The Cannes Lions Festival now grants the Glass Lion: the Lion for Change award to advertising campaigns that “challenge gender biases.” The award is an effort to award better representations in industry and to inspire advertisers to address gender issues. and Members of Cannes want to award advertising that “more accurately reflects the world around us, [and] actively changes it for the better” and creative work that “fights to address the (mis)representation of gender in marketing communication” (Toure, 2015). Creating an award to honor contemporary gender roles recognizes that traditional gender roles are now outdated, stereotypical, and problematic. Such an award should push the industry to make better choices regarding gender role depictions and more accurate and positive portrayals of men and women.
Comparison of Contemporary …show more content…
Additional gender issues for women, such as objectification, passivity, decorative placement, and unrealistic beauty standards have yet to be eliminated from advertising. While men also face unrealistic beauty standards, they are usually portrayed in more active and involved roles than women, and objectification is not as common (Sheehan, 2014). Women have encountered arguably more gender issues, than men over the years, and so their progress is more recognizable than men’s. The advertisements most instrumental in the evolution of women’s gender roles have also been much more direct at addressing stereotypes. As exemplified in the contemporary ads discussed earlier, ads that work to overcome stereotypes for women will often call out the issues with the stereotype in plain terms, while advertising that overcome’s men’s stereotypes does not usually address these stereotypes directly. Overall, women’s gender roles show more direct progress toward contemporary roles than men’s, yet there are still issues in how women are portrayed and stereotyped.
Men’s contemporary roles have adapted to show a modern man who is more involved with his