Hello ladies. Look at your man, now back to me, now back at your man, now back to me.
Sadly, he isn't me.
A successful man in an advert
doesn't talk very much.
He's really, really big, strong, stoic, isolated and solitary.
I mean maybe that's the dream maybe that's what men want. I don't know.
So, this week I'm going to be looking at images of success in advertising
and the media targeted at men.
I feel like in the past 20 years on the women's side,
things have changed massively and there's a lot more diversity when it comes to beauty
and what success means as a woman.
'Hey, you ready?'
But when I look across at men, it feels like there's still a very specific mould.
There are lots of men working in the advertising industry, for example, who believe that these stereotypes
are actually incredibly negative and that something needs to be done to change that.
But these conversations shouldn't be limited just to advertising agencies.
David Beckham as well. – David Beckham is the one, definitely!
Showing like, what actually happens in everyday life.
So I started this journey at New Macho, an advertising agency in Shoreditch
where I spoke to Fernando.
'To be honest the end goal of this journey is a sustainable gender balance.'
It's like going to the dentist.
He had these kind of developed nuanced
ideas around advertising and I guess the impact that has on society and
stereotypes about men.
So, we did a big research in 10 countries and we realised many things.
One was that men were performing who they are – not being who they are.
They are performing what is expected for them to be.
They then start following a path towards what we define a successful man is
in a way that is quite narrow and sometimes materialistic.
'Not just living in style but the style.'
And they have an emotional gap
and that emotional gap … they tend to fill it sometimes with an addiction. That could be something soft,
like drinking or it can go further like, with drugs and then it can be something more
acceptable as being a workaholic …
until if you keep that for too long, you get anxiety, depression,
and then you get the mental health issues.
We wanted to put this under the spotlight of society that men were suffering.
Can you give examples of people who represent that kind of archetype? Like celebrities.
We used to play with 007 and now Thomas Shelby for Peaky Blinders, Mad Men …
All of the images of a guy that is successful, always in control …
The way we are defining this idea of a successful man is for me the worst stereotype and we
are not talking about it.
I think we are ready now to talk and when we talk about it people is more open to listen.
If you go back to the kind of history of advertising, almost every stereotype, every 'ism' at some point …
advertising has played a role in it whether it's racism, whether it's sexism,
and I think in masculinity, secretly so, every time a brand expresses a man …
First of all, he's perfect, secondly he's sculpted to the eyeballs and always he's
got that pout on, he can't show emotion.
I've got a a 10-year-old boy now.
I catch him looking in the mirror to see if he's got a six-pack.
But, you know, he looks to Cristiano Ronaldo and he looks to all those images
and goes that's what masculinity is all about.
If that kind of imagery is the imagery that kids grow up to actually aspire to and look up to,
then that's going to impact on their values and how they think about things.
Do you think you can basically change and have an effect by changing
the images you've got on an advert …?
Totally! Brands have contributed to the problem
so almost by definition brands can help solve the problem.
It's just that in some ways commercial gain at any cost has overwhelmed the ability for brands and
communication to do something good.
It can be good, it can be an enormous force of good.
And it can also generate profit as well, those two things
aren't mutually exclusive.
You can do well by doing good.
I'd like to quickly look at a few more of those because I think that's quite …
– Yeah.
I don't know, I'm quite interested to get your take on the different ads.
Is it a watch ads special? – Yeah.
This one … there's no one in it.
It's kind of got that solitary vibe you were talking about. – Exactly!
It's like cabin in the woods.
Check me out, I'm at one with the wilderness, I'm the type of man who can take on
Mother Nature herself and win.
I just think if you're the type of man who's gonna be out in the wilderness,
maybe you should be able to tell the time from the sun.
Again, by himself, your journey, connector … I don't even think that makes sense.
Oh, it's a disgusting watch.
It's silly because we've all got phones now.
I know but it's nothing to do with telling the time.
It's basically saying 'check out what type of man I am'.
Bolton!
So, in order to do a bit of research from here in Bolton … I put together a
bunch of covers from GQ with a wide selection of men and I'm gonna ask guys
to tell me who they think represents success and who they respect.
It has got to be a choice between David Beckham and Stormzy.
David Beckham.
I was drawn to David Beckham straightaway.
A great role model, superstar, fashion icon …
I think he maximises his potential, he's a family man, he's an icon for the UK.
In a lot of places in England, especially, there aint much out there for people.
It's the only two that have come from nothing to actually be something.
So you got, John Legend and you've got Drake.
I think the way they dress are pretty cool.
Drake's half a million pounds watch.
What is it about watches?
