Marketers are being urged to tackle the rise of “toxic masculinity” by ensuring more positive and progressive male portrayals in their campaigns, amid claims this would have a positive impact both on society and brand owners’ bottom line.
So says the ‘Duty of Care’ report from market research giant Ipsos and marketing awards specialist Effie, published as debate rages over toxic attitudes and behaviours stereotypically associated with or expected of men.
The report highlights three principles that should shape marketers’ gender portrayal: do no harm, glamourise empathy, and be true to your brand. It follows
‘Duty of Care’ takes as its starting point the role marketing has had over many years in reinforcing gendered codes – “empathy”, “kindness” and “collaboration” being feminine qualities, for example, while “strength”, “drive” and “ambition” are masculine.
It explores the power of progressive male portrayal to drive advertising effectiveness, drawing on Ipsos’ ongoing study of people’s responses to gender portrayal in ads. “Empathy” and “fit” with the brand have previously been proven by Ipsos to be key success factors alongside creativity for maximising ad effectiveness.
Ads that score highly on Ipsos’ Gender Equality Measure Index when it comes to positive masculine gender portrayal – demonstrating “empathy” and “fit”, for example – were +37% stronger on measures of sales lift and were also more believable, informative and relevant, Ipsos found.
Ads scoring poorly on the GEM Index, meanwhile, tended to portray expressionless or unengaged males, creating a sense of “empty coolness”.
The report also unpacks what “positive and progressive male portrayal” looks like, analysing and extracting lessons from winning cases from 2024’s Effie Awards UK that powerfully illustrate the variety of shapes different representations of progressive masculinity can take.
Depictions of “care” and “joy”, for example, were common themes among the positive portrayals of masculinity analysed.
The ‘Duty of Care’ report ends by detailing three important principles all marketers should consider moving forward to ensure more positive and progressive male portrayals in their marketing.
Ipsos senior creative excellence director Samira Brophy, the report’s author, said: “There is a vacuum in the marketing industry’s duty of care to young men and boys.
“However, this is also an opportunity for marketers and the ad industry – to create benefit through positive male role models and to prevent bad actors from occupying the advertising landscape.
“The time has come to de-gender positive attributes such as empathy, kindness and collaboration and hero them to men as well as women as aspirational. If kindness isn’t cool, no-one wins.”
Effie UK managing director Rachel Emms added: “Marketing reflects and helps shape social attitudes – it always has – and its potential to help counter stereotypes is a logical extension of this.
“Current concerns about toxic masculinity and the demonstrably positive impact authentic gender representation has on sales means it’s never been more important for brands to address masculine representation.”
The research follows a Kantar report published late last year which called on brands to ditch the monolithic, narrow-minded view of masculinity and make a shift in how they reach men, to build stronger and more meaningful connections with their audiences.
It also maintained that brands which reflect more nuanced masculinities can drive growth and positive social change, insisting that engaging more men in better ways makes business sense too: it helps predispose a brand to more people, and subsequently drive growth.
(Picture credit: Momentum Pictures)
Related stories
Madmen urged to be more nuanced to woo ‘new men’
Industry makes DE&I gains but discrimination still rife
Agencies boost D&I as IPA Census maps out new era
Census shows industry at worst but it vows to change
Diversity and inclusion issues plague the data industry
Be the first to comment on "Best a man can get? ‘Toxic masculinity’ hits bottom line"