through technical description of the car’s engine, to the surprise of the guests.

3 - What are the differences looked for?

There are a number of differences that may be found within advertisements aimed at different gendered audiences, including product association and gender portrayal. Steve Craig suggests that in gendered advertisements associations are made with pleasurable experiences, noting that within patriarchal society men and women seek pleasure differently. In an analysis of over 2,000 television advertisements, Craig (1990) concluded that advertisers ‘structure the gender images in their commercials to match the expectations and fantasies of their intended audience’ (Craig 1992: WWW). This may be viewed as pleasure gained through a process of identification, with advertising functioning ‘as an ideological apparatus for the reproduction of our gender identities’ (Vestergaard & Schroder 1985: 73-74). It could therefore be expected that product association will be different according to target audience, and incorporated into this will be alternative portrayals of gender.

4 - Etiquette, Gender, and ‘Norms’

4.1 - CarPark

In this advert stereotypes of male preoccupations and ‘male with male’ behaviour are explored. The two men who are non-Honda-owners are competitive, sneering and have a pompous and superior attitude. They are juxtaposed against the calm, unconcerned and non-competitive car owner. The situation is similar to that of playground bullies picking on the small child (the car owner is smaller in stature) with the envied toy. The two men’s immaturity is polarised against the car owner’s maturity (he ignores their attempts at intimidation), in consequence they appear silly and pathetic, concerned only with a superficial external viewpoint. This is in some little way a triumph of good (human sense and quality) over bad (human stupidity and material quantity – a cars additional features). The viewer can feel vindicated that the small man (literally) wins, and without giving in to an overt display of masculinity (knowledge and quality triumph). Thus, through recreation of the childhood ‘bully’ (who is pathetic to us now) the viewer is empowered to pursue the goal of quality (a Honda Accord).

What is significant about the car owner character is that he is not classically attractive, suave, or especially sophisticated, but an ‘ordinary’ figure, who wears a fully buttoned-up suit jacket when driving (unusual as it is restrictive). Attention is even drawn to the jacket by the younger man, when he enquiries about jacket hooks (shot 26). If we applied the commutation test and removed his jacket, he would be less differentiated from the ‘bully twosome’. His position as a target (though later negated) would also unfairly be compromised, because in the intertextual code of bullying in narrative film and television (particularly that aimed at children), the potential target is usually ‘geekish’ (neatly presented in terms of attire and possessing technical knowledge). The viewer (if part of the target audience) most likely does not want to be him, but would like his skills and most importantly a car like his.

4.2 - Dinner Party

This advertisements plays on social and gender codes, primarily in terms of etiquette and ‘norms’. The male guest continually breaches the socially prescribed code of politeness (etiquette). His first transgression is when he starts eating before the female host has sat down. Syntagmatic relations help us understand that this is impolite because the shot of him midst eating is preceded by an invitation to eat (shots 1-2) - his eating is too advanced to have started after the invitation. This is succeeded by a look from the female guest (Shot 4) and is accompanied by a pause, signifying embarrassment and emphasising his ‘social faux pas’.

The male guest signifies vulgarity, and is someone whom it is easy to dislike, yet is drawn out for the audience’s attention (an unbalanced number of shots are focussed on him). He is not a point of product association as he does not define any characteristics that are attractive socially, as suggested by Douglas Kellner (date unspecified). According to Steve Craig (1992) men in women’s adverts are generally sensitive and attentive, yet the male guest is opposite to this image, signifying an anti-ideal. The advertiser places the viewer in opposition to the concept of vulgarity; they are meant to find him distasteful, polarising them (the viewer) into the opposition category of taste and aligning the viewer to the car. If we applied the commutation test and replaced him with a polite and classically attractive individual, there would be no point of conflict for which to counterpoint the female host’s calm politeness and more importantly intelligence.

This advert plays on notions of male and female stereotyped knowledge – ‘norms’. The audience is presented with what at first appears to be a ‘typically’ male conversation about cars. The male guest tries to assert his masculinity and exclude the two women present at the table (he addresses the male host only), emphasising the opposition of male and female. The female is the marked ‘other’, unable to comprehend male ‘affinity’ with technology and mechanics. Once this has been established however, it is challenged, defeated and reversed by the female host’s superior technical knowledge; male intelligence is transposed into female intelligence, and the male is demoted to ignorance, thereby reversing the marked and unmarked categories.

5 – Setting

5.1 - CarPark

The setting for the narrative in CarPark is a rather dim and shadowy multi-storey CarPark. This is not a place (it can be supposed) that most viewers are likely to want to be. Instead it is a place that the majority of people go to with the express intention of leaving - a brief stop off point of you like - a sort of limbo-land with connotations of trepidation and uncertainty (within the broader intertextual structure of narrative film and television covered car parks are generally the location of murder and crime). It is therefore an unlikely location to set a social meeting and place a traditional visual product. The term ‘visual product’ is used here because within the overlying code of car adverts, visual aesthetics are frequently emphasised as they are considered to then reflect back onto the consumer i.e. the concept being that if you have an attractive looking car, you in turn obtain a part of that attraction. Williamson states that:

Advertisements are selling us something else besides consumer goods: in providing us with a structure in which we, and those goods, are interchangeable, they are selling us ourselves. (Williamson, 1978: 13)

Further to this Williamson suggests that people identify themselves with the products they consume, as part of a subconscious function of obtaining a ‘social place’ (Williamson, 1978: 13). Placing the product and narrative situation within this CarPark setting therefore subverts the standard use (in car adverts) of signs signifying aspects of visual desirability or attractiveness. In the case of this advert, content (the car’s engine) is placed over style (the car’s external appearance and additional features)

