Stephen Frost writes
We might be forgiven for thinking that humour and diversity are unlikely bedfellows. A ‘potential minefield’ you might cry. If you think humour is necessarily at the expense of others, then this might well be the case. And justifiably so. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
There’s a big difference between using humour to cement an existing injustice and using humour to challenge it. You can express a sense of humour and simultaneously fight systemic injustices such as racism and sexism. They are not mutually exclusive.
An ad for ketchup in the 1950s used the headline, “You mean a woman could open it?…” next to a bemused female caricature. A 1970s ad for Midol anti-menstrual cramp tablets suggested that a woman wouldn’t get a boyfriend if she had PMS.
An infamous ad for Tipalet cigarettes in the US in the 1960s used the line, ‘Blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere’. Ads then evolved from such crude depictions to subtler forms of sexism. An ad for Volkswagen in the US depicted a VW Beetle with a dent in it because “sooner or later your wife will drive the car”.
Challenge
Such ads can be funny (I’ve tested them on women and men) but they are at the expense of women, minorities or people with less power. They perpetuate outdated stereotypes. They cement sexism and discrimination. They are not cool. More recent ads challenge this outdated approach.
HSBC have done rather well. A 2017 ad set on the New York subway featured an Asian guy falling asleep on the shoulder of a big burly bloke. While it was culturally acceptable to sleep on a stranger’s shoulder in some Asian cities, it was most definitely not okay in New York. But then the big burly guy thinks about it and decides to reciprocate by falling asleep on his neighbour’s shoulder.
A Maltesers campaign in the UK using disabled characters was bang on the principle of “nothing about us, without us”. Or the Nando’s South African ad making all diverse South Africans disappear in puffs of smoke until no one is left. German supermarket Edka removed all ‘foreign food’ in a stunt to challenge our love/dislike of diversity and remind how much, in fact, we really value it.
Principles
What’s changed? What’s the difference between VW then and HSBC now? Well, ask yourself which ads challenge stereotypes and which cement them? Determine which poke fun at all of us, not just some of us. Decide which ones are self-deprecating, rather than accusatory.
These are some simple principles to consider in our work. To be clear, we all like a laugh. Coming from an advertising background, I recall vividly that this particularly applies to many of my current and former colleagues.
However, for most of my career I have worked in diversity and inclusion. The industry is often seen as humourless. People want to have fun but feel they can’t because they’ll get ticked off by the PC police.
The reason many in dominant groups feel uncomfortable around diversity is because they’re simply not used to it. The answer? Get involved. If you’re white and you think that race is a ‘sensitive issue’ that’s probably because you don’t have many non-white friends and you’re simply not used to talking about it. While you feel comfortable and confident in other aspects of your life this is one area that’s a ‘potential minefield’.
Redefining
It may sound trite, but have you tried getting to know some different people? Depicting harmful gender stereotypes in advertising is banned in the UK. Is this the nanny state overreaching, or simply the law catching up with Generation Z who are already redefining gender, making a traditional binary understanding feel outdated and out of touch? Is this limiting creativity and fun, or could the rules force brands to think harder?
Ella Smillie, gender stereotyping project lead at the ASA’s Committees of Advertising Practice, said people need to question why they laugh at gender stereotypes in advertising. We should be laughing with them, not at them.”
Stereotypes are a cognitive shortcut. As Danielle Bassil, chief executive of Digitas UK, said that when you have restrictions in place, you are forced to think creatively and that often leads to superior work. She believes there’s a great opportunity for creative agencies to do exactly that, to become even more creative.
I challenge the industry to raise its game. I hope the jokes keep coming, and I hope they are even more challenging, even more creative and help good brands be successful.
Stephen Frost is the founder of Frost Included, a British consultancy which promotes the understanding of diversity and inclusion. His book, Building an Inclusive Organisation, was published by Kogan Page in 2019
