Greenpeace is fracking furious, George!

"We apologize for the inconvenience caused while we frack your town." says the sign on the streets of Knutsford, England - a town in Chancellor George Osbourne's Tatton constituency. 

During morning rush hours on Monday, March 4th, Greenpeace protesters arrived in large scale to give people in Cheshire, county where licenses for gas exploration have been issued to a few fracking companies, a taste of what their life will be like if George's Osbourne energy strategy to fight against UK's energy problems through fracking is put in force locally.

According to Greenpeace, "Fracking is how you get shale gas out of the ground. You drill holes, then inject water and chemicals at high pressure in order to fracture shale rock and force out the gas". And oppositely to Chancellor's Osbourne's claim, energy experts say that fracking not only will leave the UK dependent on expensive, polluting gases, but it won't make energy bills go down as well. 

Thus, in order to raise awareness to the fracking gas issue and to eventually stop Osbourne's problematic energy plan, Greenpeace protesters re-brand the Chancellor's Constituency Office with signs of their fictional fracking company "Frack & Go", and set up a giant drilling rig across the street from the building, in Village Green. 

See the action in the video below: 

The action could be accompanied live through the hashtag #FrackAndGo on Twitter, and also on Greenpeace UK's Facebook page. Both Facebook and Twitter accounts are linked to the organization's Frack & Go website, which streamed the action live to their audience. 

Greenpeace did a very well done job engaging their audience to their protest through social network, and if you visit their website you can actually see how strongly connected with Twitter and Facebook they are: Greenpeace UK: Frack & Go Website

During the protest, Greenpeace UK also used several several signs playing with the "Fracking" word in order to call attention of the people around, and I think that was great!

This environmental campaign by Greenpeace UK was incredible! It truly did give Knustsford people a feel of how their lives would be like if Chancellor's Osbourne plan is put in force, and really impacted the way they feel about the issue. Their response was so strong that a poll in Tatton commissioned by Greenpeace from ComRes, after the protest, showed that more than half of Osbourne's constituents oppose fracking and would rather opt for a carbon-free electricity system.

Now here is my question for you: what do you think of Greenpeace's campaign? Would it work for you if you were a resident of Cheshire's county?  Because, it did for me! 

Thank you for reading my blog. See you later,

Isa

Breaking the Negative Stereotype of a Sexist Ad

"Taking care of my home. Is a dream, dream, dream..."- NO WAY!

Given the fact that we have been covering the gender stereotypes' topic in our Intro to Advertising class, our professor showed us the following sexist ad:

The Hasbro's Rose Petal Cottage ad reinforces the pre-determined role of housewife and mother associated with women. However, I find it extremely unacceptable the way this ad tries to "force" the stereotype in such young girls, by reinforcing that this is all their lives should be about, taking care of the home, serving their guests, cleaning, cooking, nannying their babies... No way!

I truly do have a problem with this commercial, therefore I will be reworking the ad to break its negative stereotype.

First, let's start by totally taking this jingle off the ad, "taking care of my home" should not be a "dream, dream, dream" to any little girl out there.

Second, I would change the house's pastel colors for bright full-colors, I would  use simple red roof, yellow house, brown door and windows. 

Third, I'd add more children in the ad, both girls and boys, to make the product's audience heterogeneous.

Fourth, my ad would be filmed in the outside of a house, probably in the backyard, where there is grass and the children could be free to let their imagination flow.

Fifth, my house would not have neither a laundry room nor a "baby room". I would make it more plain, for the kids to decide what they want to bring inside of it.

Sixth, I would change the name of the product, because "Rose Petal Cottage" does sound quite girly and that would not be my target audience since I'm trying to reach both genders. I would call it "The Play-House" or something like that.

Last, from there a totally new script would be written in which boys and girls would be playing together at the house, and a heterogeneous jingle, maybe sung by all children in the ad would be playing in the background.

Well, hopefully I'm not the only one who found this ad to be overly negative in the way it portrays gender stereotypes. 

