{"id":3889,"date":"2022-11-04T01:13:15","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T05:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advertisingweek.com\/aw360\/2022\/11\/04\/6-ways-to-interrogate-your-ideas-to-become-more-socially-aware\/"},"modified":"2022-11-04T01:13:15","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T05:13:15","slug":"6-ways-to-interrogate-your-ideas-to-become-more-socially-aware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advertisingweek.com\/aw360\/news\/6-ways-to-interrogate-your-ideas-to-become-more-socially-aware\/3889\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Ways to Interrogate Your Ideas to Become More Socially Aware"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Robin Landa, Professor, Kean University<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Everything communicates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

When I watched the first edition of \u201cKilling Us Softly<\/a>,\u201d a short documentary film based on a lecture by media scholar and feminist activist Jean Kilbourne, I was shocked by some of the body-language messages I hadn\u2019t noticed prior. Sure, I had noticed the sexualized representation of women in advertising and branding\u2014that was hard to miss. But, as a college student, I hadn\u2019t been adequately vigilant about spotting subtler portrayals. For example, in one ad for a brand of high-end alcohol, we see the man in the photograph looking straight at the audience<\/em>, but the gaze of the woman, who is standing slightly behind the man with her hands on his shoulders, is directed adoringly at him. Minor grievance? Perhaps, but it sends a message of subordination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Perhaps you\u2019re thinking of those clich\u00e9s as vestiges of less enlightened times. But harmful gender stereotypes in the media still exist, taking on new and varied forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Back then, I couldn\u2019t help but think, What else am I missing<\/em>? \u201cKilling Us Softly\u201d was a wake-up call about the pressing responsibility to scrutinize all media messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cPortrayals of gender in the media aren\u2019t simply a reflection of mainstream views; they are also channels through which we negotiate our own beliefs and behaviors around gender in a society. They have the power to belittle women and invoke violence or, if implemented responsibly, to change views and advance equality.\u201d\u2014 Alison Place<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, University of Arkansas in Strategic Creativity: A Business Field Guide to Advertising, Branding, and Design<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We have enduring patterns of stereotypes about gender, sexuality, neurodiversity, age, people living with disabilities, race, ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic status. They are stubborn patterns. Even now, for example, we see stereotyped portrayals of men in advertising and branding\u2014bumbling men trying to do laundry or care for their children. I suppose they\u2019re saying men are not intended to be caregivers or enforcing the role men should not play. Society pays a terrible price for stereotyped representations. Tropes circulate and recirculate to the detriment of all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Creative professionals, marketers, and business professionals who create, produce, and distribute cultural artifacts have a responsibility to all members of society.\u00a0 When media messages portray people disrespectfully or as \u201cothers,\u201d it diminishes our humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Representing communities of people according to immutable, discernable, or fluid differences, such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender orientation, or sexuality, fosters a divided mentality, possibly encouraging othering<\/a>, which can be dangerous in communication design, which often sets out to persuade its audience and can shape thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

After a nationwide reckoning on social injustice in the U.S., which exposed unignorable systemic racism to the world, someone revealed the racist roots of the song \u201cTurkey in the Straw,\u201d from which the Good Humor ice cream brand\u2019s jingle hailed. When information about the song surfaced and spread on social media\u2014how it had been employed in minstrel shows and how some had changed its lyrics to vile racist ones, Good Humor could have responded in several ways. Good Humor and their parent company, Unilever, decided they had a responsibility to their customers, ice cream truck owners, and to society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Good Humor and agency Edelman turned to RZA\u2014rapper, composer, and founder of Wu-Tang Clan\u2014to compose a new ice cream truck jingle to represent all communities; they made it available to any ice cream truck vendor. A new jingle, composed by a successful Black artist, replaced notes from a 200-year-old racist anthem. Across the news media and social media platforms, people showed deep appreciation for Good Humor\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

By interrogating your own thinking, being mindful of unconscious bias, you start the process of being aware when stereotypic associations are being employed or constructed in conversations, discourse, or creative solutions. (It\u2019s useful to take the Harvard Implicit Bias test<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The messages we create, shape, and distribute reflect society as well as shape it. We absorb what the messages communicate and put our own responses out there, on social media platforms, on websites, and in conversation. It\u2019s a significant challenge to ensure that whatever we send out is responsible. The language, images, and the stories we tell matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

With that firm belief, I offer an investigative message evaluator focused on interrogating ideas, images, and language; power; and appropriation. To critique concepts and creative solutions, interrogation is critical because it invites reflection and active participation in creating a just society. At the very least, we must not contribute to prejudice through creative solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

A couple of agencies, such as FCB and Leo Burnett, employ effectiveness scales, ones that incorporate interrogating for negative messages. Kudos to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

View the creative product through this lens:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Evaluation Scale<\/strong><\/h2>\n