It is instilled in children at a young age that they should be playing with toys that are specific to the gender they are. Girls are influenced to be playing with “girl” toys such as baby dolls, playhouses, pretend kitchens, and are normally softer colors of pink and purple. Young boys are influenced to play with toys that are manly, involve sports, and normally have harsher, more vivid hues of blues and greens. With young children growing up having these standards put onto them at such a young and innocent age, they learn that things are mostly separated by gender, not only toys, and they are specifically told that each and every item has the “girl” version and the “boy” version.
While shopping around a local grocery or convenience store, it is easy to notice that products are geared towards a specific gender. Humans are practically influenced by products on how they should act and how the gender specific products are what their gender should be buying and using. While walking up and down the deodorant aisle, the women’s and men’s sections are clearly separated. One way to tell the difference between the two portions of the deodorant are the colors and packaging used.
Similar to how toys are marketed, female deodorants, such as Dove, have a more slenderized package and use lighter pastel colors to show femininity. Male deodorants, such as Axe, have harsher edges on the packaging and use black and other darker colors to show masculinity. In addition to colors and package sizes, the names of the different deodorants are gender specific. For example, Axe’s names of deodorants are “Excite”, “Temptation”, and “Black Chill”, only being a few examples of the masculine names given to a product that guys put on their armpits.
Deodorants may be different among gender when it comes to scent and strength, yet what about products that are gender specific, yet are nearly or exactly the same? The video highlights Bic’s “For Her” pens, which are literally normal pens that are just pink and purple. The ad and packaging claims they are a better fit for “feminine hands”, yet they are the same as any typical pen.
The video also goes into how incontinence pads are even gender specific through packaging, color coordination used on the packaging, and the details given on the package. As the video says, the men’s pads use specific measurements whereas the women’s pads use pretty colors and designs to draw in the target audience.
Another thing to ponder is that feminine products tend to be much more expensive rather than their male-based counterparts, as shown in the video, no matter how identical the products may end up being. This gives us many questions as to what marketers tend to think of their female audiences, and why they may be wanting certain feminine-based products as opposed to the cheaper, male alternative to that particular product. In viewing this, questions about the feminine perceptions of beauty are posed, such as, do women buy these products to just to appear more feminine? And why does our society create such an importance on these specific gender-based products?
A question is raised as to if the gendered marketing will ever end. In regards to that, the video describes that Dove made over a million dollars in a year when they added Dove MEN+CARE to their line of Dove products. It is proven that when companies have gender specific products, that more money is made. With a society that is so heavily reliant on targeting certain genders for even the most trivial products, it is increasingly doubtful that gender specific marketing will come to an end.
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