The endless greyness and rigid structural lines of the CarPark are neither enticing nor convivial, even less so in light of its juxtaposition with tentative glimpses of bright sunny weather beyond its grim confines. The backdrop behind the car owner does not enclose the space (e.g. no wall), but is instead open and light (natural light, though reflected off glass) hinting at the space and freedom outside of the CarPark. The other men are back-dropped by the CarPark interior, in particular by solid immovable concrete pillars; they are confined inside the space. Thus presenting within the text the binary oppositions of light / dark, and freedom / confinement, with ‘dark’ and ‘confinement’ as the marked ‘other’ categories, which together have negative connotations of imprisonment (in this case self-imprisonment of the mind – attitude). The car driving away out of the CarPark therefore, has a twofold purpose; it is an escape towards freedom and sunlight (a point of positive association with the product); and a separation from confinement and narrow-minded superficiality (a point of anti-association). It should also be noted that although owners of other cars exist (it is assumed the other men are car owners from their presence in a car park and office attire – understood from knowledge of code of dress / clothes), few other vehicles are featured and only in the shot 28. This is as if to emphasise that others cars do not fully exist.

Another factor to consider is the connotations of shapes (distinct formal elements) in the setting. In CarPark there is a distinct quadrilateral emphasis in the backing components (even the windows behind the car owner are rhomboid), particularly with solid and regular rectangles. Paul Messaris (1997 – book publication date as date of study unspecified) research into viewer perceptions of individual shapes, showed that squares and rectangles with high potency (marked masculine category – strong / weak), and medium activity (both active and passive). It should be noted, however, that the research was carried out using college students, and therefore may not be representative of all age groups

5.2 - Dinner Party

In Dinner Party the setting is quite different. In contrast to the public space in CarPark, the advert is located in the intimacy of the private and domestic sphere of the home. This leaves little opportunity for the car’s depiction (iconic signs signifying the car or aspects of it), as cars are typically an outdoors product used within public space (e.g. roads). It is not until the end of the advert that an image signifying the car is shown, placed in probably the only private space possible for it – a domestic garage. This polarisation (binary opposition) of public (unmarked) and private (marked) between the two adverts, contributes to defining their masculinity and femininity. In a review of content analysis studies from the seventies and eighties Alice Courtney & Thomas Whipple (1983) found that although certain aspects of stereotyping did alter, the majority of women remained firmly placed within the home (the margin between men and women in the home lessened only slightly). Although this evidence is significantly dated, the private sphere and placing of the female car owner within the home (distinctly separated from the car) signals a traditional feminisation of the advert. Whether this home placement of women is still a characteristic of adverts in general, however, is another matter that goes beyond the confines of this analysis.

Another significant difference between the two adverts is that within Dinner Party the details of the setting, beyond that of a dinner party in kitchen-come-dining room, are largely indiscernible due to the dimming of the background, and emphasis on close-ups (reducing the extent of visible background).

6 - Conclusion

In conclusion both adverts work through a process of anti-association, aligning the viewer away from the imperfect (in some cases also unpleasant) characters within the text, towards opposite pleasant characteristics, through a sense of distaste for the unpleasant. This can be demonstrated through the oppositions of freedom and light over confinement (physical and mental) in CarPark, and with knowledge and social skills over ignorance and rudeness in Dinner Party.

Additionally, viewed from an intertextual perspective of car advertisements (the code within them), CarPark and Dinner Party are unusual. Typically, car adverts focus on beautiful, dynamic people, in attractive glinting cars, driving through free and open road (traffic is rarely present – the advertised car is shown as the only vehicle to exist). In CarPark and Dinner Party, however, the people (characters) are ‘ordinary’: the sort of people (bullies, followers, show-offs, geeks, impolite and rude) that most people will have met before. The younger man in CarPark is even used to gently poke-fun at other car adverts, by referring to the typical beautification and sexual objectification of people in car adverts, through low angle profiles of him pouting (shots18 & 21). These shots are merely a set-up for the fall that comes when he speaks (shot 26), as it is revealed that he is in fact a bit dim (an alternative adjective would be twat), serving to show the potential emptiness of beauty and beautiful people. Also in both adverts the setting is enclosed (though with the split of public and private), and so there is no way to imply speed, dynamism or other desire features of cars. Instead the focus is on the inside of the car (its engine) in both adverts, whilst CarPark at the same time involves an implied disdain for other car adverts for focusing on additional features. This may possibly instill guilt in viewers for previously enjoying superficial features. As Kellner suggests, one way adverts work is by ‘generating dissatisfaction and by offering images of transformation, of a “new you”’ (Kellner, date unspecified: 129-130)

Finally it should be noted that due to word limitations, not all aspects of the adverts have been fully explored. Further study therefore could look at the narrative in greater detail, in particular the interplay of visual and linguistic signs, and the interaction (verbal, gaze, body language) of the characters. Also there is extensive potential for analysis in editing and camerawork, including shot type, distance, angle and duration. Furthermore it would be interesting to look at feminisation of cars (e.g. ‘she goes well’, ‘listen to her engine’ and the increasing emphasis on sleek curves etc.) and their connection to desirability.

Appendix 1

Denotative* ‘Shot by Shot’ Breakdown of Dinner Party

FH = Female Host

MH = Male Host

FG = Female Guest

MG = Male Guest

* This is an attempt at denotation, as it is difficult to be entirely object – personal knowledge, experience and readings come into play.

** All previous shots have been set at the dinner party, in a dining area.

Appendix 2

Denotative* ‘Shot by Shot’ Breakdown of Carpark

CO = Car Owner

MW = Man in White Shirt

MB = Man in Blue Shirt (jacket slung over shoulder)

* This is an attempt at denotation, as it is difficult to be entirely object – personal knowledge, experience and readings come into play.

** The car is the same car in every shot. It is the Honda Civic Accord (the product).

Bibliography

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December 2001