It's like, if a guy drove a Ferrari and a Corsa, it would be two different things,
you would look at them differently, wouldn't you? – Yeah …
It's a status symbol.
Definitely Ed Sheeran. – Ed Sheeran.
Ed Sheeran as well.
The guy started from busking,
and having nothing to what he's got now
and where he's gone with it and that's a massive idol of mine, I respect him a lot.
Conor McGregor, 100%.
Why is that?
Because it's just … he's a man's man, isn't he?
He thinks he's the man, he knows he's the man, so …
I think he's the man as well.
I feel that it's important also to go and speak to young men who are
potentially at risk of kind of taking on those stereotypes and I guess having the
burden of feeling they have to live up to that so I decided to go to Ladybridge high school
to speak to a group of young boys and one girl
and ask them how they see these images of success and if they see them differently.
So, we put together a list of guys who get put into a lot of adverts
and I wanted to ask you to each pick who your favourite one is.
What does success look like? And I want you to choose who's successful and who you respect.
Who do you think is going to be the most popular?
I'd say David Beckham. – You think everyone is going to pick David Beckham?
Yeah.
For success, who have you put down?
For success I put David Beckham.
For me to be successful you need to work hard and like, learn from your mistakes.
Who else said David Beckham as one of your answers?
You three down the front.
OK, cool.
You guys haven't said anything, who have you chosen?
Conor McGregor!
Because of his UFC career and all he's come through,
since he was like younger and so he's like the undisputed champion.
He punched an old man for drinking his whiskey.
No, but he has changed from back then, he was an idiot …
It was only last year
He is an undisputed champion.
Are there any other ones? You guys haven't spoken …
Yes? – It's probably James but like …
James Corden? – Yeah.
Like, I'm not trying to be mean but like, when you become successful, you have a lot of money,
you normally look better.
In that picture he's got a bow tie on, he looks very smart …
Are you more talking about the fact that, like … ?
Ronaldo, when he was younger, he had some problem with his teeth and like something to do with this,
Ronaldo got his teeth fixed and nose fixed,
like, you can tell he meant to look better and fix the problem that you have.
How important do you think that is?
Even though you don't look the part of being successful,
you could still be successful in any way, shape or form.
He's probably one of the most famous out of all of them.
Maybe because he's like, grateful for how he looks like, while some people are not grateful.
They just want to like look like dolls and stuff.
Do you think that they look like they're happy?
No.
No?
One brand that has changed its approach to men over the past 10 years is Lynx.
They replaced their 'Lynx effect' tagline with the 'find your magic' campaign,
claiming it inspired confidence and individuality.
I wanted to see which campaign resonated more with the class.
What if a two-year-old is watching TV and saw that?
It's an advert that was shown on television.
That's stupid, man.
I want you to watch this advert now, OK?
'Is it OK to be skinny?'
'Is it OK to not like sport?' 'Is it OK for guys to wear pink?'
'To have long hair?'
'To like cats?'
'To take a selfie?'
'Go online to search and see for yourself.'
That's a good advert, I respect that.
You had a very strong feeling at first, OK?
Which advert did you prefer?
I prefer, like, the second advert. – Why do you prefer the second advert?
Because it shows what actually happens in everyday life with people like, with low self-confidence,
if they are doing the right thing …
I liked the first one actually, not because of the girls or anything,
but because they had something to do with actual Lynx,
it actually advertised what it's meant to advertise.
OK, and what would you say?
I would say the first one kind of manipulates people,
it's like, oh, if you wear this all the women will come running after you,
and you'd be like the centre of attention while the second one,
it shows that you have real life situations.
Can I just say, I know everyone here loved it, yeah?
They are just not admitting it because they are shy.
Guys, I just want to say, thank you so much for today!
I really appreciate it.
Thank you for coming!
So, I think this has been really interesting, I've really enjoyed speaking to all the different guys
that I've spoken to in this episode.
There is, it seems, an appetite to change this image that we've got,
this very rigid image of success for men.
'Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?'
But yeah, you don't what to put men into a box where it's like, you've got to be really, really
vulnerable all the time and be in touch with your feelings because lots
of people don't connect to that.
It's about, like, that whole range and whole package of what being successful is
which is what I think is happening more when it comes to advertising directed at women.
It was a moment when I was in the classroom and the boys talked about,
'well, when you get money, like Ronaldo, you get your teeth fixed, your nose fixed …'
And I just thought, oh my God.
I don't really think about young guys and
plastic surgery in that way because that's something that's always attributed to girls.
And yeah, it really made me think like, this is impacting on boys and
we are not having this conversation.
This is somewhere that needs to be addressed and looked at further
and it is something that matters.
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