Ads should be used to lessen the negative pre-determined roles associated with gender, instead of reinforcing it, especially when such a young audience is targeted. 

By saying that, now I'd like to know from you, what do you think about this ad?

Thank you for accessing my blog,

Isa

The Evolution of Gender Stereotype in Ads

Is gender stereotypes in ads a thing of the past?

Well, I don't think so. 

Although, the portrayal of gender stereotypes in ads has became relatively smoother over the years through the introduction of humor and role reversal,  we can still find some ads that insist in displaying the strong pre-determined role associated with women since colonialism: the housewife, mother, sexual object, dumb, subservient, submissive, inferior, "childlike", delicate, vulnerable, and so on. These type of ads are also very likely to display the male figure as dominant, strong, tall, superior, etc. 

For this blog, I chose some sexist ads from 1920s until present, in order to compare and analyze the evolution of gender stereotypes in ads:

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1970s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2010s

2010s

2010s

After looking through all these ads, we can clearly see the evolution of gender stereotypes in ads, especially after the 1970s. I believe the main negativity of a gender stereotype is when the pre-determined characteristics associated with either men or women implies that one sex is dominant or superior over the other. And in fact, negative stereotypes should not ever be accepted in any advertising. However, when the stereotype is portrayed in a humorous and positive way, by only displaying typical behavior related to different genders, but not implying that such behavior make the gender superior or inferior, I believe it becomes more acceptable. 

As I said in my previous post about racial stereotypes, I truly believe advertisers have huge social and ethical responsibilities, and advertising has enough power to impact society's acceptance of stereotypes. Therefore, I believe ads should be used to lessen the presence and acceptance of any negative stereotype held towards any groups in our society.

Thank you for reading my blog. I hope you liked my selection of sexist ads over the years. And please, let me know what you think about the gender stereotype in ads issue. Is it acceptable? If yes, in which ways? 

See you soon,

Isa

The Big Bang Theory and its Stereotypes

Do you recognize these faces? 

It's hard to find someone who has never heard of The Big Bang Theory, currently one of the most popular sitcoms in the world. 

The show has gained attention over the years for its humorous portrayal of the life of two roommates and physicists, Leonard and Sheldon, their equally socially awkward geek friends, Howard and Raj, and Penny, the blonde girl who lives next door.

Given the fact that TBBT is definitely one of my favorite comedy shows, I decided to make a brief analysis of how the show portrays gender, cultural, and racial stereotypes in its characters.

Penny

Since I'm a girl, I'm going to start with Penny, the only female main character of the show (such a biased way of ordering my analysis, but anyways...) Penny is a waitress from Omaha, Nebraska who seeks to be an artist, and strongly fulfills the pre-determined role of "dumb blonde". Attractive, relatively sexy, and unintelligent, she is presented by her sexual promiscuity rather than intellectual capability.  

Rajesh "Raj" Koothrappali

Another strong stereotyped character in the show, is Raj, an Indian astrophysicists who displays several pre-determined characteristics associated with Indians living in America. Starting with his thick accent and social awkwardness, characteristics attributed to the fact that he's both a foreigner and a nerd. As a result of these characteristics, he has problems talking to girls unless he's drunk. And finally, he has overly protective parents who are always interfering in his personal life, reflecting Americans' typical perception of Indian parenting. 

Howard Wolowitz

Last, I'd like to analyze Howard, who's also a significantly stereotyped character in the show. Howard is a nerdy, tiny Jewish man, who lives at home with his overbearing, loud, and obnoxious mother. He is probably the least likable character in the show, and has difficulties when interacting with women as well, often ending up offending them or being totally awkward. Here, the stereotype is portrayed by several traits popularly believed to be associated with Jewish man.

Although stereotyped characters are vastly present in the show, I believe The Big Bang Theory clearly portrays such stereotypes in a humorous way, making them less likely to be seen in a negative way. 

Hope you guys liked this post, and please tell me what are your opinions about The Big Bang Theory and its stereotypes. Do you think it is acceptable? Why and why not?

See you next time,

Isa :)