Gelisim News

‘’Societies will change if advertisements change!’’

The Academic Member of the Advertisement Department, Dr. Seyra Kestel, said. ‘’One of the areas where the social gender representation is ‘problematic’, is the advertisements. If the advertisements change, the societies will change as well. Therefore, the transformative power of the advertisements should be used.’’

The social gender equality card advertisements that have been one of the most important means of the consumption culture appeared to be evident. According to the research, carried out by the Effie Awards Turkish Television Advertisements, while the women are predominantly represented in the advertisements with cosmetic, house cleaning and health products, the men, however, take place more frequently in telecommunication, automotive and financial support categories.

The Academic Member of the Advertisement Department of the Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences of the Istanbul Gelisim University, Dr. Seyra Kestel, who indicated that the transformative and effectual power of the advertising in terms of social aspect lays some responsibilities both on trademarks and advertisement producers in the name of reduction of inequalities and elimination of discriminations in the society, said: ‘’One of the areas where the social gender representations are ‘’problematic’’, appears to be the advertisements. The research, made in this respect, proves these problems from numerical point of view. If the advertisements change, the societies will change as well. Therefore, it is necessary to use the transformative power of the advertisements.’’

THE ROLES AND BODIES OF THE WOMEN ARE STANDARDIZED

The research of the Effie Awards Turkish Television Advertisements, carried out on a total number of 282 television advertisements in 2020 revealed the proportion of the woman’s external voice as 16 %, and main character representation of the woman in the role of working woman as 24 % and the proportion of the woman, shown at the workplace, however, as 16 % at the television advertisements. At the same time, while the men take place in the role of working persons twice   more than women in the researches, their rate of representation in funnier characters and leadership features is higher in comparison with that of the women.

The Academic Member of the Advertisement Department, Dr. Seyra Kestel, who indicated that the women were not left aside with the identification of their traditional gender roles and their bodies were standardized as well, kept on saying as follows: ‘’Another result of the research is the rate of the woman main character at a weight of above average as low as 8 %. The individuals-groups, not represented as much as the traditional gender roles and stereotypes, represented in the media and advertisements, is one of the obstacles in the elimination of the social gender equality. However, the advertisements reach almost all parts of the society in the demographic and socio-economic category. As a consequence, it appears to be necessary for the content producers to fulfil their ethical responsibilities.’’

FIRST STEP FOR SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION: VISIBILITY

The discrimination that causes the gender inequality appears to be available not only in the television advertisements, published in Turkey, at the same time, worldwide as well. While the advertisements, which have been the most important means of the culture of consumption, encode the genders with traditional stereotypes, get away from the principle of ‘’visibility’’ for social transformation by disregarding some identities and orientations. 

Mrs. Kestel, who emphasized that it was necessary to get prepared with contents being sensitive to the social gender equality in consideration of the power of the advertisements to effect and transform the society, kept on indicating that the production of advertisement upon adaptation of the principles of equal representation and visibility turns out to be substantially important for a more just and equal society.